Despite Lord Hutton’s beatification, Saint B’liar’ is now facing a formidable challenge. Either produce the compartmented intelligence you insisted justified use of a dossier the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) cautioned against, or state your reasons for not doing so.
The UK intelligence community is not large and you can usually find your way to someone “in the know.” They need not stray beyond the limits of what they are allowed to reveal, but they can still be of assistance. I eventually found someone who was in the relevant compartment. Information was not volunteered and I did not ask about the detailed content of these reports. I explained the reservations that we had about the draft dossier and asked whether the compartmented intelligence resolved any of these concerns. I was advised they did not.
A draft of the dossier arrived on the 19 September. We were told this was the “final” version for proof-reading and no substantive comment would be considered. In any case the DCDI had ruled that no further objections should be made.