America misled us into ‘rush’ to war in Iraq, admits Brown

GORDON BROWN has claimed the US “misled” the UK over Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction as he admitted the war with Iraq was “not justified”.

The former prime minister, who was chancellor when the decision to go to war in 2003 was made, has revealed top-secret US intelligence casting serious doubt over the dictator’s destructive capabilities was not shared with Britain.

In his latest book My Life, Our Times – due for release on Tuesday – Mr Brown claims only after leaving office did he become aware of “crucial” papers held by the US Department of Defence and he believes the course of history could have been different had the information been shared.

Mr Brown said: “When I consider the rush to war in March 2003 – especially in light of what we now know about the absence of weap- ons of mass destruction – I ask myself over and over whether I could have made more of a difference before that fateful decision was taken. We now know from classified American documents, that in the first days of September 2002 a report prepared by the US joint chiefs of staff ’s director for intelligence landed on the desk of the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

“It is now clear how forcibly this report challenged the official view.

“If I am right that somewhere within the American system the truth about Iraq’s lack of weapons was known, then we were not just misinformed but misled on the critical issue of WMDs.”

However, Mr Brown writes that some form of international action was appropriate due to Saddam’s continued failure to comply with UN resolutions.

As chancellor, Mr Brown said his only official role was to find funds for the war.