156. The Road to Iraq: Tony Blair's Campaign for War (Ep 4)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What was the difference between the so-called “dodgy dossier” and the real dossier prepared by Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell? Why did the US rush their vital National Intelligence Estimate? And why was the intelligence so weak? Listen as David and Gordon explore how the US and UK sold the case for war in Iraq to the public. ------------------- THE REST IS CLASSIFIED LIVE 2026 at The Rest Is Fest: Buy your tickets ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see David and Gordon live on stage at London’s Southbank Centre on 4 September: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/the-rest-is-classified-live/⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------- Sign-up for our free newsletter where producer Becki takes you behind the scenes of the show: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign⁠-up⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------- Join the Declassified Club to go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, regular livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. Just go to ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠ or join on Apple Podcasts. ------------------- Get a 10% discount on business PCs, printers and accessories using the code TRIC10. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://HP.com/CLASSIFIED⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more information. T&C's apply. ------------------- Email: ⁠⁠therestisclassified@goalhanger.com⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@restisclassified⁠ Video Editor: Vasco Andrade Social Producer: Emma Jackson Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books,
0:13.1	join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com. Did MI6 lean on weak intelligence to justify the Iraq war?
0:29.9	And why were dissenting voices ignored?
0:34.0	Well, welcome to the rest is classified.
0:35.6	I'm David McCloskey.
0:36.7	And I'm Gordon Carrera.
0:37.8	And we are on episode four of this deep, dark journey into the story of the Iraq weapons of mass destruction, intelligence failure, the debacle that led up to the Iraq War of 2003.
0:53.4	And we left off last time looking at the decision
0:58.5	to use WMD as the marketing strategy, the basis to confront Saddam, to change his regime,
1:07.1	to sell the war publicly. And the decision was taken to rest the public case for that
1:13.6	war almost entirely on Iraq's possession of WMD in defiance of UN resolutions, the course of the
1:21.7	1990s and early 2000s, and of course, demanding that Saddam disarms. So what that decision naturally leads
1:31.1	you toward is the need to have intelligence to make the case that Saddam, in fact, has weapons
1:38.0	of mass destruction. And so we're going to look in this episode at how that case is constructed.
1:44.4	And we should say before we get going that I think many of our American listeners will presume
1:50.9	that the WMD intelligence failure was solely an American one.
1:56.7	Oh, no.
1:57.3	When in fact, there is loads of blame to go around on both sides of the Atlantic with both
2:02.8	MI6 and the CIA in a feedback doom loop of giving each other bad information about weapons
2:11.8	of mass destruction in Iraq in 2002.
2:15.4	I'm frankly grateful, Gorda, that we're going to start the story by focusing on how
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 4 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Goalhanger, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Goalhanger and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.