Iraqi WMD dossier goes to secret talks

LONDON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- A London inquiry into the British role in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq opted to hold hearings into a dossier on Iraq's weapons deployment behind closed doors.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier this year ordered an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the British role in the Iraq war.

The inquiry Tuesday heard testimony from John Scarlett, a top director of British intelligence during the early planning stages of the war.

Scarlett said the British government began examining the durability of the regime of Saddam Hussein a year before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

John Chilcott, the chairman of the inquiry, said, meanwhile, that discussions on a dossier saying Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes would be dealt with during a later closed hearing, London's Telegraph newspaper reports.

The dossier was used by London during the early stages of the Iraq discussions to advocate military force to overthrow the Saddam regime.

Adam Holloway, a defense specialist in London, told the Daily Mail that the dossier was based on a conversation with an Iraqi taxi driver.

"(MI6) were running a senior Iraqi army officer who had a source of his own, a cab driver on the Iraqi-Jordanian border," he said.

The inquiry is expected to take up the legality of the invasion when it hears from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in early 2010.