Ex-deputy PM tells of Iraq 'tittle-tattle'

LONDON, July 30 (UPI) -- Former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott testified Friday on the run-up to the Iraq War, calling evidence on Iraq's weapons "tittle-tattle."

Prescott, testifying to the Iraq Inquiry, said reports prepared by the Joint Intelligence Committee that suggested Iraq was an immediate military threat were not based on hard evidence, The Daily Telegraph reported.

''When I kept reading them, I kept thinking to myself, 'Is this intelligence?'

It's basically what you have heard somewhere and what somebody else has told somebody," he said. "Presumably that's how intelligence is brought about. So I got the feeling it wasn't very substantial, but it clearly was robust."

But he said most members of the Cabinet in late 2002 and 2003 decided to accept what had come from intelligence agencies.

''Certainly what they do in intelligence is a bit of tittle-tattle here and a bit more information there,'' he said.

Prescott was direct in his testimony, telling the inquiry that Peter Goldsmith, former attorney general for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, was "not a very happy bunny" when the government was trying to decide whether to go to war against Saddam Hussein.

He said Goldsmith had to determine if an invasion without another U.N. Security Council resolution would be legal.