Intelligence officer's 'unease' at Straw's Iraq claims

A senior intelligence officer who wanted to inform Parliament of his concerns about the Government's Iraq dossier was told by his superior at the Ministry of Defence not to take the matter further, Hutton inquiry documents show.

An explosive letter, revealed in full as Downing Street officials prepare to give evidence to Lord Hutton's inquiry this week, makes it clear that the officer, whose name has not been revealed, felt "very uneasy" about claims made to MPs by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary. Mr Straw said that the intelligence community had no complaints about the dossier but the intelligence officer had formally registered his concerns last September.

The officer, who described himself as "the most senior and experienced intelligence community official working on WMD", said on 8 July he feared that he "might be judged culpable" if he didn't come forward to correct Mr Straw's remarks to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, and asked for advice on whether to do so. However, after David Kelly was found dead, Martin Howard, deputy chief of Defence Intelligence, wrote to the official to suggest that he should not take the matter any further.

Last night, Richard Ottaway, Conservative MP for Croydon South and a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, accused the MoD of an attempted "cover- up" and urged the officer to contact the committee. Mr Ottaway said: "This official clearly wanted to correct what Jack Straw had told us and was advised not to."

The revelation came as Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, was alleged to have told friends that he expected to "carry the can" for the Kelly affair. This week senior Downing Street officials will testify, starting today with Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's chief of staff. Alastair Campbell will appear tomorrow.

The retired officer's letter was not published along with other documents last week because its confidential details had not been removed or "redacted". Finally published this weekend on the inquiry website after repeated requests from The Independent, it shows the full extent of his worries over the Kelly affair.

The letter stunned observers when only parts of it were read out at the inquiry last week. It stated: "As probably the most senior and experienced intelligence official working on WMD, I was concerned about the manner in which intelligence assessments for which I had some responsibility were being presented in the dossier of 24 September 2002."

The officer had formally complained on 19 September that he was unhappy with its use of intelligence. He wrote to the Defence Intelligence Staff technical department and Tony Cragg, the then deputy chief of Defence Intelligence.

However, what was not revealed during the hearing was that the officer's letter had referred explicitly to Mr Straw's failure to tell MPs the full truth of such concerns.