A document recording a conversation between Tony Blair and President Bush
about Iraq was so sensitive that an order was made banning copies being made
except to a select few, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.
The document was written by Matthew Rycroft, who was the Prime Minister’s
private secretary on foreign affairs on April 16, 2004, when the meeting
took place and the Oval Office of the White House. He is now Ambassador in
Bosnia.
He was giving evidence for the prosecution in the trial of David Keogh, a
civil servant who worked in a Cabinet Office communications centre, and Leo
O’Connor, a political researcher working for a Labour MP, both of whom have
pleaded not guilty to charges under the Official Secrets Act 1989 in
relation to the unauthorised disclosure of the document. They face a maximum
of two years in prison if found guilty.
Mr Rycroft, the first of several Downing Street witnesses expected to give
evidence at the trial, said that he had stipulated at the top of his letter
from Washington that “the document must only go to those who really need to
see it”, and should not be copied to anyone else.
He said that he was surprised to discover that it had been given much wider
circulation and had ended up on the desks of a number of officials at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet
Office, MI6 and the Joint Intelligence Committee. A number of duty clerks
and communications specialists had also seen it as part of their role to
distribute it around Whitehall. All were in a position to have read the
contents, Mr Rycroft said.
The prosecution accuses Mr Keogh of making an unlawful copy of the document,
which had been faxed to the communications centre where he was on duty, and
passing it to Mr O’Connor in the hope that it would end up in the public
domain. Mr O’Connor slipped the document into a pile of papers belonging to
Anthony Clarke, Labour MP for Northampton South. The MP handed it to Special
Branch.
The contents of the document, which was in the form of a letter from Mr
Rycroft to Geoffrey Adams, then private secretary to Jack Straw, the Foreign
Secretary at that time, had a “direct bearing” on British military action in
Iraq, and was also relevant to what MI6 was doing in Iraq, Mr Rycroft said.
John Farmer, counsel for Mr O’Connor, asked Mr Rycroft why, given its
sensitivity, a copy of the letter was also sent to David Hill, Mr Blair’s
director of communications, and to Tom Kelly, his spokesman.
They were among 33 recipients of the “secret, personal” letter and a total of
87 who eventually saw it, the court was told.
Mr Farmer asked: “Was it in your contemplation in April 2004 for any part of
this document to be made public?”
“Absolutely not,” Mr Rycroft replied.
Mr Farmer asked: “Was it your understanding that the Prime Minister himself,
contrary perhaps to your view, intended that some or any part of it be
disseminated to the public?”
Mr Rycroft denied that and explained that Mr Hill and Mr Kelly were given
copies not to use the information in their work briefing the press, but so
that they had a more complete knowledge of the policies the Prime Minister
was putting forward to Mr Bush.
Mr Rycroft told the court that the meeting lasted about two hours and was also
attended, on the British side, by Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the Prime Minister’s
foreign policy adviser, and Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff. Mr Bush was
accompanied by Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice,
then his National Security Adviser, and Dan Freed, special assistant to the
President.
Mr Keogh, 50, is charged on two counts with disclosing the document without
authorisation, having acquired it in the course of his job as a Crown
servant. Mr O’Connor, 44, is charged with making a damaging disclosure,
knowing that it was in breach of the Official Secrets Act.
The trial continues.
