BBC former director attacks Blair over Iraq war

Former director of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Greg Dyke has made a scathing attack on British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq war and its treatment of the BBC, the British Observer newspaper said on Sunday.

Dyke's accusation of Blair comes as he publishes his memoirs Inside Story, in which he claims Blair tried to bully the BBC.

In his book serialized in the Observer newspaper, Dyke, who was forced to resign in January after the Hutton report concluded the BBC had been wrong to claim the government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's banned weapons, accused Blair of either being incompetent or lying to the parliament about the war in Iraq and weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

"He was either incompetent and took Britain to war on a misunderstanding or he lied when he told the House of Commons he did not know what the 45-minute claim meant," Dyke was quoted as writing in his book.

"We were all duped. What is really frightening is that Blair still does not believe or understand that what he did was fundamentally wrong," Dyke wrote in his memoir.

The former BBC chief also publishes letters from Blair which Dyke claims to show how the government tried to "bully" the BBC into changing its coverage in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Blair "unleashed the dogs" on the BBC after it was heavily criticized by Lord Hutton, who led an inquiry into the death of government weapons expert David Kelly and cleared the government of blame over Kelly's death, Dyke claimed.

Kelly died just days after being identified as the source of the BBC story that claimed the government exaggerated intelligence on Iraq's WMD to make a stronger case for the Iraq war.

Downing Street has refused to comment in detail on the claims in Dyke's book.

"Greg Dyke is entitled to his view. We do not share it. There have already been four thorough inquiries and we have nothing to add," a spokesman for the Downing Street said.

According to the Observer, the disclosures in Dyke's book would reignite the row between the BBC and the government.

It would again raise the question of trust which has dogged Blair since the WMD row first surfaced, the paper said.