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Laboratory did not reveal absence of ricin in plot cited by Blair

Vital evidence in a terror case that was used by Tony Blair to justify the war with Iraq was withheld by Britain's top chemical weapons laboratory.

Tests demonstrating that no ricin was found at a flat linked to a gang suspected of planning a poison attack on the London Underground in January 2003 were not disclosed to police and ministers by officials at Porton Down.

The case, in which the suspects were later cleared, was cited by the Prime Minister and Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, in the weeks leading up to the decision to go to war with Iraq.
A spokeswoman for the Defence Science and Technological Laboratory (DSTL), where the tests were done, said yesterday that officials at the establishment knew the results of the final tests three weeks after police had raided the flat in Wood Green, north London, on 5 January 2003. But she said that because of a "breakdown in communication" this information was not passed to the police for another 51 days.

On 3 February 2003 Tony Blair told the House of Commons that the "ricin terror plot" was "powerful evidence of the continuing terrorist threat". Two days later Colin Powell used the ricin evidence in a speech to the UN Security Council in which he warned of the danger of terror cells spreading from Iraq to Britain.