In the documentary, Sir Rodric Braithwaite, the former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee that advises the British prime minister, said his successor, John Scarlett, "crossed a red line" by allowing Mr. Blair's political aides into the drafting process of the intelligence dossier on Iraq.
Its principal purpose is to provide the Secretary of State and his top advisers with intelligence analysis independent of other agencies, but it also has a voice in the drafting of national intelligence estimates and other documents that are supposed to reflect the consensus of the intelligence community.
But, again, even as he protests his innocence of the BBC's specific allegation, the diary documents his real influence over the drafting of intelligence dossiers, which even now he cannot see was improper.
Mr. McCullough III is a former FBI agent, helped draft the intelligence portions of the Patriot Act, and worked in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Drafted in secret without public hearings, the provisions are part of the intelligence authorization bill for fiscal 2013.
But the draft Investigatory Powers Bill will come under attack from civil liberties groups for increasing the ability of the intelligence services to obtain access to the personal internet use of millions of citizens and to mount "data-mining" exercises.
Haldeman ordered Huston to draft a formal decision memo outlining the illegal plan as a mandate to the heads of the intelligence and tax collecting agencies.
According to the draft, it would be made in consultation with the Defense Secretary, the Attorney General, and various leaders of the intelligence community.
Be skeptical of the intelligence.
This was the context in which a press officer could pen the first draft of an intelligence dossier, later carefully spun to give the more excitable papers just enough to be able to run with the hysterical claim that London was 45 minutes from attack.
