The argument put forward by Tony Blair in his evidence to the Iraq inquiry was “ludicrous”, former cabinet minister Clare Short has said.
It was wrong to suggest, after the 11 September attacks, that al-Qaeda would team up with “rogue states”.
Gordon Brown, then Chancellor, was “marginalised” when the decision to go to war was made, Ms Short said.
Ms Short resigned as International Development Secretary shortly after the invasion of Iraq in early 2003.
Former Prime Minister Mr Blair spent six hours giving evidence to the Iraq inquiry in Friday.
He said Saddam had been a “monster and I believe he threatened not just the region but the world.”
Mr Blair also stressed the British and American attitude towards the threat posed by Saddam Hussein “changed dramatically” after the terror attacks on 11 September 2001, saying: “I never regarded 11 September as an attack on America, I regarded it as an attack on us.”
Speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Ms Short described Mr Blair as “preachy”, adding: “There was no link at the time between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. So there was no such threat.”
Asked about Mr Brown’s role in the decision to go to war, she said: “Gordon was marginalised and not in the inner group.”
She added that “they [Mr Blair and his supporters] wanted him out of the Treasury… and they were going to offer him the Foreign Office and that he wouldn’t accept it.”
Ms Short is to give evidence to the Iraq inquiry on Tuesday. Mr Brown has said he will do the same before the general election, which is expected to take place on 6 May.

Heavy snow and high winds have caused traffic chaos across Germany with at least three deaths reported nationwide.
Conditions closed some motorways and caused long traffic jams on many others.
North Rhine-Westphalia, which includes the cities of Cologne and Dusseldorf, recorded 300 accidents on Friday night and Saturday morning.
Public transport in some areas has been shut down and police have advised people not to travel if possible.
The traffic chaos in North Rhine-Westphalia led to one death and 40 more people injured, while in Bavaria another two people were killed on frozen roads.
Flights at some airports were cancelled or delayed.
Bus services in the northern city of Rostock were suspended and sports fixtures cancelled after 30cm (12in) of snow fell in one night.
Police warned motorists that if they got stranded they might have to wait hours for help.
“People should just stay at home,” a spokesman said.
But despite the weather, some intrepid Germans were determined to enjoy the weekend.
In Hamburg hundreds of families skated across the frozen Alster Lake, which forecasters said was a once in a decade phenomenon.

The body of a former truck driver’s assistant who won $17m in a lottery in 2006 has been found buried under a concrete slab in a backyard in Florida.
Abraham Shakespeare, who was barely literate, went missing nine months ago after complaining of being exploited by hangers-on who tried to take his money.
His body was found on Friday behind a home belonging to the boyfriend of a woman who befriended him in 2007.
Police believe he was murdered, but have not yet arrested anyone.
Hillsborough County sheriff’s detectives used fingerprints to identify Mr Shakespeare’s body, which they found covered by a concrete slab in a backyard in Plant City.
Police do not yet know how he died, but they believe the woman, named Dorice Donegan “Dee-Dee” Moore, may be able to shed light on what happened.
A tip-off led detectives to the grave behind the home of Ms Moore’s boyfriend Shar Krasniqi.
Mr Shakespeare bought the winning ticket at a store in the town of Frostproof but his brother, Robert Brown, said he often wished he had never won.
“‘I’d have been better off broke.’ He said that to me all the time,” Mr Brown said.
Samuel Jones, a childhood friend of Mr Shakespeare’s, said: “He really didn’t understand it at all. It was moving so fast. It changed his life in a bad way.”
Mr Jones said his friend would tell him: “I thought all these people were my friends, but then I realised all they want is just money.”
Among the new acquaintances was Ms Moore.
Property records show her company, American Medical Professionals, bought his home for $655,000 a year ago.
Not long afterward, detectives said, she helped him open a company and gave herself the ability to sign for money.
She withdrew $1m and later told detectives Mr Shakespeare gave her the cash as a gift. She bought a Hummer, a Corvette and a truck, and went on holiday.
Mr Jones said his friend lived a humble life, and just before he bought the winning ticket he joined a church and was baptised.
“When he won the lottery, he forgot about being saved,” Mr Jones said.
Mr Shakespeare’s friends and family said when he went missing, they had hoped he was on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean.

Apple has a device weekend speculation by revealing the tablet, which has become known as the iPad.
Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO introduced the touch screen device at an event in San Francisco.
Jobs described the pill, which will cost between $ 499 and $ 829 in U.S. The third category of smartphones and laptops.
The device, which looks like a big iPhone, you can use to view movies, games and surf the Internet.
The company has also licensed with publishers like Penguin, HarperCollins and Macmillan e-books downloaded directly to your device with a new iBook Store.
You can charge your iPad right, said Jobs.
Also shown in magazines and newspapers around the device.
He told an audience of journalists, analysts and industry partners believe that the device can be people, the entire Internet in your hands.
What this device is exceptional. It is the best navigation experience that has had, he said.
The de Steve Jobs has met most expectations created during the months of hype and speculation leading up to this principle.
The iPad is really a giant iPhone, which almost anything can set the phone can do, but to offer a better way to watch or play.
The most interesting feature is the introduction of the iBook, which transformed the online bookstore, which Apple hopes to revolutionize the publishing world, as the music industry in iTunes.
The problems of Amazon Kindle and other e-reader.
But the big question is whether Steve Jobs is correct in thinking that there is a gap between smartphones and netbooks covering the iPad.
It is unclear whether a large number of people – except for the special early adopters – they are still desperate for a different device.
The device has a 9.7 inch touch screen allow the people who come on the screen, and manipulating images and control a game with your fingers. However, users also can plug-in keyboard.
Apple’s claim that it has the battery life of 10 hours.
It comes with a dozen applications – especially multi-touch versions of existing Mac software, as provided in iPhoto.
However – the owner can also third party applications, both specifically for the iPad, which have been developed for the iPhone.
People who can synchronize applications between the two devices.
We believe it is another gold rush for growth, said Scott Forstall, Apple’s application, the Board appointed.
Apple has shown that more than three million applications were downloaded from the App Store.
The New York Times has called the iPad, which recreates the appearance of the newspaper, but allows new features like video processing.
We are pioneers in the next version of digital journalism, said Martin Nisenholtz, an executive in the newspaper.
It also includes the company installed the iTunes software, allowing people to buy songs and movies directly on your device.
Market is the first Tablet PC with touch screen. Earlier this month showed that manufacturers like Dell and HP devices made at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Some industry experts question the need for a new category of devices other than laptops, smart phones and netbooks.

Uranus is the kickoff of the first British 3-D channel with a live match Premier League Soccer will be nine a.m. throughout the United Kingdom show this weekend.
The match between Arsenal and Manchester United will be displayed in 3D in a pub in London, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Dublin.
In April, the Sky will roll out the channel 3D hundreds of other places.
Later this year, Sky will be available to all Sky 3D + HD customers a range of content.
These include movies, sports, documentaries and entertainment.
3D Sky is initially as a free add-on for people with Sky + HD boxes.
The audience must wear special glasses to view the content.
It is hype began showing films in 3D cinema technology.
Avatar rotated in 3D, the film became the most visibility of all time.
It is expected that 3D-ready TVs hit the consumer market later this year.
People have embraced 3D movies and 3D, because the service uses the same type of sky, technology, we are confident that demand for sports, movies, concerts and theater to be in 3D, said Gerry O’Sullivan, Director of Strategy Sky – development.
In February, two in the league of Six Nations rugby will be filmed in 3D, and shown in cinemas across Britain.
World Cup 2010 will be filmed in the form of being.
The BBC was the first game of 3-sport event shows, broadcast in Scotland in England Six Nations rugby tournament 2008.

US Telecoms firm Avaya has confirmed that it is considering closing its
plant in Monkstown, County Antrim, which it bought from Nortel last month.
Avaya, owned by private equity firms Silver Lake and TPG Capital, bought
Nortel’s enterprise division out of administration for $915m in December.
About 40% of staff at Monkstown work for the Avaya part of the business.
Trades union Unite is seeking a meeting with management and has said that
140 jobs are under threat.
“Avaya has entered a consultation process following the strategic business
decision to potentially close the Monkstown (Northern Ireland) office,” a
company spokesperson told the BBC news website.
Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said Invest NI was continuing to build
relationships with Avaya.
“I understand that local employees have been verbally briefed about
Avaya’s intention to consolidate as part of a European restructuring
plan,” she said.
“At this stage, it is not clear what exactly this means for Northern
Ireland but Invest NI continues to build relationships with Avaya,
including working very closely with local management, to position Northern
Ireland as strongly as possible.
“It would be inappropriate to speculate further until Avaya makes a formal
announcement.”
Earlier this month Avaya outlined what it called a “roadmap” for
integrating Nortel into its existing business. The company said there were
overlaps in some areas and that some Nortel products would be
discontinued.
On Thursday, it was announced that the Hughes Christensen drill bit
factory in east Belfast was to close with the loss of 210 jobs.
Parent company Baker Hughes said its operations would move to Texas.
The factory at Castlereagh has been in operation for 55 years making drill
bits for the oil and gas industry.
The company made 135 people redundant last year, blaming a decline in the
world market for drill bits.

In 1945, in the heat of war, a young John Pistone helped himself to a
book. Now he is giving it back.
To be fair, Mr Pistone, a private in George Patton’s army, never thought
of his act as theft. He just needed proof he was there.
“I thought who the hell’s going to believe I was in Berchtesgaden?” he
said. “I’m going to need some proof.”
As the Americans raced across southern Germany in the spring of 1945, Mr
Pistone recalled, the soldiers were intent on capturing as many German
soldiers as possible. And finding Hitler.
“They were giving up like mad by that time, but we were looking for
Hitler. Because they said he was still alive,” he said.
And so the young John Pistone found himself walking through the gates of
the Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat near Berchtesgaden, in the Bavarian
Alps.
“We had a feeling like we just missed Hitler,” Mr Pistone remembered. “It
seemed like… someone had just left in a hurry.”
The place had already been stripped bare by other American souvenir
hunters, but in a cabinet Mr Pistone found a large photo album, full of
immaculate black and white reproductions of paintings.
He had no idea what it was, but he thought it looked interesting and would
do nicely as a memento. For the next few months, until he made it back
home to Ohio, he lugged the volume around.
“That damn thing was heavy! But I was determined to get it home,” he
remembered.
For decades, the album sat on John Pistone’s shelf, brought out only to
show family and friends. His children called it “the Hitler book”.
But it was not until Mr Pistone decided to install a washer and drier in
an upstairs bedroom that the book came to the attention of a local history
buff who, in turn, contacted Robert Edsel, author and president of the
Monuments Men Foundation.
The Monuments Men were a group of some 345 men and women from 13 countries
who scoured Europe during and after WWII, looking for artistic and
cultural items stolen by the Nazis.
When he heard about the album, Mr Edsel figured he knew what it was, but
he flew from Texas to Cleveland to make sure.
“When I first saw it, there was little doubt in my mind about it being
authentic,” Mr Edsel said. “But the question was, as always, where did it
come from?”
Examination confirmed Mr Edsel’s initial hunch that the book was one of 31
albums that formed a catalogue featuring art selected by Hitler for
inclusion in a huge National Socialist museum of art, planned for the
Austrian city of Linz.
The museum, had it ever been built, would have included looted masterworks
from across the continent, but Mr Pistone’s album, Number 13, mostly
consists of reproductions of little-known German and Austrian 19th Century
paintings.

Tony Blair has denied striking a “covert” deal with George Bush to invade
Iraq at a private meeting in 2002 at the US president’s ranch.
He told the Iraq inquiry there was no secret about what was said – that
Saddam Hussein had to be dealt with and “the method of doing that is
open”.
The former prime minister was also quizzed about the claim Saddam could
launch weapons at 45 minutes’ notice.
He said “it would have been better” if headlines about it had been
corrected.
Mr Blair used the morning session to mount an impassioned defence of the
decision to go to war, telling the inquiry: “This isn’t about a lie or a
conspiracy or a deceit or a deception.
“It’s a decision. And the decision I had to take was, given Saddam’s
history, given his use of chemical weapons, given the over one million
people whose deaths he had caused, given 10 years of breaking UN
resolutions, could we take the risk of this man reconstituting his weapons
programmes or is that a risk that it would be irresponsible to take?”
Sometimes it is important not to ask the “March 2003 question” but the
“2010 question”, said Mr Blair, arguing that if Saddam had been left in
power the UK and its allies would have “lost our nerve” to act.
But the Butler inquiry finds “serious flaws” in pre-war intelligence
And with public feelings still running high, Gordon Brown announces
Chilcot inquiry to “learn the lessons” of the Iraq conflict.
Quoting frequently from his own speeches and statements, Mr Blair answered
questions about his working relationship with George Bush, the
intelligence used to justify to the public and the unsuccessful diplomatic
efforts at the UN aimed at averting it.
Earlier witnesses to the inquiry have suggested he told Mr Bush at their
April 2002 meeting at the ranch in Crawford, Texas, that the UK would join
the Americans in a war with Iraq.
But Mr Blair said: “What I was saying – I was not saying this privately
incidentally, I was saying it in public – was ‘we are going to be with you
in confronting and dealing with this threat’.
“The one thing I was not doing was dissembling in that position. How we
proceed in this is a matter that was open. The position was not a covert
position, it was an open position.”
Pressed on what he thought Mr Bush took from the meeting, he went further,
saying: “I think what he took from that was exactly what he should have
taken, which was if it came to military action because there was no way of
dealing with this diplomatically, we would be with him.”
Asked about the controversial claim in a September 2002 dossier that Iraq
could deploy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) at 45 minutes notice, he
said it “assumed a vastly greater significance” afterwards than it did at
the time.
He said it “would have been better if (newspaper) headlines about the ‘45
-minute claim’ had been corrected” in light of the significance it later
took on.
He said he would have made it clear the claim referred to battlefield
munitions, not missiles, and would have preferred to publish the
intelligence assessments by themselves as they were “absolutely strong
enough”.

Cadbury workers had a protest outside the company’s Bournville factory in
a campaign to safeguard jobs in the aftermath of the offer in its place.
Cadbury the Board accepted the offer of 11.5 billion U.S. giant Kraft
Foods on January 19.
Shareholders have until Feb. 2 to accept or reject, but unions have warned
that the deal could cause job losses.
Labor MP Lynne Jones urged parliament on Tuesday, as Gordon Brown is
expected to fulfill its commitment to staff, too.
How can this commitment be delivered? Enterprise Minister Ian Lucas said
the ministers have no power to intervene in the acquisition, but will do
everything possible to protect jobs.
Mr Brown pledged in Parliament on 20 January that the government was
determined based Cadbury job security.
The company employs approximately 4,500 people in the UK and has factories
at Bournville in Birmingham, Marl Brook in Herefordshire, Chirk in north-
east Wales and Somerset Keynsham.
In announcing the protest, said the Unite union leader, Jennie Formby:
Our members deserve and friends in the Midlands a voice in this
acquisition.
They are angry because they are forced to carve view from the room as the
big players in the business of money.

The United States has to examine the funding of 7 million worth of free
primary education in Kenya, the allegations of fraud, said the U.S.
ambassador in Nairobi.
Michael Ranneberger said credible steps in the allegations that 110
shillings was (900,000, or 1.4 million euros) will be taken diverted from
a pool of free education.
The U.S. move comes a month after the government of the United Kingdom
withdrew from the project.
Kenya is considered the most corrupt country in East Africa by the
campaign group Transparency International ranked.
The United States has pushed for reform in Kenya since the deadly violence
swept the country after the elections 2007th
Although violence is fundamentally political, ethnic, U.S. authorities
have the underlying causes are identified, such as corruption and weak
institutions.
Ranneberger called for an independent audit of the private school system.
Should be not only fired fraudsters – they prosecuted and jailed, he
said.
The United States shares the deep concern over the development partners in
Kenya and the people of Kenya in the context of the ongoing revelations of
corruption on a grand scale. Again on the requirements of major changes
in the country, saying that this is the reform agenda and the future of
this country is at stake.
The Kenya introduced free primary education in 2003 – and schools were
rapidly inundated more than one million children were included, who have
never attended a school.
According to UNICEF, the population of primary school from 5.9 million in
2002 to 7,6 million in 2005.
Most of the funds for primary education comes from the state treasury.