Former EU Commissioner: Prime Minister Should Resign

Former EU Commissioner and former leader of the Liberal Party Frits Bolkestein has said that Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (Christian Democrats) should resign, in view of the conclusions of the Davids Inquiry on the Iraq war. Bolkestein said that the government should have known in 2002 that there was no basis to start the war. He said that he was then a EU Commissioner and, in that capacity, had a conversation with the head of the Dutch Military Intelligence Service (MID). He was told that there were no links between Iraq and Al-Qaida, that Iraq was no threat to its neighboring countries, and that its chemical weapons had been destroyed. Bolkestein said: “If I can learn that in a half hour, the minister of foreign affairs should have been able to learn it in the same time.”
www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/article1349486.ece/Bolkestein_Balkenende_moet_aftreden