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'Bush and Blair misled the public... yes, it's conceivable both could end up on trial'
Tony Blair and George Bush were orchestrating a witch-hunt against Saddam Hussein that ended with the Iraq War, according to a former UN weapons inspector.
Hans Blix said the two leaders behaved like 17th century witchfinders in their willingness to oust the dictator.
In an interview with the Mail, he revealed that Blair tried to force him to change his mind about the absence of WMDs in Iraq to placate the Americans.
The former Swedish diplomat, who headed the UN weapons inspection team in the run-up to war, concluded that Blair and Bush "misled themselves and then they misled the public."
He said: "They were convinced they had their witch in front of them, and they searched for the evidence and believed it without critical examination.
"I'm not saying they acted in bad faith [but] they exercised very bad judgment. A modicum of critical thinking would have made them skeptical. When you start a war which cost thousands of lives you should be more certain than they were."
Blix dismissed the "dodgy" Downing Street dossier on Saddam's weapons which made the case for war as "a politician's twist."