Cherie Blair miscarriage used to supress Iraq invasion speculation

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — News of a miscarriage suffered by the wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair was used to stave off speculation of an early invasion of Iraq, she said in comments printed in newspapers Monday.

Cherie Blair said that as she lay in pain and bleeding back in 2002, Blair and his communications chief Alastair Campbell told her they were going public immediately so that a delay in their family holiday did not trigger false speculation of an invasion.

The high-profile lawyer, in excerpts from her autobiography serialised in The Times and The Sun, said she could not believe the way the news was handled.

She also said that their son Leo, eight later this month and by far the youngest of their four children, was conceived while the couple was...