arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

TONY Blair has been found out for a second time misleading the public with old allegations against Saddam Hussein.

The Prime Minister claimed that an "increasing numbers of Iraqi exiles" are "writing direct" to his office about atrocities under Saddam's regime.

The Downing Street website quotes extracts and emails from four so-called independent Iraqis.

But rather than being concerned refugees, the Daily Mirror can reveal that at least two of the four named people have well-established links with the Iraq National Congress, the opposition-in-exile group, and the US State Department.

The first Iraqi exile named is Dr Adil Awadh, who is described as a "doctor who treated Iraqi soldiers whose ears were deliberately cut off as punishment".

However, Dr Awadh's allegations first appeared in the Washington Post on June 26, 1998.

At the time Dr Awadh was a member of the US-backed opposition group, the Iraqi National Accord, and made the ear-cutting allegations to support his application for political asylum in the United States.

A second doctor Munther Alfadhal is quoted as saying that "we Iraqis have suffered enormously under Saddam".

But Downing Street did not say Dr Alfadhal was a member of a US State Department working group on the future of Iraq, He is said to have drafted a replacement constitution.

Only 10 days ago Mr Blair was exposed for plagiarising reports for his war dossier.

TONY Blair was also accused of misquoting UN official Sergio Vieira de Mello as backing regime change in Iraq. Mr de Mello's office later said that his remarks had been "mistranslated".