Chilcot Report: Crucial MI6 source inspired by Nicolas Cage's 'The Rock'
An MI6 source who knowingly fabricated information about chemical weapons in Iraq appeared to have been inspired by Nicolas Cage movie The Rock.
The source told MI6 the Iraqi military had deadly nerve agents being carried in glass beads or spheres.
The spy agency was aware the 1996 action movie The Rock had inaccurately depicted a near-identical device, but did not dismiss the source's claims in spite of this.
The Chilcot Report into British intelligence failures in the lead-up to the war in Iraq in 2003 has found MI6 knew their source had lied to them in the past.
Despite this, information from the source was used in an intelligence report published on September 23, 2002.
The report was seen by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and foreign secretary Jack Straw and was used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
"It was pointed out that glass containers were not typically used in chemical munitions; and that a popular movie has inaccurately depicted nerve agents being carried in glass beads or spheres," the Chilcot Report read.
In the Michael Bay-directed film, a bomb disposal officer (Nicolas Cage) and a long-imprisoned British spy (Sean Connery) break into the prison Alcatraz to stop some treasonous marines destroying San Francisco with chemical agents.
The Chilcot Report has delivered a damning verdict on Blair as well as British intelligence.
The report took seven years to complete and was four times the length of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.
Read more:
No lies in Iraq war justification, says John Howard
Share a tip-off, video or photo with us
