• War protester hurls shoe at ex-Australian prime minister John Howard on live television
  

Quote:Government muzzled Chilcot inquiry 'to protect interests of United States', Wikileaks document show

Dec 1 2010 By Ben Spencer

THE government secretly promised to limit the scope of the Chilcot inquiry to protect US interests, according to Wikileaks.

And documents on the whistle-blowing website say British officials warned the US that the inquiry into the Iraq war would attract a "feeding frenzy" of interest in the UK.

The dispatch was sent before the inquiry began in November 2009.
That month, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg accused the Labour government of "suffocating" the inquiry with guidance on what could go into chairman Sir John Chilcot's report.

PM Gordon Brown said Chilcot had been "given the freedom to conduct the inquiry the way he wants".

But the leaked cable says that at a meeting with then Foreign Secretary David Miliband, MoD security director Jon Day told US officials "the UK had put measures in place to protect US interests".

Last night, a Chilcot spokesman admitted: "The protocol agreed allows for material to be withheld if publication would damage international relations".
Other documents leaked last night reveal that Britain and the US fear for the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. US officials cited the dangers of "fissile material" finding its way into terrorist hands.

Wikileaks also said the US rejected a plea by Gordon Brown plea to keep Asperger's sufferer Gary McKinnon in the UK if he pled guilty to hacking into US military computers.

David Guyatt Wrote:Blimey!

Quote:Government muzzled Chilcot inquiry 'to protect interests of United States', Wikileaks document show

Dec 1 2010 By Ben Spencer

THE government secretly promised to limit the scope of the Chilcot inquiry to protect US interests, according to Wikileaks.

And documents on the whistle-blowing website say British officials warned the US that the inquiry into the Iraq war would attract a "feeding frenzy" of interest in the UK.

The dispatch was sent before the inquiry began in November 2009.
That month, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg accused the Labour government of "suffocating" the inquiry with guidance on what could go into chairman Sir John Chilcot's report.

PM Gordon Brown said Chilcot had been "given the freedom to conduct the inquiry the way he wants".

But the leaked cable says that at a meeting with then Foreign Secretary David Miliband, MoD security director Jon Day told US officials "the UK had put measures in place to protect US interests".

Last night, a Chilcot spokesman admitted: "The protocol agreed allows for material to be withheld if publication would damage international relations".
Other documents leaked last night reveal that Britain and the US fear for the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. US officials cited the dangers of "fissile material" finding its way into terrorist hands.

Wikileaks also said the US rejected a plea by Gordon Brown plea to keep Asperger's sufferer Gary McKinnon in the UK if he pled guilty to hacking into US military computers.

Using an old Zen meditation technique I only just managed to suppress the words "told you so" from peeling off my lips.

Ah so...

Quote:Alastair Campbell diaries: How Blair's Bible reading prompted Iraq 'wobble'Tony Blair's former press secretary reveals in his diaries that ex-PM often read the Bible before he took 'really big decisions'

Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 January 2011 22.03 GMT

Tony Blair had a "wobble" on the eve of his first bombing mission against Saddam Hussein after a late-night reading of the Bible, Alastair Campbell writes in his diaries serialised in today's Guardian.

In a powerful illustration of the impact of Blair's faith on his actions, Campbell writes that a New Testament story about Herod and John the Baptist prompted prime ministerial jitters hours before the launch of an Anglo-American bombing mission against Iraq in December 1998.

Campbell, who famously dismissed questions about Blair's faith by saying "we don't do God", admits in his diaries that the former prime minister often read the Bible before he took "really big decisions".

"TB was clearly having a bit of a wobble," Campbell writes in Power and the People on 16 December 1998, hours before the launch of bombing raids to punish Saddam for failing to co-operate with UN weapons inspectors. "He [Blair] said he had been reading the Bible last night, as he often did when the really big decisions were on, and he had read something about John the Baptist and Herod which had caused him to rethink, albeit not change his mind."

The disclosure of Blair's nerves ahead of his first military assault against Saddam comes a week before the former PM makes his second appearance before the Chilcot inquiry, which is examining the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Campbell writes in today's extracts that Blair gave an undertaking to Saudi Arabia in April 1998 that Britain "would not threaten the territorial integrity of Iraq".

The latest instalment of Campbell's diaries, serialised in today's Guardian, covers the first two years of the last Labour government. The extracts focus on the two major foreign policy changes of Blair's first term: the bombing of Iraq in late 1998, and the successful removal of Serb forces from Kosovo in the spring of 1999.

Campbell also reveals that:

Margaret Thatcher told Blair during the Nato bombing mission against Serbia in 1999 that she was "appalled" that the civilian side of Nato ambassadors based in Brussels discussed bombing targets.

Downing Street became so alarmed by the criticism of the Kosovo action by the right that Campbell successfully lobbied two key Thatcher allies her former foreign affairs adviser Charles Powell and David Hart, her adviser during the miners' strike for help.

General Wesley Clark, Nato's supreme allied commander, said the alliance was on the "brink of a disaster" when Campbell was dispatched to Brussels to advise Nato on its communications strategy.

Excited by the international praise which greeted his landslide victory in 1997, Blair joked with Campbell that it was a pity he was prime minister of such a small country. "It's just a shame Britain is so small, physically," Campbell quotes Blair as saying.

Quote:Blair 'misled MPs on legality of war' law chief who advised ex-PM tells Iraq inquiry



By Tim Shipman and Ian Drury
Last updated at 6:54 PM on 18th January 2011

Uncomfortable: Lord Goldsmith was concerned that Mr Blair ignored his advice over the legality of the Iraq War

Tony Blair misled Parliament and the public about the legality of the Iraq War, according to explosive documents released last night.
Former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said the then prime minister's claims that Britain did not need a UN *resolution explicitly authorising force were not compatible with his legal advice.
In testimony to the Chilcot Inquiry, made public for the first time yesterday, Lord Goldsmith said Mr Blair based his case for invasion on grounds that did not have any application in international law'.
He said he felt uncomfortable' about the way Mr Blair ignored his legal rulings when making the case to Parliament.
Asked whether the Prime Minister's words were compatible with the advice you had given him', he replied: No.'
The shattering testimony is a watershed moment for the Iraq Inquiry, as it is the first time that Lord Goldsmith has directly contradicted Mr Blair. The claims will form the centrepiece of Mr Blair's *second grilling by the inquiry on Friday.
The written questions and answers from Lord Goldsmith's second testimony to the inquiry, released yesterday, detail how the Attorney General was frozen out of government decision-*making over the drafting of Resolution 1441, which he eventually used to justify the war after months of pressure from Mr Blair and his closest aides.
The UK and U.S. tried to get a second UN resolution explicitly justifying an invasion but abandoned the effort when France threatened to veto their plans in the UN Security Council.





Watershed moment: Lord Goldsmith's has admitted that when he heard Mr Blair's statements to Parliament he turned to the then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for advice


In the months before the 2003 war Mr Blair repeatedly claimed that he did not need a second resolution if another country decided to issue an unreasonable veto'.
Campaigner: Reg Keys says Blair's lying to Parliament was 'criminal' and he should now be 'called to account'

But in his evidence Lord Goldsmith reveals that he had explicitly told Mr Blair that such claims were nonsense when they met to discuss the legality of war on October 22, 2002.
Lord Goldsmith says his advice must have been understood by the Prime Minister'. Yet on January 15, 2003, Mr Blair told the Commons there are circumstances in which a UN resolution is not necessary'.
On February 6 he repeated the claim on the BBC's Newsnight programme.
Lord Goldsmith admitted that when he heard Mr Blair's statements: I was uncomfortable about them and I discussed my concerns with [then Foreign Secretary] Jack Straw.'
Reg Keys, whose military policeman son Tom was killed in Iraq, said of Mr Blair: This was not lying to Parliament to push through a minor bill, it was to start a war. That's tantamount to criminal and it's high time this man was called to account.'
Mr Blair's spokesman said: Tony Blair will deal with all these issues in his evidence on Friday. The issue of the so-called unreasonable veto was not the basis on which Britain took part in the military action.
What Peter Goldsmith's statement does is make it categorically clear that there was a proper legal basis for the military action taken.'


Enlarge


MI6 was plotting the toppling of Saddam Hussein nearly 18 months before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, secret papers revealed last night.
Sir Richard Dearlove, the then head of the spy service, sent three documents to Mr Blair's top foreign policy adviser Sir David Manning on the issue in December 2001, one of which set out a route map for regime change very openly'.
The Iraq Inquiry's release of Sir David's evidence, given behind closed doors last May, sheds light on the earliest-known discussions on the matter among Mr Blair's inner circle.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1348083/Iraq-inquiry-Tony-Blair-misled-MPs-legailty-war-says-law-chief.html