The Iraq Inquiry - Chilcott's Circus Clowns Come to Town

[Malcolm Pryce]

Hi Magda, yes, I agree and I am aware that there is a very respectable school of thought in psychiatry that believes the sociopathic personality is disproportionately represented in politics because they are such accomplished liars. (Or at least, that’s the theory - personally I thought the lies were pretty transparent.) All the same I was still shocked to see John...er...sorry Lord Prescott seemingly so oblivious to the gravity of the subject; he may not have been the brightest firework in the box, and was always a bit of a buffoon, but he did always strike me as slightly more human-shaped than people like Blair and Straw. This was the most shocking aspect of the whole sordid enterprise for me, the ease and glib facility with which people - both in Parliament and cheerleading in the press - were able to put another nation to the sword without any great qualms about the innocent blood spilled. Even as I write this I hear Prescott on the radio ludicrously claiming that Tony Blair personally agonised over every single death. What preposterous and delusional nonsense! I don’t think he agonised over a single death. The terrible truth is, most people were content to allow our military to slaughter people abroad so long as they didn’t have to see it, or be affected by it in any meaningful way apart from the odd traffic jam at Wootton Bassett. Sorry to bang on.

[Magda Hassan]

Britain held secret war talks with U.S. general 11 months before Iraq invasion



By Jason Lewis
Last updated at 2:20 PM on 3rd October 2010

America's most senior general flew into Britain for top secret talks on the invasion of Iraq 11 months before the attack on Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Details of the classified meeting, held at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, suggest Tony Blair’s Government was involved in detailed discussions about toppling the Iraqi dictator earlier than previously disclosed.
American General Tommy Franks flew in to the base in April 2002 to attend a summit meeting called by the then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.





Meeting: Former Defence Secretary had talks with General Tommy Franks in 2002


It followed similar meetings Gen Franks had in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Secret Pentagon documents reveal Mr Hoon asked about ‘US plans for Iraq’.

Exactly what was said has been censored, but declassified sections of the documents show Gen Franks had a separate meeting with Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, then Britain’s chief of defence staff, and senior officers.

At that meeting, ‘regional issues’ including Iraq were discussed, and Gen Franks was told the Ministry of Defence had ‘put together a small cell’ for ‘thinking strategically about Iraq’ and ‘what courses of action are available to handle the regime’.
Mr Hoon did not mention the meeting when he gave evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry on Iraq earlier this year. And Admiral Boyce, now Lord Boyce, told the Chilcot panel he had set up an Iraq planning group, but only in May 2002.


Site: Talks took place at RAF Brize Norton, where Iraq dead were later flown to

Last night Mr Hoon said: ‘I do recall meeting [Gen Franks] at Brize Norton but I am pretty confident that the primary purpose was to discuss Afghanistan.

'Whether in the course of that meeting there were discussions about Iraq wouldn’t entirely surprise me, but I am confident that there wasn’t anything more specific other than questions like, “What’s going on?”  ’
He added that he did not ‘hide or disguise meetings’ from Chilcot, saying he volunteered as much information as he could recall.
Researcher Chris Ames, who helped secure the documents’ release under Freedom of Information laws, said: ‘The memo contradicts the evidence of other Chilcot witnesses, who said British collaboration with US war plans did not begin until the early summer of 2002.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...asion.html

[Magda Hassan]

Tony Blair 'to be called back' to Iraq war inquiry to answer questions about 'gaps' in his evidence



By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:47 PM on 26th October 2010

Tony Blair is to be recalled by the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War to answer new questions about 'gaps' in the evidence he gave earlier this year.
The former Prime Minister is likely to be asked to clarify the political build-up to the 2003 American-led invasion.
He is also expected to further explain the legality of Britain's participation in the controversial war.

Giving evidence: Tony Blair at the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War in January. He is expected to be recalled to make a second appearance early in the new year

Sir John Chilcot will write to Mr Blair next month to ask him to attend a public hearing in early 2011, reported The Times.
During his six-hour testimony earlier this year, Mr Blair mounted a vigorous defence of the invasion and insisted he had no regrets over removing Saddam Hussein.


More...

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

He denied he took the country to war on the basis of a 'lie' over the dictator's supposed weapons of mass destruction.
At the end of his session one member of the audience shouted: 'What, no regrets? Come on' while others heckled 'You are a liar', 'And a murderer'.
Sir John has previously explained that as his team pores through thousands of secret government documents relating to the Iraq invasion, should they find 'conflicts or gaps within the evidence' then they will recall witnesses.

Flashpoint: Demonstrators protest the former PM's appearance at the inquiry outside the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in London

Liam Fox, the current Defence Secretary, asked Sir John to recall Gordon Brown to the inquiry earlier this year after he was forced into an humiliating admission that he had slashed defence spending while British troops were at war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The then-PM told MPs he had been wrong to tell the inquiry that defence spending under Labour was 'rising in real terms every year'.
In January, an unrepentant Mr Blair was heckled and jeered by families of Britain's war dead as he declared he had 'not a regret' about invading Iraq.
He made it clear he would do the same again and warned world leaders they may soon have to take similar decisions over Iran.

Despite the deaths of up to 700,000 Iraqis and 179 British troops, Mr Blair said he felt 'responsibility but not a regret' at the end of his six hours of evidence. There was no hint of remorse.

Saddam had been a 'monster' and it had been right to remove him even to prevent the 'possibility' that he could acquire weapons of mass destruction, Mr Blair said.
He warned that Iran's nuclear weapons programme now poses an even greater threat.

[Magda Hassan]

http://chilcotscheatingus.blogspot.com/
Dr Andrew Watt's blog on the state (MI6) assassination of Dr David Kelly

From Paul Rigby :girl:

[David Guyatt]

Oddly enough I am now more inclined to accept sole UK responsibility for Dr. Kelly's death than before. Previously I had also thought it possible that US intelligence may have been involved too.

Having recently read Gerald James statement to the Information Tribunal I am far more open to accept that the UK were probably responsible - and I would think that pointing the finger at Group 13, or a later manifestation of that assassination squad, were the ones who "dun" it.

It was a kill right up the proverbial "Gerald Bull" street.

[David Guyatt]

Blimey!

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...

[Malcolm Pryce]

They really are a revelation these leaks aren't they? First we discover Prince Andrew is a boor (who knew!), now we find out the Chilcott Inquiry was a put-up job. Whatever next! Dr David Kelly is still alive a la Harry Lime?

[Peter Lemkin]

Blimey!

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...

:adore: David told us so..... Disgusting, if not surprising revelation. I do think, taken as a whole, many have underestimated the SUM TOTAL effect of the Wiki Cable Leaks~

[Jan Klimkowski]

Blair has been "summonsed" to further "questioning" at the Iraq Inquiry.

On the eve of this event, spinmeister Alastair Campbell strives to show us Blair's compassionate Christian side in The Guardian.

And Campbell, who famously told Blair "we don't do God", is living proof of the maxim that faced with exposure of their crimes, these guys just can't stop spinning.

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.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/...ll-diaries

[Magda Hassan]

Bliar offered up for sacrifice.
MI6 planning invasion since at least December 2001.

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-...chief.html