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

[Magda Hassan]

Perhaps on planet Miliband, population 1, this may be reality.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has claimed that UK's involvement in the Iraq war has earned it respect in the Middle East.

Giving evidence to the public inquiry into Britain's role in the war on Monday, Miliband insisted that many Arab countries now respected Britain more for following through on threats of military force in Iraq.

"Even those who disagree with it (the war) would say to me, 'you've sent a message that when you say something you actually mean it. And if you say something's a last chance it really is a last chance'."

Miliband also claimed that the UK is now in a "stronger position," believing that UK decisions on Iraq have not "undermined our relationships or our ability to do business" in the region.

The top official meanwhile alleged that "many Iraqis" view Britain as having been instrumental in "freeing the country from a tyranny that is bitterly remembered."

This is while according to polls conducted by The Arab American Institute and the Pew Global Attitudes Project in 2007 and 2006, the majority of people in the Middle East and Europe viewed the war negatively and believed that the world was safer before the Iraq War and the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

Miliband, who was a junior education minister in Tony Blair's government at the time of the 2003 invasion, was not directly involved in the events leading up to the occupation.

But the foreign secretary — seen as a potential successor to Gordon Brown as leader of the Labor party — has repeatedly backed Britain's decision to invade Iraq.

He claims that the war was necessary because the United Nations' efforts had been "feeble" in trying to disarm Saddam.

He also urged the government to not be afraid of similar actions in the future stressing that Britain must remain a major player in international affairs.

Miliband was the last senior politician to appear at Sir John Chilcot's inquiry before the election, which is expected on May 6.

The five-person panel, which was set up to learn the lessons of the conflict, has so far heard testimonies from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former prime minister Tony Blair, former foreign secretary Jack Straw, current MI6 intelligence agency chief John Sawers, head of Britain's military Jock Stirrup and a host of ministers and government officials.

According to data compiled by the London-based Opinion Research Business and its research partner in Iraq, the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies, the Iraq war has left more than one million Iraqis dead.

Moreover, a fifth of Iraqi households have lost at least one family member due to the conflict.

The United Nations estimates that the number of displaced persons in Iraq stands at more than four million.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120...=351020201

[David Guyatt]

Famous saying in history:

* I admire and respect people of all races, creeds and religions.

Adolf Hitler

* Even in my dreams I believe I did what was right for the country.

Tony Bair

* If I'd known about them WMD's I'd votefied to stop those Ay-rabs tryifying to invade us. Eeyah!

George W Bush

* The UK's involvement in the Iraq war has earned it respect in the Middle East.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband

[Jan Klimkowski]

Tony "I'm a pretty straight sort of guy" Blair has always tried to categorize those who oppose his "honest" judgements as "conspiracy theorists".

Here's a prime example from the run-up to "Shock and Awe":

Blair: Iraq oil claim is 'conspiracy theory'

Wednesday 15 January 2003

Tony Blair today derided as "conspiracy theories" accusations that a war on Iraq would be in pursuit of oil, as he faced down growing discontent in parliament at a meeting of Labour backbenchers and at PMQs.

snip.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/...npolicy.uk

By trotting out the "conspiracy theory" meme and attaching it to claims that the second Iraq War was motivated by western and multinational geopolitical interests, such as Iraq's oil, Blair was attempting to render discussion of such claims as beyond the pale.

Outside the permitted space for MSM consensus discussion.

His tactic largely succeeded, and MSM took his and Campbell's lies at face value.

Tony Blair got cash for deal with South Korean oil firm

Watchdog orders publication of former prime minister's payment by oil firm that was kept secret for 20 months

Wednesday 17 March, 2010

Tony Blair has received cash from a South Korean oil firm in a deal kept secret until the business appointments watchdog intervened, the Guardian has learned.

After 20 months of secrecy, the former prime minister has now been overruled by the chairman of the advisory committee on business appointments, the former Tory cabinet minister Ian Lang.

Lang this week ordered publication of Blair's deal with UI Energy Corporation, which has extensive oil interests in the US and in Iraq.

Blair repeatedly claimed to the committee, which assesses jobs taken up by former ministers, that the existence of the deal had to be kept secret at the request of the South Koreans, because of "market sensitivities".

According to a committee spokesman, Blair's claims of the need for secrecy were first made in July 2008, when the committee agreed to break its normal rules, and postpone publication for three months.

Blair's office went back to the committee in October of that year and asked for a further six months. They promised to let the committee know as soon as the "market sensitivity" had passed.

Committee sources said they heard nothing further and had to "chase" Blair. This culminated in a formal letter from the committee last November. Blair's office responded last month, claiming the deal was still too sensitive to reveal.

Lang, who is understood to have reviewed the files, told Blair he saw no reason to keep the deal secret any longer.

The committee website now publishes a statement identifying Blair's job as "advice to a consortium of investors led by the UI Energy Corporation (Publication delayed due to market sensitivities)".

The committee also detailed on its website a similarly unpublished Blair deal with the ruling family in Kuwait. He has been in their pay since December 2007, with the task of producing a general report on the oil state's future over the next 30 years, at a reported £1m fee.

Asked about the Korean deal, his spokesman said: "Mr Blair gave a one-off piece of advice in respect of a project for UI Energy in August 2008. He sought, and received, approval from the advisory committee on business appointments before undertaking this project."

He added: "UI Energy requested of the committee that they delay public announcement for reasons of market sensitivity, which the committee agreed to do."

He would not say what the advice was about, or how much Blair was paid.

The Korean firm is normally frank to the point of boastfulness about its hiring of former top politicians. It says on its website: "This is a strong competitive edge that UI Energy Corporation has over other companies."

The former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke has been one of its paid advisers. It also lists US politicians on its payroll, saying: "Congressman Stephen J Solarz, the former secretary of defence Frank C Carlucci, the former ambassador to Egypt Nicholas A Veliotes, and US commander for the Middle East General John P Abizaid exercise their network and political influence to promote UI Energy on the development of oil fields in Iraq where the USA governs."

Blair's office denies that the help given to UI Energy was linked to Iraq, where the Korean firm's consortium at the time had just struck oil in a controversial deal with autonomous Kurdistan, to the displeasure of the central Iraqi regime.

It said: "The project had nothing to do with Iraq".

Blair, who set up a commercial consultancy firm, Tony Blair Associates, following the Korea and Kuwait deals, has been secretive in the past about his money-making schemes.

A Guardian investigation last year found that he had put his multimillion-pound income through an obscure partnership structure called Windrush Ventures, which enabled him to avoid publishing normal company accounts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/...-korea-oil

[David Guyatt]

Explains a lot eh.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Explains a lot eh.

The question is: what specialist knowledge or advice can Tony Blair legitimately offer to a South Korean oil company with interests in the Middle East and the Russian "Stans"?

Answers in a coffin, please. :evil:

[David Guyatt]

Perhaps they just warmed to his open sincere style and smile?

No, that won't do. That's not "market sensitive" is it....

Is political corruption market sensitive?

[Magda Hassan]

heep: I doubt it will reveal anything. They are not subject to any UK laws any evidence will be given because they have chosen to not because they are compelled to and they are going to say either nothing, fuck off, or we sincerely believed that liberating Iraq of WMD was the right thing to do. Maybe the investigators want to go visit Disneyland. It has been a long cold English winter after all. Time for a holiday.

Iraq Inquiry asks to question George Bush's senior officials

The Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War could take an explosive new twist after it emerged that leading figures in George Bush's administration have been asked to give evidence to it.



By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor
Published: 9:00PM GMT 20 Mar 2010

Requests are understood to have been made to Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Stephen Hadley Photo: EPA


Sources in Washington said the inquiry sent out emails "about three weeks ago" to senior officials in Mr Bush's government including, it is believed, the former president himself.
Other requests are understood to have been made to Dick Cheney, Mr Bush's vice-president, Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, Donald Rumsfeld, the former US defence secretary, and Stephen Hadley, an ex-national security adviser – as well as to their deputies and senior assistants.

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Members of Sir John Chilcot's panel are believed to be willing to travel to the US to take evidence – almost certainly in private – on the administration's policies between the 2003 invasion of Iraq and 2009.
While the most senior figures are reluctant to give evidence, Washington sources claim about 10 former officials, most involved in the post-invasion period, have agreed to do so.
The surprise development adds to the chances of Sir John's inquiry producing a "smoking gun" on the key questions of whether Britain and the US adequately prepared for the conflict and whether it was justified under international law.
Interviews with US officials – even held in secret – could play a major part in Sir John's final report, expected by the end of this year.
Although it has no legal power to compel witnesses to appear before it, the Chilcot Inquiry has succeeded in obtaining testimony from virtually every single British politician, official and senior military figure who played a key role in the war.
Both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have been subjected to six-hour televised grillings.
The Prime Minister may even have to return to the inquiry to "clarify" his previous evidence after admitting providing wrong information in his earlier appearance.
Last week, Mr Brown told MPs he had been wrong to tell the Iraq Inquiry that defence spending under Labour was 'rising in real terms every year'.
A research paper produced by the House of Commons library shows defence spending fell in real terms in four years when Mr Brown was Chancellor, including two when Britain was at war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr Brown has come under fire from a battery of former senior military figures who claim defence was underfunded during his years at the Treasury.
Other notable witnesses who have already given evidence to Chilcot include Alastair Campbell, the former communications director at 10 Downing Street, who told the inquiry that Mr Brown was a key member of Mr Blair's "private circle".
However, others said Mr Brown was a rallying point for dissent about the war. Clare Short, the former international development secretary, described frequently sharing her concerns with a "very unhappy and marginalised" Mr Brown.
Mr Blair mounted a vigorous defence of the invasion and insisted he had no regrets over removing Saddam Hussein. The former prime minister denied he took Britain to war on the basis of a 'lie' over the dictator's supposed weapons of mass destruction.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...cials.html

[David Guyatt]

Yeah, I can see Cheney, Rice, Rummy and others first classing over to London to give evidence to a bunch of boring old wankers who already have the verdict to hand, to wit:

Tut tut, a few minor mistakes were made, but the Prime Minister was acting in good faith to rid the world of a terrible bullying corrupt and murderous tyrant.

Unfortunately George Bush served another full term.

Hey ho...

[Jan Klimkowski]

The Daily Torygraph opines, truly hilariously:

The surprise development adds to the chances of Sir John's inquiry producing a "smoking gun" on the key questions of whether Britain and the US adequately prepared for the conflict and whether it was justified under international law.
Interviews with US officials – even held in secret – could play a major part in Sir John's final report, expected by the end of this year.

Maybe Lil' Dick Cheney will take the upstanding members of the Chilcott Inquiry duck shooting.....

:burnout:tupido2:

[Peter Presland]

Here's a turn up for the book. Not sure how I missed it 'til now but:

2 June 2010 press releas from the Inquiry secretariat:

The legal basis for the military intervention in Iraq has been the subject of much comment. The Inquiry has heard evidence on this point from a number of witnesses, including Lord Goldsmith the former Attorney General and Sir Michael Wood the former Foreign Office Legal Adviser. Transcripts of such evidence can be found at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/. In addition, a number of government documents relating to the formulation of the legal advice have been declassified and published on the Inquiry’s website.
The Inquiry is being advised on public international law by Dame Rosalyn Higgins QC. In order further to inform the Committee’s considerations, the Inquiry would be pleased to receive from public international lawyers any legal analysis they may wish to offer of the legal arguments relied upon by the UK government as set out in: the Attorney General’s advice of 7 March 2003; his written answer to a question in the House of Lords on 17 March 2003; and the FCO Memorandum “Iraq: Legal Basis for the Use of Force” of the same date.
The inquiry does not wish to focus on grounds relied on by other states. Respondents are, therefore, invited to comment on the issues of law arising from the grounds on which the government relied for the legal basis for military action, as set out in the substantive elements of the evidence given to the Inquiry and published documents. That might include:

• the legal effect of Operative Paragraphs 1, 4, 11 and 12 of UNSCR 1441;
  
• the significance of the phrase “consider” in Operative Paragraph 12 of SCR 1441;
  
• whether by virtue of UN Security Council Resolutions 678, 687 and 1441, the elements were in place for a properly authorised use of force;
  
• the interpretation and effect of the statements made by the Permanent Members of the Security Council following the unanimous vote on UNSCR 1441;
  
• the correct approach to the interpretation of Security Council Resolutions;
  
• Lord Goldsmith’s evidence that the precedent was that a reasonable case was a sufficient lawful basis for taking military action.
  

Submissions should be confined to issues as described in the preceding paragraphs and should not exceed 3000 words. They should be sent by email to: submissions@iraqinquiry.org.uk entitled International Law Submission; or by post to: Iraq Inquiry, 35 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BG. Submissions should reach the Inquiry by 14 July 2010. The Iraq Inquiry reserves the right to publish submissions.

Could open a can of worms eh?