Chilcot Iraq Inquiry Report Shock: Publication This Year?!

[Guest]

Hands up! Who remembers an independent inquiry into the war in Iraq with Sir John Chilcot as Chair?

Well according to the Independent the inquiry into how Tony Blair committed Britain to war in Iraq is set to challenge the official version of events when it reports later this year. The team led by Sir John Chilcot, which is examining Britain's part in the US-led invasion, will "challenge previous accounts of what happened", according to senior sources in the inquiry.

The prospect of a report which authoritatively confronts the established narrative from 2002 and 2003 – when Mr Blair sent 45,000 British troops into Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein – will unnerve many senior figures in Whitehall, and others who no longer operate at the heart of government.

By this May, the inquiry team expects to begin contacting those individuals who will be directly criticised in the Iraq report, to give them the chance to reply.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-chilcot-inquiry-to-challenge-official-line-on-iraq-8521715.html

So maybe we'll know what its conclusions are by ... next Autumn?!

[ahinton]

Hands up! Who remembers an independent inquiry into the war in Iraq with Sir John Chilcot as Chair?

Well according to the Independent the inquiry into how Tony Blair committed Britain to war in Iraq is set to challenge the official version of events when it reports later this year. The team led by Sir John Chilcot, which is examining Britain's part in the US-led invasion, will "challenge previous accounts of what happened", according to senior sources in the inquiry.

The prospect of a report which authoritatively confronts the established narrative from 2002 and 2003 – when Mr Blair sent 45,000 British troops into Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein – will unnerve many senior figures in Whitehall, and others who no longer operate at the heart of government.

By this May, the inquiry team expects to begin contacting those individuals who will be directly criticised in the Iraq report, to give them the chance to reply.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-chilcot-inquiry-to-challenge-official-line-on-iraq-8521715.html

So maybe we'll know what its conclusions are by ... next Autumn?!

Oh, dear; you didn't read this in the Guardian either! What IS the world coming to?...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yep and it will tell us the one essential truth; Blair went with Bush and did not want to be the first UK, and certainly not the first Labour, Prime Minister to abandon the yanks ... ab initio that was his top priority

[Byas'd Opinion]

the first UK, and certainly not the first Labour, Prime Minister to abandon the yanks

That's a bit harsh on Harold Wilson during the Vietnam War, surely? While never too openly critical of the US, "despite persistent American requests he kept British troops out". (http://www.number10.gov.uk/past-prim...harold-wilson/ )

[ahinton]

yep and it will tell us the one essential truth; Blair went with Bush and did not want to be the first UK, and certainly not the first Labour, Prime Minister to abandon the yanks ... ab initio that was his top priority

Do you suppose that they might share a flight to the Netherlands when they're eventually invited to be guests of dishonour at Den Haag?

[amateur51]

That's a bit harsh on Harold Wilson during the Vietnam War, surely? While never too openly critical of the US, "despite persistent American requests he kept British troops out". (http://www.number10.gov.uk/past-prim...harold-wilson/ )

Didn't LBJ invite Wilson over to USA for talks and then have the band play "I Got Plenty of Nothin'"? :ouch:

[Serial_Apologist]

The prospect of a report which authoritatively confronts the established narrative from 2002 and 2003 – when Mr Blair sent 45,000 British troops into Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein – will unnerve many senior figures in Whitehall, and others who no longer operate at the heart of government.

The Tories will wriggle out of any responsibility by saying, "We only went with the intelligence; had we known it to be wrong, we'd have been against going into Iraq".

Btw I thought it was established in another thread that Blair took the initiative, not Bush.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Blair took the initiative about the UN, but Iraq invasion was a done deal for the dark trinity Cheney Rumsfeld and Bush way before Blair thought about anything ... [i think]

Woodward describes in Plan of Attack a small group of administration officials including Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who were urging the President to go to war in Iraq beginning shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Secretary of State Colin Powell and General Tommy Franks are described as being part of a group within the government more sceptical of the plan to invade Iraq.

wicki

[JimD]

So maybe we'll know what its conclusions are by ... next Autumn?!

The response from many interested parties here and elsewhere to its conclusions can be written now. To the degree that they are critical of Blair they will meet with the corresponding degree of approval. To the extent that they don't they will be a 'whitewash'.

[amateur51]

The response from many interested parties here and elsewhere to its conclusions can be written now. To the degree that they are critical of Blair they will meet with the corresponding degree of approval. To the extent that they don't they will be a 'whitewash'.

Such cynicism in one so young!

[Resurrection Man]

The Tories will wriggle out of any responsibility by saying, "We only went with the intelligence; had we known it to be wrong, we'd have been against going into Iraq".

...

Hardly wriggling. Let's face it. Blair took us to war. No-one else.

[amateur51]

Hardly wriggling. Let's face it. Blair took us to war. No-one else.

What about Mr Campbell's dodgy dossier? That provided the ammo that Blair used to hoodwink Parliament and the country.

[Resurrection Man]

What about Mr Campbell's dodgy dossier? That provided the ammo that Blair used to hoodwink Parliament and the country.

But he was Blair's Rottweiler, after all.

My point re SA's comment was that, as far as I am aware, the Opposition are not privy to security briefings. Therefore any decision that the Conservatives would have made regarding supporting the Iraq war would have been based on the evidence given to them in 'that' dossier.

[Flosshilde]

Which is what S_A said -

"The Tories will wriggle out of any responsibility by saying, "We only went with the intelligence; had we known it to be wrong, we'd have been against going into Iraq"."

[JimD]

Such cynicism in one so young!

Ooh, you flatterer. 'Fraid I don't really look like Marilyn.