| Author | Message | | gchq | | Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:19 pm Post subject: Gordon Brown announces Iraq war inquiry |
| Gordon Brown announces Iraq war inquiry
The Telegraph
15 Jun 2009
Gordon Brown has announced an inquiry into the war in Iraq Photo: GETTY
It will be similar in scope and make-up to the Franks Inquiry (whitewash??) that examined the Falklands conflict in 1982.
Mr Brown announced the move in a statement at the House of Commons on Monday afternoon saying the scope and length of the inquiry would be unprecedented.
The Prime Minister said the inquiry would begin after July and take around 12 months. It will be headed by Sir John Chilcot, a former Whitehall mandarin, and cover the period between 2001 and 2009.
"Now is the right time to learn the lessons of this conflict," said the Prime Minister.
Mr Brown said all secret documents would be made available but said hearings would be conducted in private with the committee reporting back to the House of Commons and House of Lords.
"No inquiry has ever been conducted over such a long period or in such breadth. We will not set out to apportion blame or find criminal or civil responsibility."
The move will be seen by some as an attempt by the Prime Minister to draw a line under the Iraq war, which has proved so divisive for Labour.
But many on the left of his party are unlikely to be satisfied with anything less than a full public inquiry into how Britain went to war despite questionable evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
Like the Franks Inquiry, which was overseen by privy counsellors, it will hear its evidence behind closed doors.
But Mr Brown, conscious of the accusations of a whitewash when Lord Hutton produced his 2004 report into the death of weapons inspector Dr David Kelly, will argue that the members of the inquiry team will be fully independent.
The remit of the inquiry will cover the build-up to the invasion in March 2003 and its aftermath.
Mr Brown has resisted calls for an inquiry until British troops returned from Iraq. But with almost all British troops out of Basra, there is no bar on the official investigation.
On Sunday night, Mr Brown was warned not to hold the inquiry behind closed doors.
Angus Robertson, the Scottish National Party leader at Westminster, said: "Gordon Brown is on a collision course if he thinks people will accept a secret inquiry."
Making the announcement Mr Brown also paid tribute to soldiers in Iraq.
"A young democracy has replaced a vicious 30-year-old dictatorship. Iraq's future is now in its own hands," he said.
"We can be supremely proud of the way our armed forces carried out their mission. Today we continue to mourn and remember the 179 men and women who gave their lives."
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Tony Blair - War Criminal
http://www.petitiononline.com/BWCF/petition.html | |  | | Cowboy | | Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:42 pm Post subject: |
| | Quote: |
Making the announcement Mr Brown also paid tribute to soldiers in Iraq.
"A young democracy has replaced a vicious 30-year-old dictatorship. Iraq's future is now in its own hands," he said. | | | | | funglefoot | | Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:04 pm Post subject: |
| | Cowboy wrote: | | Quote: | Making the announcement Mr Brown also paid tribute to soldiers in Iraq.
"A young democracy has replaced a vicious 30-year-old dictatorship. Iraq's future is now in its own hands," he said. | |
Well that's alright then. It doesn't matter about the thousands who died and were injured as direct and indirect results of a war that was without question illegal. No WMD, No casus belli, No legality. | | | | funglefoot | | Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:10 pm Post subject: |
| | Quote: | | Like the Franks Inquiry, which was overseen by privy counsellors, it will hear its evidence behind closed doors. |
Obviously there are still many things that the British Government wants to hide, things that the public and those who gave the lives of their children to fight an illegal war, may not know.
Come on Gordon, we are not fools. What is it that you have to hide? | | | | Cowboy | | Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:43 pm Post subject: |
| | Quote: | | Well that's alright then. It doesn't matter about the thousands who died and were injured as direct and indirect results of a war that was without question illegal. No WMD, No casus belli, No legality. |
In the real world, the Iraq was was entirely legal. | | | | Cowboy | | Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:44 pm Post subject: |
| Correction to my post above...
In the real world, the Iraq war was was entirely legal. | | | | funglefoot | | Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:45 pm Post subject: |
| .
No WMD, No casus belli, No legality.
If it was all perfectly legal why would Gordon Brown have the Inquiry held behind closed doors? Our citizens are good enough to raise their sons and daughters to serve their country and to make the ultimate sacrifice but they are not good enough to hear the truth regarding the conduct of the war. | | | | gchq | | Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 10:38 pm Post subject: Iraq inquiry to be private |
| Channel 4 News
IRAQ INQUIRY
So finally there is to be an inquiry into the execution and reconstruction involved in the war on Iraq. It is to be overseen by a former senior Northern Ireland civil servant who knows a thing or two about secrecy - Sir John Chilcot - who also sat on the Butler Committee which investigated the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
It is to hear evidence in private and will not have the power of legal subpoena - specifically the legal power to require people to attend or divulge documents. That last fact seems to be the central criticism of the way the inquiry has been set up, coupled with the secrecy. But the people supervising the inquiry, whilst lacking a certain amount of diversity, have been largely welcomed. Gary Gibbon will be reporting on Mr Brown's announcement.
http://bit.ly/kCEeE
READ GARY GIBBON'S BLOG
http://bit.ly/2loGL0
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Tony Blair - War Criminal
http://www.petitiononline.com/BWCF/petition.html | | | | gchq | | Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 2:34 am Post subject: Blair will be grilled in secret Iraq probe |
| Blair will be grilled in secret Iraq probe
The Sun
16 Jun 2009
TONY Blair is to be grilled in a secret Iraq War inquiry ordered last night by Gordon Brown.
The ex-PM who led Britain into the conflict will be a main witness in the probe.
Military top brass will insist our occupation force was too small, underfunded and poorly equipped. But no one will be forced to give evidence and hearings will be in private — prompting warnings of a whitewash.
Tories pointed out that NO military figures will sit on the panel and no one will be publicly blamed for failures.
Mr Brown told MPs: “No British documents and no British witnesses will be beyond the scope of the inquiry.”
Mr Blair is understood to be happy to give evidence on his role in the run-up to the 2003 invasion.
Tory leader David Cameron vowed not to be bound by the findings if he is PM next July.
He said: “If mistakes were made, we need to know who made them and why.” But Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said people who had already made up their minds on the war could not be satisfied.
He added: “We really need to trust people to go into the details. I believe there are many lessons we need to learn.”
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Tony Blair - War Criminal
http://www.petitiononline.com/BWCF/petition.html | | | | funglefoot | | Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:46 am Post subject: |
| | Quote: | | In the real world, the Iraq war was was entirely legal. |
Iraq had and has no WMD. But it has OIL.
North Korea has the atomic bomb and demonstrated this capability with a recent underground test. But North Korea has no OIL.
Guess who got invaded.
First prize is a six month indoctrination seminar at Cowboy's pad. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
