Probe reveals lead-up to Iraq war
PakistanPal
LONDON (AFP) - The first full-scale inquiry into Britain's role in the
Iraq war opened Tuesday with testimony suggesting Washington was
gearing up for possible conflict two years before Tony Blair led
London to war.
A protestor wearing a Tony Blair mask covers his hands with fake blood
as he demonstrates outside the venue for the public inquiry into the
Iraq war. The first full-scale inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq
war has opened with families of soldiers killed in combat desperate to
hear Tony Blair justify the decision to join the US-led invasion.
More than six years after the US-led invasion, inquiry chairman John
Chilcot said no-one was "on trial" in the year-long probe but promised
not to shy away from criticism as he seeks to learn lessons from the
conflict.
Chilcot profile
The highlight of the public inquiry will be an appearance by then
prime minister Blair , who is due to give evidence in January.
The first day of hearings was dominated by testimony from top civil
servants who told how some in the US administration were already
considering toppling Saddam Hussein 's Iraqi regime two years before
the 2003 invasion.
However, they said Britain distanced itself from these "voices" and
said they remained sidelined even within the United States until after
the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington.
"No-one is on trial here. We cannot determine guilt or innocence. Only
a court can do that," Chilcot said in his opening remarks .
"But I make a commitment here that once we get to our final report, we
will not shy away from making criticisms, either of institutions or
processes or individuals, where they are truly warranted."
Chilcot's five-member inquiry committee has already met with families
of the 179 British troops who died in Iraq, some of whom attended
Tuesday's session.
"I just want the truth," Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon died in Iraq in
2004, told AFP afterwards, adding: "I've never had any answers. I've
never been told anything. Why we went in, whether it was legal."
Timeline: Britain's role in Iraq
Gentle, who wears a picture of her son in a gold heart around her
neck, said she would return when Blair gives evidence. "If mistakes
were made, he's the one that's got to live with it," she said.
A small group of protesters gathered outside the inquiry venue in
central London, wearing masks of Blair, former US president George W.
Bush and current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and with fake
blood on their hands.
Anti-war campaigners want a ruling on the legality of the conflict,
which took place without explicit approval from the UN Security
Council.
Inside, there seemed to be little public interest. In contrast to the
one million people who marched against the invasion on one day in 2003
-- only about half of the seats in the public gallery were filled.
They heard senior civil servants outline how Iraq was considered a
threat in 2001 because of a "clear impression" that it intended to
"acquire WMD (weapons of mass destruction) capability."
Iraq's suspected possession of such weapons was the main justification
for the invasion in March 2003, but they were never found.
The officials described "voices" in Washington talking about deposing
Hussein as early as 2001, but insisted US and British policy was
focused on containing the Iraqi leader's ambitions through sanctions
and a no-fly zone.
William Patey, head of the Middle East department at the Foreign
Office in 2001, said he ordered a memo in late 2001 detailing "all the
options" for Iraq. It included regime change, but he said this was
quickly dismissed.
He added: "We were aware of these drum beats from Washington and
internally we discussed it. Our policy was to stay away from that end
of the spectrum."
Peter Ricketts, who chaired Britain's top intelligence committee in
2000-2001, said: "I was certainly not aware of anyone in the British
government promoting or supporting active measures for regime change."
Thinking in Washington shifted after the September 11 attacks, said
Simon Webb, then policy director at the Ministry of Defence, "to say
that we cannot afford to wait for these threats to materialise."
Britain also changed the way it viewed WMD proliferation and counter-
terrorism but Ricketts said: "We still had our focus on the weapons
inspector route and the sanctions-type route."
The inquiry, the third official probe into the war, is looking at all
elements of British involvement in Iraq between 2001 and 2009 when
nearly all its troops withdrew.
Article Source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091124/wl_uk_afp/britainiraqmilitaryinquirypolitics