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Thursday 18 March 2010
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Andrew Rawnsley should have been put in charge of the Iraq inquiry. I've only just started his 800-page book, The End of the Party, but I've already picked up three key facts about Tony Blair's relationship with George Bush that haven't emerged from the Iraq inquiry hearings. Many of the figures interviewed by Rawnsley also gave evidence to Sir John Chilcot and his team. But Rawnsley seems to have asked the more searching questions.
Here are the revelations that struck me.
1. Blair told Bush: "Whatever you decide to do, I'm with you."
The inquiry has heard about the private letters that Blair sent to Bush in 2002. Alastair Campbell told Chilcot that the letters were "very frank" and that the central message was, in Campbell's words: "We share the analysis, we share the concern, we are going to be with you in making sure that Saddam Hussein is faced up to his obligations and that Iraq is disarmed." But the letters have not been published and the precise contents remain a secret.
Rawnsley, though, has published a direct quote from one of the letters. Here's the relevant extract from his book. Continue reading...
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Friday 5 March 2010
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Gordon Brown answers questions at the Iraq inquiry today. Photograph: Press Association
Amazing. It is an old Westminster cliche that Gordon Brown is best when his back is pressed against the wall, a political dagger at his throat. So it has been today during his two public sessions before the Chilcot inquiry panel.
For days now voters have been inundated with stories about Bad Brown, the panicky, self-pitying bully described by Andrew Rawnsley in his new book, The End of the Party. I can recognise that picture. But I also know his alter ego, Good Gordon, the intelligent master of detail, the man whose poll ratings are rising against the odds.
It was Good Gordon whom we all saw on TV today, ducking and weaving to be sure, sidestepping awkward questions, but firm in his views, unwavering in asserting that the cabinet had been right to back the war in 2003 – and that he had never let down the army in the field, let alone undermined the MoD's budget at a time of war. Continue reading...
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Minute-by-minute coverage with Andrew Sparrow as prime minister gives evidence to investigation into Iraq war
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Monday 8 February 2010
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Jack Straw giving evidence to the Chilcot Iraq war inquiry last month. Photograph: EPA
Live coverage as the justice secretary returns to give evidence to the Chilcot panel for a second time
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Wednesday 3 February 2010
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This may be an eccentric view, but I am increasingly fascinated by the parallels I detect between two controversies currently dominating the news pages of the Guardian: Sir John Chilcot's Iraq war inquiry and "Glaciergate".
In the one case you have Tony Blair, George Bush and others accused of rigging the intelligence on WMD to justify a costly invasion of Iraq that has resulted in many deaths, injuries and damage – and cost a great deal of money that could have been put to better purposes.
Their case has been dissected and will be found wanting by the inquiry's eventual verdict, though not sufficiently to justify the bloodlust of their principal detractors – whose own case is full of holes too. I have yet to read a wholly persuasive article on the subject, including my own.
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John Rentoul's campaign to defend Tony Blair's reputation doesn't seem to be going to well. According to a ComRes poll out today, 37% of voters think he should be put on trial for going to war with Iraq.
At first glance this suggests that Blair's evidence to the Chilcot inquiry did not make a particularly good impression. ComRes conducted most of their fieldwork over the weekend, after Blair's appearance at the inquiry. Last month, when a polling organisation last asked a question about Blair being put on trial, only 23% of respondents said that Blair should be tried as a war criminal. But the questions were framed differently and a direct comparison isn't fair. In January YouGov offered the "war crimes" option as one of five alternative answers to a question. ComRes just asked respondents to agree or disagree with the proposition that Blair should be "put on trial for going to war with Iraq". Some 57% disagreed, 37% agreed and 5% did not know.
As the Independent points out in its write-up of the poll today, the ComRes findings also suggest that Gordon Brown is not going to have much luck blaming it all on Blair. The poll also says that 60% of voters think Brown should share responsibility with Blair for the decision to go to war.
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Tuesday 2 February 2010
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Clare Short, who is giving evidence for three hours today. Photograph: Murdo Macleod
Follow the action as the former international development secretary gives evidence to the Chilcot panel
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Friday 29 January 2010
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There seems to be a lot of zeal in the atmosphere this week. Not just over Tony Blair's appearance before the Chilcot inquiry today, but Scott Roeder, that righteous born-again Christian doctor-killer in Kansas and, of course, the case of Dr Andrew Wakefield, the MMR rese Continue reading...
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Minute-by-minute coverage of the former prime minister's testimony live from 9.30am
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Wednesday 27 January 2010
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Lord Goldsmith, who in In 2003 wrote a nine-paragraph legal opinion, claiming the invasion of Iraq was legal. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP
Follow the action as the former attorney general gave evidence to the Chilcot panel
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Tuesday 26 January 2010
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Iraqi police officers at a checkpoint in central Baghdad, Iraq Photograph: Karim Kadim/AP
As the tumbrels and the bounty hunters converge on the Chilcot inquiry for Friday's climactic appearance by Tony Blair it may be worth a backward glance at what's going on in Iraq nearly seven years after the fateful US-UK invasion.
Not much of a backward glance is needed.
Today's papers are full of chilling details of the series of bombs that exploded around Baghdad, killing dozens of people and injuring more than 80 around hotels used by Iraqi elites and foreigners – including US and British media – in the city centre.
Some speculation suggests they were detonated to mark the belated execution of Ali Hassan al-Majid, the butcher of Halabja in 1988 – though few are likely to mourn Chemical Ali, whose brutality did his own Ba'ath-Sunni cause immense harm. Continue reading...
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Follow the live action as the inquiry heard evidence from three witnesses who gave the government legal advice in the run-up to the war
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Monday 25 January 2010
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Live coverage as two former defence secretaries appear before Sir John Chilcot's panel
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Thursday 21 January 2010
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Jack Straw, who was foreign secretary between 2001 and 2006. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Follow the action as the former foreign secretary - and current justice secretary - becomes the first serving cabinet minister to give evidence to the Chilcot panel
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Tuesday 19 January 2010
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Geoff Hoon, who was defence secretary between 1999 and 2005. Photograph: Martin Argles
Full coverage as the former defence secretary gives evidence to Sir John Chilcot's panel
Continue reading...
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