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Tuesday 20 July 2010
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File picture of Eliza Manningham-Buller, who was director general of MI5 between 2002 and 2007 Photograph: Home Office/PA
Rolliing coverage as the former director general of MI5 gives evidence to the Chilcot panel
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Wednesday 14 July 2010
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George Bush and Tony Blair in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002, a few months before Peter Mandelson raised concerns about Iraq. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP
It has been an open secret for years that virtually nobody in Downing Street thought Tony Blair was wise to align himself so closely with George Bush over the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Now we know quite how isolated the former prime minister was at the time: even his closest political ally voiced serious doubts in private.
In his memoirs Peter Mandelson reveals that he repeatedly challenged Blair on Iraq. His interventions prompted the former prime ministrer to accuse his friend of spending too much time with the anti-war MP George Galloway:
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Monday 12 July 2010
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Carne Ross, a former British diplomat at the UN, who is appearing at the Iraq inquiry today. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
Read what happened when Carne Ross, a Foreign Office 'whistleblower' who resigned after speaking out about the war, gave evidence to the Chilcot panel
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Wednesday 30 June 2010
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British helicopters fly over Basra, southern Iraq, in April 2003. Photograph: Reuters
Andrew Sparrow with live coverage from the Chilcot inquiry as Lord Jay, Iain MacLeod and Cathy Adams give evidence
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Friday 28 May 2010
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British airmen conduct a dawn airborne counter insurgency patrol in Basra, Iraq, last year. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Should the military be wasting its time squabbling over whether or not to circulate, let alone publish, an internal ministry of defence review of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as Richard Norton-Taylor reports in today's Guardian? Probably not.
It is not as if the world does not know that everything except the brief ground war that toppled Saddam Hussein was pretty shambolic. The Chilcot inquiry, one of a near-perpetual series, is currently recrossing the scarred and muddy terrain like soldiers on the Western Front.
So Lieutenant General Chris Brown's reportedly scathing analysis of the failure both adequately to prepare for the invasion and to manage the occupation will doubtless embarrass military and civilian planners, but is unlikely to change the way the war is generally seen: as a costly military and diplomatic failure.
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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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Thursday 28 January 2010
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As the Chilcot inquiry edges towards its climactic session with Tony Blair, the search for the smoking gun that will establish war guilt beyond dispute seems to move from room to room. It is always close to discovery, never quite found.
So it will probably prove again tomorrow, changing few minds in the process. For some people bringing Blair – the "war criminal" and "Bush's poodle" to account – is the overriding issue of the moment. Continue reading...
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