A five-person panel today began its independent probe of the United Kingdom's entry into the Iraq war and its conduct over the nearly seven years of the conflict, the New York Times reported (see GSN, Sept. 4, 2008).
(Nov. 24) -
Protesters in the guises of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (left), former U.S. President George W. Bush (center) and current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown congregate in London today outside the inquiry on the United Kingdom's participation in the war in Iraq (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images).
“We want to establish a clear understanding of the various core elements of the U.K.’s involvement in Iraq, and how these developed over time,” inquiry chief John Chilcot said as he opened the first hearing. “What we are committed to, and what the British general public can expect from us, is a guarantee to be thorough, impartial, objective and fair.”
The administration of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair provided 45,000 troops for the 2003 invasion, a force second in size only to that of the United States. The war was unpopular in the United Kingdom and across Europe, and played a role in Blair's exit from office in 2007. All British military personnel left the country earlier this year.
Washington and London made their case for the invasion largely on the threat of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. No active WMD programs or operational stockpiles were discovered after the overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
U.S. officials were discussing regime change in Iraq by February 2001, just weeks after President George W. Bush took office, according to one British official.
“We were aware of these drum beats from Washington and internally we discussed it. Our policy was to stay away from that," William Patey, who at the time led the Middle East Department at the British Foreign Office, told the panel.
“We didn’t think Saddam Hussein was a good thing, and it would be great if he went, but we didn’t have an explicit policy for trying to get rid of him,” he said.
The United Kingdom has already conducted two examinations of the war, which have been widely seen as soft on the Blair government, according to the Times. The former prime minister and other top officials from his administration are expected to testify in the 18-month probe (Burns/Cowell, New York Times, Nov. 24).
Among the first expected to be called are former MI6 foreign intelligence agency chief John Scarlett, former Ambassador to the United States Christopher Meyer and former Ambassador to the United Nations Jeremy Greenstock, Agence France-Presse reported.
The committee intends to study the means by which British leaders concluded that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix is expected to appear before the panel.
"I am quite confident that we can come up with a full and insightful description of the different considerations affecting the legality of the war," Chilcot said in an interview with the Press Association (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Nov. 23)..