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Britons 'will never know full extent of Iraq war blunders'
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor19.03.09
THE PUBLIC have not been told a fraction of the blunders and misjudgments that led Britain to go to war with Iraq, senior former government experts said today.
Carne Ross, Britain's former Iraq expert at the Foreign Office, told MPs there was a wealth of secret documents and expert testimony which revealed how the Government got it wrong on the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
In dramatic videolink evidence to the Commons public administration committee, Mr Ross said that it was "disgraceful" that ministers were still refusing to hold a full inquiry into the run-up to the conflict.
He said he had personally told ministers that a much tougher sanctions regime was a viable alternative to war, but his concerns got "lost" in the Whitehall system. Mr Ross said that Britain was more concerned about keeping allies Turkey and Jordan on side than implementing an oil embargo that would have had more impact on Baghdad.
Dr Brian Jones, former head of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons analysis in the Ministry of Defence, also lambasted MPs for failing to carry out their own independent inquiry into the war.
Mr Ross, who gave his evidence live from New York, was the Foreign Office's Iraq specialist at the United Nations for four years before the war. He quit in protest after the conflict began.
Today, he said that Gordon Brown's refusal to hold an inquiry until after British troops are brought home should not prevent Parliament holding its own investigation.
"There are many other people involved who have yet to tell their story and yet to have been questioned by you or Parliament or anyone else," he told the MPs. "There are many documents to come to light, for example the intelligence assessments from the Joint Intelligence Committee in the run-up to war that should be scrutinised and should be made available publicly and should be released now that the war is long over."
Mr Ross said that the Government should stop claiming that the Iraq war had been fully covered by the Hutton Inquiry, the Butler Review and two other inquiries. "There should be a full public inquiry, a Parliamentary inquiry, into the decision-making that took place. Hutton and Butler are by no means sufficient for that purpose and it's disgraceful that the Government pretends that they are."
Dr Jones, who was the star witness of the Hutton Inquiry, said he was surprised MPs themselves had failed to criticise the infamous dossier on Saddam's non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
Another witness, Katharine Gun, a former GCHQ worker who leaked a US memo before the war, said that she had no choice but to break the Official Secrets Act, given the speed the Americans were pushing for an invasion.
Ms Gun revealed that GCHQ was used to using "dirty tricks" to monitor the trade of other countries, but couldn't accept them when it came to "matters of life and death".
Reader views (7)
There should be investigation on these wars Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of the peoples in the world were against these aimless and no result war.Where is WMD??
Where is Iraq destruction and construction budget which was in billion of $?? There was only destruction looting and genocide in Iraq and Afghan. Financial crunch is due to this reason, life will be more miserable in future.
- M A Sular, London
History is full of instances where nations have done the right thing for the wrong reasons. The current middle-east involvement is such a case, I believe.
OK, whoopee - lotsa people vehemently disagree with me and will demand I should shut up, or some such thing. My opinion though, is not based upon gut instinct and rationalization, but in reading about the area, the peoples, the politics and the history. I may even be wrong (at least I can say that and mean it, unlike some), but until I see some sensible counter-arguments I'm going to continue thinking rationally rather than emotively; I'm going to keep reading and observing - as others who choose to express opinions should also be doing.
- Rogan, Irving
Er, 'a fraction of the blunders and misjudgments'? How about, quite simply, the blatant LIES by bliar and his very dodgy dossier?
- Ralph, GB
Blair produced a crock of poo.
Brown was so desparate to assume power, he accepted this crock gladly. So, a deaf, dumb and blind Brown is really nothing new.
Poor old England.
- Hilary, Germany
Anything Blair or latest muppet says is mainly lies so as for WMD ever being found forget it our PMs simply do whatever the US tell them to do
- Mike, London England
Maybe not, but judging by this government's level of incompetence in every other matter, we've got a fair idea!
- Marianne, SW France
Last time I checked, the war in Iraq was won.
- Trunk, US
