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The key witnesses: Blair and MI6 chiefs face grilling
24 Nov 2009Tony Blair
Former Prime Minister
Critics claim Mr Blair dissembled in the run-up to the war, from claiming that "everyone" believed WMDs existed to implying that Saddam Hussein could attack in 45 minutes.
Mr Blair has always insisted he never misled Parliament, and the Lord Hutton inquiry cleared him over the September 2002 dossier.
However, the Butler inquiry report highlighted that when Mr Blair was asked by Foreign Affairs committee chairman Donald Anderson in July 2002 if Britain was preparing for military action, he said "no" - but detailed planning was under way.
Sir John Scarlett
Former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and former director general of MI6
A former MI6 station chief in Moscow, Scarlett made his public debut at the Hutton inquiry. He said that, though Mr Blair's spin chief Alastair Campbell made suggestions, final decisions on the content of the September 2002 dossier rested with him.
Lord Butler said "the language in the dossier may have left with readers the impression that there was fuller and firmer intelligence... than was the case".
Sir Richard Dearlove
Former head of MI6
Dearlove gave evidence by videolink in the Hutton inquiry to protect his identity, but backed Mr Blair and Sir John Scarlett to the hilt.
One "Downing Street memo" shows that, in July 2002, Dearlove reported that, at a meeting in Washington: "Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." The Butler inquiry also found that there were major flaws in the way that MI6 "validated" its sources within Iraq.
Sir John Sawers
Former Private Secretary to Tony Blair. Now new 'C' at MI6
Sawers has never given evidence on the issue of Iraq before. He would have played a key role in giving advice to Mr Blair and is thought to have been involved in big decisions.
Sir Christopher Meyer
Former British ambassador to Washington until 2003
On 18 March 2002, he wrote a letter to David Manning, Tony Blair's chief foreign policy adviser, detailing a discussion with Paul Wolfowitz, then the US deputy secretary of defence, about regime change in Iraq.
The letter, which has been leaked, referred to "the need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors".
Sir Peter Ricketts
Former political director of the Foreign Office
Leaked documents show that on 22 March 2002, Ricketts wrote to foreign secretary Jack Straw, saying Iraq had not advanced its WMDs programme.
