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Chilcot Iraq War Inquiry Team Quizzes US Officials in Secret
Senior American officials and military officers are being quizzed in secret by the official inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war.
Suggestions that Tony Blair (pictured here) secretly agreed with President Bush to join the war more than a year before the invasion are likely to be one of the key areas of interest to the inquiry. (AFP/POOL/File/Dominic Lipinski) Sir John Chilcot's committee is spending five days in Washington and Boston interviewing members of the administrations of President Bush and President Obama.
Suggestions that Tony Blair secretly agreed with President Bush to join the war more than a year before the invasion are likely to be one of the key areas of interest to the inquiry.
Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to Washington, has told the inquiry that the Prime Minister "signed in blood" a deal to overthrow Saddam Hussein during a private meeting at the President's ranch in Texas.
Some senior military officers have told the inquiry that their American counterparts were convinced British forces would join the war while politicians in London were still publicly insisting that no decision had been reached.
An inquiry spokesman said: "As the talks are being held on a private basis, the identities of the people the Inquiry committee are seeing and the location of meetings will not be revealed in advance.
"Subject to the agreement of participants, the Inquiry may provide more details about the trip after it has been completed. If the committee wishes to use any of the information it receives from individuals in America in its report, it will seek their permission first."
The inquiry team has said that no transcripts of the evidence will be made public.
The Chilcot committee travelled to Paris earlier this month, where it is believed to have attempted to clarify if France would have supported United Nations involvement in toppling Saddam.
Mr Blair told the inquiry that Britain had to go to war without a second United Nations resolution authorising the action because France had made it "vehemently" clear that it would never support such a move.
Witnesses questioned by the inquiry included Dominique de Villepin, the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs; Jean-David Levitte, the French Permanent Representative to the UN from 2000 to 2002 and then Ambassador to the US from 2002 to 2007; and Gérard Errera, the French Ambassador to London from 2002 to 2007.
The committee has also interviewed Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, the senior diplomatic counsellor to the President between 2002 and 2007, and currently the French Ambassador to the UK.
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10 Comments so far
Show AllThe Chilcot enquiry has so far been bulldog with rubber teeth. They failed to achieve anything useful in public. We won't even know what they fail to do in secret. What a waste of everyone's time and my tax money!
-If the committee wishes to use any of the information it receives from individuals in America in its report, it will seek their permission first."
right...ask the US if Bush and the Poodle made a pact with the devil. If they say "yes" you still can't tell anyone without their permission. Uh, huh.
file this committee under "useless"
Don't worry , none of our present or past lawmakers
are going to get embarrassed or jailed.
John Conyers.............YOU ARE A DANGEROUS MAN...
JUST LIKE BUSH......MAYBE A BIGGER LIAR !!!!!!!!!!!!
Serial killer person, may we use your confession and DNA evidence against you in a court of law.
Serial killer: No.
Committee: You are free to go.
Neither the US nor Britain will ever be trusted until these war criminals are brought to justice.
“Mr Blair told the inquiry that Britain had to go to war without a second United Nations resolution authorising the action because France had made it "vehemently" clear that it would never support such a move…….”
Because: such a move is illegal under international law, constituting an act of war of aggression, and no previous or later resolution of the UN Security Council will make it otherwise. There is under the UN charter no legitimization of UNSC permanent members leading an illegal war of aggression defying the sovereignty of a nation without “EXPLICIT” authority of that body. Forced regime change is not the prerogative of any country let alone one that is supposed to uphold the charter of the UN within the most empowered body thereof, namely the UNSC.
Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush are as much war criminals as any one hung at the Nierenberg trials for perpetrating a war of aggression. The Chilcot inquiry is a whitewashing farce, the result of which is already a foregone conclusion.
"Sorcerers of death construction" Black Sabbath
Bring America Back !!!!
****I sure hope the Frenchies tell the truth because
the Brits and the US Neocons are confirmed liars, and
are Guilty of major war crimes.
****Also, it is wished the results of this investigation
be provided to an International Tribunal for War Crimes.\,
and to the International Legal Assembly.
nowing the intent of the chilcot inquiry as was presented here by some of the respondents, which is a white wash, one shouldn't realy care one way or another. the brits already have pass their verdict: blair and his party and its parliament members are all guilty. they hove done so brilliantly by denying them a working majority in parliament during the last election. and that should be enough punishment if these poeple have any pride in themselves or in their country. whether the brits or their representatives have learned this lesson is another matter. there was another similar lesson that they should have learned but didn't. and that was the suez canal war in which sir eden and the tories were also defeated in a similar election.
It wasn't only France that wanted to have more inspections but China and Russia and many in Congress and others of course... so the committee wIll use France's caution as "Reasonable Doubt" of War crimes and pretend that China and Russia and the others don't count on the Security Council of the UN.
Secrecy is method to war and its coverup.
Truth is the only Way.