With the leakage of the memos, however, public pressure on Chilcot asking him to investigate the truth behind Blair’s support to the US has increased.
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“He is convinced on two points: the threat is real; and success against Saddam will yield more regional success”, Powell said, referring to then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who was eventually ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion.
“On Iraq, Blair will be with us should military operations be necessary, ‘ former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell wrote”.
The memo was a briefing note ahead of a 2002 summit between Bush and Blair at the president’s ranch in Crawford, Texas and was contained in a batch of emails on Hilary Clinton’s private server which USA courts told her to reveal.
“Blair knows he may have to pay a political price for supporting us on Iraq, and wants to minimise it”.
In reference to the so-called war on terror, Mr Powell goes on to praise what he sees as Blair’s impressive public relations skills.
A sizeable number of his [Blair’s] MPs remain at present opposed to military action against Iraq …
Blair had previously denied rushing to the war, while his office claimed that there was nothing new about the allegations, noting that whatever was leaked was “consistent” with what Blair had publicly spoken about during his reign and the evidence he produced at the Chilcot inquiry. The Chilcot inquiry clearly did not have access to official American documents; but it does suggest that its long overdue conclusions risk leaving many questions unanswered because it might not have been able to get a clear picture of the pre-invasion communications between the White House and Downing Street.Mr Bush was told that the UK Prime Minister “will be with us”.
The United Kingdom joined a US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 despite failing to secure a second UN resolution justifying the use of force.
Alex Salmond, the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman, said “the net was now closing” around Mr Blair and added to his concern over the thoroughness of the inquiry.
“The inquiry was demanded because people wanted answers, yet six years and £10 million later we still have nothing – and the evidence against Blair is piling up”.
“The illegal invasion of Iraq has been unequivocally proven as a fraud and a massive deception by Tony Blair and the then UK Labour government”, he said as quoted by the Mail. The result was a front-page lead story, published on 27 July 2002, reporting that the prime minister had committed to backing a war despite public statements in Britain to the contrary.
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Last month, Chilcot said he would consult with Prime Minister David Cameron in order to set a timetable for publication.
