The long-awaited Chilcot report on the Iraq War still has no publication date, despite the inquiry taking six years so far, and costing almost £10m. It’s hard for all the families, we really just want it over and done with. It is totally unacceptable that the families of those who died have had to wait for answers as to why and how the UK was led into war.
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Ms Gentle became a high-profile campaigner following the death of Gordon, of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, in a roadside bomb blast in Basra.
Matthew Jury of McCue and Partners solicitors, which is representing the families, told the paper: “Not only did our clients suffer when their loved ones perished but this suffering has been compounded by the fact that they do not know why they were deployed to Iraq and for what, ultimately, they died”.
“I think what Sir John has to bear in mind now is that we want closure on this, it has to be done fair, it has to be done right”.
Who can forget then US secretary of state Colin Powell, with a PowerPoint presentation and holding up a phial of a liquid, teaching the world about mobile laboratories and shells ready to be filled and delivered by very long-range artillery shells?
The delay is linked to a process in which individuals such as former prime minister Tony Blair, who led Britain into the conflict, are given the chance to respond to criticism of them in the report.
While, the Prime Minister called for a timetable for publication to be set out as soon as possible, Whitehall sources do not expect this to happen before Parliament returns in September.
He criticised Sir John for failing to grasp the gravity of the war and insisted that there is no legal requirement for the inquiry to go through the Maxwellisation process.
Sir John insisted last month that his inquiry – launched in 2009 – was making “significant progress”, although he could not set a date for the publication of his findings.
But lawyers for the families claim Sir John, 76, has breached the inquiry’s own protocols by not setting an end date.
In February, Chilcot told a parliamentary committee he could not say when the report will be completed because of its complexity and the need to obtain responses from people criticized in the report.
He added: “I think he’s let us down”.
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The former Labour MP said: “I have always understood their frustration and obviously my frustration simply as a witness and a major decision-maker are tiny compared to those of the bereaved families”.
