The long-awaited Chilcot report into the Iraq war will spread criticism of senior figures wider than previously thought, a newspaper has been told.
Advertisement
With the agreement of Parliament, we were asked to conduct our work within the established tradition of independent Inquiries and to determine our own procedure.
The delay has been a growing source of frustration for families of British soldiers who died, as well as Prime Minister David Cameron, who has demanded a timetable for publication “pretty soon”.
He says that while he understands relatives’ anguish, “it is critically important that the report should be fair to all who participated in the conflict and to those who bore the responsibility of taking decisions”.
He also claimed that letting those who were due to be criticised in the Chilcot report see details before publication – so-called Maxwellisation – was a “very bad idea”.
It had been assumed that Sir John would concentrate on Mr Blair and his closest advisers in Downing Street.
In a rare public statement on the progress of his inquiry, Sir John indicated he expected the last elements he needs to complete the report “shortly”.
Also likely to be criticized are former worldwide Development Secretary Clare Short and a number of other senior officials from the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Cabinet Office and the Foreign Office.
He added: “If the outcome of this inquiry is that hundreds of thousands of us did occupy Iraq illegally, I will personally send Tony Blair my Iraq medal”.
Over the past few weeks Chilcot has been under pressure to publish the report soon.
In the statement, the inquiry chairman confirmed he had received a letter from lawyers representing a group of bereaved families, and that his team had “responded to the points raised”.
I don’t intend to comment on the substance of that response and such letters are not normally published. The inquiry began about six years ago.
Importantly, when witnesses agreed to give evidence to the inquiry, they did so on the basis of the inquiry’s witness protocol, which says that: “If the inquiry expects to criticise an individual in the final report, that individual will, in accordance with normal practice, be provided with relevant sections of the draft report in order to make any representations on the proposed criticism prior to publication of the final report”.
It has already been suggested that Sir Nicholas Houghton, Chief of the Defence Staff, who served in a position of authority in Iraq following the invasion, from 2005 to 2009, will face criticism in Sir John’s report.
Advertisement
‘Individuals have not been given an open-ended timescale and Maxwellisation is not a process of negotiation.
