Rose writes: “It seems to me that in applying the “Maxwellisation Process” so zealously Sir John has disproportionately represented the interests of senior politicians, senior civil servants and senior members of the Armed Forces rather than those of family members who, in my view, have a clear and vastly superior right to know why and for what their loved ones died”.
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Delays are thought to have been caused because of a bid from some to stop the publication of conversations between Mr Blair and the US president at the time, George W Bush.
Mr Keys also criticised inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot for not understanding the feelings of the bereaved.
“They describe it to me as a black cloud hanging over their heads and the only way to disperse that cloud, for them to get some degree of closure, is for this report to be published and for them to finally know the truth”.
Officials have pushed back publication of the Chilcot Inquiry for six years.
“Iraq bubbles up in the headlines over the years and it’s like an open wound continually prodded”, he added on BBC radio. “The delay in the publication of the inquiry into the war in Iraq is fast becoming a national disgrace”, said Alex Salmond, spokesperson on foreign affairs for the Scottish Nationalist Party.
“The Franks Inquiry into the Falklands War was announced on 6 July 1982 and published on 18 Jan 1983 – a little over 6 months”.
The SNP has today backed families of UK service personnel killed in Iraq in demanding no further delays in the publication of the Chilcot report into the invasion. If this is not forthcoming the families say they will take their case to the High Court to have a date set.
“The Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking chaired by a judge with a strict timetable imposed from the beginning should be the model adopted from now on”.
The frustration of families was echoed by political and military figures yesterday. Instead, it endures whilst the inquiry is ongoing.
“There are processes that have to be followed and I am certain they are being done to the letter”. This is an independent process.
The families were given the support of another would-be Labour leader, Liz Kendall.
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Earlier delays to publishing the report include disagreements over which font to use, running out of toner just after Rymans had closed for the bank holiday weekend, and the discovery that the final report was too thick to staple, “even with one of those really big staplers”. People need to see the results of the inquiry.
