Things were better under Saddam

On 24 May 2013, Lord David Owen, the former Foreign Secretary, denounced the delay in publishing the findings of the Chilcot Enquiry at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival, saying:

“Ten years after the start of the Iraq war we are still waiting for the Iraq Inquiry report chaired by Sir John Chilcot. Almost beyond belief the Inquiry is being prevented from revealing extracts that they believe relevant from exchanges between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair…

Publication of the Bush extracts would not be blocked if Tony Blair had not objected, nor if that objection had not been supported by the present Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Both men are hiding behind conventions that are totally inappropriate given the nature of the Inquiry… No 10 reveals that they are in constant contact on many issues with Tony Blair and Blair’s own people confirm this.

Not for nothing does Cameron see himself still as the ‘heir to Blair’. It is hard to escape the conclusion that No 10 hopes to incorporate and win the neutrality or possibly tacit support of Blair by the General Election…

Reading the Inquiry evidence both Chilcot and Sir Roderic Lyne, the most persistent questioner on the Inquiry Panel, have focused on the veracity of the words Blair wrote in the Foreword to the Dossier presented before the crucial debate in Parliament, namely, ‘What I believe the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt is that Saddam has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons, that he continues in his efforts to develop nuclear weapons and that he has been able to extend the range of his ballistic missile programme’… 

Clarifying whether Parliament was lied to will be a test of nerve for the Chilcot Report… What the members of the Inquiry must do is to assess the Prime Minister’s actual words against the ‘assessed intelligence’. To avoid that issue would be a whitewash… 

Public disillusionment is such now about politics that many believe politics is the art of lying. If lies are allowed to become the currency of political debate on the floor of the House of Commons then our democracy is gravely endangered. Truth is built on facts.”

In his Haye-on-Wye statement, Owen also said:

“The Panorama programme left me with a deep apprehension about an ongoing Whitehall whitewash over Iraq led from No 10.”

The programme can be seen here: The Spies who fooled the world 

On 7 June 2013, Frederick Forsyth, best-selling author of ‘The Day of the Jackal’ and ‘The Odessa File,’ said this in his Daily Express essay, ‘Cover-up protects a lying, guilty man’:

“It seems like ancient history but it was only four years ago that Sir John Chilcot was tasked to inquire yet again into the origins of our disastrous invasion of Iraq in March 2003… Sir John retired from view to consider his evidence, along with a series of documents which never appeared at the inquiry ... 

You can usually tell when politicians are fibbing partly because their mouths move but especially when they give not one reason but one after another, all different, as their original reasons are proved false. Thus Saddam first had WMDs (well, we thought he did), then he was fostering Islamic jihadism (no, he crushed it in Iraq) then he was very cruel (what about the others worldwide? Do we invade them all?) Anyway, from Sir John comes continued silence. Still not ready… 

A tragic 179 young soldiers died in Iraq. Billions were wasted, the equipment was rubbish. Millions in the UK are convinced it was all a stitch-up to curry favour with the now discredited George Bush.

If that is so Tony Blair either lied to Parliament or deliberately misled it...

Meanwhile in Iraq, devastated by bombs as Sunni wage war on rival Shia, racked by conflict and terror, a majority now claim that, cruel brute though he was, THINGS WERE BETTER UNDER SADDAM. At least you could go shopping without a bomb blowing your family to pieces.

And so back here the cover-up just goes on and on. And all to save one rogue's reputation.”

For a summary of the build up to the war, the movers and shakers who made it happen, and its aftermath, go here: BLAIR WARS