Chilcot, British Iraq War Inquiry

Playing politics, but if that's what's needed, weeding through the testimony and reports to read between the lines, to get as much of the truth out then so be it!

Recall Brown To Iraq Inquiry

Fox wants Brown recalled

March 08, 2010 Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox has written to the Iraq Inquiry asking Sir John Chilcot to recall Gordon Brown.

Dr Fox said: "Today I have written to Sir John Chilcot to ask that Gordon Brown is recalled to the inquiry to clarify his evidence.

"There have been so many other witnesses whose evidence directly contradicted his, concluding with Bill Jeffrey today, that there is a clear case for questioning Gordon Brown again."

In the letter, the shadow defence secretary acknowledged that Sir John would not want the inquiry to be "involved in party politics" but said it was "important to get the truth in this matter". >>>>>

Iraq inquiry hears MoD and Treasury fought over cost of war

8 March 2010 Top official Sir Bill Jeffrey says spending of defence programme 'has exceeded our ability to pay for it'

Sir Bill Jeffrey, the MoD permanent under-secretary. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

The armed forces went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan with "an outdated stock of armoured vehicles", the top official at the Ministry of Defence has told the Chilcot inquiry.

Echoing the evidence of other senior defence officials, Sir Bill Jeffrey said there had been "a serious dispute" between the Treasury under Gordon Brown and the MoD in 2004 about spending. The Treasury had blocked MoD attempts to use Whitehall accounting and efficiency measures to spend more on new equipment.

"That undoubtedly left the department with a significant problem because the estimated cost of the programme exceeded the budget," said Jeffrey, the MoD's permanent secretary. >>>>>

Gordon Brown to blame for Forces funding cuts, Iraq inquiry is told

March 9, 2010 The Armed Forces had to make cuts every year while troops were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan because Gordon Brown did not provide sufficient funding, the military’s top civil servant said yesterday.

Sir Bill Jeffrey told the Iraq inquiry that the military had been left with “significant” financial problems when Mr Brown ordered cuts six months after the start of the campaign.

The comments came three days after the Prime Minister told the inquiry that as Chancellor he had never turned down any request to buy military equipment for the campaign in Iraq. Sir Bill, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence since November 2005, said however that ministers were forced to seek “cuts” because the defence budget was not sufficient to meet increases in costs. >>>>>

Innocent in Iraq, insists Gordon Brown

March 09, 2010 Some years ago, while idly browsing in a bookshop, I came across the autobiography of American actress Shirley MacLaine. MacLaine, it turns out, had an affair with the famously monosyllabic star Robert Mitchum, and joked in her book that she made a point of asking him the time whenever they were together, just so she could “get a straight answer.”

I was reminded of this last week while watching the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry on the Iraq war. At one point during his testimony the audience laughed out loud as panel member Sir Roderic Lyne repeatedly failed to illicit a straight answer as to whether Brown had been aware that his predecessor, Tony Blair, made an early commitment to offer US President George W. Bush military support to oust Saddam Hussein. In the end, Lyne gave up.

The exchange sums up the futility of the Iraq inquiry, established to examine the decision to go to war and failures in postwar planning. The inquiry panel’s overly deferential approach to witnesses and long-winded questions that are rarely properly answered have become a national joke. >>>>>