Jocelyn Cockburn acts for families of soldiers killed in Iraq
11 March 2010
Who?Jocelyn Cockburn, 40-year-old civil liberties partner at London firm Hodge Jones & Allen.
Why is she in the news? Acting for several families of soldiers who were killed in poorly armoured Snatch Land Rovers during the Iraq war. Cockburn wrote to Sir John Chilcot, who is chairing an inquiry into the Iraq war, asking him to examine whether the government placed soldiers’ lives at risk by not providing adequate funding for more heavily armoured vehicles. She asked for specific questions to be put to the prime minister about requests for funding made to him as chancellor of the exchequer in the period to 2006. Gordon Brown told the inquiry last week that money had been made available at every point when requests were made for new equipment.
Snip
Although he again refused to set up an inquiry, he did suggest that the families “urge” the Chilcot inquiry to investigate the matter.’ >>>>>
What the military chiefs said about Gordon Brown
11 Mar 2010 Gordon Brown hit back at former military chiefs who accused him of starving the armed forces of funds when he was Chancellor.
Mr Brown gave evidence last Friday at the Chilcot Inquiry into the war in Iraq, where he insisted he had always provided military commanders with the equipment they requested. The following day he made a visit to Afghanistan.
But at least three former military chiefs criticised Mr Brown, branding his Chilchot evidence "disingenuous".
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"I know that the Prime Minister 'gets' this now. But no amount of rewriting history can compensate for the years when he neither understood defence properly nor was persuaded to pay for it fully." >>>>>
Letters: Up in arms over Brown and Iraq
11 March 2010 The debate over resourcing the armed forces that has ensued from Gordon Brown's presence at the Chilcot inquiry (Editorial, 6 March) is put into perspective by the recent failure of the MoD to respond to MPs inquiries about "black holes" in defence procurement. Without wishing to let the PM off the hook, is it not time for those responsible to be held to account? There is a long history of complacent mismanagement that appears to go unpunished, and this becomes all the more pertinent when other sectors of the government are expending huge amounts of energy to defend budgets that are, by comparison, petty cash. >>>>>
Oscar Goes to…Iraqi People
11 March 2010 The coverage of the war in Iraq — like all conflicts in the Middle East — has always come to us from the victors’ or Western perspective. All the war flicks from the Hollywood stable — from Apocalypse Now to Platoon to Black Hawk Down to the Flags of Our Fathers — have been a narrative offered by the victors to the vanquished.
This is how it has always been even when the Western forces are not fighting clearly defined enemies on the battlefield.
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So Gordon Brown has some cheek defending this disastrous war before the Iraq inquiry commission last week. He wasn’t in the saddle at the time but with a critical election looming ahead, the British premier is clearly playing to the gallery. Seems every Western leader loves a ‘good war’ and his share of reflected glory. >>>>>
Welcome to the World's First Murdochracy
10 March 2010
(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: World Economic Forum, vladstudio, GrungeTextures)
The debate about state war crimes has all but bypassed Australia. That a former and current British prime minister have been summoned before the Chilcot inquiry in London is viewed with bemusement as nothing like it would happen here. Yet, John Howard, who also invaded Iraq, holds something of a record for having claimed 30 times in one speech that he knew Saddam Hussein had a "massive programme" of weapons of mass destruction. >>>>>
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