Jun 02, 2012 - Like Banquo’s ghost in Macbeth, the Iraq War returns now and then to haunt Britain’s ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair. This week he was giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry on the relations his government had with the Murdoch newspapers. He was being asked if his friendship with the Murdoch family could have influenced his government’s policies or resulted in corrupt favouritism towards the family’s businesses.
As he stood at the witness’ rostrum a man appeared from behind the drapes where Lord Leveson, the chair of the inquiry, sat.
The intruder shouted at Mr Blair playing to the cameras and reporters.
“You are a war criminal,” he repeated and alleged that Mr Blair had been paid by a bank to take Britain into the war. The court’s security guards grabbed him before he could say much more and frog-marched him away.
The newspapers and the TV stations which reported the incident scrupulously avoided the allegations about being bribed by a bank to go to war.
Why did Britain go to war? The question has been the matter of two parliamentary inquiries. Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell, his chief spin-doctor, insist that they received reports from the intelligence services which said that Iraq had and was acquiring and perfecting weapons of mass destruction (WMDs as they were subsequently dubbed) of the biological, chemical and nuclear varieties.
Mr Blair told Parliament and the nation that these WMDs were a threat to the security of Britain and that Iraq could launch an attack on this country or other countries in 45 minutes and asked Parliament to ratify the deployment of the armed forces. read more>>>
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