Support Our Work Mailing list About / Contact
  • Home /
  • News /
  • 2016 /
  • July /
  • UK: Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war: case closed?

UK: Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war: case closed?

09 July 2016

Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.

"The long-awaited Chilcot Report was finally released today, examining the UK’s involvement in the Iraq War and occupation. Unfortunately, on the most important question, the report’s conclusions are all but silent: why did the UK go to war?

Chilcot takes at face value the Blair government’s claim that the motive was to address Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and limits its criticism to mistakes in the intelligence on WMD, and on insufficient administrative and military planning. He shows a remarkable lack of curiosity about the political factors behind the move to war, especially given the weakness (even at the time) of the WMD case."

See: Chilcot's blind spot: Iraq War report buries oil evidence, fails to address motive (OpenDemocracy, link) by David Whyte and Greg Muttitt

And: Take it from a whistleblower: Chilcot has only scratched the surface (The Guardian, link) by Katharine Gun: "Following the damning Chilcot report, much will be said about the decision to go to war in Iraq. But one thing will be missing: the information I leaked in the runup to the war. It won’t get an airing because I was never questioned or asked to participate in the Chilcot inquiry"

The full, 12-volume, 2.6 million word report of the Inquiry is available on its website: The Iraq Inquiry (link)

Our work is only possible with your support.
Become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.

 Previous article

EU: Decision establishing 'High-Level Expert Group on Interoperabilty and Information Systems'

Next article 

French government to ignore parliament for second time to pass labour law

 

Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.

Report error

Statewatch does not have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views expressed are those of the author. Statewatch is not responsible for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. Registered UK charity number: 1154784. Registered UK company number: 08480724. Registered company name: The Libertarian Research & Education Trust. Registered office: MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. © Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals "fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.

About | Contact | Privacy Policy