Archive for 'Uncategorized' Category
Labour turned a blind eye to Iraq casualties
by Chris Ames
I’ve just posted this piece on Comment is Free, based on Brian Rappert’s report A State of Ignorance for Action on Armed Violence:
“Did Labour care how many people died as a result of the Iraq war? It seems only to have cared that people might find out.”
Read the rest of the CiF piece
Unwelcome advice ignored, advice changed
by Chris Ames
Yesterday’s release by the Inquiry of various papers showing how attorney general Lord Goldsmith changed his mind about the legality of the war is significant for the inquiry and allows us to fill in the gaps in what we already knew. Some of today’s papers put the story in context but only the [...]
Will the new Government shake up the Cabinet Office?
by Chris Ames
More evidence of how obstructive the Cabinet Office can be in suppressing any information about Iraq comes in a decision notice I received from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) this morning.
The decision relates to my attempt to use the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to get more information about the drafting of the [...]
History rewritten
by Chris Ames
Two of the other papers have a slightly different take on the Guardian’s story about the suppression of a critical MoD report on Iraq. In both cases, there is spin from unnamed “sources”.
According to the Telegraph:
“Whitehall sources suggested last night that the MoD paper was still in the ‘drafting process’ and would [...]
Who said what about that Foreword?
by Chris Ames
I have written before about my attempts to find out who said what about Tony Blair’s foreword to the September 2002 dossier on “Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction” as it was being drafted. The issue is an important one as the Inquiry has singled out as unjustifiable Blair’s claim that intelligence had “established [...]
Miliband D didn’t understand the clusters document either
by Chris Ames
Comments from brother Ed and Ed Balls about Iraq have forced Labour leadership contender David Miliband to try to close down the Iraq issue. For those who are paying attention, he has merely shown that he is prepared to mislead people to achieve this, or is not as bright as people claim.
In this [...]
Unleash the Inquiry – Sands
by Chris Ames
In the New Statesman, Phillipe Sands writes of his disillusionment with Labour and what he wants from the new government that includes the Liberal Democrats, of whom he is a member:
“The Lib Dems will learn that what was easy in opposition becomes much more complex in government. On Iraq and torture, they have [...]
More contradictions – did Chilcot notice?
by Chris Ames
The letter that Tony Blair sent George Bush in late July 2002, presumably after the Downing Street meeting of that month, has emerged as a key piece of evidence for the Inquiry but one that the public are not allowed to see. Many witness from what we must now call the previous government [...]
Will the new government reveal the truth about Iraq?
by Chris Ames
The new government brings the prospect not only of a new approach to the Inquiry but of a more objective approach to freedom of information act requests about Iraq, which were increasingly blocked by a Labour government that brought in the Freedom of Information Act, albeit in a watered-down form.
I described here how [...]
The Tory spin on Iraq
by Chris Ames
After I said yesterday that the Iraq issue hasn’t had much impact on the election – partly because the Inquiry shut down a good while ago – the Guardian reports that the Tories have played the Iraq war card for the first time.
…the Tories made a brazen bid for Lib Dem voters by [...]