What we’ve learnt from the Iraq Inquiry
Iraq Inquiry Digest Key Analysis
As the Inquiry progresses, we will list here the most important things we have learnt, in order of importance as we see it.
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Main Revelations
The most significant revelation so far heard is that the US administration was set on a policy of invading Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein’s regime in March 2003 irrespective of the progress and findings of UNMOVIC’s inspection role.
Resolution 1441 was originally passed at the UN on the basis that it did not contain an automatic ‘trigger’ authorising military action against Iraq. The UK subsequently claims that this trigger did exist (throughout the drafting process) on the basis that the resolution did not specifically state which authority could or could not determine and thereafter enforce action against reported non-compliance of the resolution’s requirements.
The UK appears to have proposed using the issue of weapons of mass destruction as a pretext to obtain UN backing for war because regime change in its own right was seen to be illegal under international law.
Planning for the aftermath of the invasion was severely hampered because the US DoD assumed the dominant role in this matter and assumed that the overthrow of the earlier Government of Iraq would be widely welcomed. It also failed to recognise the detrimental potential of the power-vacuum that ensued. The enforced disbandment of the Iraqi Army and the removal of all members of the Ba’ath Party from positions of public administration had serious consequences for the general population of Iraq.
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Daily Blog Archives
We live blogged the appearance of a number of key witnesses to the Inquiry. These sessions originally appeared as individual front-page posts on the site and have now being converted into more permanent pages for archival purposes. Further new pages will be added to this section of this page as they are completed.
Week 1
24 November 2009 Live Blog
(Simon Webb, Sir Peter Ricketts, William Patey and Sir Michael Wood)
25 November 2009 Live Blog
(Sir William Ehrman and Tim Dowse)
26 November 2009 Live Blog
(Sir Christopher Meyer)
27 November 2009 Live Blog
(Sir Jeremy Greenstock)
Week 2
30 November 2009 Live Blog
(David Manning)
1 December 2009 Live Blog
(Edward Chaplin and Peter Ricketts)
3 December 2009 Live Blog
(Kevin Tebbit and Lord Michael Boyce)
Week 3
8 December 2009 Live Blog
(Sir John Scarlett)
10 December 2009 Live Blog
(Sir John Sawers)
Week 6
12 January 2010 Live Blog
(Alastair Campbell)
Week 7
18 January 2010 Live Blog
(Jonathan Powell)
19 January 2010 Live Blog
(Geoff Hoon)
21 January 2010 Live Blog
(Jack Straw)
Week 8
26 January 2010 Live Blog
(Sir Michael Wood)
27 January 2010 Live Blog
(Lord Peter Goldsmith)
29 January 2010 Live Blog
(Tony Blair)
Week 9
2 February 2010 Live Blog
(Clare Short)
Week 10
8 February 2010 Live Blog
(Jack Straw)
Week 11
5 March 2010 Live Blog
(Gordon Brown)
Have we (or the Inquiry) missed anything?
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Comment from Catherine
Time January 12, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Cambell is saying the 45 min thing was not meant to be crucial but he let the media run with it He could have said dont get carried away but he did not.We were also told that terrorists were going to lace water in Lake Vyrnwy(spelling!) in Wales with poison and we had stock up on water.We were being terrorised by our own Govenment.