British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has authorized a long-awaited inquiry into the Iraq War, but is defying requests from bereaved families and anti-war activists to hold sessions in public.
Brown told the House of Commons on Monday that an examination of mistakes made during and after the 2003 US-led invasion will begin next month, but take place behind closed doors.
“Now is the right time to ensure we have a proper process in place to learn the lessons of the complex and often controversial events of the last six years,” Brown said.
Anti-war activists have repeatedly called for a public inquiry to scrutinize what they say are a range of errors made by Britain, the US and other allies in prewar intelligence and planning for postwar reconstruction work.
Brown said a panel of appointed experts — not lawmakers — will conduct the inquiry, led by John Chilcott, a former senior civil servant who played a key role in the Northern Ireland peace process.
He said the panel would look closely at the buildup to the Iraq invasion, how the conflict was conducted and problems with planning for reconstruction projects — seeking to draw lessons for future combat operations.
The panel itself will decide if it will address wider questions about whether Britain should have been involved at all in the Iraq invasion, Brown’s office said.
British officials said the inquiry is the first of its type and will be more comprehensive than the work of the 2006 Iraq Study Group in the US — the bipartisan panel led by former secretary of state James Baker, a Republican, and former Democratic representative Lee Hamilton — that helped chart a new course in the then-flagging war.
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