The UK’s official inquiry into the Iraq war inquiry was moved to insist that former British prime minister Tony Blair’s testimony would be given “very much in public” after claims that the key parts of his evidence would be held in secret.
Officials said most of the questioning of Blair, including on “regime change,” would be in public.
However, they said that the inquiry members would also question him in private, notably about intelligence reports.
The opposition Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, warned it would be “wholly unacceptable” if any of Blair’s evidence were held behind closed doors unless it would compromise national security.
His remarks followed a report in the Independent on Sunday newspaper that said Blair’s meetings with former US president George Bush, crucial details of the decision making process in the run-up to the war and anything “interesting” would be dealt with in secret on the grounds of national security and to protect Britain’s relationship with the US.
“Mr Blair will be appearing very much in public and will be questioned in detail on a wide range of issues surrounding Britain’s involvement in Iraq. We have said right from the start he will be a key figure in the inquiry. Mr Blair has said that he is ready and willing to give evidence in public,” a spokesman for the inquiry said.
Sir John Chilcot, the chairman, has promised all evidence will be held in public, with the exception of national security matters, or if appearing would present a health or security risk to witnesses.
So far, the only witness who it has been confirmed will give secret evidence is Sir John Scarlett, the former MI6 chief and chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee who drew up the Iraq dossier.
Meanwhile, former top prosecutor Ken Macdonald said yesterday that Blair’s “sycophancy” toward US power encouraged him to take Britain into war with Iraq despite opposition from the British people.
Writing in the Times, Macdonald described the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq as a “foreign policy disgrace of epic proportions.”
Macdonald, who was appointed director of public prosecutions under the Blair government in 2003, said the current inquiry into the war needed to take a tougher line with witnesses.
“It is now very difficult to avoid the conclusion that Tony Blair engaged in an alarming subterfuge with his partner George Bush and went on to mislead and cajole the British people into a deadly war they had made perfectly clear they didn’t want,” Macdonald wrote. “Washington turned his head and he couldn’t resist the stage or the glamour that it gave him.”
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