Former PM was happy to discuss invasion with Fern Britton on TV show - but the Chilcot inquiry will hear his crucial testimony behind closed doorsKey parts of Tony Blair's evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War will be held in secret, sources close to the hearings revealed last night. His conversations with President George Bush when he was prime minister, and crucial details of the decision-making process that led Britain into war, will fall under the scope of national security and the protection of Britain's relations with the US. But there are also suggestions by well-placed sources that anything "interesting" will also be shrouded in secrecy, leaving his public appearance containing little more than is already known.
Key parts of Tony Blair's evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War will be held in secret, sources close to the hearings revealed last night.
His conversations with President George Bush when he was prime minister, and crucial details of the decision-making process that led Britain into war, will fall under the scope of national security and the protection of Britain's relations with the US.
But there are also suggestions by well-placed sources that anything "interesting" will also be shrouded in secrecy, leaving his public appearance containing little more than is already known.
AFP - Britain would have backed the invasion of Iraq even if it had been known that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), former prime minister Tony Blair said Saturday. Blair, who is to appear before a long-awaited official Iraq war inquiry early next year, said London would have used other ways to justify its support for the 2003 US-led war to oust Saddam. "I would still have thought it right to remove him. Obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments, about the nature of the threat," he told the BBC. "I can't really think we'd be better with him and his two sons still in charge but it's incredibly difficult," he added, according to comments released before the programme was broadcast.
AFP - Britain would have backed the invasion of Iraq even if it had been known that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), former prime minister Tony Blair said Saturday.
Blair, who is to appear before a long-awaited official Iraq war inquiry early next year, said London would have used other ways to justify its support for the 2003 US-led war to oust Saddam.
"I would still have thought it right to remove him. Obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments, about the nature of the threat," he told the BBC.
"I can't really think we'd be better with him and his two sons still in charge but it's incredibly difficult," he added, according to comments released before the programme was broadcast.
In a democracy this owuld be an outrage. This inquiry should be stopped instantly because there's no point from here on. Does the Executive seriously think anyone will believe the result from here on in ? It's like Barry Bonds baseball home run record, it'll always have an asterisk next to it cos it was a result of cheating. When they say "well we had an inquiry and all were found innocent" we will just say "inquiries in secret, where the public aren't told is no inquiry worth the paer it's written upon" and demand a proper open inquiry.
But we'll never get one of those, just some other broken trickery to punt the issue down the road until the guilty have finished living their comfortable lives and only grandchildren might be remotely disturbed by finding their ancestors were criminals (like it matters). keep to the Fen Causeway
