Bid To Prosecute Blair Fails

Bid to prosecute Blair over Iraq War fails https://t.co/ydCCeUl2zE

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) July 31, 2017

Taxpayer To Fund Blair's Legal Costs - There's Irony For You!

Taxpayer will fund Tony Blair's legal costs as Iraq War families look to sue https://t.co/HpiX2Vv8pJ via @telegraphnews

— Oisin Lunny (@oisinlunny) August 1, 2016

Charges For Blair Not Ruled Out

WAR CRIMES NEWS: Head Of International Criminal Court States Charges Not Ruled Out For Tony Blair Over Unlawful 2003 Iraq War +++ MORE SOON

— Paul Quigley (@quigleyp) July 5, 2016

Blair Apologises For Iraq War

'I'm sorry' - Tony Blair takes blame for #Iraq War, admits conflict caused the rise of ISIS https://t.co/PzNpwDpjmo pic.twitter.com/63OQqXL8zb

— Yannis Koutsomitis (@YanniKouts) October 24, 2015

The Clusterfuck That Is Iraq

What did Blair and Bush really think would happen when they kicked out Saddam without a coherent and robust plan for restoring Iraq politically and economically after the war?

Campbell's Claims Contradicted

The Independent reports that in written evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, Maj-Gen Laurie (a former intelligence official) rejected Alastair Campbell's claim that the dossier was not intended to make the case for war:

"This was exactly its purpose and these very words were used."

Where to now for the Chilcot inquiry, given that "star" witnesses (eg Blair and Campbell) have given evidence that contradicts Maj-Gen Laurie?

Will they be recalled?

Round Two - Blair Testifies

Tony Blair is testifying to the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war, his second appearance before Chilcot.

He has stated again that the 9/11 attacks were the root cause of the war.

The British decision to back the invasion of Iraq was based on Blair's belief that Britain had to back whatever the States wanted to do, in order to maintain the so called and over hyped "special relationship".

This if course is a lousy premise for any policy, handing over responsibility for foreign policy to another country is destined to end in disaster.

Blair's Secret Letters

Sir John Chilcot, the restrained and reserved chairman of the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war, almost revealed a hint of anger the other day when he expressed "disappointment" over the fact that he has been forbidden to declassify letters between Blair and Bush written in the period up to the Iraq war.

Seemingly the official excuse, used by the state, for not allowing these documents to be published is that they are deemed to be "private correspondence". Indeed, so private that references to these letters were removed from official records.

Ironically Blair, as part of his attempt to make money from publishing, happily refers to the letters in his book "A Journey".

The Inquiry has quite clearly been "nobbled" from the outset, any conclusion it finally reaches must be regarded with great suspicion.

Goldsmith Disputes Blair

Lord Goldsmith, Tony Blair's former attorney general, has given a written response to a written question posed by the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war.

On 15 January 2003 Blair told MPs that while a second UN resolution was "preferable", there were circumstances in which it was "not necessary".

The inquiry panel asked Lord Goldsmith if he felt those words were "compatible with the advice you had given him".

Lord Goldsmith replied "no".

Thhe BBC quotes him also saying:

"I was uncomfortable about them and I believe that I discussed my concerns with [then foreign secretary] Jack Straw and my own staff."

Blair To Appear At Chilcot Inquiry

Tony Blair will reappear before the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war 21 January.

As to whether this actually achieves anything tangible, apart from providing an opportunity for demonstrators to shout at Blair, remains to be seen.

Once More Unto The Breach

It seems that Tony Blair faces a recall to the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war, as it appears that Blair's recent memoirs highlight "inconsistencies" with the evidence he gave to the inquiry during his last appearance.

Blair is likely to appear again at the inquiry early next year.

Blair Cancels Book Launch Party

In the event that anyone is actually interested, Tony Blair has "postponed" a launch party for his memoirs at London's Tate Modern museum planned for today, after anti-war protesters threatened to target the event.

Party or not, these cancellations certainly give the book extra publicity.

Blair Cancels Book Signing

Following the PR debacle in Dublin where former prime minister Tony Blair attempted to attend a book signing event for his newly launched memoirs ("A Journey"), but was rewarded with a pelting of eggs, he has bowed out of a planned signing in London after protesters threatened to target it.

Penance?

Some debate has been stirred up over the "morality" of the British Legion accepting the biggest donation in its history from Tony Blair, who has promised to donate all the proceeds, including the £4.6M advance, from his memoirs.

There is also speculation as to the rationale for Blair's gift; guilt, penance?

However, one thing is clear, his financial circumstances must now be very solid for him to be able to contemplate giving away such a large sum of money.

He will of course receive tax relief on this donation (estimated by the media at being around £2M on the advance fee alone).

Army Almost Seized Up

General Sir Richard Dannatt, former head of the British army, told the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war that Tony Blair's decision to send troops to Helmand at the same time as they were in Iraq almost caused the army to seize up.

He said:

"I think we were getting quite close to a seizing-up moment in 2006."

The politicians let the troops down by placing them in an almost impossible position during this period, the consequences of this negligence are still being felt today.

Blair Accused of Lying

Carne Ross, the first secretary to the British mission at the U.N. responsible for Iraq policy from 1997 to 2002, told the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war that the British government intentionally exaggerated the threat of Iraq's WMD after the 9/11 attacks.

Ross said that documents issued by the British government "intentionally and substantially" exaggerated the intelligence after 9/11.

Ross stated that the documents were so exaggerated that they were "in their totality, lies."

Exaggeration

Sir Richard Dalton, Britain's ambassador in Tehran from 2003-06, has told the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war that both the UK and US misread the intentions of Iran in the run up to the war.

Blair and Bush pushed the line that Iran would be hostile to the Iraq venture, when in fact Iran wanted the venture to succeed in order for a stable government to be formed and to ensure that US troops did not remain too long in the area.

Sir Richard said that Blair made "a series of very bad decisions" about the legality of the 2003 invasion.

Blair told Chilcot in January:

"What happened in the end was that they did because they both had a common interest in destabilising the country, and for Iran I think the reason they were interested in destabilising Iraq was because they worried about having a functioning majority Shia country with a democracy on their doorstep."

Sir Richard contradicted this:

"From what I saw of his evidence, I thought he very much exaggerated this factor."

Goldsmith's Advice To Blair Published

The Chilcot Iraq inquiry has released details of the legal advice given to Tony Blair, from the then Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, prior to the invasion of Iraq.

In the released correspondence (dated February 12 2003), Lord Goldsmith told Blair that should military action be taken without further approval by the UN Security Council, he expected "the government to be accused of acting unlawfully".

In a letter to Blair on 30 January, 2003, Lord Goldsmith said he "remained of the view that the correct legal interpretation of resolution 1441 is that it does not authorise the use of military force without a further determination by the Security Council".

However, following Blair's meeting with Bush in 2003 (when Blair promised Bush that Britain would go to war) Goldsmith changed his view. The BBC quotes him as saying he was "prepared to accept that a reasonable case" could be made that military action was authorised by existing resolutions, including resolution 1441.

Spaced Out

Andrew Rawnsley's book, "The End of The Party", is published today. In it he claims that Tony Blair was so tormented by the failure in Iraq that he told Gordon Brown and John Prescott that he would resign in 2004.

The book alleges that he "spaced out" several times during Parliamentary appearances, and often woke up sweating in the night.

Blair was talked out of resigning by his wife and Lord Mandelson.

Defined By Iraq

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former spin doctor, had a minor "emotional" moment on the Andrew Marr show yesterday when questioned about Iraq.

Campbell needed some moments pause in order to compose himself.

In his view Blair is "a totally honourable man".

Later Cambpell complained to Sky News about having to talk about Iraq:

"I did get quite upset with Andrew [Marr] this morning. I feel sometimes we are treated in this media bubble... like somehow you are devoid of humanity – you don't really have feelings, you don't really care about things.

I know how much I care about it, I know how much Tony Blair cares about it."

What did he expect?

Campbell's and Blair's lives will be forever defined by Iraq, nothing they ever do in the future will ever free them from that millstone around their necks.