“Peter Goldsmith? He was following orders.”
The rather unpredictable way that the Chilcot inquiry is shaping up suggests that a “top-down” approach to witness-questioning may have been far more effective approach.
The inquiry began with the “foot-soldiers” and is gradually working its way up to Blair as the “top-of-the-bill” star of the show. The curent “bottom-up” approach has given Blair and his team of media-advisers and speech coaches time.
Inevitably, they will have been monitoring, interpreting and re-interpreting every single question and answer so far given during the inquiry. By tomorrow evening they will be able to enhance Blair’s answers with those subtle shades of language which will persuade everyone that white is black and black is white. Prepare for a Nadal-Murray-type game of “semantics ping-pong” with the occasional injection of self-justification.
It now seems that not-only most of the population but ALL of Blair’s legal advisers were (and still are) of the opinion that the invasion of Iraq was a “Crime of Aggression”. Parents of young soldiers killed in Iraq are already lining up to ask why their child was shot or blown-up – because they certainly were not fighting to “defend the realm”.
Former Foreign Office legal adviser Sir Michael Wood’s testimony was devastating to Blair but it was Elizabeth Wilmshurst, his former deputy who stole the show with her totally uncompromising manner and straight-talking. She even managed to inflame the gallery to such an extent that they rewarded her candour with a noisy round of applause.
One small matter has been overlooked- and that is the silence of the United Nations before, during and after the destruction of Iraq. It would be very interesting to see what their legal eagles’ views were.
Today, Blair’s warm-up act is performing. It is the turn of Blair’s close friend, Lord Goldsmith. It will be very interesting to hear how he went from warning Blair (by letter) in July 2002 that invading Iraq could be illegal to sanctioning the invasion seven months later, even after seeking explicit approval from the UN had failed.
On 7 March 2003, Goldsmith warned the government that although Saddam could be said to be in breach of his international obligations, British forces could still face legal action if they participated in an invasion. Ten days later, he issued a brief statement saying invasion would be lawful and the bombing began on March 20th. Hopefully there will be some very intriguing “timing” questions.
There has always been talk of Goldsmith being pressured into making a firm decision on the legality of an Iraqi invasion. It seems that he was not-only subjected to political pressure but there were additional rarely-publicised commercial pressures.
There has been one notable absentee from the Chilcot inquiry; Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, a former Political Director at the Foreign Office, was not-only a BBC Governor but also chairman of QinetiQ. This is the privatised company which was formerly known as the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough.
QinetiQ was closely linked with the Carlyle Group and with several US armaments companies. These companies were already supplying weapons for use in the Iraq conflict – even before Dr David Kelly had expressed his doubts about the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction and before Lord Goldsmith had decided on the legality of the invasion.
At the time, the BBC was suggesting that the decision to go to war was based on a lie and Andrew Gilligan had “blown open” the Dr David Kelly case. It has been alleged that Neville-Jones used her dual role as chairman of QinetiQ and BBC governor to punish the BBC for their reporting and by implication, their dissent.
At the time , the BBC was questioning the reasons and justification for the invasion of Iraq , which were primarily the 45-minute “warning” and the “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” This when Blair is said to have begun his “strong”-arm tactics.
Alistair Campbell insisted on Blair’s behalf that heads should roll at the BBC. Allegedly, Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, kept on pressuring her fellow governors until they agreed to give Blair his wish and sack BBC Director General Greg Dyke – whereupon the Chairman Gavyn Davies and Andrew Gilligan both resigned.
Let us hope that the six hours each that Goldsmith and Blair have at the Chilcot Inquiry are enough because there is still so much to know.
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