Former British prime minister Tony Blair privately assured former US president George W. Bush in letters written a year before the invasion of Iraq that Britain would “be there” in any US-led attack on the country, it was revealed at the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war in London on Tuesday.
The disclosure came during sometimes sharp exchanges with Alastair Campbell, Blair’s communications chief and close adviser, who described British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, then the chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister), as “one of the key ministers” Blair spoke to about Iraq.
In almost five hours of questioning, Campbell defended “every single word” in the Blair government’s now largely discredited dossier on Iraq’s banned weapons program. He also said Britain should be “proud” of its role in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and said Blair tried to get the conflict with Iraq resolved “without a shot being fired.”
Blair wrote “quite a lot of notes” to Bush in 2002 and their substance was not shared with the Cabinet, Campbell made clear. Asked if the then British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, knew their contents, Campbell replied: “I very much doubt if drafts went round the system ... They were very frank.”
Campbell said, however, that they were discussed with Sir David Manning, Blair’s foreign policy adviser.
He said the tenor of the letters was: “We share the analysis, we share the concern, we are going to be with you in making sure that Saddam Hussein is faced up to his obligations and that Iraq is disarmed.”
Campbell added: “If that cannot be done diplomatically and it is to be done militarily, Britain will be there. That would be the tenor of the communication to the president.”
Campbell also stoutly defended the September 2002 Iraqi weapons dossier which stated Saddam was continuing to build up a nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program — claims that were shown to be without foundation after the invasion. He insisted Sir John Scarlett, then chairman of the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee, was adamant throughout that he was “100 percent in charge” of the process of drawing up the dossier.
“At no time did I ask him to ‘beef up,’ to override, any of the judgments that he had,” Campbell told the inquiry. “John Scarlett said to me: ‘This is a document the prime minister is going to present to parliament, there are massive global expectations around it and I need a bit of presentational support,’ and that is what I gave him.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including