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| Ten years on, Iraq debate still rages | Ten years on, Iraq debate still rages |
| (8 days later) | |
| You report Labour's shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander as writing "The rationale for the [parliamentary] vote 10 years ago was the capture and removal of WMDs that were later proved not to exist." (Iraq war was national disgrace, says former military chiefs, 18 March). Mr Alexander is as wrong in 2013 as his predecessor Jack Straw and former prime minister Tony Blair were earlier: they are all in wilful denial. Blair knew Saddam had no WMDs at least six years before he colluded with Bush to illegally invade Iraq. | You report Labour's shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander as writing "The rationale for the [parliamentary] vote 10 years ago was the capture and removal of WMDs that were later proved not to exist." (Iraq war was national disgrace, says former military chiefs, 18 March). Mr Alexander is as wrong in 2013 as his predecessor Jack Straw and former prime minister Tony Blair were earlier: they are all in wilful denial. Blair knew Saddam had no WMDs at least six years before he colluded with Bush to illegally invade Iraq. |
| This information was reported originally in US magazine Newsweek in March 2003, and re-reported by your diplomatic editor, (Iraqi defector's testimony confuses case against Iraq, 1 March 2003), but it then disappeared from the pre-invasion public debate. | This information was reported originally in US magazine Newsweek in March 2003, and re-reported by your diplomatic editor, (Iraqi defector's testimony confuses case against Iraq, 1 March 2003), but it then disappeared from the pre-invasion public debate. |
| The evidence comes from General Hussein Kamel, the former director of Iraq's Military Industrialisation Corporation, who defected to Jordan on 7 August 1995, taking with him crates of documents revealing past weapons programmes, and provided these to Unscom, the United Nations WMD inspection team. Kamel ill-advisedly returned to Iraq, where he was assassinated. Kamel had stated on 22 August 1995: "I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons – biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed". The CIA and MI6 were told the same story, Newsweek reported. All this is available. | The evidence comes from General Hussein Kamel, the former director of Iraq's Military Industrialisation Corporation, who defected to Jordan on 7 August 1995, taking with him crates of documents revealing past weapons programmes, and provided these to Unscom, the United Nations WMD inspection team. Kamel ill-advisedly returned to Iraq, where he was assassinated. Kamel had stated on 22 August 1995: "I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons – biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed". The CIA and MI6 were told the same story, Newsweek reported. All this is available. |
| Blair told the now retired Labour MP Llew Smith, for whom I then did research: "Hussein Kamal was interviewed by Unscom and by a number of other agencies. Details concerning the interviews were made available to us on a confidential basis." (Hansard, 26 March 2003). John Chilcot should obtain the text of the interview at the earliest opportunity. Dr David Lowry Former director, European Proliferation Information Centre | Blair told the now retired Labour MP Llew Smith, for whom I then did research: "Hussein Kamal was interviewed by Unscom and by a number of other agencies. Details concerning the interviews were made available to us on a confidential basis." (Hansard, 26 March 2003). John Chilcot should obtain the text of the interview at the earliest opportunity. Dr David Lowry Former director, European Proliferation Information Centre |
| • Ten years ago, I led the campaign against Tony Blair's proposed war on Iraq as a member of the Labour party's national executive committee. I did so principally because I believed that he needed the sanction of international law to order an invasion. On the three occasions that I and colleagues tried to get a vote on the party's ruling national executive, obliging Blair to ask UN secretary general Kofi Annan if it would be in breach of international law to go to war without a second UN resolution, we were voted down or deliberately blocked. Blair told us that an attack on Iraq was not about "regime change", but because Saddam Hussein had WMDs. He told the then leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, that he would be prepared to allow Hussein to remain in power if he complied with the UN weapons inspectors. I asked the former head of the UN weapons inspectors, Scott Ritter, if Blair was right about WDM; he said that Blair was utterly wrong. | • Ten years ago, I led the campaign against Tony Blair's proposed war on Iraq as a member of the Labour party's national executive committee. I did so principally because I believed that he needed the sanction of international law to order an invasion. On the three occasions that I and colleagues tried to get a vote on the party's ruling national executive, obliging Blair to ask UN secretary general Kofi Annan if it would be in breach of international law to go to war without a second UN resolution, we were voted down or deliberately blocked. Blair told us that an attack on Iraq was not about "regime change", but because Saddam Hussein had WMDs. He told the then leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, that he would be prepared to allow Hussein to remain in power if he complied with the UN weapons inspectors. I asked the former head of the UN weapons inspectors, Scott Ritter, if Blair was right about WDM; he said that Blair was utterly wrong. |
| Now Blair wants the west to intervene against Iran and in Syria. Clearly he has not gained in either humility or wisdom with the passing of the years. Surely, we should now ignore him. Mark Seddon Singleborough, Buckinghamshire | Now Blair wants the west to intervene against Iran and in Syria. Clearly he has not gained in either humility or wisdom with the passing of the years. Surely, we should now ignore him. Mark Seddon Singleborough, Buckinghamshire |
| • The parliamentary failure to hold Blair to account at the time of the vote makes it all the more essential that we have a debate now. We must formally record how such a flimsy case for war was able to get through our parliamentary process. Unwavering Tory support for the vote was obviously critical. How convenient, then, that soon after William Hague writes to his Cabinet colleagues to tell them not to mention the war, David Cameron's government has failed to find time for a parliamentary debate, requested by myself and a cross-party group of MPs. Whatever position this government now takes on Iraq, it is crucial that the public does not see parliament ignoring the 10th anniversary of these lies and distortions. Caroline Lucas MP for Brighton Pavilion | • The parliamentary failure to hold Blair to account at the time of the vote makes it all the more essential that we have a debate now. We must formally record how such a flimsy case for war was able to get through our parliamentary process. Unwavering Tory support for the vote was obviously critical. How convenient, then, that soon after William Hague writes to his Cabinet colleagues to tell them not to mention the war, David Cameron's government has failed to find time for a parliamentary debate, requested by myself and a cross-party group of MPs. Whatever position this government now takes on Iraq, it is crucial that the public does not see parliament ignoring the 10th anniversary of these lies and distortions. Caroline Lucas MP for Brighton Pavilion |
| • The Iraq war was Labour's war. In the end, our obligations to the transatlantic alliance took precedence over traditional socialist values of pacifism. Dog whistling Iraq to criminalise Blair and discredit New Labour may satisfy embittered deconstructionists. However, it will not turn back the ideological clock. Nor will it win future elections. Mike Allott Eastleigh, Hampshire | • The Iraq war was Labour's war. In the end, our obligations to the transatlantic alliance took precedence over traditional socialist values of pacifism. Dog whistling Iraq to criminalise Blair and discredit New Labour may satisfy embittered deconstructionists. However, it will not turn back the ideological clock. Nor will it win future elections. Mike Allott Eastleigh, Hampshire |
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