On Wednesday the British Government announced yet another delay in the Chilcot Report of the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War, saying that the findings — already watered-down by the withholding of key information, notably about the Bush Administration in the US — will not appear until after the General Election in the spring.
The Chilcot Committee held its last hearing in 2011. The official reason for the further postponement is that those with a right to reply are being given more time.
I suspect the real reason is different, as I explained to BBC WM Radio this morning.
Listen to the discussion from 10:00
There are certain people who would prefer this report never see the light of day so they can’t be blamed….
The possibilities that a Prime Minister lied to Parliament, that the invasion of Iraq which was coordinated with the Americans was based on a lie about weapons of mass destruction, the killing and deaths of hundreds of thousands of people that was a consequence of that war, the failure to be prepared for the aftermath with the result that Iraq is still a broken country today — all of that would be embarrassing.
The report confirms what you can already find out if you dig deep enough. A year before the war, President George Bush asked Prime Minister Tony Blair to join him in attacking Iraq and getting rid of Saddam Hussein. The problem was that they needed to find a cause to do this — Tony Blair pledged to Bush that he would provide the reason, he would provide the “information”, such as the report that Iraq could attack Britain within 45 minutes with WMDs.