Iraq War Inquiry, Day 11

Today the British Military goes after the civilian government ministers sent in or making decisions after the invasion to try and apparently bring order to chaos building another government or to keep the country functioning so it wouldn't completely fall into an Insurgency, I mean after all the U.S. expected throngs of people throwing flowers and kisses. Oh ya, even Bremer is mentioned, he apparently isn't to great in the social circles, or war theaters, as to making friends with his counterparts.

Iraq details for aid workers 'were scanty before war'

UK aid officials had "scanty" evidence of the situation in Iraq in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion, a senior civil servant has said.

Sir Suma Chakrabarti, ex-Department for International Development permanent secretary, said contact with UN staff had been banned until October 2002.

This restriction had been put in place to avoid revealing that military action was possible, he told the Iraq Inquiry.

This meant most knowledge was "desktop information" only, he said.

The UK had no diplomatic relations with Saddam Hussein's Iraq for 12 years leading up the invasion...>>>>>

General: Amateurs ran post-conflict Iraq

Inexperienced officials were put in charge of post-conflict reconstruction in Iraq at the expense of lives and treasure, a London war inquiry heard.

British Lt. Gen. Federick Viggers, the top British military
representative in Iraq in 2003, told a London inquiry into the Iraq war on Wednesday that British planners were not prepared for the swift overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, London's Telegraph newspaper reports.

"That was a stunning military operation but in so doing it took everyone by surprise," he said. "We suffered from a lack of any real understanding of the state of that country post-invasion."..>>>>>

Hmmm, amateurs sent in by Blair and his company, they probably felt right at home with the American ones, like the ones coming out of the administration contacts as well as the political party connections. Or how about all those civilian contractors, sans the mercs I would hope, seeking those six figure salaries to do jobs for the military personnel, or instead of, as well as drivers etc. who probably never served in a combat theater much less an occupation quickly evolving into the expected insurgency, now thems amateurs, and like the Lt Gen below says "lives had been lost as a result"!

Army chief lambasts 'amateurs' in post-invasion Iraq

A senior official has told the inquiry into the Iraq war that "amateurs" who did not have the experience to perform were put into key roles in the country.

Lt Gen Frederick Viggers, Britain's senior military representative in Iraq, said lives had been lost as a result.

He said senior officials, including ministers, needed more training to deal with the complexities involved in mounting an invasion.

The inquiry is examining UK policy towards Iraq between 2001 and 2009.

The first few weeks have focused on policy in the run-up to the war, the UK's assessment of Iraq's weapons capacity, military preparations for the invasion and post-war planning.

'Huge responsibility'...>>>>>

Iraq Inquiry: 'amateur' ministers to blame for soldier deaths in Afghanistan

Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Viggers Photo: MOLLY BINGHAM / WPN

British soldiers are dying in Afghanistan because of decisions made by "amateurs" in the Government, Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Viggers, one of the Army's most senior officers, has told the Iraq Inquiry.

Lt Gen Viggers, who was the senior British military representative in Iraq from May to September 2003, said ministers had learned nothing from their experience of the Iraq war and are "not living up to the responsibility" placed on them.

He launched into his astonishing attack on the Government when he was asked whether he felt ministers and senior civil servants should have training in military strategy before taking up key positions.

Complaining that the job of post-war reconstruction in Iraq had suffered from a "lack of a sense of direction from the outset", He said: "We have not really progressed at the strategic level. I am not talking about the soldiers and commanders and civilians...who did a great job...>>>>>

Iraq Inquiry: war officials were 'amateurs'

Britain's top military representative in Iraq at the time tells the Iraq Inquiry that amateurs were put into top planning jobs in post-invasion Iraq, costing peoples' lives as a result. Alex Thomson reports...>>>>>

General: British troops killed by amateurism

Sir Frederick Viggers led British forces in Iraq in 2003

Lack of expertise at the top had fatal consequences in Iraq, inquiry told

British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan because of the "amateur" handling of the operation by the Government, one of Britain's most senior military officials has said.

Lt-General Sir Frederick Viggers, who led British forces in Iraq in 2003, said that lessons had not been learnt from the mistakes made during that campaign, which had suffered from a "lack of a sense of direction from the outset".

He told the Chilcot Iraq inquiry that problems in the planning of military action, such as that currently being carried out in Helmand province, Afghanistan, persisted because those at the top of Government did not have the necessary expertise. "We have not really progressed at the strategic level," Sir Frederick said. "I am not talking about the soldiers and commanders and civilians... who did a great job...>>>>>

Amateurs, from the cheney/bush administration and rubber stamping republican party, sent into a War Theater, surprised?, Well Duh Yaaaa, just think of the Justice Department, Torture, Stepping All Over Our Constitution, Ignoring Ours and International Law {we helped write}, Hurricane Katrina, Walter Reed, Army Barracks, lowering of standards as to recruitment, raising the age for recruits, stop loss and we can go on and on right up till they left, but as to these theaters just look at Afghanistan today or even Iraq, we're still in both and though Iraq isn't as destructive as it was our soldiers are still there and dying, the only ones from the coalition of the willing, and deaths of hundreds of Iraqi's, by bombings, are still happening!

UK military chief told 'when not if' over Iraq invasion

UK troops encountered less opposition than expected, the generals said

The man who led UK troops into Iraq in 2003 says he was told 10 months earlier that it was a matter of "when not if" the US would pursue military action.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge said General Tommy Franks, commander of US forces, told him in May 2002 that he hoped the UK would be "alongside".

He told the Iraq inquiry the campaign was conducted to minimise the impact on Iraqi civilians and key infrastructure.

The inquiry is examining UK policy towards Iraq between 2001 and 2009...>>>>>

INQUIRY TIMELINE

November-December: Former top civil servants, spy chiefs, diplomats and military commanders to give evidence

January-February 2010: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and other politicians expected to appear before the panel

March 2010: Inquiry expected to adjourn ahead of the general election campaign

July-August 2010: Inquiry expected to resume

Report set to be published in late 2010 or early 2011

And now some are having second thoughts, looking for absolution,probably, but way too many have died, way too many enemies have been created and the world has become much more dangerous because of!!

John Prescott on Iraq war: how did I go along with it?

John Prescott: 'I do wonder, looking back now ... how did I then go along [with it]?' Photograph: Dan Chung

Former deputy prime minister admits asking himself how he was persuaded to back British involvement in the Iraq war

John Prescott has admitted he wonders how he agreed to go along with Britain's participation in the war in Iraq.

In an interview to be published tomorrow in the New Statesman the former deputy prime minister says: "I do wonder, looking back now, having the privilege of discussing with Tony [Blair] about all this: how did I then go along [with it]?"

Prescott also acknowledges that Lord Goldsmith – the attorney general at the time – was troubled by the war.

"If you say, 'Was Goldsmith a happy man about this?' No, he wasn't," Prescott says, adding: "That's quite different from saying, 'No, I'm sorry, my view is that it's illegal, I'm not supporting it.'"

Goldsmith's advice to the government that the war was legal remains controversial and his views have been discussed at the current Chilcot inquiry...>>>>>

Analysis: Inquiries are academic to Baghdad's people, under attack yet again

IN THE smoke, dust and screams of multiple Baghdad street bombings, and in the hushed intent of the Chilcot Inquiry hearings, the disparate, distasteful strands of the Iraq conflict's planning and aftermath were brought the fore once again.
Even as Sir John Scarlett pushed himself a little further from the "dodgy dossier", the people of Baghdad were focused on a rather more immediate question – who was visiting this violence upon them once again?

The sectarian and ethnic fault lines that the invasion caused to shift so violently are still there. The distrust between the Sunni Muslims who controlled Iraq under Saddam Hussein and the majority Shia, who now dominate, persists. The previously persecuted Kurds in the north, sitting on massive oil deposits, still have aspirations towards self-government...>>>>>

Was Taxi Driver Source for Key Saddam WMD Claim?

It sounds like a bad joke but it may be a true story: one of the most sensational claims made by the British government in the run-up to the Iraq War about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction may have come from an Iraqi taxi driver based on a conversation he overheard from passengers in his backseat two years earlier.

That’s what happened, according to Adam Holloway, a conservative member of Parliament reputed to have “close links” to intelligence officials, in a paper published this week. The claim raises new questions about the origins of pre-Iraq war intelligence at a sensitive time for the British government. An official United Kingdom tribunal is currently examining how and why former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government chose to join the invasion of Iraq...>>>>>

This below sounds interesting, it comes from the second link directly above. Alright all you cheney cabalers raise your hands, who's willing to come clean? Just think you don't have to worry about being prosecuted here nobody seems interested about All those New Enemies we've created, especially among the young, who will now be around for the next couple of decades. So at least you can clear your concious, even though, as to Iraq, you're no better then Saddams henchmen, that's how you'll be thought of not only in Iraq but the region. And we Americans, well for many, especially the kids who have and are now growing up in the devestated countries and especially who've had family and friends killed and maimed, well they're not going to be any to friendly towards us nor our policies!

British Iraq Inquiry Likely to Seek Testimony from U.S. Witnesses

A U.K. government inquiry investigating Britain's involvement in the Iraq War may want to take testimony from U.S. citizens, a British government official has confirmed to NEWSWEEK. The U.K. investigation, which began public hearings late last month, is examining why the British government decided to participate in the operation to oust Saddam Hussein...>>>>>

Iraq War Inquiry, Day 10

You apparently also go to War with the leaders you have!!

You'll see what I mean, below.

This is some of what happened on day ten of the Inquiry with a few reports and commentary coming out because of the Inquiry.

Family of murdered British hostage ‘betrayed’ by Chilcot inquiry

The family of the murdered British aid worker Margaret Hassan said that they have been “betrayed” by the official inquiry into the Iraq war after it spent just three minutes yesterday discussing her kidnapping.

Snip

“We came to find out the truth, even though we were skeptical, because we were told this would not be a cover-up. We have been betrayed.

“The authorities did not do one thing to help her when she was kidnapped and they are now doing nothing to find out why. As for Ken Bigley, it was almost as if he didn’t matter at all. He was an innocent man who was murdered for no reason.”

Snip

The criticism follows allegations last week that Gordon Brown was engineering a new cover-up of the Iraq war by handing Whitehall departments the right to block the inquiry from releasing secret documents about the war.

Mrs Hassan, 59, known as the Mother Teresa of Baghdad for her work with the poor, had lived in Iraq for 30 years and was the country director for the aid agency CARE International when she was kidnapped in October 2004. She was killed the following month but her remains have still not been recovered.

Mr Bigley, 62, a civil engineer from Liverpool, was kidnapped in Baghdad in September 2004 and held captive for four weeks before his murder. A video of his beheading was later released...>>>>>

Inquiry Highlights Divisions Between US, Britain on Iraq

Senior British officials questioned in wide-ranging inquiry on Britain's role in Iraq war

Witnesses in the second week of Britain's wide ranging inquiry into the Iraq war have revealed differences between the United States and Britain in the days running up to the war. The head of Britain's military say he was only given authority to plan for the war at a late stage.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair's top political advisor in 2002 was David Manning. He told the Inquiry panel here in London Friday that Mr. Blair made a decision in the spring of 2002 that Britain would stand by America. "He expected to be with the United States until the end," Manning said. "But this would only be possible if the United Nations were the channel to get to the end."

Manning says Mr. Blair began to ask for military options in June 2002, nine months before the war got underway...>>>>>

From Day 9 Testimony


The Iraq Inquiry
Sky News: See how the Inquiry is unfolding on the Sky News Timeline

Was Iraqi cabbie the source of the dodgy dossier?
MP's report claims 'intelligence' on Saddam's WMDs came from back of a taxi

Dodgy dossier: The controversial Government report that stated a case for war

Gossip from an Iraqi taxi driver was a key source for Tony Blair's 'dodgy dossier'.

A report by a respected MP claims that the unlikely secret agent was one of MI6's top sources when it was building a case to justify the invasion.

He provided the information that Saddam Hussein could fire chemical weapons at British targets within 45 minutes.

Snip

Intelligence from the cab driver allegedly bolstered the suggestion that weapons of mass destruction could be fired at British targets in Cyprus - a central plank of the dodgy dossier.

Mr Holloway's report says that analysts at the Secret Intelligence Service quickly decided the cab driver's information about missiles was 'verifiably' false and warned that the agent was not reliable.

But a carefully-worded footnote in an MI6 report was apparently brushed aside by Downing Street officials when the dodgy dossier was put together in September 2002.

Snip

Sir John Scarlett, the former MI6 chief who was chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee before the war, is expected to be quizzed about the dossier when he gives evidence to the Chilcot committee today - though he is not expected to go into details about MI6 sources in public...>>>>>

Taxi driver X So why exactly did we go to war again?

An Iraqi taxi driver loads up his vehicle Photograph: JEROME DELAY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Age: Unknown.

Appearance: Brief but crucial.

Ah, I think I know that guy. It was only a five-minute trip home but he kept insisting he "knew a short cut" and drove me around a roundabout for nearly an hour. No, I'm talking about the Iraqi taxi driver who was the source of the 45-minute WMD claim.

I had to pay him £60. No, listen, that was someone else.

Oh. Who's this guy then? Possibly the most important taxi driver in the history of the world. According to Conservative MP Adam Holloway, the famous claim that the Iraqi military was capable of deploying "chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes of being ordered to do so" was overheard from a pair of military officers by an Iraqi taxi driver...>>>>>

Well isn't it a true fact that if one wants to know what's really going on damn the expensive technology toys, Ask A Cabby!



Iraq WMD claims not manipulated: ex-U.K. spy chief

British intelligence officials did not intend to mislead anyone by releasing documents in 2002 claiming Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, Britain's former spy chief said Tuesday.

John Scarlett, chair of the joint intelligence committee during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and later head of Britain's, Secret Intelligence Service (known as MI6), was testifying before an ongoing inquiry into the U.K.'s role in the invasion.

He told the inquiry he was not pressured into exaggerating information that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that could be deployed in under an hour, according to the Guardian newspaper.

Earlier Tuesday, a British opposition MP released a reporting suggesting British intelligence acquired that particular information from "an émigré taxi driver on the Iraqi-Jordanian border" and that it was unreliable.

Snip

After the dossier was published on Sept. 24, 2002, several British newspapers included the claim in their stories. London's Evening Standard headline read: "45 minutes from attack" while the Sun carried the headline: "Brits 45 mins from doom."

Britain joined the invasion of Iraq six months later.

Scarlett told the inquiry that WMD in this document did not refer to ballistic missiles and that the matter "would not have been lost in translation" if they had used the term "munitions" rather than "weapons."...>>>>>

Scarlett hangs Blair out to dry

Sir John Scarlett giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the war in Iraq today. Photograph: PA

Sir John Scarlett's evidence at the Chilcot inquiry must mean Tony Blair can no longer hide behind the intelligence services

Former spy chief Sir John Scarlett hung Tony Blair out to dry this afternoon. He drove a mobile weapons lab through Blair's longstanding excuse on Iraq – that his false claim that intelligence had "established beyond doubt" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was cleared by the intelligence experts. What they seem to have said at the time was that if Blair wanted to make such an assertion, he should not pin it on them. Now Scarlett has – very late in the day – said the same.

In the short time they gave themselves, the Iraq inquiry committee made a pretty good job of putting Scarlett on the spot about the September 2002 Iraq dossier. They asked him some tough questions. He dodged some of them, claimed a faulty memory from time to time, but he said enough to put the blame on Blair...>>>>>

Spy Chief: We Knew Iraq Dismantled Weapons

The UK knew Iraq had dismantled its long-range missile before the war, an intelligence chief has told an official inquiry into the invasion.



Sir John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee when the conflict began, said Iraq had taken apart a weapon capable of reaching Israel by 2003.

A weapon with that reach could have posed a threat to British military bases in Cyprus.

To reassemble it would have taken one or two days, he told the public hearing.

Sir John, who went on to head MI6, was responsible for the September 2002 report which became popularly known as the "dodgy dossier".....>>>>>

U.K. believed Iraq dismantled weapons

Britain believed Iraq had dismantled its chemical and biological weapons in the run-up to the 2003 invasion but thought it was possible they could be reassembled, the former head of the country's Joint Intelligence Committee said Tuesday.

John Scarlett, who chaired the committee from 2001 to 2004 before moving to MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence agency, told a panel of inquiry that it had long been believed that Iraq had been dismantling weapons in order to conceal them.

On March 7, 2003, Scarlett said an intelligence report revealed that "Iraq had no missiles which could reach Israel and none which could carry germ or biological weapons. The leadership had ordered the dismantlement of the missiles known as al-Hussein ... to avoid discovery, and they thought they could be quickly reassembled."...>>>>>

Blair was warned to expect Iraq disorder

A top intelligence adviser warned Tony Blair to expect “serious disorder”, revenge attacks and a potentially hostile reception from Iraqis in the event of military action to topple Saddam Hussein, the Iraq inquiry heard on Tuesday.

Sir John Scarlett, former chairman of the joint intelligence committee, said he delivered a “blunt” assessment of the political aftermath of regime change less than three months before the outbreak of war.

Yet in spite of these concerns, other senior Whitehall officials revealed on Tuesday that there were no detailed preparations to administer southern Iraq before the UK embarked on the five-year task...>>>>>

Blair 'did not respond to crucial intelligence reports'

Tony Blair received two secret intelligence reports saying that Saddam Hussein did not have working weapons of mass destruction just days before ordering the invasion of Iraq.

Sir John Scarlett, the former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, told the official inquiry into the war today that the Prime Minister did not respond to the reports, which had crucial military significance.

He also distanced himself from Mr Blair’s claim six months before the invasion that “intelligence had established beyond doubt” that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD)....>>>>>

Open up the Iraq war inquiry

I published my submissions to the Hutton and Butler hearings in a spirit of openness that I feel is lacking in the Chilcot inquiry

I have published all my witness submissions to the Hutton inquiry and Butler review on the Iraq Inquiry Digest website to add to public understanding of the two issues on which I feel best qualified to comment: weapons of mass destruction and intelligence analysis. These are complicated matters, and there is a risk that the Chilcot inquiry will miss significant facts.

So far the inquiry has provided precious little documentary evidence as background to its hearings. It is not clear whether this is the inquiry's decision or a consequence of the protocols imposed by the government. However, the result is that there is uncertainty about the sources the inquiry is using and the assumptions it may be making about their evidence...>>>>>

And the following has been rising up as these testimonies have gone into this second week, especially being called for another investigation the last couple of days.

UK doctors say David Kelly did not commit suicide

The fact that Britain is once again investigating its role in the Iraq blunder is praiseworthy.

The previous Hutton and Butler inquiries were disappointing to put it mildly. Perhaps because they were undertaken at a time when the British establishment was still on the defensive and when preserving the reputation of the prime minister took precedence over exhuming the truth. Or, alternatively, because they took place when British troops were still in theater when damaging revelations could have seriously affected morale and/or relations with Britain’s Washington ally...>>>>>