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| What have we done? |
May
2004 to Present
November 2003 to April 2004
July 2003 to October 2003
May 2003 to June 2003
March 2003 to April 2003
7th
October
Revelation casts
doubt on Iraq find - over 1,200 inspectors were asigned to the US-British
Iraq Survey Group to prove that Iraq had been developing and concealing
weapons of mass destruction. Washington and London presented a test tube
of botulinum as clear evidence. It now emerges that it was found in an
Iraqi scientist's home refrigerator, where it had been sitting
for 10 years!
6th October
Some
tough questions for the US president - Michael Moore may not be to everyone's
taste, but he has a few interesting
questions for Mr Bush.
5th October
'No surprise' Iraq
WMD not found - the prime minister knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction
ready for use within 45 minutes, former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has claimed.
He said that before the war started Mr Blair privately admitted that Saddam
Hussein had no weapons posing a "real and present danger".
3rd October
'No surprise' Iraq
WMD not found
- Hans Blix - the man who headed the United Nations weapons inspection team
in Iraq before the war - says CIA official David Kay's report contained "no
surprises". But the vice-president of the Senate Intelligence Committee
- Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat - said America's armed forces had been put at
risk, based on a threat
that appeared not to have existed.
3rd October
The disarming facts
- the interim report of
the US-British Iraq Survey Group confirms what many have come to suspect in
the months since Baghdad fell. In sum, Saddam Hussein's
regime did not possess useable biological, chemical or nuclear weapons when
the war was launched. Iraq could not therefore accurately be said to pose a
current or serious or imminent threat to its neighbours and the west, at least
in terms of WMD, as the US and Britain claimed. 'There are no shining weapons'.
27th September
'You lied, they died,'
US parents tell Bush - the father of a soldier killed in Iraq accused President
George Bush yesterday of being responsible for his son's death. In another sign
of the growing protest movement, the father of two soldiers serving in Iraq
used a full page advertisement in yesterday's New York Times to demand the sacking
of the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. The ad accused President Bush
and his administration of misleading the public about weapons of mass destruction.
25th
September
The hunt for weapons
of mass destruction yields - nothing.
19th September
We are facing death
in Iraq for no
reason - a serving US soldier calls for the end of an occupation
based on lies. For the past six months, I have been participating in what I
believe to be the great modern lie: Operation Iraqi Freedom.
18th September
Blix criticises UK's
Iraq dossier - former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix says he believes
government spin was
involved in the presentation of the British dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction last September. Dr Blix said the coalition could have waited and
continued with UN inspections for a few more months, but they did not have the
patience to do so. Now though, he said, US and British inspectors were free
to go anywhere in Iraq, but were calling for the patience for themselves which
they had failed to give
to the UN.
18th September
Iraq
dumped WMDs years ago, says Blix - the former UN chief weapons inspector, Hans
Blix, believes that Iraq destroyed most
of its weapons of mass destruction 10 years ago, according to an interview.
The claim came on the same day that President George Bush stated more bluntly
than ever that there is no evidence to link Saddam Hussein to the terrorist
attacks of September 11 2001 - despite 69% of Americans believing Saddam had
a personal role, according to a recent Washington Post opinion poll. Saddam
kept up the appearance that he had the weapons to deter a military attack, Mr
Blix added. "I mean, you can put up a sign on your door, 'Beware of the
dog,' without having a dog," he said, speaking from his home in Sweden. Investigators
with the US-led Iraq survey group would be unlikely to find anything more than
some "documents of interest", he predicted.
14th September
New
doubts on Blair's Iraq dossier - dramatic new evidence from the intelligence
services casts fresh
doubts over Tony Blair's central claim that Iraq continued
to produce chemical and biological weapons until the outbreak of war. Newly
disclosed Cabinet Office documents show that the Prime Minister's categorical
assertion was based only on a single source and was attacked as
'too strong'
by a senior intelligence official. The same official attacks the dossier's descriptions
of the graphic effects of mustard gas and VX, a nerve agent, as 'grossly misleading'.
The production claim, which remained in the dossier despite warnings from experts,
was repeated in Blair's foreword to the dossier and, more crucially, in the
key Commons debate on 24 September last year after the dossier was published. .
12th September
Blair ignored terror
warning
- Tony Blair was
warned on the eve of war by his intelligence chiefs that an
invasion of Iraq would increase the danger of terrorist attacks, which they
considered by far the greatest
threat to western interests.
10th September
Mr Blair's blood count -
total Blood Spilled of 92,811 pints - or a touch over 11,600 gallons of human
blood on Blair's
hands.
16th August
45-minute claim on
Iraq was hearsay - Tony Blair's headline-grabbing claim that Iraq could deploy
weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of an order to do so was based
on hearsay information.
31st July
Do not use 45-minute
claim, CIA told No 10 -
the CIA objected to
claims in the British government's September dossier on Iraq's banned weapons
programme, the issue at the heart of the Kelly affair. The US Government
also admitted that
the Iraq war had been fought on the basis of “murky
intelligence”. Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Defence Secretary, said that
the US had not been prepared to wait for clear evidence of Iraq’s threat
before attacking.
19th
July
Personal Comment - the sad death of Dr. David Kelly is yet more fallout from the Governments handling of the Iraq crisis. It is perhaps curious that the Government is prepared to hold a full judicial enquiry into the death of Dr Kelly, yet when it comes to the issue of why we went to war they are not prepared to have a full judicial enquiry. Why? The Iraq war led to the death of thousands of people and we have still not seen ANY evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and that they were a threat to the UK. Who will take responsibility?
One further thought, is the manner in the which the US is treating prisoners
at Guantanamo Bay any different to the way Saddam Hussein treated his people?
What message is the US sending out to the rest of the world? It is OK for the
US to abuse human rights, to have WMDs, to attack other countries pre-emptively,
but not for anyone else?
19th
July
Moral blackmail will not do - failure to find WMD damages Blair, and the doctrine of pre-emption.
18th
July
Claptrap, Yankee Poodle Blair's 18 ovations but he may be wrong on WMDs - Tony Blair won rapturous applause from the US Congress yesterday as he hinted Iraq's weapons of mass destruction may never be found.
17th
July
Crude Niger forgeries surface in Italian paper - forged documents on which the British and US governments allegedly based their case that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger were so crudely drafted that it is unlikely they would have stood up to more than a few hours' - or minutes' - scrutiny by any specialist, it emerged yesterday.
17th
July
Cost of occupation: £5m a day, human cost extra - the cost to British taxpayers of invading and occupying Iraq will be far in excess of £5bn, with £1bn being spent even before the first shot was fired, defence sources said yesterday. This far exceeds the size of the special "war chest" which the Treasury has offered. With the government already budgeting for a £27bn deficit this year, some estimates put the cost of maintaining 11,000 troops in Iraq and the Gulf region at about £150m a month. Money well spent?
16th
July
Letter from Lynne Jones (Labour MP) to Tony Blair -
UK Government breach of Article 10 Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1441
I am writing to you regarding your failure to address my question put to you in the House today.
You will be aware that under Article 10. of SCR 1441 there is a request that all Member States provide any information relating to Iraqi prohibited programmes. On 3 July in a Parliamentary answer, Denis MacShane finally admitted that the UK Government did not pass to the IAEA any information on Iraqi attempts to procure uranium, which must include the information on which you based your statement to the House on 24 September that you knew Iraq had recently attempted to procure uranium.
I asked whether you were concerned about this breach of SCR 1441 &endash; a point you did respond to in your reply and I should be grateful for your response.
16th
July
The nine questions that Straw has to answer - the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, was under fresh pressure from the foreign affairs select committee last night to justify his case for going to war with Iraq.
16th
July
Dossiers and proof of WMD are a sideshow , Blair backed Bush for one simple reason - the British people were indeed tricked into the Iraq war. But the trickery was not forensic. It was not really about intelligence dossiers, whether sexed up by Alastair Campbell or otherwise. It even had little to do with weapons of mass destruction, whether possessed or programmed by Iraq. The deception was always political. It concerned the true reasons why Britain went to war, stuck by America's side, abandoned its principal allies and interests in Europe, and played fast and loose with the United Nations. Like all deceptions, this was not admitted in public. But it was certainly discussed in private. And now it has been revealed. Ladies and gentlemen, it looks as if we have a smoking gun.
14th
July
Blix: 45-minutes claim 'flawed' - Tony Blair used "flawed" intelligence
to convince the country of the case for war against Iraq, former UN chief
weapons inspector Hans Blix said yesterday. A poll also shows that Tony Blair
has lost the trust of the British people over war on Iraq.
13th
July
Blair ignored CIA weapons warning - Britain and America suffered a complete breakdown in relations over vital evidence against Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction, refusing to share information and keeping each other in the dark over key elements of the case against the Iraqi dictator. In a remarkable letter released last night, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, reveals a catalogue of disputes between the two countries, lending more ammunition to critics of the war and exerting fresh pressure on the Prime Minister. The letter to the Foreign Affairs Committee, which investigated the case for war against Iraq, reveals that Britain ignored a request from the CIA to remove claims that Saddam was trying to buy nuclear material from Niger, despite concerns that the allegations were bogus.
10th
July
Iraq weapons 'unlikely to be found' - the Government's case for removing Saddam Hussein centred on the claim that he possessed such weapons and that they posed a direct threat to the UK., yet senior UK Government figures no longer believe weapons of mass destruction are likely to turn up in Iraq, the BBC has learned. It is interesting to review some of the claims that the prime minister made about Saddam's weapons - before and after the war.
10th
July
White House 'lied about Saddam threat' - a former US intelligence official who served under the Bush administration in the build-up to the Iraq war accused the White House yesterday of lying about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. Mr Thielmannn said yesterday: "I believe the Bush administration did not provide an accurate picture to the American people of the military threat posed by Iraq." He conceded that part of the problem lay with US intelligence, but added: "Most of it lies with the way senior officials misused the information they were provided."
10th
July
Rumsfeld shifts stance on Iraq weapons - the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that the US had not gone to war against Iraq because of fresh evidence of weapons of mass destruction but because Washington saw old evidence "in a dramatic new light" after September 11. The claim, in testimony to the Senate, reflected a sharp change in tactics by an administration that is under fire for knowingly basing its case against Saddam Hussein on flawed intelligence.
8th
July
Blair slammed over Iraq dossier - a Defence Ministry report blew apart repeated claims by Mr Blair that Saddam could deploy chemical and biological warheads within 45 minutes. A second report by the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee accused Mr Blair of "misrepresenting" alleged intelligence evidence to the Commons in the run-up to war. Blair has been told that it's time to answer four vital questions and has been given two months to do so. So why did we go to war with Iraq? Only an independent judicial inquiry can provide the answers. Tony Blair will not allow this and is hoping that the existing Foreign Affairs Committee investigation may split along party lines and hide the truth.
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