by David Hencke, Westminister correspondent
As the public are asked to ballot for a seat to hear Gordon Brown’s evidence to the Chilcot inquiry next month, more evidence is emerging of how Tony Blair was let off the hook during his session because vital documents given to the Iraq inquiry are not being made public.
Tribune has been told by a senior Whitehall source that panellists could have pursued the former Prime Minister much further on his key assurance to back George W Bush before military action was officially contemplated and how much the Cabinet was told about his meetings with President Bush if the relevant documents had been released into the public domain.
Evidently, both the text of letters between Mr Bush and Mr Blair and the Cabinet minutes covering the Iraq war reveal much more detail than has been acknowledged by the inquiry chairman or his star witness.
The exchange over Mr Blair’s original commitment to Mr Bush after September 11 is one example. The inquiry asked: “Did you give an unequivocal assurance to Bush that you would support a military intervention?”
Mr Blair answered: “Of course not. All I did was say we shared his ambition to solve the Iraq WMD issue.”
However, it is said that if the letters had been released, Mr Blair would have faced much tougher questioning, because the text of the letter could be interpreted otherwise.
Mr Blair was also asked: “Do you think your Cabinet understood how much you were committed to Bush… how far military preparations had got?”
He replied: “I regularly briefed Cabinet after my meetings with Bush.”
The obvious follow up from the panel if the minutes had been available would have been: “But the Cabinet minutes on these dates show you only said this…”
Jack Straw would have faced similar tougher questioning over his relations with the US Secretary of State Colin Powell because, again, documents are not being made public.
The chance of Chilcot releasing such documents is beginning to look rather remote. In his closing statement last Monday, he claimed: “We are committed to being open and transparent about how we are approaching our task and the information we are receiving.”
He went on to say that obtaining documents was the “central core” of his work. “The inquiry is still receiving more documents every week and we have no reason to believe that any material is being deliberately withheld. I should emphasise that our access to documents is unrestricted. Publishing a limited number is a separate matter.”
Publishing the Cabinet minutes on the Iraq war would be a brave decision – particularly as Mr Straw, as Justice Secretary, issued a veto under the Freedom of Information Act to block this last year. But Chilcot could still press for these to be released.
