
The Iraq Inquiry: Statement by Sir John Chilcot [pdf] - merraksh
http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/247010/2016-09-06-sir-john-chilcots-public-statement.pdf
======
michaelt

      On 28 July, Mr Blair wrote to President Bush with an
      assurance that he would be with him “whatever”
      [...]
      At the end of January, Mr Blair accepted the US timetable
      for military action by mid-March.
      [...]
      As late as 17 March, Mr Blair was being advised by the
      Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee that Iraq
      possessed chemical and biological weapons, the means to
      deliver them and the capacity to produce them.
    

Seems to me the lesson here is: If you decide to invade first, then later you
invite your intelligence agencies to "get with the program, jump on the team
and come on in for the big win" when it's clear what you want them to tell
you, they'll tell you that.

Trying to shift blame to them after things went badly seems like scapegoating
to me.

I mean, that's like going to a car dealership and asking the salesman if his
cars are reliable. There's no point in even asking, because you already know
he'll say yes regardless of the truth.

~~~
arethuza
Max Hastings makes the point in his book on intelligence in WW2 (The Secret
War: Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939-1945) that intelligence agencies
_always_ tell their political masters what they want to hear - this happens in
democracies and totalitarian regimes.

It was presumably clear to those in MI6 that Blair had already decided to go
to war, so what would have been in it for them to try and persuade him
otherwise? Probably an early retirement at best.

~~~
pjc50
If this is unavoidable, why bother with the thing at all and just have a
skeleton staff of actors to roleplay the yes-men?

(A point I keep trying to make about the War on Terror is that trying to do it
invisibly, with intelligence agencies, is tempting but ineffective. These
agencies cannot be effectively reviewed, and produce _intelligence_ which
cannot be used in court or presented to the public. So we end up with a long
series of unaccountable murders by drone feeding into whatever the next Arab
civil war is.

Whereas a policing approach would produce evidence for inspection in public,
after which those convicted of terrorism could be imprisoned with our
consciences clear.)

~~~
emodendroket
> If this is unavoidable, why bother with the thing at all and just have a
> skeleton staff of actors to roleplay the yes-men?

Arguably it is the responsibility of leaders not to tilt their hands before
the intelligence is available.

~~~
a3n
But it's the inclination of leaders, and everyone else, to lean toward their
desires and preconceptions.

~~~
emodendroket
There's a difference between an inclination and obviously not wanting to hear
something different.

------
teh_klev
The full report is actually here, all 58 sections of it:

[http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/the-report/](http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/the-
report/)

The link above is just Chilcot's press statement which was read out on air
this morning.

If you were to print it out the whole report, all twelve volumes, it looks
like this:

[http://imgur.com/zRHDZyE](http://imgur.com/zRHDZyE)

edit: ok, for the avoidance of doubt, there are multiple copies of the same
volume in each stack, this was the pile made available to journalists so they
could grab a copy of each volume.

~~~
phireal
That image is misleading - the report is only 6417 pages which is only 12
books at (on average) 535 pages each. The image shows multiple copies of each
volume.

~~~
teh_klev
Fairly certain anyone looking at that image would actually realise this.

~~~
phireal
Perhaps, but this is likely to be quite a hot topic, so using misleading
imagery isn't helping anyone.

~~~
teh_klev
Oh, c'mon, I like to think that everyone who frequents this site is quick
witted enough to know that's stacks of multiple copies of each volume.

~~~
petepete
They are labelled as such; it's not even slightly misleading.

------
danohu
I merged the whole thing into a single PDF:

[http://ohuiginn.net/docs/chilcot/chilcot_report.pdf](http://ohuiginn.net/docs/chilcot/chilcot_report.pdf)

6417 pages -- enjoy!

~~~
sidcool
The tldr itself would be a small book size

~~~
logicallee
>The tldr itself would be a small book size

tl;dr: "From peace options, bad intel, to a bad war."

------
sp332
@iocounu made a poem about it on Twitter:
[https://mobile.twitter.com/iucounu/status/750456730472091648](https://mobile.twitter.com/iucounu/status/750456730472091648)

------
r721
The Guardian - Key points from the Iraq inquiry:

[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/iraq-
inquiry...](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/iraq-inquiry-key-
points-from-the-chilcot-report)

------
pknerd
After killing a President, starting a new war and killing thousands in a
decade, the report says, _Umm it was all wrong_. Earlier Blair had said sorry

I wonder whether West could give same options to the likes of Osama, Qaddafi,
Aiman AlZaharvi or this _luxury_ only available for non-Muslims only?

~~~
turar
It's available to those in power, whether at global level (the US/West), or
local level (e.g. local government). Not really a Muslim/non-Muslim thing. And
it's not something unique or new.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_mili...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations)

~~~
pknerd
Seems the definition of power is as relevant as terrorism.

------
CommanderData
Is there anything to stop the UK government censoring this report? I pose the
question after it was delayed for publication by the government last year for
after the general election.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EJK8K0ypl4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EJK8K0ypl4)

It would take seven years to publish and would not seem conspiratory to
suggest the delays have helped reduce public attention / demand for the
report.

Would it be possible to gag order certain reports or use governmental powers
to achieve this?

~~~
grahamel
No, it's already been done and part of the reason the report took so long.

"But the main reason for the delay was the long tussle between the inquiry and
the government over which classified material could be published alongside the
report, or referred to in it." [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-
politics-36024725](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36024725)

------
leroy_masochist
While I agree with the substance of conclusions in the report, the media's
coverage of it -- as well as how it's been publicly discussed by current and
former (non-Blair) members of the UK government -- seems to add up to an
effort to take a pound of flesh off of Blair in some kind of weirdly
tribalistic cathartic exercise for progressives.

~~~
papaf
I think its understandable that the media, especially the BBC, is a bit
bitter. Here is an article from 2004 where the BBC chairman had to resign
because of pressure from a government report over the evidence to go to war
over Iraq:

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3434661.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3434661.stm)

Here is an excerpt:

 _BBC chairman Gavyn Davies has resigned in the wake of Lord Hutton 's
criticisms of the corporation's reports._

 _He quit after Lord Hutton said the suggestion in BBC reports that the
government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons with unreliable
intelligence was "unfounded"._

Here is another quote from the story, this time from a BBC journalist:

 _" In the end what it comes down to is a judgement by Lord Hutton - who he
believes, whose motives he trusts most and in that, again and again, he comes
down on the side of politicians and officials."_

So, as you say, some of the reporting today is probably a carthartic
exercise...

------
a3n
Where's the OJ-like vow from Blair and Bush to not rest until the "real" WMDs
are found?

------
edward
Why PDF? They should've published it as web pages so we could link to
individual sections.

~~~
a3n
PDF is better for this kind of thing, because average people can easily
download and keep the thing. Web pages disappear.

------
nepotism2016
Waste of money (£10million)!

Chaos in the Middle east is great for any country who wants to suck its
resources cheaply without having to be hold ransom for it by a dictator.
"interest of the country" has cost 160,000 lives in Iraq, none gives a shit
because the future of black gold is secured until the next invasion

I'm a massive hypocrite, I'm about to fill up my car with the exact same oil
and go for a pointless journey.

