Simon Carr: 'Secret' note makes mockery of evidence

Sketch

Saturday 30 January 2010 01:00
Comments

Five days after 9/11 I covered a parliamentary occasion finishing with the words: "...there was something in Mr Straw's manner which made me say, 'God, they're going to invade Iraq'."

I got the same sort of frisson halfway through Tony Blair's evidence yesterday as he repeated with quivering earnestness and his bionic eye glaring, that "ANY possibility of WMD should be stopped" and "don't take ANY risks with this issue", and "Iran is very similar situation [to Iraq], which is why these lessons are so important".

The lessons he's learnt aren't quite what we might have hoped. He can't admit error. So he has to rearrange ever larger events to fit in with the things he has chosen to believe.

Decent old Chilcot began by saying two new documents had been declassified. Terrific, one would be the devastating Manning Memo, leaked some years ago, and now all over the internet. One of Blair's big advisers had met with Condi Rice before the Crawford signed-in-blood meeting, and he reported this: "I said that you would not budge in your support for regime change but you had to manage a press, a Parliament and... public opinion."

Incredibly, that's still classified. It's a state secret that everybody can read.

Google the full text and in six seconds you'll see things the Inquiry can't mention. It's a line directly into Blair's brain and backs up his Fern Britton interview. Confronted with that text he couldn't have got away saying, "I didn't use the words 'regime change'".

The memo makes it impossible to believe him when he says: "I really hoped 1441 would avoid conflict."

There isn't space for full denunciation of the committee but as ever, they really didn't nail it. Here are some other remarks.

"I can't remember any specific conversations" with Lord Goldsmith in the weeks before he came to his "better view".

The 45-minute claim he wrote in the foreword to his dossier? "I didn't focus on it."

"The planning for the aftermath of war was good."

"Saddam threatened the world."

"I didn't say it was 'beyond doubt' I said 'I believed' it was beyond doubt."

He finished with the only clear lie of the day. He had no regrets. That can't be true. Too many dead for zero regrets, surely. And some of their parents there in the room behind him. But there it was: no regrets, only responsibilities. They'll like that in the US. The world is his moral gymnasium. We can only pray that his new fitness regime doesn't kill too many of our friends.

Register for free to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism

By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists

Please enter a valid email
Please enter a valid email
Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number
Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number
Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number
Please enter your first name
Special characters aren’t allowed
Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters
Please enter your last name
Special characters aren’t allowed
Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters
You must be over 18 years old to register
You must be over 18 years old to register
Opt-out-policy
You can opt-out at any time by signing in to your account to manage your preferences. Each email has a link to unsubscribe.

By clicking ‘Create my account’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply.

Already have an account? sign in

By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply.

Register for free to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism

By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists

Already have an account? sign in

By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply.

Join our new commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in