Good To See Tony Blair's Safer Iraq Is Still Safe And Well

[Red-Robbo]

Ah the Hutton inquiry, that wasn't biased was it?.

Why do you say that? It was held independently of the government, chaired by a high court judue and reported after Blair had left office.

Its main finding was that the BBC was wring to claim that the 45 minute claim had been "inserted" into the dossier later. The reporter who made the claim mysteriously couldn't find his notebooks and was subsequently sacked.

You have enough to ammunition to criticise Blair over Iraq without having to decide - without any evidence - that a judicial inquiry "was biased".

As it happens, I do think one thing Blair said recently was correct. Iraq was an ethnic tinderbox and whenever Saddam was removed, either by his death or some sort of Arab Spring uprising, you were going to get a religious civil war. He had set the fuse by systematically favouring one community over the others during his long reign and by brutally oppressing Shia and Kurdish opposition.

Of course, having recognised this fact, you might think Blair would be given another reason to pause for thought before he and Bush set off to create a happy democratic Iraq-land.

[Esmond Million's Bung]

Why do you say that? It was held independently of the government, chaired by a high court judue and reported after Blair had left office.

Its main finding was that the BBC was wring to claim that the 45 minute claim had been "inserted" into the dossier later. The reporter who made the claim mysteriously couldn't find his notebooks and was subsequently sacked.

You have enough to ammunition to criticise Blair over Iraq without having to decide - without any evidence - that a judicial inquiry "was biased".

As it happens, I do think one thing Blair said recently was correct. Iraq was an ethnic tinderbox and whenever Saddam was removed, either by his death or some sort of Arab Spring uprising, you were going to get a religious civil war. He had set the fuse by systematically favouring one community over the others during his long reign and by brutally oppressing Shia and Kurdish opposition.

Of course, having recognised this fact, you might think Blair would be given another reason to pause for thought before he and Bush set off to create a happy democratic Iraq-land.

 

Yeah really independent, Hutton selected by Blair, parameters of the inquiry set by Blair, so it was Blair's ball, Blair's goal posts, Blair wrote the theme tune, Blair sang the theme tune.

 

Wasn't Gilligan trying to protect his source David Kelly?, which as it stands was a very credible source and the Hutton report concluded that the BBC 'outed' Kelly as the source, when the rest of the world actually knows it was Blair who flagrantly 'outed' Kelly on the transatlantic flight on the way back from his latest gimp session with Bush.

 

So forgive me if I, the majority of the UK public, most political commentators and even probably most labour politicians in the cold light of day and especially with a general election in less than 12 months time believe that the Hutton inquiry was indeed a whitewash.

 

and to add insult to injury Blair is still manipulating the content of the Chilcot inquiry.

[Red-Robbo]

Yeah really independent, Hutton selected by Blair, parameters of the inquiry set by Blair, so it was Blair's ball, Blair's goal posts, Blair wrote the theme tune, Blair sang the theme tune.

Wasn't Gilligan trying to protect his source David Kelly?, which as it stands was a very credible source and the Hutton report concluded that the BBC 'outed' Kelly as the source, when the rest of the world actually knows it was Blair who flagrantly 'outed' Kelly on the transatlantic flight on the way back from his latest gimp session with Bush.

So forgive me if I, the majority of the UK public, most political commentators and even probably most labour politicians in the cold light of day and especially with a general election in less than 12 months time believe that the Hutton inquiry was indeed a whitewash.

and to add insult to injury Blair is still manipulating the content of the Chilcot inquiry.

Gilligan couldn't prove that Kelly had said that - and Kelly denied it. So either Gilligan "sexed up" his own report or he's a very poor journalist. Either way he had to be sacked

I note he's subsequently got his present employers, the Evening Standard, in trouble. Twice losing libel cases.