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Former British Ambassador To U.S. Testifies Before Iraq War Inquiry Panel 75 days ago
(RTTNews) - Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's ambassador to Washington from 1997 to 2003, testified before an inquiry commission probing into the reasons for Britain joining the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on Thursday, suggesting that Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's view on Iraq was influenced by then U.S. President George W Bush.
Meyer told the panel that Blair's views on bringing about a regime change in Iraq "tightened" after a private meeting with George Bush at the former U.S. president's family ranch in 2002. He said that no officials were present during the talks, but added that the following day Blair mentioned the regime change in Iraq for the first time.
"I know what the Cabinet Office says were the results of the meeting but to this day I am not entirely clear what degree of convergence was, if you like, signed in blood at the Crawford ranch," Meyer said. "There are clues in the speech that Tony Blair gave the next day ... To the best of my knowledge, I may be wrong, this was the first time that Tony Blair had said in public 'regime change'."
"What he was trying to do was to draw the lessons of 9/11 and apply them to the situation in Iraq which led -- I think not inadvertently but deliberately -- to a conflation of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein," he added.
Meyer went on the say that intelligence officials from both countries were left "scrabbling" for finding evidence to prove Saddam Hussein possessed chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction. He said that such evidence was necessary to get a UN Security Council resolution supporting the invasion and to legitimize claims that Iraq was a threat to international security.
He said that the UK administration felt it was "pointless" to resist the U.S. plans for invading Iraq and bringing in a regime change there, as the Americans were "powerful enough" to go it alone. He added that the U.S. wanted to built an international coalition for the Iraq war to get "friends and partners" on board.
His testimony was made before an independent six-member panel probing the circumstances that led the country into the Iraq war and its subsequent role in the conflict. The panel is headed by Sir John Chilcot, a former civil servant, who has said that he hopes to conclude his report in late 2010.
The hearings began in central London on Tuesday, with panel chairman John Chilcot reiterating the independent nature of the inquiry. He said that no one will be put on trial, adding that his panel will not determine the guilt or innocence of any one involved in the decision making process concerning the Iraq war. He, however, stressed that his panel will "not shy away from making criticisms where they are warranted."
While four senior diplomats and advisers gave evidence on the origin of the Iraqi war on Tuesday, Sir William Ehrman, the British Foreign Office's director general for defense and intelligence between 2002 and 2004, and Tim Dowse, the former head of counter-proliferation for the UK foreign office, testified on Wednesday.
In the course of its inquiry, the panel will interview major decision-makers in key phases of the Iraq war, including former Prime Minster Tony Blair, who is scheduled to appear before the inquiry committee in January.
Blair, who was much criticized by many in Britain for backing former U.S. President George W. Bush in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has pledged to cooperate "fully" with the inquiry. His unpopularity over Britain's involvement in the Iraq war was one of the main reasons for his resignation in 2007.
Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, had announced in June that his government would launch an independent inquiry into Britain's involvement in the Iraq war. Though he had then stated that it would be held in secret due to national security reasons, Brown was forced to reconsider his decision following objections from various sources, including families of service men and women who had been killed in the conflict.
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