Chilcot inquiry into Iraq war could report this year, says David Cameron | UK news | The Guardian

Chilcot inquiry into Iraq war could report this year, says David Cameron | UK news | The Guardian

Chilcot inquiry into Iraq war could report this year, says David Cameron

PM's comments suggest
UK and US are close to settling dispute over publishing exchanges between Tony
Blair and George Bush

The Guardian, Friday 16 May 2014 19.23 BST

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/16/chilcot-inquiry-iraq-war-report-david-cameron-blair-bush

Sir John
Chilcot’s inquiry into the Iraq war completed public hearings in 2011, but it
has still not published its report. Photograph: Matt Dunham/PA

David Cameron said he hoped the Chilcot
inquiry into the conduct of the Iraq war will publish its report by the end of
the year, adding: "I think we shouldn't have to wait much longer".



His remarks suggest the long-running delays
caused by disagreements over whether to publish classified materials including
bilateral exchanges between the former prime minister Tony Blair and ex-president
George W Bush are gradually being cleared up.



Cameron said it was frustrating that the
report had not been published yet but he could not intervene as it was an
independent inquiry.



"I want to see it published soon. My
understanding is that they will be able to publish before the end of the year
and I very much hope they can deliver on that timetable," he said.
"The public wants to see the answers of the inquiry and I think we
shouldn't have to wait too much longer."



The prime minister's comments came after
Bernard Jenkin, the chair of the public administration select committee, said
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, or Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet
secretary, may be summoned before his committee to explain the "very
serious" delays to Chilcot's publication. Jenkin complained that the
report is already four years overdue.



The defence secretary, Philip Hammond, has
also called for the inquiry to be published quickly even if it causes some
damage to the Ministry of Defence.



If the report is not published by the autumn,
it is likely to be delayed until the summer of 2015 due to the proximity of the
general election.



The delay is largely caused by disputes
between the Chilcot inquiry and intelligence sources on both sides of the
Atlantic, who fear precedents will be set about publishing some of the most
sensitive discussions ever held between a British prime minister and a US
president.



It is argued in Whitehall that Britain's
fragile special relationship with the US will be damaged if Washington thinks
its most secret exchanges can be published by subsequent UK public inquiries.



Blair's office insists that the former prime
minister has no interest in delaying publication and he would like the report
published so he can justify his actions in the face of claims that he led
Britain into its biggest post-war foreign policy disaster or misled the public
about the intelligence on Saddam Hussein's arsenal of chemical weapons.



The inquiry said it had submitted 10 requests
to publish material, covering 200 cabinet-level discussions, 25 notes from
Blair to Bush and more than 130 records of conversations between either Blair
or Gordon Brown and Bush.



The Cabinet Office has previously said it
"has been in a constructive dialogue with the inquiry team over recent
months, with a clear view to meeting their declassification requests.



"This has involved several thousand
documents, subject only to ensuring that national security and foreign policy
objectives are not compromised as provided for in the protocol agreed at the
outset of the inquiry. That process should be concluded shortly."

COMMENT:

The
UK Prime Minister has nothing to fear of loosing by ensuring the publication of
the Chilcot Inquiry after such a long delay. If it is further delayed the World
Community of Nations would be compelled to take the matter to UN and ask as to why and
with what intent UK government wants to delay and or hide the matter once the damage had to happen has already happened. NOW WHAT IS THE FEAR to open to the Public for public information as
it is the right of the population to know and be informed of all information or possess the right to be informed all
information.  If is not published than it
would prove that the present Government is abetting the committal of the crime
by the Prime Ministers of the previous UK government and might face legal action for hiding information from public knowledge..





As
the members of the World Community of Nations we would not hesitate to approach
the Honorable Monarchy to intervene and ask the UK government to issue orders
to publish the Chilcot Inquiry  at once.
We understand that it would be very Embarrassing for the UK Government.    





We also
understand that the person primarily involved with the issue the EX-UK Prime
Minister has requested time and again for its publication but with lame excuse
why should UK government try to avoid publishing it any way. This proves that
the inquiry has such evidence that might prove fatal for the US ex President G
W Bush and all his lackeys including the lawmakers. If that is the case then it
is all the more compelling for the PEOPLE OF THE entire world to know the
facts in the Inquiry report  and The UK Prime Minister has no right or power 
to deny or delay its  publication and hold up information in abeyance form
Public being informed.