From Stop the War Coalition
There is a growing sense of anticipation in relation to the publication of the Chilcot report. However, after years of lies and obfuscation, it is reasonable to be sceptical about the recent media claims that the soon to be released Chilcot report will provide a genuinely scathing critique of the process that led us into the Iraq War.
Former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond has already called for Tony Blair to be tried in the Hague for war crimes. It is well documented that Blair was committed to regime change (which is entirely illegal under international law) over a year before the invasion actually started.
It is also well documented that the intelligence dossiers which were used by the government to justify going into war were highly misleading. As Professor Steven Kettell noted, the weapons expert Dr David Kelly, who died in the wake of the invasion of Iraq, revealed that members of the intelligence community were alarmed about the way in which their opinion was ignored by Tony Blair's war-mongering clique.
Stop the War Coalition is hosting a People's Chilcot Tribunal to establish who was to blame for the catastrophes of the Iraq War, including over a million deaths and millions of refugees who are still fleeing the devastated country. There will be testimony from a wide range of people including former UN envoy to Iraq Hans von Sponeck, ex-soldiers Ben Griffin and Geoff Martin, writer Tariq Ali, Iraqi dissident Sami Ramadani, political commentator Peter Oborne, Stop the War convenor Lindsey German, CND chair Kate Hudson, Peter Brierley from Military Families Against the War, and former MP Alice Mahon.
You can book your place here. Please invite your friends as well. We will also hold a public meeting the day after the report is released
8th June 3pm-8pm Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre. 25 New Inn Yard, EC2A 3EAJ
There is a growing sense of anticipation in relation to the publication of the Chilcot report. However, after years of lies and obfuscation, it is reasonable to be sceptical about the recent media claims that the soon to be released Chilcot report will provide a genuinely scathing critique of the process that led us into the Iraq War.
Former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond has already called for Tony Blair to be tried in the Hague for war crimes. It is well documented that Blair was committed to regime change (which is entirely illegal under international law) over a year before the invasion actually started.
It is also well documented that the intelligence dossiers which were used by the government to justify going into war were highly misleading. As Professor Steven Kettell noted, the weapons expert Dr David Kelly, who died in the wake of the invasion of Iraq, revealed that members of the intelligence community were alarmed about the way in which their opinion was ignored by Tony Blair's war-mongering clique.
Stop the War Coalition is hosting a People's Chilcot Tribunal to establish who was to blame for the catastrophes of the Iraq War, including over a million deaths and millions of refugees who are still fleeing the devastated country. There will be testimony from a wide range of people including former UN envoy to Iraq Hans von Sponeck, ex-soldiers Ben Griffin and Geoff Martin, writer Tariq Ali, Iraqi dissident Sami Ramadani, political commentator Peter Oborne, Stop the War convenor Lindsey German, CND chair Kate Hudson, Peter Brierley from Military Families Against the War, and former MP Alice Mahon.
You can book your place here. Please invite your friends as well. We will also hold a public meeting the day after the report is released
8th June 3pm-8pm Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre. 25 New Inn Yard, EC2A 3EAJ
4 comments:
Re 'media claims'. Zelo St (Tim Fenton) does a nice analysis of the Sunday Times 'exclusive' here:
http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/sunday-times-chilcot-questions.html
Mike Hine
As someone who wrote to Tony Blair* in January 2003 (with a copy to MP Barry Gardiner), explaining why an invasion of Iraq would be illegal, I do have a long-standing view on this issue!
It is not just Tony Blair who should have appeared before a court in The Hague many years ago, but also George W Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld - they were the architects of the death and destruction inflicted on the people of Iraq, and of the destabilisation of the region (which I also warned against in my 2003 letter) which is still causing so much suffering thirteen years later.
Unfortunately, although it welcomes other "war criminals" being tried and convicted at The Hague, I believe that the United States does not actually recognise the jurisdiction of the International Court there, so will not extradite any of its own citizens to stand trial!
Philip.
*P.S. I did not receive a reply to my letter from Tony Blair, nor even an acknowledgement from 10 Downing Street on his behalf. Instead, several weeks after the invasion had taken place, the Foreign Office sent me a copy of a speech which Jack Straw had made in the House of Commons, with a compliments slip! That was the extent of the Blair Government's concern about the views of the British people in this matter.
I think that says it all !!!!!
I'd vote for a War on Lack of Accountability - with Philip leading the charge!
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