Thoughts
After Chilcot
By Craig Murray
July 07, 2016
"Information
Clearing House"
- I hope today that people will remember Elizabeth
Wilmshurst, Carne Ross, and Katherine Gun, who were
all prepared to give up excellent careers to stand
against the war in Iraq.
Blair is
still a creature of absolute self-serving slime. His
attempt yesterday to justify the invasion of Iraq as
an effort to prevent a 9/11 on British soil is
dishonest in every way. Blair knew full well that
Iraq had nothing at all to do with 9/11 – that was
his still friends and financiers the Saudi elite.
The intelligence advice in advance of the invasion
he received was unequivocal that it would increase
the threat to the UK, and it directly caused the
attacks of 7/7.
The
broadcast media seem to think the Chilcot report is
an occasion to give unlimited airtime to Blair and
Alastair Campbell. Scores of supporters and
instigators of the was have been interviewed. By
contrast, almost no airtime has been given to those
who campaigned against the war.
Cameron’s
speech to parliament was such an out and out, and
dishonest, apologia for the invasion that it bore no
relationship to the report. Corbyn is no orator, but
his genuine moral outrage was justified. The
Blairites who heckled him from behind during his
speech are disgusting. If any meaningful democratic
choice is to be offered to people in England and
Wales, the Blairites have to be removed from the
Labour Party to join with their fellow Tories.
The SNP are
playing a blinder on Chilcot. I do hope Salmond
moves forward with impeachment, not least because it
will both force the Blairites to expose themselves,
and reveal the deep feelings against Blair’s actions
in the military linked wing of the Tory party.
As
predicted, Chilcot had to repeat the Butler
Inquiry’s verdict that the intelligence was not
fixed, because Chilcot was himself on the Butler
Inquiry. It is a lie, the intelligence was knowingly
fixed.
Craig
Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights
activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan
from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the
University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. |