Blair urged gung-ho stance over Saddam

Published on Friday 21 January 2011 17:22

TONY Blair urged a "gung-ho" stance to the Iraq War a year before troops actually went in it emerged yesterday as the former prime minister faced a second grilling at the Chilcot inquiry.

• A protester lampoons the former prime minister yesterday

The revelation was taken as confirmation that Mr Blair was determined to go to war at an early stage whether he received backing from the UN or not.

The tension around the session was underlined as mothers of service personnel who lost their lives, including Rose Gentle from Glasgow, turned their backs on him as he walked into the room and later shouted "too late" as he expressed regrets about the loss of life.

There was already anger about the decision by Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet secretary, not to publish key correspondence between Mr Blair and President george Bush, a decision the former prime minister made clear he agreed with.

Under questioning Mr Blair also acknowledged he had not passed a document to Cabinet members detailing alternatives to war and crucially had ignored early advice from the then Attorney General Lord Goldsmith that the war may be illegal.

The "gung-ho" remark emerged in a note about a comment he made to an advisor in March 2002 published yesterday and was further emphasised by Mr Blair's evidence that he told President Bush that he was "up for" regime change.

Mr Blair also went on to strongly hint that the world may need to take similar action against Iran.

In his evidence to the inquiry, he said that, while he made clear that he would always stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the Americans, he had also succeeded in persuading the US leader to go down the "UN route" first.

The former premier said regime change in Baghdad had always been "on the agenda" for the Americans after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. He acknowledged that it had come up when he spoke to Mr Bush by telephone on 3 December that year.

"Regime change was their policy so regime change was part of the discussion," he said. "If it became the only way of dealing with this issue, we were going to be up for that."

He added: "The Americans, from September 11 onwards, this was on their agenda."

The inquiry also released a note from Mr Blair to his chief of staff Jonathan Powell, shortly before his visit to Mr Bush at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in which he argued that Labour should be "gung-ho" about dealing with Saddam.

He said that, from "a centre-left perspective", the case for action against the Iraqi dictator should be "obvious".

"Saddam's regime is a brutal, oppressive military dictatorship. He kills his opponents, has wrecked his country's economy and is a source of instability and danger in the region," he wrote.

"I can understand a right-wing Tory opposed to 'nation-building' being opposed to it on grounds it hasn't any direct bearing on our national interest. But in fact a political philosophy that does care about other nations - e.g. Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone - and is prepared to change regimes on the merits, should be gung-ho on Saddam."

On current politics Mr Blair, who is a Middle East peace envoy, said the Iranians would remain a destabilising force in the region - while continuing to develop their nuclear programme - unless they were confronted with the "requisite determination".

"This is a looming and coming challenge. I am out in the region the whole time, I see the impact and influence of Iran everywhere. It is negative, destabilising, it is supportive of terrorist groups, it is doing everything it can to impede progress in the Middle East process," he said.

"This is not because we have done something. At some point - and I say this to you with all the passion I possibly can - the West has got to get out of this wretched posture of apology for believing that we are responsible for what the Iranians are doing, or what these extremists are doing."

He added: "The answer to Iran is not Saddam. That was the policy in the 1980s and all we did was create a monster we couldn't control."

Mr Blair acknowledged he had argued publicly that no further resolution was needed to authorise military action if Saddam failed to comply, even though attorney general Lord Goldsmith was at that stage advising that a second resolution was necessary.

In the event, Lord Goldsmith - who told the inquiry that he had been "uncomfortable" with Mr Blair's remarks - changed his mind two weeks before the invasion. Mr Blair said the attorney had taken his earlier view because he had not been closely involved in the UN negotiations and that "in retrospect" it would have been sensible if he had.

"I think then we would not, probably, have got into a situation where he thought, provisionally at least, that we needed more resolutions. Had he known all the negotiating history, we could have avoided some of the problems later," he said.

Mr Blair again insisted that the resources had been made available to help reconstruct Iraq after the war, but blamed bad planning for the chaos which ensued.

Expressing his regrets for the loss of life he concluded: "I wanted to make it clear that, of course, I regret deeply and profoundly the loss of life, whether from our own armed forces, those of other nations, the civilians who helped people in Iraq or the Iraqis themselves."

But his words failed to convince many in the audience.

As he left the inquiry room, Mrs Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon was killed during the conflict, shouted at him: "Your lies killed my son. I hope you can live with it."

'Sneak attack'

Anti-war protesters launched an angry attack on Tony Blair after he "sneaked" into the Iraq inquiry and claimed there were growing calls for the former prime minister to face a war crimes tribunal.

Mr Blair arrived at the QEII Conference Centre in Westminster more than two hours before he was due to be questioned again and well before a protest by groups that included CND and the Stop The War Coalition.

Scores of activists turned up, holding banners calling the ex-premier a liar and chanting "Tony Blair - to The Hague", where war crimes tribunals are held.

One man wore a Tony Blair mask and handcuffed himself to a mock cell door.

Andrew Murray, chairman of the Stop The War Coalition, said: "Yet again he has sneaked in under cover of darkness, mirroring the way in which he launched his illegal war in 2003.

"Hopefully later today, he will be asked to tell the truth about the legal advice he was given by Lord Goldsmith and also be challenged publicly about the contents of his letters to George Bush which he is still keeping secret."

Peter Brierley, whose son, Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley, died soon after being deployed to Iraq, said he was not surprised that Mr Blair arrived early and avoided being confronted by the protest, as he did last time he was questioned by the inquiry.

"He cannot be questioned properly here because he can just walk out any time he chooses. He should face a proper court and be questioned by barristers and lawyers.

"He should face a criminal investigation because he is a war criminal. He killed my son, and I will continue campaigning until he is brought to justice."

John Rees, one of the founders of the Stop The War Coalition, said the inquiry was a waste of money which would not get to the truth of the Iraq war.

Comment before the Iraq war to advisor

A political philosophy that does care about other nations . . . and is prepared to change regimes on the merits, should be gung-ho on Saddam

On why he disregarded early advice from Lord Goldsmith that war might be illegal

I had not yet got to the stage of a formal request for advice and neither had he got to the point of formally giving it

On the post war reconstruction of Iraq

I was absolutely sure that if we required more resources we could provide them. Money wasn't the problem, it really wasn't the problem

Blaming the French for the failure to get a second resolution

What they weren't prepared to do under any circumstances ... they weren't prepared to agree to a resolution that included an ultimatum

On failure to find weapons of mass destruction

It's not as if he did not develop those weapons, he developed and used them. He saw having nuclear and chemical capabilities as a central part of the security of his regime

On the war deaths

I wanted to make it clear that, of course, I regret deeply and profoundly the loss of life, whether from our own armed forces, those of other nations, the civilians who helped people in Iraq or the Iraqis themselves

On Iran

I say this to you with all the passion I possibly can, the West has got to get out of this wretched posture of apology for believing that we are responsible for what the Iranians are doing, or what these extremists are doing"

On US policy and his reaction to that

Regime change was their policy so regime change was part of the discussion. If it became the only way of dealing with this issue, we were going to be up for that