His sins were Scarlett but his dossier was read and believed

Writing in today's Guardian Simon Jenkins says "The days of believing spy chiefs who say 'Trust us' are over."   Sorry Simon, those days were over more than a decade ago when Sir John Scarlett colluded with Blair's No.10 in compiling the dodgy dossier.  Or perhaps in 1924 when MI5 and/or MI6 leaked the fake Zinoviev letter to the Daily Mail and brought down the Labour government.

In case you have any doubts about Scarlett's culpability, we have his memo to No.10 at the time in which he refers to "the benefit of obscuring the fact that in terms of WMD Iraq is not that exceptional".  Scarlett later claimed at the Iraq Inquiry that he had not been under pressure to change the dossier and that it was produced in good faith.    Even the weak-kneed Hutton Inquiry concluded "that Scarlett had worked closely with Alastair Campbell, then the Prime Minister's Director of Communications and Strategy, on the controversial September Dossier, with Campbell making drafting suggestions which the inquiry found may have "subconsciously influenced" Scarlett and the JIC. This influence may have had deleterious effects on the quality of the assessments presented in the dossier."

But what does Sir John Mcleod Scarlett care ?  In 2004 he became head of SIS and in 2007 he got his KCMG.  No, Simon Jenkins, the days of trusting spy chiefs are long over.

(Footnote: it was Norman Baker who forced an investigation into the Zinoviev letter as well as accusing the security service of complicity in the death of Dr Kelly following his criticism of the dodgy dossier.)

Robin Cook resigned. 396 warmongers should have.

Whilst looking for something else I came upon Robin Cook's resignation speech on You Tube.  I remember listening to it at the time.  It still moves me to tears and anger at Tony Blair and his fellow war criminals on the Labour front bench.   At the end of the clip when the house claps, you can see their embarrassed immobility, except for John Prescott who shifts his great weight uncomfortably.  Cook  was a better man than any of you.   I for one will not forget how Labour and Tories took us to war on false pretences.  Tories need not pretend that Blair deceived them.  He didn't deceive Cook and he didn't deceive me and he didn't deceive the millions who marched against his shameful war.

You can find Cook's speech here and the Iraq debate here.  It is a peculiarity of Hansard that whilst the record contains the full text of Tony Blair's motion for war, it does not appear to contain the text of the amendment opposing war without UNSC consent.  The amendment was lost 396 to 217.  You may read here the list of MPs who voted NO to the amendment and therefore yes to war.  Never let them forget it.

Where were Blair's tears ?

I never thought I would have something good to say about Margaret Thatcher but archives released by Churchill College reveal that she understood what her decisions meant for soldiers and sailors, even weeping over the loss of HMS Sheffield.    I doubt that papers released in future will show such concern by Tony Blair over the lives he destroyed in Iraq through his lies and cavalier attitude to war and invasion.

Watching a liar explain

Alarmingly, so far, the various documents (Cabinet, Foreign Office etc) quoted at the Chilcot Enquiry, seem to have considered how to deal with Saddam without any reference to what would be the impact of military intervention on a) Iraq, b) relations with the Muslim world, c) terrorism, d)the system of International law built up since WW2. Perhaps that's all in the papers we're not allowed to see. Perhaps...

Did Blair lie to the Inquiry ? (1) Regime Change

The inquiry panel asked Tony Blair if regime change was a valid objective. He replied, "No,the absolute key issue was WMD", but almost every other answer showed that the answer should have been "Yes". He conflated the two issues of WMD and regime change, saying that they were "...two ways of saying the same thing". He told the inquiry that the only commitment he had given Bush at Crawford was "...to deal with Saddam". The panel suggested that he and Bush had been agreed on ends but not means and he responded, "Agreed on both...".

At the end when infamously Blair refused to admit any regrets, he said, "Responsibility but no regrets at removing Saddam Hussein. He threatened not just a region but the world." The inquiry tackled him on the Fern Britton interview where he said that despite the lack of WMD, "I would still have thought it right to remove him. I mean obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments about the nature of the threat." His disingenuous response was to pretend that despite his experience he had been tricked.

LIARS: Truth was a casualty even before the Iraq War

It may be that listening to the pathetic excuses and Jesuitical wriggling of a succession of Labour ministers at the Iraq Inquiry has left me more than usually disgusted and angry with New Labour even before Blair's testimony. I know there were honourable exceptions like Robin Cook and Chris Smith but too many self-serving apologists allowed Tony Blair to take us to war. Rarely has a war been wrong on so many levels - legal, moral and even the realpolitik of self-interest.

My disgust boiled over today after hours of Goldsmith so that when I heard Denis MacShane on the news, I sent him the following message:

I have just heard your comments on the World at One. You should be ashamed of yourself. You showed your well-established contempt for international law because it gives a voice to foreigners, including the French ! You also made clear by your cheap attack on the Liberal Democrats that you think regime change is a legitimate reason for the use of force. Thank goodness you will never serve in the Foreign Office or any ministry again.

Where are the street parties ?

I had expected the entire country to get out the trestle tables and bunting and hold street parties to celebrate the departure of Tony Blair, but they haven't. Perhaps people realise that the rest of the ministers and Labour MPs who voted for war in Iraq and ever more restrictions on civil liberties are still in office.

Meanwhile I have sent this to the BBC:

"Please stop covering Blair's departure as if it was a royal wedding: "Here's the car leaving Downing ST", "Here's the car arriving at Buckingham Palace" etc. Just rejoice that he's going and give us some real news."

The Northing of Harry*

So, they've finally decided that Prince Harry should not summon up the blood, stiffen the sinews nor imitate the action of a tiger, in short not go to Iraq.

Of course, none of us should have gone to Iraq.

Also, (pace Bernard Bresslaw, Alfie Bass and other ITV stars from 1960) the army is not a game. Specifically it is not Royal Tennis. I am not a pacifist. We need armed forces but we should not use them for the wrong purpose. They are not there to invade other countries at the behest of George Bush nor to occupy young royals.


*By Mrs Malaprop out of William the Conqueror

Rejoice, rejoice ! He's going. But get out the sick bags.

So, farewell then, Tony Blair.

I do rejoice that he's going. This is not just because of the invasion of Iraq, which was immoral, illegal and in the less elevated terms of realpolitik just bad for Britain's position in the world, in fact a disaster for international relations, the rule of law and relations between Christians, humanists and Moslems which will poison our world for decades to come. It's also because he has undermined our democracy, replacing the cabinet by the sofa, parliament by media barons and substance by surface. He was far worse than Margaret Thatcher. I opposed her policies as well but she was basically honest.

Here come the sick bags. Today as usual, he said, "I did what I thought was right for our country". Applying the usual test of meaningfulness ( see Saying nothing in Scotland). Can you imagine anyone saying, "I did what I thought was wrong for our country" ? The whole point of our democracy crafted over centuries has been to save us from autocracy, from the judgement or prejudices of one man ignoring the opinions of his colleagues and the advice of those with more experience.

For light relief from the Blairfest turn to this animation of My Way.

Mark Higson: another honest man

Radio 4's Friday play tonight Buried was the story of another Foreign Office man who wouldn't lie and broke the story of the UK's arms sales to Iraq, thus ruining his own career. You can still hear the play for the next seven days.