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26 November 2009

Where are the doves?

More on the Chilcot committee

By Mehdi Hasan

I blogged earlier in the week about why I’m a cynic on Chilcot and the Iraq Inquiry.

The former UK diplomat Craig Murray is even more cynical than I am, accusing Sir John Chilcot of telling his “first big lie” within ten minutes of the start of the first public session of the inquiry, when he remarked:

My colleagues and I come to this inquiry with an open mind.

But, as Murray argues:

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That is demonstrably untrue. Three of the five members — Rod Lyne, Martin Gilbert and Lawrence Freedman — are prominent proponents of the Iraq war. By contrast, nobody on the committee was in public against the invasion of Iraq. How can it be fine to pack the committee with supporters of the invasion, when anyone against the invasion was excluded?

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He then picks apart the biogs of all five committee members. It’s worth reading in full here.

 

UPDATE: PoliticsHome has a poll out showing 56 per cent of the public are sceptical that the Chilcot inquiry committee is sufficiently independent. Nice to know I’m not on my own . . .

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