Chilcot defends inquiry questioning

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Sir John Chilcot has defended the Iraq War Inquiry following criticism that the questioning of witnesses has not been thorough enough.

The most notable criticism came when Sir John Scarlett told the inquiry that the claim Iraq was able to launch weapons of mass destruction against the United Kingdom within 45 minutes was "reliable and authoritative" evidence.

Recent reports had suggested the source of this evidence was an Iraqi taxi driver, and intelligence expert Dr Brian Jones said Scarlett's claim that it was reliable evidence was "nonsense".

Chilcot also confirmed that he intends to question former Prime Minister Tony Blair in public when he appears before the inquiry in 2010.

In a statement on the inquiry website, Chilcot defended the questioning method employed by the inquiry team.

"We have not been trying to ambush witnesses or score points," he wrote. "This is a serious Inquiry. We are not here to provide public sport or entertainment. The whole point of our approach has been to get to the facts. We ask fair questions and we expect full and truthful answers. That is the essence of a formal public inquiry, and witnesses have responded to this approach by being commendably open and candid, highlighting a number of issues which we shall examine much more closely as the inquiry continues."

Chilcot also said the inquiry would make some previously classified material publicly available, although it had not done so yet.

"Our model of questioning and our selection of witnesses in the hearings up until 11 January is designed to help establish the narrative. We took a conscious decision to do this through the oral hearings rather than through the publication of a mass of documentary material, because we believe that this is the most helpful way to provide the necessary context. We have therefore not yet made any requests to Government to declassify documents to allow them to be published.

"As we move into the next phase of evidence taking, where we will hear from ministers and the most senior civil servants and military officers, the inquiry will increasingly wish to draw on government records which are currently classified -in some cases highly classified -in its questioning. Where we do, we will seek the necessary declassification of records in advance of the relevant public hearings, with a view to making the written records publicly available."

The full statement is available here.