Iraq War Chilcot Report Will Extend Blame 'Beyond Blair'
It's Not Just Blair Who Should Be Worried About Chilcot's Report
Aubrey Allegretti— The Huffington Post UK
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The long-anticipated inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq War will extend blame to senior political figures outside of just Tony Blair and his then-inner circle, it is being reported.
Sir John Chilcot, who is Chairing the six-year investigation, will instead appropriate a higher proportion of criticism to ministers who served under the Prime Minister in 2003 than previously expected, Guardian journalists claim.
Those tipped to be under fire could include former foreign secretary Jack Straw, ex-head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove, and Clare Short, then international development minister.
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Others in focus, the Guardian says, are Sir John Scarlett, chairman of the joint intelligence committee, Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, and officials from two government departments.
Each person criticised by Chilcot and his four co-committee members will have to be sent draft passages of their comments, allowing them an opportunity to comment.
But this process, which has already been delayed multiple times, could drag on even further if a wider pool of people are being waited on to respond.
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Blame could extend beyond ex-PM Tony Blair
It originally suffered a three-year hold-up because of a dispute between Chilcot and successive cabinet secretaries over which minutes of conversations between Tony Blair and ex-US President George W Bush could be published.
The report's publication date has been repeatedly put back even further, as its Chair insists his team need more time to allow for replies from figures criticised, even though hearings were completed back in 2011 -- the ensuing process has cost taxpayers more than £10 million to date.
David Cameron last week put pressure on Chilcot to finally deliver his findings, commenting: “It’s frustrating. We want this inquiry finished. It’s for the good of the families. It’s for the good of the country.”
Iraq War: 10 Years Later
(01 of10)
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Smoke covers the presidential palace compound in Baghdad 21 March 2003 during a massive U.S.-led air raid on the Iraqi capital. (RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(02 of10)
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A US Marine covers the face of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's statue with the US flag in Baghdad's al-Fardous square April 9, 2003. The world was stunned when iconic images of US marines and Iraqis pulling down a statue of Saddam Hussein flashed across television screens. (RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
(03 of10)
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In this April 9, 2003 file photo, Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein in downtown Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File) (credit:AP)
(04 of10)
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This 01 May 2003 file photo shows US President George W. Bush addressing the nation on Iraq beneath a banner reading 'Mission Accomplished' aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln as it sails for Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California. (STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
(05 of10)
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Samar Hassan screams after her parents were killed by U.S. Soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division in a shooting January 18, 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached them during a dusk patrol in the tense northern Iraqi town. Parents Hussein and Camila Hassan were killed instantly, and a son Racan, 11, was seriously wounded in the abdomen. Racan, who lost the use of his legs, was treated later in the U.S. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(06 of10)
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An Iraqi girl gets embarrassed after offering flowers to a US female soldier from Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment during a joint house-by-house search operation between Iraqi and US forces, in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, 16 April 2007. (MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(07 of10)
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An Iraqi woman cries as she successfully identified the remains of a relative after looking through the remains of hundreds of bodies in a school where bodies have been brought from a mass grave discovered in the desert in the outskirts of Al Musayyib, 50 km south of Baghdad, May 27, 2003 in Iraq. People searched for days for identity cards or other clues among the skeletons to try to find the remains of family members, including children, from the grave that locals say contain the remains of hundreds of Shi'ite Muslims executed by Saddam Hussein's regime after their uprising following the 1991 Gulf War. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(08 of10)
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This is an image obtained by The Associated Press which shows an unidentified detainee standing on a box with a bag on his head and wires attatched to him in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo, File) (credit:AP)
(09 of10)
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Members of the US Army Old Guard serve as the carry team for US Army Specialist Israel Candelaria Mejias from San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, as they bear his transfer case shortly after his body was returned on a C-17 to the US from Iraq on April 7, 2009 at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The flag-draped coffin of 28-year old Candelaria Mejias, who died in Baghdad on April 5, was among the first photographed by media late April 7, 2009, after Defense Secretary Robert Gates lifted a longstanding ban on press coverage of the return of fallen soldiers. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(10 of10)
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Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division board a C-17 transport plane to depart from Iraq at Camp Adder, now known as Imam Ali Base, on Saturday Dec. 17, 2011, near Nasiriyah, Iraq. Around 500 troops from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division ended their presence at Camp Adder, the last remaining American base, and departed in the final American military convoy out of Iraq, arriving into Kuwait in the early morning hours of December 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Mario Tama) (credit:AP)