Sir John Chilcot Reveals All Those Criticised In Iraq Inquiry Report Have Finally Responded; Key Hurdle Crossed But Process Not Complete
Chilcot Report - Has The Wait Just Got A Bit Shorter?
Paul Waugh— The Huffington Post UK
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File photo dated 21/10/09 of Chairman of the Iraq Inquiry Sir John Chilcot. The long-awaited report of the Chilcot inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war will not be published until after the general election in May because of continuing delays in the process.
David Cheskin/PA Wire
The long-delayed official report into Britain's role in the Iraq War took a big step forward today after Sir John Chilcot revealed he had finally received the last responses from those criticised in it.
In a new letter published on its website, the Iraq Inquiry chairman said that a key part of the so-called 'Maxwellisation' process - which allows those criticised by an official inquiry to be given a chance to respond to it - had been completed.
But Sir John also warned that the responses were so 'substantial' that they would need detailed study and he could not yet give a timetable for when his verdict would be delivered.
It's 12 years since the Iraq War, six years since the Iraq Inquiry was first set up and four years since it completed its hearings, but the Chilcot report is still not ready.
The Inquiry, which has cost £10m to date, has been bogged down by delays including rows over whether memos between Blair and George Bush could be published.
David Cameron said this summer that he and the families of those killed in Iraq were 'fast losing patience' at its failure to publish its findings.
Writing to Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Crispin Blunt, Sir John pointed out that he had promised in August to update MPs on the latest progress.
“In my statement I said that the Inquiry expected to receive the last Maxwell response shortly. I am pleased to confirm that it has now done so," Sir John said.
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Blame could extend beyond ex-PM Tony Blair
But he also warned that the responses from those criticised - including not just Tony Blair but also believed to be some senior military and Whitehall figures - were so 'substantial' that he could not yet put a timeline on the delivery of his final report.
“There is, inevitably, further work for my colleagues and I to do to evaluate those submissions, which are detailed and substantial, in order to establish with confidence the time needed to complete the Inquiry’s remaining work.
"As soon as I am able to I shall write to the Prime Minister with a timetable for publication of the Inquiry’s report."
Downing Street today pointed out that Mr Cameron's view 'has not changed' about the need to end the delays, but suggested that the 'Maxwellisation' process has not ended with the submission of the responses.
"If the process of Maxwellisation is completed, then Sir John Chilcot has undertaken to give the Prime Minister a timetable," the PM's official spokeswoman said.
Figures in the military have been furious that they may be scapegoated for failures and some of the strategic decisions that they believe were ultimately signed off by politicians.
Sir John said last month that he shared the 'anguish' felt by the families of British soldiers killed in Iraq over the delays, but insisted the inquiry remained 'in control of its deadlines'.
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)