David Kelly/Assassination/Hutton Inquiry
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| Date | 1 August 2003 - 28 January 2004 |
|---|---|
In a House of Commons debate on 4 February 2004, Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed that the Hutton Inquiry report had cleared the government of sexing up its Iraq dossier. He also played down concerns about the dossier voiced by Dr Brian Jones, a former senior Defence Intelligence Staff official.[1]
The debate was interrupted by anti-war protesters shouting "no more whitewashes" and the Commons was suspended for about 10 minutes while the public gallery was cleared. Seven protesters from the Oxford Citizens for Truth group were held by police after the incident and released, one of whom Richard Hering said:
- "There is a completely fake debate, nothing is actually discussed."
But the Prime Minister insisted:
- "I am not ashamed of taking the decision to go to war. I think we did the right thing... I think this country and its armed forces should be proud of what we achieved."
Blair called Andrew Gilligan's report which sparked the Hutton Inquiry "100% wrong" and said the retired law lord's "forensic" report was the best defence against accusations of a whitewash.[2]
Unanswered Questions
Important questions were never raised - for example, why was the lack of David Kelly's fingerprints on the knife? This question only even emerged because of later FOIA requests made by activists.[3]
Links
- Hutton Inquiry web site
- Hutton Inquiry - At the Open Directory Project
References
- ↑ "Brian Jones obituary" Defence intelligence analyst who challenged the Iraq WMD dossier
- ↑ "Hutton report 'was no whitewash'"
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8EBE0zr4UA
