Alan West
 Alan West    (Whistleblower) | ||||||||||
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| Born | Alan William John West 21 April 1948 London, United Kingdom | |||||||||
| Children | 3 | |||||||||
| Spouse | Rosemary Anne Linington Childs | |||||||||
| Member of | European Leadership Network | |||||||||
| Party | Labour | |||||||||
Retired senior officer of the Royal Navy and Minister for Security and Counter-Terrorism. Told "by someone very high up...that we would be invading Iraq", 8 months before Parliamentary approval.
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Admiral Lord West, Baron West of Spithead, is a retired senior officer of the Royal Navy.
Career
From June 2007 to May 2010, Admiral West was a Labour Party Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office with responsibility for security, and was security adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Prior to his ministerial appointment, he was First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff from 2002 to 2006.
In 2006, he became the first Chancellor of Southampton Solent University.[1]
Whistleblowing
On the eve of the release of the Chilcot Report, Admiral Lord West revealed to Jon Snow of Channel 4 News that in July 2002, a full eight months before British Parliamentary approval for the invasion of Iraq, he was told "by someone very high up...that we would be invading Iraq":
- "You don't wake up in your bath in the morning and say let's get ready for war. Someone told me. I know someone told me"
Lord West was not invited to give evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry.[2]
Event Witnessed
| Event | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Munich Security Conference/2013 | Munich Bavaria Germany | The 49th Munich Security Conference |
