27 Nov 2009

Iraq inquiry: week one's report card

Iraq war inquiry: a look back at week one of Sir John Chilcot’s investigation into the events which led to the conflict, through the eyes and ears of the Channel 4 News Iraq inquiry blogger.

End of week one and time for a quick Chilcot Inquiry report card.

You could be forgiven on the basis of the first night reviews alone for thinking the whole committee a sorry sham, a weak-spined hotchpotch of place-men (and women) chosen to legitimise the Bush-Blair war.

But before you do so it’s worth a quick spin through Google News’ cache of the week’s Iraq inquiry stories. By close of day four we had:

Britain ‘failed to establish legitimacy’ of Iraq invasion.

Deal might have been ‘signed in blood’ by Blair and Bush in 2002.

Iraq War build-up ‘left-us scrabbling for smoking gun’ says ex-ambassador.

Tony Blair told there were no WMD in Iraq 10 days before invasion.

Iraq invasion based on weapons intelligence rated as ‘four out of 10’.

All the above being legitimate interpretations of evidence given by witnesses, all of it uttered by very senior past or serving civil servants. Not all that bad going for one week – what do you think?

Back next week here and via Twitter IraqInquiryBlog.