The Iraq Inquiry - Chilcott's Circus Clowns Come to Town

[David Guyatt]

Blimey!

Government muzzled Chilcot inquiry 'to protect interests of United States', Wikileaks document show

Dec 1 2010 By Ben Spencer

THE government secretly promised to limit the scope of the Chilcot inquiry to protect US interests, according to Wikileaks.

And documents on the whistle-blowing website say British officials warned the US that the inquiry into the Iraq war would attract a "feeding frenzy" of interest in the UK.

The dispatch was sent before the inquiry began in November 2009.
That month, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg accused the Labour government of "suffocating" the inquiry with guidance on what could go into chairman Sir John Chilcot's report.

PM Gordon Brown said Chilcot had been "given the freedom to conduct the inquiry the way he wants".

But the leaked cable says that at a meeting with then Foreign Secretary David Miliband, MoD security director Jon Day told US officials "the UK had put measures in place to protect US interests".

Last night, a Chilcot spokesman admitted: "The protocol agreed allows for material to be withheld if publication would damage international relations".
Other documents leaked last night reveal that Britain and the US fear for the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. US officials cited the dangers of "fissile material" finding its way into terrorist hands.

Wikileaks also said the US rejected a plea by Gordon Brown plea to keep Asperger's sufferer Gary McKinnon in the UK if he pled guilty to hacking into US military computers.

Using an old Zen meditation technique I only just managed to suppress the words "told you so" from peeling off my lips.

Ah so...