Gordon Brown was accused of engineering a new Iraq cover-up yesterday by handing Whitehall departments the right to block the release of secret documents about the war. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg ambushed the Prine Ministr in the Commons, angrilly accusing him of trying to suffocate the Chilcot Inquiry. Relatives of the 179 servicemen who died in Iraq are desperate for the inquiry to finally uncover the truth and apportion blame. But Mr clegg said the Government's 'shameful culture of secrecy' would make that impossible.
'Protocols' on the release of information have given civil servants and witnesses nine seperate grounds on which to block the publication of damaging details. The revelation came on the day that senior civil servants gave damning evidence to the inquiry which showed that Tony Blair had lied, lied and lied again about the Iraq War. They said that ten days before the invasion the then Prime Minister knew that Saddam Hussein had no way of using weapons of mass destruction.
After the war, when Mr Blair declared that 'massive evidence' had been found, officials had to warn him not to 'declare success too rapidly'. It also emerged that the notorious dossier which warned that Saddam could strike British targets in 45 minutes was also misleading.
The Whitehall ban on publication means that some documents which will be examined the the Chilcot Committee will never be put into the public domain on grounds of national security. Secret intelligence documents, which are crucial to uncovering the truth about the way the Government 'sexed up' the case for war, will be covered by the ban. Other papers can be blocked if they contain information, which might make it possible for Mr Brown to block the release of papers relating to the procurement of equipment for the Armed Forces before the war. That process is widely believed to have cost the lives of British troops who were left without vital kit such as body armour because the contracts were concluded too late because ministers did not want it to appear that they were preparing for war.
Mr Clegg confronted the Prime Minister at Commons question time, accusing the government of 'outrageously' giving Whitehall the power to beto the release of documents on grounds 'which have nothing to do with national security'. Details of the protocols were published this month on the Cabinet Office website but the Government did not draw attention to them. Civil servants will also be able to block publication if disclosure could endanger lives, break lawyer-client priilege or involve leagal advice to ministers where they might prejudice on-going proceedings.
Mr Clegg said: "It is vital that the Iraq Inquiry, which started its wok this week, is able to reveal the full truth about the decisions leading up to the invasion of Iraq." He asked Mr Brown: "How on earth are we, and the whole country, going to hear about the whole gruth about decisions leading up to the invasion of Iraq if the Inquiry is being suffocated on day one by your Government's shameful culture of secrecy?"
The rules on the release of information were agreed between the Government and Sir John Chilcot, the former mandarin heading the inquiry. A spokesman for Sir John said the rules were designed to make it easier, not harder, to force the publication of documents because ministers and officials would now have to have specific grounds for opposing publicaion rather than issuing a blanket refusal. But the fororewill spark growing concern that the inquiry will deliver yet another 'whitewash' after the Hutton and Butler reports were accused of giving the Government an easy ride over its failures. The protocol says that the inquiry team will have to 'notify the department, acency or service which is the originator of the information or that was the recipient of the information what information it wishes to include in its final report, or otherwise release into the public domain'.
Mandarins then have ten days to respond by saying which of the 'harms or breaches' they believe should prevent publication. They could then demand redactions from the documents so that sensitive information is blacked out if the papers are published. Mr Brown said Sir John had been 'given the freedom to conduct an inquiry in the way he wants'. He added: "The issues affecting the inquiry that would cause people to be careful are national security and international relations." Later Mr Brown's spokesman said: "Thhe protocols address what categories of evidence, nformation and documents are sensitive and so have to be heard in private and cannot be released into the puplic domain."
Article taken from the Daily Mail 26/11/2009. Please Note, Story Image is not taken from Daily Mail and no connection is intended.