Chilcot insists Iraq Inquiry won’t shy from pointing blame

At the Iraq Inquiry launch.

Sir John Chilcot says don’t expect a report before the end of 2010 at the earliest.

Witnesses will have to give undertakings that their evidence is truthful, fair and accurate.

Senior figures in the US will be spoken to privately as they were in the Butler inquiry. That report concluded no individuals should be named and shamed.

Sir John insists where there is blame they won’t flinch from sticking it on someone.

No one else on the panel is uttering a word – sitting alongside Sir John with microphones unused – even in answer to my question if any of them had opposed the war from the beginning.

That was private, Sir John said, and they were all capable of impartial scrutiny.

Some of Tony Blair’s evidence could be given in private if it touched on national security issues – you can imagine how divulging private chats with President Bush might easily come into that category.