Another big day in the Iraq inquiry with the appearance this afternoon of Sir John Scarlett, chair of the joint intelligence committee at the time of the Iraq invasion.
Another big and busy day today. The morning will be taken up with discussion of “Post-invasion Iraq; the planning and the reality”, and the first evidence comes from Sir Suma Chakrabarti.
He was permanent secretary at the Department for International Development between 2002 and 2007, and given Admiral Boyce’s comments last week about how uncooperative DfID was post-war under Clare Short, it’ll be interesting to see where the committee decide to take him.
Also appearing in the morning is Dominick Chilcott, who headed the Foreign Office’s once-secret Iraq Planning Unit in 2003. Sir John, closing last night’s evidence, remarked rather wearily, “for the first but probably not the last time he is no [relation] at all.”
After lunch we enter the murky world of intelligence with Sir John Scarlett, appearing before the inquiry in his capacity as 2001-2004 chair of the joint intelligence committee but better known to many as the subsequent chief of MI6. He was only succeeded in that role just last month by Sir John Sawers, who himself gives evidence on Thursday.
Intelligence on WMD was the sole remit of the Butler Review in 2004. The Butler committee – which of course included Sir John Chilcot – spent five months analysing the subject taking evidence from more than 25 officials; on the face of the timetable to date at least we’re going to spend 90 minutes with one witness…
After Sir John we move onto the military invasion itself and Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge (whose biography reads National Component Commander Operation Telic, Nov 2002-May 2003) and Lt General Robin Brims (General Officer Commanding 1(UK) Armoured Division, and UK Land Component Commander Operation Telic, Nov 2002-May 2003).
I’ve been away for a couple of days (Marseille – cold) so apologies if my fellow blogger already mentioned that the timetable for next week’s witnesses has now been posted. It’s the last time the committee will sit this year, and topics include “Basra and the South after the Invasion” and “Promoting Iraq’s Recovery & Growth”.
Today’s evidence starts at 1000h. Live tweets at www.twitter.com/iraqinquiryblog as ever. See you there.