Finally for today a few suggestions of our own. Evidence begins at 10h00 – Gary Gibbon will be inside the Inquiry room for the main bulletin and we’ll be Live Tweeting from the press-room next door throughout.
Does he accept the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) conclusion that it was wrong for him or any special adviser to have chaired any meetings on intelligence matters in the run up to the war?
Does he accept the FAC conclusion that the February 2003 ‘dodgy’ dossier his committee produced was counter-productive and undermined the government’s case for war?
In retrospect would he have included the 45 minutes claim in the September 2002 dossier – or given it the same prominence – given that the FAC concluded that it was “based on intelligence from a single, uncorroborated source“?
Did he encourage or pressure the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) John Scarlett in 2002 to “tighten” the language of its assessment of Iraq’s threat?
Did he personally approve Tony Blair’s foreword to the September 2002 dossier in which the PM said “I believe the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt … that Saddam has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons, that he continues in his efforts to develop nuclear weapons, and that he has been able to extend the range of his ballistic missile programme” [my emphasis].
Lord Hutton concluded that it couldn’t be ruled out that political pressure from No. 10 “may have subconsciously influenced Mr Scarlett and the other members of the JIC to make the wording of the dossier somewhat stronger.”
Was that their intention? How does he think Lord Hutton’s conclusion was viewed by the general public?
Does he still continue to believe – in common with at one inquiry witness and some senior intelligence figures – that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD, and that they have either disintegrated or simply not been found?
With the advantage of retrospect, was it worth it – whether in terms of Iraqi and Coalition lives lost; our standing in the Middle East and the broader world; the fight against al-Qaida; and last of all Tony Blair’s legacy?