Blair Called a Liar in British Iraq Inquiry

By JOHN F. BURNS
NYT

LONDON — Only days after Tony Blair offered an impassioned defense of his decision to take Britain to war in Iraq, a cabinet minister who resigned over the war delivered a blistering condemnation of the former prime minister on Tuesday, accusing him of “conning” her and of deceiving his cabinet, parliament and the public in his resolve to have Britain join the United States in the invasion of 2003.

Appearing before an official inquiry into the conflict, Clare Short provided an electrifying counterpoint to Mr. Blair’s testimony on Friday. The former prime minister called Saddam Hussein “a monster,” said he had no regrets about the war and warned that the same concerns that led to war over Iraq now applied to Iran and Western concerns that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Ms. Short, who quit as international development minister two months after the invasion in 2003, repeatedly accused Mr. Blair of “misleading” her and other cabinet ministers about the advice he was getting from government lawyers who questioned the legality of invading Iraq. She said on that issue, and on her written warnings of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the invasion’s wake, Mr. Blair effectively circumvented cabinet debate, relying instead on an inner circle of “his mates” in government, having “little chats” with outsiders like herself and plying what she called a “poodle-like” relationship with the United States.

She accused Mr. Blair of deceit at a critical moment in the run-up to the war. She said he argued that France had said that it would veto a so-called “second resolution” in the Security Council approving military action against Iraq, and that it would not shift from the position under any circumstances. That allowed Mr. Blair to say he had exhausted the diplomatic possibilities for dealing with Mr. Hussein and cleared the way for fulfilling his pledge to fight at America’s side.

(More here.)

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