The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
been going
on for some time”.141
But he did
accept that the IPU could have been
set up sooner:
“… one of
the lessons is obviously you can’t begin this sort of thinking too
early,
and
although we did begin serious thinking about the day after in the
preceding
October …
we could have created the IPU earlier. We could have had a
greater
sense of
the reality of what we were doing. I think also, because it was
contingency
planning,
because right up until the last moment we didn’t know for sure that
we
were going
to be involved in the military action, that maybe psychologically
had an
243.
On the
relationship with the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian
Assistance
(ORHA), Mr
Chilcott said that: “ORHA in some ways weren’t really our
counterparts
because
they were the sort of operational implementers … as well as the
drawers up of
the plan,
whereas we … were writing policy papers and briefing and lines to
take.”143
244.
Mr Bowen told
the Inquiry one reason for establishing the IPU was to set up
a
counterpart
to ORHA: “as soon as we … understood where the centre of gravity
was in
America …
we set up … a centre of gravity that could interact with it”. At
this early stage
in the
relationship, before misgivings about ORHA had begun to emerge in
Whitehall,
that seemed
still to be the intention.
245.
On 27 March,
Mr Bowen sent Sir Andrew Turnbull a draft minute
addressed
to Mr
Blair, recommending the creation of an “Ad Hoc Ministerial Group on
Iraq
Reconstruction”
chaired by Mr Straw.144
Mr Bowen
advised that he had opted for an ad
hoc group
because it was “inherently more flexible and less ponderous than a
formal
sub-group
of DOP”.
246.
Sir Andrew
Turnbull wrote to Sir Kevin Tebbit on 31 March, seeking his and,
among
others, Sir
David Manning’s agreement to a slightly revised version of the
draft minute
produced by
Mr Bowen on 27 March.145
Sir Andrew
advised that the revised draft had
already
been agreed with Sir Michael Jay and Mr Chakrabarti.
141
Public
hearing, 8 December 2009, pages 17-18.
142
Public
hearing, 8 December 2009, pages 47-48.
143
Public
hearing, 8 December 2009, page 20.
144
Minute
Bowen to Turnbull, 27 March 2003, ‘Iraq: Reconstruction’ attaching
draft minute Turnbull
to Prime
Minister, [undated], ‘Iraq Reconstruction’.
145
Letter
Turnbull to Tebbit, 31 March 2003, ‘Iraq: Rehabilitation’ attaching
draft minute Turnbull
to Prime Minister,
[undated], ‘Iraq: Rehabilitation’.
306