The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
128.
Mr Blair
was questioned about the UK’s approach to Iraq during Cabinet
on
20
June.
129.
The minutes
record that Mr Hoon stated that, except for continuing
patrols
in the
No-Fly Zones, no decisions had been taken in relation to military
operations
in Iraq.
The discussion with Secretary Rumsfeld was not
mentioned.
130.
Cabinet did
not discuss Iraq between 20 June and 24 July when the House
of
Commons
rose for the summer recess.
131.
Iraq was
discussed in Cabinet on 20 June.60
132.
Mr Hoon told
his colleagues that he would be making a statement
about
withdrawing
troops from Afghanistan.61
If asked
whether the Government was
withdrawing
personnel from Afghanistan to prepare for operations against Iraq,
he would
make it
clear that no decisions had been taken in relation to military
operations, except
for the
continuing patrols over the No-Fly Zones (NFZs).
133.
In his
diaries, Mr Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair’s Director of
Communications and
Strategy,
wrote that, Ms Clare Short, the International Development
Secretary, had said
that “if
Bush sent in Saddam death squads” there would be a “proper
discussion” in
Cabinet
before they went.62
134.
Lord Wilson
told the Inquiry that, following press reports of troops being
“brought
out of
Afghanistan in preparation for military action on Iraq”, two
Cabinet Ministers had
asked Mr
Blair: “We were not finding ourselves getting involved in some
strange military
action by
the United States, were we? There is not something happening here?”
Mr Blair
had been
“absolutely taken aback … He gave them reassurance. They had a
discussion
about
handling the press … which I put in the minutes.”63
135.
Lord Wilson
told the Inquiry that the discussion was not a major item. It was
“a tiny
clue as to
the mood and indication this was not a period when everyone was
gung-ho.
It was a
period when people were worried, concerned.”
136.
Lord Wilson
subsequently stated:
“… the …
incident is important to me because it kind of calibrates where
they were
and the
degree to which they knew what was going on, that they were
asking
questions
on the basis … of a press report”.64
60
Cabinet
Conclusions, 20 June 2002.
61
The
statement was made on 20 June 2002.
62
Campbell A
& Hagerty B. The
Alastair Campbell Diaries. Volume 4. The Burden of Power:
Countdown
to Iraq.
Hutchinson,
2012.
63
Public
hearing, 25 January 2011, pages 76-77.
64
Public
hearing, 25 January 2011, page 94.
26