The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
603.
Mr Blair
and President Bush spoke by telephone on 31 July.329
The
conversation
turned to
the media, and Mr Blair commented that better Iraqi media
would make a
difference
in achieving accurate reporting of events in Iraq. They agreed that
if there
was no real
improvement in a couple of weeks “top level US/UK media people”
would
be asked
to work up and implement a plan.
604.
Mr Hoon’s
Private Secretary wrote to Mr Rycroft on 4 August to advise
him that
MOD
Ministers had agreed that an additional (130-strong) infantry
company and a small
(30-strong)
riverine capability were required in Iraq (see Section
9.2).330
The letter
stated:
“Paradoxically
we are having to deploy more personnel partly because
our
reconstruction
efforts are being successful (there is more worth securing and
more
civil
activity to safeguard).”
605.
Ambassador
Olsen resigned as Head of CPA(South) on 28 July.331
606.
Sir Hilary
Synnott arrived in Basra on 30 July.332
607.
At that time,
the UK had approximately 100 officials seconded into the
CPA,
including
30 in CPA(South) (see Section 15.1).
608.
Shortly before
he deployed, Sir Hilary called on Mr Blair.333
In his
evidence to the
Inquiry,
Sir Hilary recalled that during that meeting he had pointed out
that he would have
no secure
communications in Basra. The Inquiry has not seen a record of that
meeting.
609.
Sir Hilary
told the Inquiry that he had several Terms of
Reference:
•
formal
Terms of Reference, agreed by Ambassador Bremer;
•
“the
British Government’s idea of what my responsibilities should be”,
which
were not
shown to Ambassador Bremer and related to keeping
London
informed;
and
•
“some
objectives” set personally by Mr Blair, which included the
statement that
“if I had
any difficulties at all, I should let him know
personally”.334
610.
In his memoir,
Sir Hilary described the first and second of those Terms of
Reference:
“My mission
statement … entailed giving ‘leadership and direction’ to the work
of the
CPA in the
four southern provinces; and it also required me to give a
political context
329
Letter
Rycroft to Adams, 31 July 2003, ‘Iraq: Prime Minister’s
Conversation with Bush, 31 July’.
330
Letter
Latham to Rycroft, 4 August 2003, ‘Iraq: Force Level
Review’.
331
Iraq
Report, 1 August
2003, Southern
Iraq Administrator leaves post.
332
Synnott
H. Bad Days in
Basra: My Turbulent Time as Britain’s Man in Southern
Iraq. I B
Tauris & Co
Ltd.,
2008.
333
Public
hearing, 9 December 2009, page 10.
334
Public
hearing, 9 December 2009, pages 4-5.
106