The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
The MOD
Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) set up Operation ROCKINGHAM to
provide the
focus for
UK intelligence support to UN disarmament activities in Iraq
established under
An Op
ROCKINGHAM cell in the DIS continued to exist after UN inspectors
withdrew from
Iraq in
December 1998, but was reduced to a single member of staff who
maintained a
watching
brief on matters related to possible future UN inspections in
Iraq.10
The cell
was subsequently expanded to provide UNMOVIC and the IAEA “with
all-source
UK
intelligence assessments on the extent of Iraq’s nuclear,
biological, chemical and
ballistic
missile programmes and information about sites of potential
significance”.
In
mid-March 2003, the Op ROCKINGHAM cell was expanded to encompass
the
results of
SSE and “WMD/delivery-related information from the DIS in-theatre
Battlefield
Intelligence
Recovery Team”.11
28.
On
17 March, after the failure of the Security Council to agree a
“second” resolution
on Iraq
(see Section 3.8), Mr Kofi Annan, the UN
Secretary-General, announced the
withdrawal
of all UN staff from the country.12
29.
UNMOVIC and
the IAEA suspended inspections in Iraq on
18 March.13
30.
Admiral Sir
Michael Boyce, Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), issued the
Execute
Directive
authorising UK military operations in Iraq on
18 March.14
31.
The Execute
Directive included an instruction to Lieutenant General John
Reith,
Chief of
Joint Operations (CJO), to:
•
“Support
international efforts to find and eliminate Iraqi WMD capacity, its
means
of delivery
and infrastructure”; and
•
“… to
provide support, as appropriate, to SSE activities during Phase
3
operations,
but this must not be detrimental to overall FP [force
posture]
adopted”.
9
Letter
Andrews to Cabinet Office [junior official], 18 March 2003,
‘Bowen Group: Iraq WMD/Delivery
Systems –
Expanded Role for ROCKINGHAM’.
10
Review of
Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction [“The
Butler Report”], 14 July 2004, HC 898,
page
90.
11 Letter
Andrews to Cabinet Office [junior official], 18 March 2003,
‘Bowen Group: Iraq WMD/Delivery
Systems –
Expanded Role for ROCKINGHAM’.
12
UN News
Centre, 17 March 2003, Annan to
withdraw UN staff from Iraq.
13
UN Security
Council, 30 May 2003, ‘Thirteenth quarterly report of the
Executive Chairman of the United
Nations
Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission’ (S/2003/580);
IAEA.org, ‘INVO and Iraq
Chronology’.
14
Minute CDS
to CJO, 18 March 2003, ‘Op TELIC: Authorisation for Military
Operations in Iraq’ attaching
paper
‘Chief of Defence Staff Execute Directive to the Joint Commander
for Operation TELIC (Phases 3
and
4)’.
430