The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
“C
[Dearlove] said that the Presidential Finding, based on an NSC
[National Security
Council]
paper, made clear it was regime change that they wanted … There was
a
discussion
about who would replace Saddam and how could we guarantee it
would
be better.
Scarlett said it couldn’t be worse …”72
138.
Sir Richard
Dearlove’s evidence on the meeting and a press report about
the
Presidential
Finding are described in Section 3.2.
139.
When
Mr Blair met President Bush in early April, the US was not
ready to
agree UK
access to US military planning.
140.
Lt Gen Pigott
and Mr Bowen travelled to Washington on 2 April primarily to
discuss
Afghanistan‑related
matters.73
141.
Lt Gen Pigott
also took the opportunity to ask what the US aims were for
Iraq,
and whether
they were centred on regime change, WMD or both. He was reported
as
indicating
some:
“…
close‑hold interagency thinking was beginning in London … We [the
UK] would
welcome
some engagement with the US on these broad questions. Discussion
of
military
plans was for later.”74
142.
US officials
were reported to have given a mixed response to his
approach.
143.
Mr Peter
Watkins, Mr Hoon’s Principal Private Secretary, sent a report
of the visit
to Sir David
Manning, on 4 April.75
“The
impression they formed was that serious debate of the issues, let
alone
options,
had not got off the ground … (The Chairman [of the US Joint Chiefs
of Staff,
General
Richard Myers] would presumably have to persuade Donald
Rumsfeld
[US
Secretary of Defense] of the desirability of this joint activity.)
Mr Hoon strongly
endorses
the need to get close to Pentagon thinking on the possible
approaches
in order to
get the framework right before any military planning starts. He
hopes
that the
President and Prime Minister can agree to set this Pentagon/MOD
work
in hand.”
72
Campbell A
& Hagerty B. The
Alastair Campbell Diaries. Volume 4. The Burden of Power:
Countdown
to Iraq.
Hutchinson,
2012.
73
Public
hearing, 7 December 2009, page 5.
74
Telegram
461 Washington to FCO London, 4 April 2002, ‘US Policy on Iraq:
Visit of Lt Gen Pigott’.
75
Letter
Watkins to Manning, 4 April 2002, ‘Iraq’.
198