The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

214. The minute of the discussion records that the Chiefs of Staff were told that the

US was thinking deeply about Iraq and possible contingencies; but was not currently

planning a military operation to overthrow the Iraqi regime. There were a significant

number of questions about the use of force including timing and the need for proof

of WMD and a legal underpinning.

215. Recent difficulties with the No‑Fly Zones were also discussed.

216. Mr Jim Drummond, Assistant Head of OD Sec (Foreign Policy), who attended

the Chiefs of Staff meeting, advised Sir David Manning that:

“… the mood [in the US government] was ‘when not if’, but the list of unintended

consequences was long and policy makers were still grappling with them … Activity

in Washington mirrored that in London. Small groups of senior staff thinking through

strategy options.”109

217. Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge told the Inquiry that Gen Franks had visited

London in “mid‑May”; and that he had said something about Iraq along the lines of “it is

not if but when, and that was really the first time I had heard him say anything with that

degree of certainty”.110

218. From the records of the 26 April Chiefs of Staff meeting, the Inquiry concludes

ACM Burridge was recalling that discussion. There is no evidence that Gen Franks was

in London in mid‑May.

219. Lt Gen Pigott told the Inquiry: “I had an extremely close relationship with the

key players in the joint staff. It was very much professional friends over the years”.

If approached, they would say: “Yes … we are doing a bit more on this”, but that was

“not the American Government”, it was “an individual senior officer in the American

Government”.111

220. Major General David Wilson, who replaced Lt Gen Delves as Senior British

Military Adviser (SBMA) at CENTCOM in April 2002, told the Inquiry that he received

no information about Iraq planning when he arrived:

“Nothing. I didn’t find anything, because the shutters were firmly down. I and my

people were in the foreign exclusion category … there was no sort of nodding and

winking, that’s the way it was.”112

109 Minute Drummond to Manning, 26 April 2002, ‘Meeting with General Franks’.

110 Public hearing, 8 December 2009, page 6.

111 Public hearing, 4 December 2009, page 11.

112 Public hearing, 4 December 2009, pages 8‑9.

208