The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
•
a
humanitarian programme funded by the Department for
International
Development
(DFID) focused on northern Iraq;2
•
Assessments
produced by the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee
(JIC);
•
the US
State Department’s Future of Iraq Project;3
and
•
other
sources, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
academics,
journalists,
Arabic media, Iraqi émigrés and allied countries with
Embassies
13.
The
information available to the Government before the invasion on
Iraq’s weapons
of mass
destruction (WMD) is addressed in Section 4. Information on Iraq’s
other military
capabilities
is in Sections 6.1 to 6.3.
14.
In December
2003, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) presented
a
Strategy for
the FCO to Parliament,
in which it listed the department’s “key
contributions”
to
government.5
They
included:
•
“co-ordination
and leadership of the UK’s international policies”;
•
“expert
foreign policy advice for Ministers and the Prime Minister, feeding
into
the wider
policy process”; and
•
“rapid
gathering, analysis and targeting of information for the
Government
and others”.
15.
Within the FCO
between 2001and 2003, prime responsibility for information on
other
countries
fell to the relevant regional department. For Iraq, that was the
Middle East
Department
(MED), under the supervision of the Director Middle East and North
Africa.
16.
The FCO
Directorate of Strategy and Innovation (DSI) reported to the
Permanent
Under
Secretary (PUS)6
and the FCO
Board. Its role was to review policy in areas of
high
priority and to supplement or challenge advice from the relevant
department within
the FCO.
DSI was a significant contributor of strategy papers on Iraq in the
second half
of
2002.
2
Minute
Western Asia Department [junior official] to Private Secretary
[DFID], 10 May 2002, ‘Iraq:
Proposed
humanitarian activities 2002/03’.
3
The
National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 198, 1
September 2006, New
State
Department
Releases on the “Future of Iraq” Project.
4
Public
hearing Ricketts, Chaplin, 1 December 2009, pages 66-67; Statement
Foreign and
Commonwealth
Office Research Analysts, 23 November 2009, page 1.
5
Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, UK
International Priorities: A Strategy for the FCO, December
2003,
Cm
6052.
6
In keeping
with variations in use within departments, the Inquiry refers to
the most senior civil servant
in the FCO
and the MOD as the Permanent Under Secretary (PUS), but in all
other departments as the
Permanent
Secretary. The Permanent Under Secretaries and Permanent
Secretaries are referred to
collectively
as Permanent Secretaries.
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