The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

• ‘Interim Administrations in Iraq: Why a UN-led Interim Administration would be in

the US interest’;

• ‘Iraq: Security Sector Reform’;

• ‘Islamism in Iraq’; and

• a paper on war crimes.458

950. It is not clear from the documents seen by the Inquiry which paper on war crimes

was handed to Ambassador Khalilzad. It seems most likely to have been the FCO paper

published on 2 December, but could have been the paper on a tribunal for Iraq, which

had been sent to No.10 on 11 December after a series of discussions on the subject

between the FCO and the US Government.

951. The first three papers were tabled at the AHGI on 13 December.

952. The Cabinet Office undertook to circulate the paper on war crimes later.

953. The FCO paper on interim administrations shared with US on 12 December was a

response to the differences between the US and UK positions at the Washington talks

on 6 November and was described as “work in progress”.459 The paper was tabled at the

AHGI on 13 December. It is not clear who contributed to the draft.

954. The FCO paper set out the likely short- and medium-term functions of an interim

administration, ranging from destruction of WMD stockpiles to reintegration of refugees.

It cautioned:

“We cannot be sure of the scale of the problem before we encounter it (although we

believe the US has done a lot of work in this area, particularly with the Iraqi exile

community). Iraq has a reputation for being one of the better-run Arab countries with

a well-educated civil service. But we have little first hand evidence of how things

work nowadays. We need more information, and we are working with academics,

the Iraqi exile community and our posts on this in order to tackle the following

questions:

• To what extent are ministries infiltrated by Ba’athist elements? How central

are the Ba’athists to the functioning of the ministries? Can the ministries work

without them?

• How far do the Ba’athists have to be removed to ensure loyalty to an interim

administration?

458 Minute Dodd to Manning, 19 December 2002, ‘Ad Hoc Group on Iraq’.

459 Paper Middle East Department, 12 December 2002, ‘Interim Administrations in Iraq: Why a UN-led

Interim Administration would be in the US interest’.

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