The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

bridge. That – suddenly I thought, ‘This is really not going well’. You know, we have

really hit something very, very serious at this point …”599

Mr Rycroft described April/May 2004 to the Inquiry as “an ongoing very difficult moment”

and recalled a sense of increasing “exasperation from the Prime Minister that even though

he felt he understood what needed to be done, it wasn’t being done”.600

For the Civil Service, Lord Turnbull told the Inquiry that Abu Ghraib prompted a feeling that

it was “kind of sullied, kind of disgraced”.601

Mr Edward Chaplin told the Inquiry that it took a long time for the Coalition’s image to

recover from the Abu Ghraib scandal:

“… as regards opinion in the Arab world, which was probably the most critical

factor … the television images replayed again and again and I think did damage,

certainly”.602

The impact of Abu Ghraib was also felt by the UK military. Lt Gen Figgures told the Inquiry

that as a result of the revelations:

“A major prop of a campaign, the winning of the consent of the Iraqi people, had been

given a savage knock …

“So it was a severe blow to our ability to prosecute the campaign.”603

Maj Gen Andrew Stewart said “Abu Ghraib had a significant effect on us in terms of

people – the public turning against us.”604

Mr Hoon told the Inquiry:

“… those kinds of revelations simply demonstrated that we were perceived by still

more of the population as being occupiers, as being foreign, as being the enemy,

and that necessarily made it harder to keep people on side in terms of hearts and

minds”.605

Mr Blair told the Inquiry that he was “shocked and angry” after seeing photographs of the

conditions in Abu Ghraib for the first time.606 He judged that “these pictures and the abuse

of prisoners was going to be vital propaganda for our enemies”.

Sir David Omand told the Inquiry that Fallujah and Abu Ghraib “played directly into the

radical extremist propaganda” which increased the level of jihadist activity in the UK.607

599 Public hearing 13 January 2010, page 85.

600 Private hearing, 10 September 2010, page 97.

601 Public hearing, 13 January 2010, page 87.

602 Public hearing, 7 December 2009, page 7.

603 Public hearing, 9 December 2009, page 64.

604 Public hearing, 9 December 2009, page 71.

605 Public hearing, 19 January 2010, page 175.

606 Public hearing, 29 January 2010, pages 214-215.

607 Public hearing, 20 January 2010, pages 42-43.

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