Guardian Utd (Wednesday): Swift and secret, Blair's inquiry

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Wednesday February 4

Swift and secret, Blair's inquiry
Remit focuses on intelligence and excludes politicians from scrutiny over decision to go to war in Iraq
By Patrick Wintour and Richard Norton-Taylor

Tony Blair risked a further loss of trust on Iraq yesterday when he ordered a wide ranging inquiry into intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but debarred the inquiry from examining the political and diplomatic decision to wage war, and the legal basis for doing so.
His tortuously worded terms of reference, the product of 24 hours of backstage Westminster wrangling, split the opposition parties last night.
Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, said his party would not sit on the inquiry because the narrow terms of reference prevented an examination of "the judgments which were made by the politicians about the intelligence assessments".
He added: "An inquiry which excludes politicians from scrutiny is unlikely to command public confidence. Politicians should always be willing to answer for their judgment and their competence to the public".

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Blair is a liar with his long nose caught in a wringer.