Iraq war inquiry: military was 'hindered in preparations' to avoid publicity

[demoleft]

Britain's most senior officer responsible for operations was prevented by the Blair government from preparing for the invasion of Iraq so the public would not know military action was being planned, the Chilcot inquiry has heard.

Lieutenant General Sir John Reith warned Geoff Hoon, then defence secretary, that unless he was given the green light in a matter of days to charter ships, Britain might not be able to meet the US deadline for an invasion.

"I had a discussion with Geoff Hoon, because we had been ... saying that we needed ships up from trade, we needed UORs , we needed mobilisation of the reserves and so forth, and it had kept being put off", Reith told the inquiry.
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He said he warned Hoon one day in late November or early December 2002 that defence chiefs needed a decision by ministers by the end of that week. The US had made clear it wanted to invade before the end of March "before the real heat of the summer came in", he said.

more: the guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/18/sir-john-reith-chilcot-inquiry