Families demand to know why Tony Bl

Families demand to know why Tony Blair sent their loved ones to kill and die in Iraq

Ian Drury & Tom Kelly 13 August 2015. Posted in News
In an explosive legal letter, bereaved families have given the Chilcot inquiry a two-week ultimatum to set a date for releasing its report.


UK soldier leaping from his armoured vehicle in Basra, Iraq, in 2005
GRIEVING families of British troops killed in Iraq last night launched an unprecedented legal battle to force Sir John Chilcot to publish his official report into the war.

Relatives desperate to learn the truth about why Tony Blair sent their sons and daughters to fight branded the delay ‘morally reprehensible’.

The inquiry has already taken a staggering six years and cost the taxpayer £10million, but the retired civil servant has refused to even set a timetable amid claims it could take another year.

Bereaved parents are disgusted their suffering is being dragged out while Sir John gives leading figures in the inquiry, such as Mr Blair, the chance to rebut its findings – a process known as Maxwellisation.

Now, in an explosive legal letter, they have given Sir John a two-week ultimatum to set a date for releasing the report by the end of the year or they will fight him in the courts.

If successful, the families’ campaign could lead to the exposure of incredibly sensitive paperwork that Whitehall mandarins refused to hand to the Iraq Inquiry.

The legal action comes after David Cameron urged Sir John to hurry up with his findings.

But at least 29 families spearheading the legal battle claim the decision not to set a deadline for the publication of the final report is ‘unlawful’.

Roger Bacon, whose son Major Matthew Bacon, 34, died in a roadside bomb blast in Basra ten years ago, said: ‘We have lost our sons, daughters, brothers and sisters and if we don’t get answers as to why they died, it will all have been a waste of time.

‘It is morally reprehensible to keep delaying the publication of the report.

'It is utterly incomprehensible that the inquiry has been going on for six years and it is still not finished.’

Reg Keys, who lost 20-year-old son Lance-Corporal Thomas Keys in Iraq, described the continued delays as like an ‘open sore that can’t heal’.

He said: ‘We want to draw a line under this Iraq war so we can move on, but before that we need to know what it was all for. We want to know why Blair went against the UN and took us into Iraq while other European allies refused to join the war.

‘I need to know what my son died for given that Iraq is now worse than it was before and has become a fermenting ground for terrorism.

‘Sir John doesn’t seem to understand that these are real people that have lost loved ones.’ Valerie O’Neill, whose 27-year-old son Kris was killed by a roadside bomb in 2007, said: ‘We’ve waited long enough for this report into an illegal war.

'We’ve all been promised this report but it’s been delay after delay after delay. How many more years do we have to wait?

‘Some people hoped we would go away quietly, but we won’t. We deserve the answers about why our children died, and we won’t give up until we get them.’

The family of Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, killed when her boat was blown up in the Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran in 2006, are also among those taking part in the legal challenge.

General Sir Michael Rose, a former SAS commander who is backing the families’ fight, said: ‘If justice and fairness is not primarily afforded to those who have been most damaged – in this case the Iraq families as well as the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have been injured – then Chilcot has got it terribly wrong.’

Delays have been caused by a stand-off between the inquiry and Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood – nicknamed ‘Sir Cover-Up’ – over the publication of conversations and communications between Mr Blair and George W Bush.

The families have requested all the documents relating to the Maxwellisation process. But, crucially, t