Elements of the new US administration of President George Bush were already discussing ”regime change” in Iraq two years before the invasion of 2003, the official inquiry into the war has been told.
Sir Peter Ricketts, who was chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee in 2001, said there was concern in both London and Washington that the strategy of ”containment” of Saddam Hussain was ”failing”.
Giving evidence at the first public hearings of the inquiry, he said a review of the Iraq policy was already under way in Whitehall in anticipation of the arrival of the new Bush administration.
He said that, in discussions with Secretary of State Colin Powell, it appeared the Americans were ”thinking very much on the same lines”.
He added, however, that others in Washington were already thinking further ahead.
”We were conscious that there were other voices in Washington, some of whom were talking about regime change,” he said.
He cited an article written by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice warning that ”nothing will change” in Iraq until Saddam was gone.
Opening the hearing, the chairman of the inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, called for a moment of silence for all those from the UK and its allies and those in Iraq who had lost their lives during the past six years.
In a short opening statement he said the inquiry was determined to be ”thorough, impartial, objective and fair”.
Read the full article on the Telegraph.
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