http://blogs.independent.co.uk| Blogs from the Independent newspaper - news, views and features from the world's most free-thinking newspaper| Tue, 22 May 2012 23:01:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2| en hourly 1 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/15/reminders-of-iraq/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/15/reminders-of-iraq/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:25:17 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=21411 I was sorry to learn from Paul Waugh of the death of Brian Jones, the former Defence Intelligence Service official (right) who felt that his doubts about some of the intelligence on Saddam Hussein’s weapons programme had been ignored by the Government before the Iraq war. He was a decent public servant who thought that some [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/15/reminders-of-iraq/feed/ 20 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/12/17/false-premises/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/12/17/false-premises/#comments Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:27:28 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=19651 The US withdrawal from Iraq has produced another blip on the anti-war Blair-rage meter, in which open-minded people considered positions they had previously adopted and reassessed them from first principles. “The war was based on the false premise that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction,” Mark Mardell, the BBC North America Editor, said on the News [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/12/17/false-premises/feed/ 26 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/09/14/we-cant-allow-documents-like-that-to-reach-anyone-who-really-knows/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/09/14/we-cant-allow-documents-like-that-to-reach-anyone-who-really-knows/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:20:00 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=16218 I guessed last month that the Daily Mail, having bought the serialisation rights to Gordon Corera’s book about the British Secret Service, The Art of Betrayal, did not like what was in the book, so used it as an excuse to regurgitate its pre-cooked anti-war slogans. I have now read Corera’s excellent work, and can confirm [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/09/14/we-cant-allow-documents-like-that-to-reach-anyone-who-really-knows/feed/ 12 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/09/09/the-if-you-knew-then-what-you-know-now-question-again/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/09/09/the-if-you-knew-then-what-you-know-now-question-again/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:42:39 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=16029 Tony Blair is asked the hindsight question about the Iraq war again in an interview with The Times today (pay wall). Philip Webster: Would you have been prepared to take Britain to war if you had known then what you know now, i.e. there were no WMD – you used that as the basis for the [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/09/09/the-if-you-knew-then-what-you-know-now-question-again/feed/ 40 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/29/breaking-news-eight-years-on-some-people-are-still-against-the-iraq-war/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/29/breaking-news-eight-years-on-some-people-are-still-against-the-iraq-war/#comments Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:19:44 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=15584 Eight years on and for some people it was as if the Iraq war were yesterday, only they cannot remember the detail, so they report it again through their anti-war prism. Chris Ames and Richard Norton-Taylor were there, I know, but the only thing that they remember is that they were against it. In The [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/29/breaking-news-eight-years-on-some-people-are-still-against-the-iraq-war/feed/ 76 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/13/the-great-defamation-part-194/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/13/the-great-defamation-part-194/#comments Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:07:43 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=15113 Feeble addition to the Daily Mail’s propaganda campaign against a war eight years ago about which it hedged its bets at the time. It would appear that the newspaper has bought the rights to Gordon Corera’s new book, The Art of Betrayal, but that, as might be expected of a scrupulous journalist such as Corera, [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/13/the-great-defamation-part-194/feed/ 40 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/11/planning-for-war/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/11/planning-for-war/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:48:57 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=14560 Resuming my pre-holiday catch-up on the Chilcot inquiry, Chris Ames at Iraq Inquiry Digest drew attention to interesting evidence given by Sir Anthony Brenton (below), minister at the British embassy in Washington, 2001 to 2004. It is interesting not because it was secret but has now been published, or because, as Ames thinks, it supports the [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/11/planning-for-war/feed/ 24 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/10/wish-fulfilment-as-news/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/10/wish-fulfilment-as-news/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:47:03 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=15030 Next in my Catch-Up Service, in the Mail on Sunday, 31 July, there was a Chilcot-by-numbers front-page anti-war wish-fulfilment special. It was loosely based on a report by my colleague Jane Merrick in The Independent on Sunday the previous weekend, that the Inquiry was preparing to send letters to people who might be criticised in the report (which [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/10/wish-fulfilment-as-news/feed/ 13 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/26/planning-the-iraq-war-in-public/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/26/planning-the-iraq-war-in-public/#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:46:46 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=14513 The Chilcot inquiry published new documents on 14 July. I noted one here, which was not reported in the newspapers or by the BBC because it helps to explain why military action in Iraq was justified. The only thing that was reported were the views of SIS 2, an intelligence officer, including that Alastair Campbell [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/26/planning-the-iraq-war-in-public/feed/ 44 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/25/iraq-inquiry-recap-service/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/25/iraq-inquiry-recap-service/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:22:01 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=14170 To respond to all the recent elaborations of the anti-war conspiracy theory by Chris Ames at Iraq Inquiry Digest would take time. Ames is scrupulously well-versed in the textual detail, which makes it hard work to rebut his one-track interpretation. As the Chilcot inquiry prepares to send letters to some of the people to whom it intends to refer critically [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/25/iraq-inquiry-recap-service/feed/ 32 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/16/spies-put-pressure-on-alastair-campbell/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/16/spies-put-pressure-on-alastair-campbell/#comments Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:07:23 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=14169 A detail from volume three of Alastair Campbell's Diaries, which is pertinent to the small spasm of anti-war reporting of the latest documents published by the Iraq Inquiry. My fine colleague Kim Sengupta, and others, reported the comments of SIS2, an intelligence officer, that Campbell had unhelpfully "leaked" MI6 information before the Iraq invasion.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/16/spies-put-pressure-on-alastair-campbell/feed/ 28 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/14/containment-of-saddam-wasnt-working/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/14/containment-of-saddam-wasnt-working/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:01:36 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=14107 The Iraq Inquiry has published another batch of documents, including evidence from Sir John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, the heavily-redacted evidence of five Secret Intelligence Service officers, a statement by Sir Michael Wood, the Foreign Office’s chief legal adviser and a lot of contemporary minutes. It will take time to read and assess [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/07/14/containment-of-saddam-wasnt-working/feed/ 34