" Blair strongly denied doing any secret deal with Bush at the meeting in Crawford in April 2002. He said he was quite open about his determination to deal with Saddam Hussein. He insisted that he made this point publicly in the press conference he held with Bush. (See 10.26am)
He said that did not set conditions when he told Bush that he would support him in his drive to deal with Iraq. Blair said the US/UK relationship was an alliance, not a contract. (See 10.26am)
He suggested that there was no real difference between wanting regime change and wanting Iraq to disarm. (See 10.20am)
But he also admitted that he made a misake when he gave an interview to Fern Britton last year and said that he would have wanted to get rid of Saddam even if he had know Iraq had no WMD. (See 10.05am)
Sir John Chilcot signalled that Blair is likely to be called to give evidence again. (See 9.32am)
Blair said he was "frustrated" by George Bush's unwillingness to make more progress on the Middle East in 2002 and 2003. (See 10.39am and 10.43am)"
11:12 a.m. Back to more "questioning" from Baroness Prashar and then Sir Martin Gilbert.
Pales beside the fictional version of Blair's criminal trial: video.
Pales, indeed, in comparison with the case laid out for Blair's impeachment in August 2004: PDF.
11:25 Blair trying to tie Iraq to 9/11 via Zarqawi - is he serious??
Super softballs are from Sir Martin:
"He was appointed in June 2009 as a member of the British government's inquiry into the Iraq war (Headed by Sir John Chilcot). His appointment to this inquiry was criticised in parliament by William Hague, Claire Short, George Galloway, and Lynne Jones on the basis that Gilbert had once compared George W Bush, and Tony Blair, to Roosevelt and Churchill."
11:30 Blair claims Iraq was chosen for a war, rather than various other potential victims, because of UN resolutions being breached. Odd, given the UN's opposition to Blair's (and Bush's) crime.
Sir Lawrence Freedman, a former advisor to Blair is the one now questioning, and he asks also about Blair's lie regarding an Iraqi ability to attack the UK with WMDs within 45 minutes. Blair tries to evade.
This will be seen as the toughest significant questioning. Bliar: Blair the liar, is a big concern to everyone. But how is his aggressive warmaking any more or less illegal because of his lies? Even if Iraq COULD have attacked within 45 minutes, no claim was ever made that it was going to do so.
That it had no such ability, and that Blair was lying, has long been established. But what legal case does he have, regardless? No one has asked Blair about the opinion of his top legal officials that the war would be illegal. He was informed that it would be illegal and went ahead with it. What more do we need to know?
