The Common Ills: Gordon loses control of his inquiry

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Gordon loses control of his inquiry

Sir John Chilcot told the prime minister it was "essential to hold as much of the proceedings of the inquiry as possible in public".
The move is further humiliation for Mr Brown, who initially said the hearing would be in secret. He was then forced to ask Sir John to consider holding some evidence in public following criticism from MPs, peers and military leaders.
The Conservatives said the prime minister had executed a "U-turn in slow motion" and accused him of a "climb-down of massive proportions".

The above is from Tom Whitehead's "Large parts of Iraq inquiry to be heard in public" (Telegraph of London) and you need to think about the above and the things in yesterday's snapshot. You need to think about Tony Blair insisting that the hearing not be public, the revelations of the Observer which build on earlier relevations of the Times of London and you need to grasp that John F. Burns is the New York Times big 'honcho' in London but he's avoiding all these revelations and events. This is a huge story, HUGE, in Europe -- not just England -- and Burnsie writing about what? Today Iran. Well, he whored it for the Iraq War so of course the paper would send their best troller back out to the street lamp.

This is a huge story in Europe and it's getting little to no attention in the US. Amy Goodman wastes our time with the idiot Josh Silver (who takes his sacrament to Barack on air this morning and also vouches for a Team Obama that "he's a good guy") to jibber-jabber yet again about Iran. But she's not done one segment on the inquiry. Not one.

Every day she promotes Target Iran. That's what she's doing. Intentionally or not, that's what she's doing. She's stoking the fires and the hysteria with her endless yammering about an election. That's Betty's point last night and, as she said, "But, hey, when you get your way and Barack declares war on Iran, let's hope you're happy with what you've done."

At the US Socialist Worker, Mark Steel offers his thoughts on the inquiry:

It's unlikely anything so interesting will come out of the inquiry into the Iraq war announced by Gordon Brown. Because it will be held entirely in secret, and is not allowed to "apportion blame," as this will prevent the inquiry being "clogged up by expensive lawyers."
Apparently, this will encourage those called to be "more candid" about their behavior. So why not change the whole legal system for similar reasons? Murderers would be so much more candid in a trial if they weren't weighed down by the thought of their comments being made public. "Between you and me I strangled the lot of them," they'd laugh, whereas once they're in that big room with lawyers and blame getting in the way they're bound to clam up.
How much quicker the law could be resolved without all that paraphernalia of cross-examining and working out who was telling the truth and other money-wasting nonsense. Just ask someone whether they did it, and if they say "Not really," or "I had to kill them because I'd heard they had some destructive weapons," the judge could say, "Well, that's pretty much cleared it up--who's next?"

I don't disagree with Steel but I'm also aware that while the whole world's wasted all of our time on Iran, we've seen actual pressure in England. Gordon Brown's not getting what he wanted. Not by a long shot. And that's due to the pressure that's been brought to bear. Had our useless Panhandle Media in the US bothered to pick up this story, Brown might be forced to make even more concessions. But it was so much better to cover the staged 'uprising' in Iran. So much better and so much more status quo, so much more doing the bidding of the US government. SO very much more Dan Rather I-just-do-what-my-president-tells-me-to. They should all be ashamed, their behaviors are disgusting.

There will not be an inquiry into the Iraq War in the US. There may later be an international inquiry in Europe. But this one that's going to go down in England may be the only one. And it's really important that it be as open as possible and that it covers as much as possible.

But Panhandle Media doesn't have time for it. They don't give a damn. They're busy drooling over Twitter and other nonsense.

We'll again note "Protest at parliament against holding Iraq enquiry in private" (Great Britain's Socialist Worker):

The Stop the War Coalition has called a protest outside parliament at 2pm this Wednesday, demanding "No Whitewash, No Cover Up", in the Iraq enquiry.
The protest is timed to coincide with a debate in parliamet on the enquiry.
Stop the War has stated, "The scandal over Gordon Brown's decision to hold the Iraq war inquiry in private has united in condemnation the most unlikely people, including MPs, peers in the House of Lords, military leaders, former civil servants, bereaved families and even Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's US ambassador at the time the decision was taken to go to war.
"The anger over this appalling decision has intensified with the revelation that Tony Blair was behind Brown's decision to have a completely secret inquiry."
Stop the War is also asking all its local groups and supporters to contact their MPs as a matter of urgency, by letter, telephone, email or fax, and urge them to support the call for a full public inquiry.

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Turning to the US, Sunday the Department of Defense issued the following: "The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Chancellor A. Keesling, 25, of Indianapolis, Ind., died June 19 in Baghdad, Iraq of a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 961st Engineer Company, Sharonville, Ohio. The circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation. For more information media may contact the U.S. Army Reserve Command public affairs office at 404-464-8500 / 9471 / 9251." Richard Essex (Eyewitness News) reports on 25-year-old Chancy Keesling and interviews his parents Janett and Gregg Keesling:

Chancy had joined the military at the age of 19. His dad says he joined to fight. "We tried to talk him out of it a little bit you know. He wanted to be the first, you know 'I'm going to go kill Osama Bin Laden and I'm going to...' And the reality was a lot different," said Keesling.
During his first tour in Iraq his first marriage ended. And he feared the same would happen with his new relationship. But he kept fighting.
Keesling said, "There were e-mails and we knew he was troubled."
His calls and e-mails home alarmed his parents and the concern for their middle child grew. And the miles between them only made things worse."
Mother Janett said, "It sounds to me like he was, at least in their mind, having a good day."

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