may I thank you and your moderators over the words you have permitted me to place on your blog in respect of the Iraq Inquiry. I will listen with great interest to the debate in the House of Lords this afternoon, especially to the words of Lord Butler who will be speaking. The Inquiry must be held as much as possible in the public domain. It should also be shown in full on the internet. There is absolutely no reason why it should not be broadcast live, with no time delay. This inquiry in public is what the public should have, it is what the families and friends of the dead and injured deserve, but actually it is what the people of Iraq should have, the Inquiry must be held in public, to do otherwise would surely indicate that there are some who want to save their reputations, rather than try to reach some sort of closure on this highly contentious issue, and that there are some who could not give evidence under oath because I do not think that I am the only person who would think that if not given under oath then they, as has been said by an infamous young lady, 'they would say that, wouldn't they?'. People should also be prosecuted if they are called that they refuse for a legitimate reason to give evidence.
If soldiers are to kill and be killed, and to follow orders, then the whole of society needs to know that the period leading up to the war, the war itself, and the subsequent occupation (not reconstruction) were conducted in full accord with national and international law. There must be no whitewash, some people may not like it but the truth has to come out. This is also about extra-ordinary rendition, it is about enhanced interrogation techniques, and the unpublished Memoranda of Understanding signed with Iraq. We allegedly detained people and handed them over to third parties where allegedly totally unacceptable actions were taken against them. The Inquiry should also investigate private contractors being employed to take actions which allegedly would not be permitted in a legal under military law.