Iraq war ''biggest cover-up of our time'' as families still left awaiting Chilcot Inquiry results

Angry relatives tonight demanded to know why the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq invasion has not been released – four years after it was promised.

The controversial inquiry into the Iraq War – which cost the lives of 179 British troops in six years of conflict following the 2003 invasion – was first ordered by former PM Gordon Brown in 2009, after years of public pressure.

Its chairman, Sir John Chilcot, said then that a report would be published in around 18 months.

Today Rose Gentle, 50, from Glasgow, and the other families of men and women who laid down their lives in the middle east, still have no answers.

Rose, who lost 19-year-old son Gordon, said: “If they have nothing to hide, why won’t they publish the report? It’s a huge cover-up. It’s the biggest cover-up of our time.

“Look at Iraq now. It’s certainly not any safer. Tony Blair said it would be a safer place but it’s not.

"I think Tony Blair is responsible for the Iraq War and I hold him responsible for my son’s death and always will.”

Reginald Keys, 62, whose son, Lance-Corporal Thomas Richard Keys was killed near Basra aged 20, said: “We were told before we went to war that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

“We were led to believe he could strike the UK in 45 minutes. It was a lie. It was a blatant lie. And I want to know why my son died for a lie?

"They are delaying it because they are trying to cover up the truth. That war didn’t just take away my son, it took away my wife as well. She never got over the death of Thomas.”

Today pressure increased for the report on the conflict, which cost the nation a staggering £9.56billion, following Washington’s disclosure of the “brutal” CIA torture of terror suspects.

Some senior Whitehall figures were questioning why the Westminster political establishment seem to still be blocking Chilcot’s findings when the Americans had come clean over waterboarding, hooded beatings and sleep deprivation.

The families were backed by politicians who are also demanding the unveiling of the Chilcot report which has already cost £10million of taxpayers’ money.

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Tory MP Mark Field, a member of the powerful Commons intelligence and security committee, fears the report will not come out before May’s general election.

He said: “This is a politically sensitive report. You can see those sensitivities regrettably might mean we see it delayed until after the election.”

Labour would be likely to object to a pre-election release because it is expected to be critical of former PM Tony Blair.

There have been delays to the five-year inquiry because of diplomatic negotiations between the US and UK about what can be revealed from correspondence between Blair and former president George Bush.

There have been reports, however, that Blair and others criticised have now received official notifications of what the report says and been given the chance to respond.

Blair’s office insists that he has no interest in delaying publication and wants it published so he can justify his actions. He faces claims, including from Ms Gentle and Mr Keys, that he misled the public about the reasons for going to war.

David Cameron said in May the report should be published by the end of 2014.

But speaking in Turkey today – with three weeks to go – the PM admitted he still does not know when it will be out.

Mr Cameron said: “I am not in control of when this report is published. These sort of reports are controlled and timed by the independent inquiry board that has carried out that vital work.”

While it was former PM Tony Blair who played the leading role in taking Britain to war, the Tories could also be criticised after backing him in every vote.

Iraqi casualties have been estimated at least 650,000 and a Whitehall source told the Mirror in June: “The inquiry thinks thousands of lives were needlessly lost.”

It is unclear whether it will also detail the extent of Britain’s role in the horrific CIA torture programme laid bare in a heavily redacted report on Tuesday.

Today top human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson called on the PM to ask for all CIA material relating to Britain, and then publish it.

Earlier this year Mr Blair’s former Attorney General Lord Morris raged: “Not to publish is to undermine the whole object. Delay is unjust – and justice to the public is denied.”

Timeline

 

• June 15, 2009: Inquiry announced.
• Jan 29, 2010: Tony Blair evidence. “No regrets” on ousting Saddam.
• Feb 2, 2011: Last public hearing.
• Nov 16: Report’s release put back until at least summer 2012.
• Nov 7, 2013: Row over records of conversations between Gordon Brown, Blair and President Bush.
• May 29, 2014: Extracts of Blair-Bush exchanges to be published.
• Sept 14: Now unlikely report published before 2015 general election.