Tri-Service
Reports: Iraq Inquiry To Criticise Senior Military Figures
The Guardian reports that senior military figures will be singled out for criticism in the long awaited Chilcot report into the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The paper also claims former Prime Minister Tony Blair and other establishment figures will be in the firing line
The Chilcot report is due to be handed to Downing Street next week but there's still no date as to when it will be published.
It's thought to be more than 2 million words long and is expected to be strongly critical of those in positions of power at the time of the invasion.
The paper claims that General Sir Nicholas Houghton, then head of military operations and now Chief of Defence Staff, and the then Head of the Army, General Sir Mike Jackson, will be rebuked for allowing themselves to be bulldozed by No 10 in the run-up to the war.
Most of the senior military figures involved have received draft passages of the report containing personal criticisms.
Mr Blair, former ministers, including Geoff Hoon the Defence Secretary in 2003, intelligence officers and top officials are also in focus.
The Guardian claims the report will to point to Mr Hoon's instruction to the then chief of defence staff, Lord Boyce, to delay military preparations so as not to alert parliament and the public that war was a given.
It does say the report is unlikely to give a view on the legality of the invasion. The Chilcot inquiry panel did not include a lawyer.
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