Families of Iraq war dead voice anger at ’smirking’ Blair
Former prime minister accused of ‘not facing up to facts’ as he gives evidence to Chilcot inquiryuggs outlet
Highlights from Tony Blair’s evidence to the Iraq inquiry Link to this video The families of British military personnel killed in Iraq condemned Tony Blair’s performance before the Chilcot inquiry today, accusing him of being disrespectful.
One, Theresea Evans, asked the former prime minister to look her in the eye and say sorry for the loss of her son.
Evans, from Llandudno, North Wales – whose 24-year-old son, Llywelyn, died in a Chinook helicopter crash in 2003 – said: “I would simply like Tony Blair to look me in the eye and say he was sorry. Instead, he is in there smirking.”
Anne Donnachie, from Reading, Berkshire, whose 18-year-old son, Paul, was killed by a sniper in 2006, said she blamed Blair for his death.
“From what I have heard this morning, he is just denying everything,” she said. “He will just not face up to the facts. I believe he made a massive mistake when he sent my son to Iraq.”
Sarah Chapman, from Cambridge, whose brother, Sergeant Bob O’Connor, died five years ago, said uggs outlet storeit would be better if Blair was facing the families rather than sitting with his back to them as witnesses are required to do.
“He is being very adamant about his views, as we expected, but it is clear he did not share all the papers before the invasion with the rest of his cabinet,” she said.
“I am disgusted by that. It is obvious he acted alone.”
Anti-war protesters outside the inquiry were denied a chance to direct their chants at the former prime minister in person when he used a side entrance to make his way into the inquiry.
When he began giving evidence inside the QEII Centre in Westminster, a building fortified with steel barriers and lines of police, campaigners stopped their chants of “war criminal”, turned their backs and began listening as the names of civilians and military personnel killed in the conflict were read out.
The crowds dissipated at the end of the morning, but numbers were expected to build again towards the end of the afternoon when the session ends and Blair leaves the inquiry.
For many, today will be the last in a line of protests against the Iraq war which began when up to two million people took to the streets to march against the invasion almost seven years agougg outlet.
“He [Blair] does not have the integrity to come and face the people,” Lindsey German, the convener of the Stop the War Coalition, said. “Sliding in by a back door entrance is typical of his lies, deceit and evasion.”
Andrew Murray, the chairman of the anti-war group, added: “This cowardly and deceitful entrance is typical of how the former prime minister sold the war to the country – behind the backs of the public.”
Scotland Yard said there were at least 250 protestors and reported that officers had made no arrests.
By 9am, around 300 mainly older activists had gathered by the building in the cold and rain.
One of the first to arrive, at 7am, was Noel Hamel, the 67-year-old chair of the Kingston Peace Council. He had woken in the early hours in order to get to central London by bus and tube.
A disenfranchised former Labour party member who campaigned for Blair in 1997, he said: “I was out there knocking on doors, proposing motions.
“Iuggs outlet stores just couldn’t have imagined a Labour government taking us to a war of this kind while being so deceitful about it.”
As word spread that Blair had already entered the centre, chants of “Tony Blair, to the Hague” began.
Ruby Lescott, another ex-Labour supporter in her 60s, said her “deep-rooted, immovable rage” was not only directed at Blair but also at his closest ministers.
“The cabinet – most of them – were reluctant about [the war],” she added. “The Labour government has eroded the virtues of our parliamentary system.”
Among the few younger faces in the crowd, Lois Clifton, 19, and Emma Clewer, an 18-year-old fellow LSE university student, admitted their attempts to leaflet for the protest had been disappointing.
“We needed more people here,” Clewer said. “It’s a chance for people to show their anger.”
During the start of the invasion, both were in their early teens and recalled the marches.
“There were a lot of walkouts at school,” Clifton said. “I wasn’t as aware as I am now … but I knew what wasnike outlethappening was wrong.”
A heavy police presence, including officers from the Metropolitan police’s specialist Territorial Support Group, watched from behind barricades surrounding the centre.
As is common at protests, Forward Intelligence Team surveillance officers jotted down notes of what speakers were saying.
White House eyes moving site of 9/11 trialJanuary 29, 2010 8:41 a.m. EST
Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is among those suspects set to face a trial in a civilian criminal court.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Moving site of 9/11 trial from Manhattan under consideration, administration officials say
New York lawmakers urging White House to re-examine plan to try terror suspects there
Justice Department will make decision about any alternate sites, officials say
Officials: Obama agrees with move to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court
Washington (CNN) — The White House is considering moving the site of the September 11 attack trial from Manhattan if the U.S. Justice Department sees fit, senior administration officials confirmed Friday. all star shoes
“Conversations have occurred within the administration to discuss contingency options should the possibility of a trial in Lower Manhattan be foreclosed upon by Congress or locally,” a senior administration official said.
The turnabout comes after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other politicians expressed great concern over the costs and disruption of holding the September 11 trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four accomplices at a courthouse near ground zero in Lower Manhattan.
White House officials said President Obama agrees with Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision in November to try Mohammed in a civilian criminal court in the United States, not a military tribunal.
“Currently our federal jails hold hundreds of convicted terrorists, and the president’s opinion has not changed on that,” White House spokesman Bill Burton said Thursday.
White House officials said the decision about any possible alternate sites to try Mohammed and the others will come from the Justice Department.
As citynike shoes outlet officials and residents contemplated the staging of the trial in Manhattan, doubts emerged about the wisdom of the location.
Police estimated that the cost to the city would be more than $200 million per year in a trial that could last several years and that 2,000-plus checkpoints would need to be installed around Lower Manhattan.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly also said additional protection would need to be deployed for the city, not just “the core area of Manhattan.”
New Yorkers such as Pat Moore contemplated what it would be like to live through such a trial.
“Those people would virtually be held prisoner in their homes,” Moore said of those who live near the courthouse. “We’ve all been traumatized, any of us who were there that day [September 11].”
Bloomberg initially supported the move, saying “it is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered.”
But this week the mayor used different rhetoric, saying he would prefer the trial be held elsewhere,adidas shoes outlet perhaps at a military base where it would be easier and cheaper to provide security.
“It’s going to cost an awful lot of money and disturb a lot of people,” Bloomberg said.
On Thursday, a group of New York politicians urged the Obama administration to re-examine locating the trials in downtown Manhattan.
“We are concerned that the administration has not fully considered the impact that the trials would have on Lower Manhattan in choosing the Moynihan Courthouse in Foley Square,” U.S. Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Nydia Velázquez, both Democrats, and state and local officials said in a letter dated Thursday to the attorney general.
“The Lower Manhattan neighborhoods in which this courthouse is located are only now recovering from the physical, emotional and financial devastation caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks and therefore the impacts of this trial site choice are likely to be extremely burdensome.”
The officials asked for a meeting with Holder to discuss the matter and how federal criminal trial locations are determined.
“We uggs outletrespectfully request that your office conduct a full and thorough examination of all potentially viable trial sites within the Southern District of New York in order to assess each site’s safety and security requirements, impacts to the surrounding residential and business communities, and financial implications. Without such a full evaluation, it is impossible to determine which Southern District location choice would be optimal.”
Other politicians who signed the letter were New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, state Sen. Daniel Squadron, City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilwoman Margaret Chin.
Also, a spokeswoman for Gov. David Paterson cited his “hesitation” with the decision, pointing to the burdens it would pose on New Yorkers. In addition, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, said the lawmaker’s “single biggest concern is making sure that the federal government cover the hundreds of millions of dollars per year cost to New York City for security during the trials.”
Steve Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said he foresees a severe drop in tourism and real estate prices in one of the most highly populated areas of Manhattan.
Julie uggs outlet storeMenin, chairwoman of a city community advisory agency, proposed four alternative locations for the trial within the Southern District of Manhattan: Governors Island, Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and the Bureau of Prisons jail complex at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville.
A West Point spokesman said no one has officially requested a review of demands for such a trial, which would require in-depth study of legal and security concerns.
Some U.S. senators said they want the detainees tried in military commissions.
A letter from one group of senators said a federal civilian trial would provide militants with “one of the most visible platforms in the world to exalt their past acts and to rally others in support of further terrorism.”
U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Virginia, is planning to introduce legislation that would cut off funding for the trial and block transfer of the September 11 suspects to New York.
U.S. attorney’s office spokesman Dean Boyd said the Justice Department “can safely prosecute this case in the Southern District of New York while minimizing disruptions to the community to the greatest extent possible, consistent with security needs.”
The president is “committed to seeing” Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, “brought to ugg outletjustice,” Burton said.
“Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a murderous thug who has admitted to crimes … some of the most heinous crimes ever committed against our country,” he said.
