Inquiry Is Leaving Britons Unsatisfied

[kskiska]

Questions on Run-Up to War Linger

LONDON, Aug. 31 -- Ann Kobayashi, retired social worker and self-declared pacifist, took up a strategic position on the sidewalk in front of the Royal Courts of Justice here early last Thursday to jeer the arrival of Tony Blair. Then she folded away her antiwar sign and lined up for a seat inside to hear the prime minister's testimony before a public inquiry.

Her verdict on the inquiry was mixed. "It is a very narrow focus," said Kobayashi, noting that the hearings are confined to discussion of the circumstances surrounding the apparent suicide of a weapons expert caught up in the political storm over Britain's participation in the Iraq war, rather than the war itself. "But maybe it will lead to a wider-ranging examination of how we got into this mess in the first place."

For the past three weeks, the inquiry has been the best show in town. Day after day, presiding Lord Justice Brian Hutton has heard testimony from senior civil servants, politicians, intelligence chiefs, journalists and the prime minister himself -- only the second time in history that a British head of government has appeared in public before an inquiry. More than 1,000 documents have been published, full of details of secret meetings, phone calls, private conversations and memoranda that usually are not disclosed for at least 50 years, if ever.

But like Kobayashi, many Britons say the Hutton inquiry has diverted public attention away from the deeper questions about why Blair decided to take Britain to war, the reliability of intelligence indicating Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction -- and why no such weapons have been found.

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Blair may find himself in deeper political jeopardy on Monday when Kelly's widow and other relatives and friends testify before the inquiry. If Janice Kelly contends that her husband was hounded to suicide by government officials seeking to hunt down Gilligan's source, the government's credibility and support could fall even further.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8347-2003Aug31.html