{"id":13997,"date":"2014-06-02T11:29:48","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T11:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13997"},"modified":"2014-06-02T11:29:48","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T11:29:48","slug":"john-major-puts-blair-on-the-spot-over-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13997","title":{"rendered":"John Major puts Blair on the spot over Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/blairwarcriminal.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-6077\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/blairwarcriminal-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"blairwarcriminal\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/blairwarcriminal-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/blairwarcriminal.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Former Tory prime minister John Major insists his New Labour successor Tony Blair&#8217;s notes to president Bush should be released without being edited<\/p>\n<p>Tony Blair was yesterday put on the spot over the Iraq inquiry by the man he defeated in 1997.<\/p>\n<p>Former Tory Prime Minister John Major said Mr Blair should demand the release of all his secret notes to former US President George Bush in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>And he insisted Mr Blair alone had the power to make them public.<\/p>\n<p>Sir John said censoring the papers meant suspicions about the Iraq War would \u201cfester.\u201d His intervention came after Sir John Chilcot\u2019s inquiry into the invasion was branded a \u201cwhitewash\u201d because it will only publish the \u201cgist\u201d of 25 notes and 130 taped talks between Mr Blair Mr Bush .<\/p>\n<p>He slammed the Cabinet Office for withholding the documents, telling the BBC: \u201cFirstly, it will leave suspicions unresolved and those suspicions will fester and maybe worsen. Secondly, withholding them is going to be very embarrassing for Tony Blair, not least because he brought in the Freedom of Information Act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said rules keeping the papers secret could only be overturned if the former administration led by Mr Blair agreed. \u201cI suppose it could approach them and say \u2018we think it better if they release the papers,\u2019 but the Government can\u2019t do that, Mr Blair could.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The release of the documents has delayed publication of the report which finished its public hearings in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>At first the Government tried to block all papers between Blair and Bush amid fears it would upset the US and break a rule that Ministerial papers can only be published after 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>After months of wrangling, the Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood said the inquiry can release extracts of Blair and Bush\u2019s correspondence. Mr Bush\u2019s views will not be revealed.<\/p>\n<p>The move sparked fury, with Labour MP John McDonnell saying it confirmed \u201csuspicions of a whitewash.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon, 19, was killed in Iraq, said: \u201cHow will the families get to know the truth? We are just shoved aside. I think Tony Blair has a lot to do with the decision. He is laughing at us\u201d. Tony Blair\u2019s office refused to comment.<\/p>\n<p>Source: The Mirror<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Tory prime minister John Major insists his New Labour successor Tony Blair&#8217;s notes to president Bush should be released without being edited Tony Blair was yesterday put on the spot over the Iraq inquiry by the man he defeated in 1997. Former Tory Prime Minister John Major said Mr Blair should demand the release &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13997\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;John Major puts Blair on the spot over Iraq&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,123],"tags":[2471,8985,922,3228],"class_list":["post-13997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-iraq","tag-john-major","tag-tony-blair","tag-war-criminal"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/blairwarcriminal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13998,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13997\/revisions\/13998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}