Author of scathing Iraq War Chilcot report will now face MPs’ questions

The civil servant, whose report on the 2003 war in Iraq skewered many senior public figures, will give evidence to the Commons Liaison Committee on October 18.

His report was delayed for seven years, but its publication proved devastating for major figures in the UK establishment, including 2003-era UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who saw calls for his prosecution renewed – not least by the families of soldiers killed during the war.

In July, in the wake of the report, the Iraq War Families crowdfunding drive smashed its targets, as those affected asked for funding to pursue the case.

Roger Bacon, whose son Matthew was killed serving in Iraq, told RT that any money raised in a civil case by military families against Tony Blair will be donated to the Iraqi people to improve their lives.

Matthew Bacon, a British Army major, was killed by a roadside bomb while traveling in a lightly-armored Snatch vehicle in Iraq in 2005.

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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair © Neil Hall

His bereaved father described to RT his awe at the staggering success of the Iraq War Families crowdfunding drive to fund a full legal examination of the Chilcot Report for evidence challenging the legality of the war.

The online fundraiser hit its first target of £50,000 ($66,000) within one day of launching.

Bacon said the funds are needed to hire a “firm of lawyers to look at the Iraq report, to see just what kind of illegalities or misuse of constitutional powers have taken place.

He also said the families of the 179 troops killed in the war are “really relieved about the report itself. It says all we thought it should say, but we do actually need to find out the legality of it because that is the only way of making sure if there has been anything that transgresses the law.

Other aspects of the report’s conclusions include the UK gambling on the mental health of troops by overstretching the military, the dubious legal basis of the war, and that during its occupation of the southern city of Basra, Britain aggressively pursued control over oil supplies.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.