Former Blair aide says UK covering up Iraq war meetings

Minister says notes will show Blair cut off discussion on Iraq war

The British government has refused to release minutes of a cabinet meeting held by Prime Minister Tony Blair in the lead-up to the Iraq war, which a former cabinet member says is being done because there was "no discussion" on the merits of invading Iraq.

Former cabinet minister Clare Short, who resigned as the UK's International Development Secretary after the war began, told a UK newspaper for Sunday editions that the minutes have been withheld because there was no conversation about invading Iraq -- and in fact, says she was cut off when trying to bring it up.

Details of two meetings are being withheld: Details of cabinet meetings on Mar. 13 and Mar. 17, 2003. The Iraq war began Mar. 19, 2003.

Short says the reason that government isn't publishing minutes of the meetings is not about confidentiality but instead to hide a "scandalous" decision not to discuss the war in the first place. She says that when the Iraq war decision was brought up, then-Prime Minister Blair said, "That's it."

"It is extraordinary when you hear people like [Blair Foreign Secretary] Jack Straw say that the Cabinet minutes cannot be published because you have to preserve Cabinet confidentiality and robust decision-making," Short told the Daily Mail.

"The bitter irony is that what they are doing is concealing the fact there was no robust decision-making," Short added. "The minutes will reveal there was no real Cabinet discussion about the Iraq War. That is the real scandal." LinkHere