the 'dodgy dossier' has been folT lowed by the outrageous report.
Incredibly, in the light of the evidence to the Hutton inquiry, the Law Lord has seen fit to give Blair, Hoon and Campbell a clean bill of political health.
The fall guys have been BBC chiefs Greg Dyke and Gavyn Davies and persecuted defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan, all of whom have resigned. None of them is responsible for the many thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths, Blair and Hoon are!
Despite Hutton's whitewash, what is abundantly clear is that the Iraq war was based on a fraud.
There were no so-called 'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq. This imperialist war and subsequent hunt for the WMDs was, as the Cambridge academic Glen Rangwala says, 'one of the most elaborate, costly and deadly hoaxes of the modern era.'
In the last week the head of the Iraqi Kay: no WMD stockpiles will be found Survey Group [ISG], David Kay, has resigned saying that he now believes that Saddam Hussein gave up his weapons programmes after the first Gulf war in 199l.
Former CIA man Kay led a team of some 1400 inspectors, who have combed Iraq in a desperate attempt to find some justification for the war. They found nothing. No serious commentator believes that any weapons will be found.
Blair is the only political figure who continues to promulgate this weapons fantasy. Neither Blair's spin doctors nor his wife's new age spiritual advisers will be able to rebuild his tarnished political reputation.
Where does this leave the occupation of Iraq and the wider 'war on terror"
In Iraq not only is the military occupation in trouble but the privatisation programme that the military force was meant to underpin is imploding. US plans to create a subservient Iraqi regime are in trouble.
American attempts to create a nominated puppet Iraqi government to take over this June are being challenged by both the Shia and Sunni communities. The Shia are calling for direct elections, while the Sunnis are saying that these elections cannot take place while US/UK occupation forces remain in
The main aim of the new US controlled Iraqi government was to accept an unlimited US military presence and pave the way for the privatisation of the entire Iraqi economy.
To that end the Americans have been rehabilitating central elements of Saddam's former security services; they will be integrated into the new Iraqi police force
What is being proposed is the return of the Saddam regime minus Saddam. Business as usual. Opposition to the occupation is growing, US casualties are increasing daily, and with the possibility of the Shias being drawn directly into the resistance the situation in Iraq is becoming critical for both Bush and Blair.
Meanwhile Iraqis continue to suffer from shortages in essential services: healthcare, education, electricity and sanitation. The situation for most Iraqis is as bad as it was under Saddam, if not worse. Many thousands of Iraqis languish in American prison camps and the US military operates an indiscriminate shoot-to-kill policy.
There is no legal provision for arrested Iraqis and in this there is the echo of what is happening in the wider 'war on terror'. In the south of Iraq in the British zone there have been large demonstrations against the high level of unemployment.
There British forces have not hesitated to use lethal force against unarmed demonstra. tors.
We now know, courtesy of the former US treasury secretary Paul O'Neill, that Bush and co planned the attack on Iraq well before September 1| 2001. The Al Qaida attacks in New York and Washington gave the Bush administration the perfect opportunity not only to wage a series of illegal wars but to unleash a widespread attack on civil liberties.
In the US the draconian Patriot Act was introduced, and this became a template for attacks on civil liberties around the world.
For over two years now, more than 600 people have been held in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. They have not been charged and have no access to legal representation. In Britain under recently introduced anti-terror legisla tion people are being held in similar circum stances in Belmarsh prison.
Throughout Britain hundreds of muslims have been arrested under this same terro law, only for nearly all to be released without charge. The Blair government, in alliance with the right wing press, has been whipping up a hysterical wave of racist feeling agains the muslim community and asylum seekers
Next month the Stop the War Coalitior will have its third conference. Despite Hutton the Coalition will continue to campaign for a full public inquiry into the Irac war
At the heart of our discussions will be a programme of activity to make the question of the defence of civil liberties central to the work of the Coalition over the coming year
The campaign against the occupation in Iraq will continue with a week-long series of events planned around the March 20 anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war.
With the European Social Forum coming to London in November and the formation of the Respect - Unity Coalition, which is the fruit of the anti-war movement, will take the questions of war, civil liberties and racism into the electoral arena, this year promises to be one in which we can build on the success. es of 2003 and ensure that the military adventures of Bush and Blair are brought to an end.