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Straw accused of cover-up over Iraq war decision

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Feb 25, IRNA -- Freedom of information campaigners in Britain have criticized the decision made by Justice Secretary Jack Straw to use his ministerial veto to prevent the publication of the minutes of key Cabinet meetings in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003.

"The government should have abided by the Information Tribunal's decision on the release of the cabinet minutes -- or appealed against it, but not overruled it," the Campaign for Freedom of Information (CFI) said.

CFI director Maurice Frankel said that the decision by Jack Straw, who was Britain's foreign secretary at the time of the Iraq invasion, not to release the documents was 'an extremely retrograde step'.

Frankel expressed his concern that 'having been used once, the veto might now be used in other cases involving the examination of policy at lower levels in government', according to the Campaign for Freedom of Information.

The decision, he warned 'raises the prospect of an unacceptable trade off, greater secrecy about current information in return for more access to old government files'.

Straw claimed in a parliamentary announcement on Tuesday that the veto, the first time it has been used since the passing of the Freedom of Information Act in 2000, was 'necessary' in the interest of protecting the confidentiality of ministerial discussions which underpinned cabinet government and collective responsibility.

But the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), which opposed the war, described the decision as a 'cover-up' of Cabinet discussion on the legality of the invasion and said an inquiry was needed so that lessons could be learnt from the 'worst UK foreign policy decision in living memory'.

"The public feels it was lied to about the reasons for going to war in Iraq, and those responsible must not be allowed to hide from an inquiry," said the SNP's shadow defence secretary Angus Robertson.

Backbench Labor MP Tony Wright, who chairs the all-party parliamentary Public Administration Committee, also criticized the veto, saying the issue at stake is the whole process by which the decision to go to war was taken, rather than specific contents of discussions.

Straw's decision comes after the Information Tribunal ruled last month that the Cabinet minutes from March 13 and 17, 2003, which relate to the government's receipt of advice on the legal status of the war, should be published.