Reporting from London — The British government was aware of "drumbeats in Washington" in early 2001 calling for the toppling of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein but steered clear of such an aggressive policy before the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said Tuesday as a panel launched a major inquiry on how and why the British government went to war in Iraq.
William Patey, head of the Foreign Office's Middle East department at the time, said during the hearing that in February 2001, "We were aware of these drumbeats in Washington and internally we discussed it. Our policy was to stay away from that.
"We didn't think that Saddam [Hussein] was a good thing and it would be great if he went," he said, "but we didn't have a policy for getting rid of him."
The six-member panel is looking into the decision of former Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to join the U.S.-led war that brought down the Iraqi dictator in 2003. It will interview policymakers, secret service chiefs, military commanders and relatives of soldiers who died in the war. Blair is scheduled to appear in January.
The former prime minister's decision to take Britain to war, in part to dismantle weapons of mass destruction that were never found, was controversial in 2003 and steadily lost support among the British public over time.
The panel is expected to look into long-standing accusations that Blair's government skewed intelligence reports to justify going to war.
As the inquiry opened in a conference center in central London, a small group of protesters dressed as Blair, former President George W. Bush and current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gathered outside. Some demonstrators waved placards that declared "blood on your hands" and "no more whitewash," the latter a reference to previous inquiries that ended up justifying the war.
As he opened the proceedings, chairman John Chilcot emphasized that no one would be put on trial and his panel would not "determine guilt or innocence . . . but we will not shy away from making criticisms where they are warranted."
"We are apolitical and independent of any political party," he said.
"We want to examine the evidence. We will approach our task in a way that is thorough, rigorous, fair and frank."
The committee began by examining British policy on Iraq and Britain's relationship with the United States on the issue just before and after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The first three witnesses had either been in the Defense Ministry or the Foreign Office under the Blair government.
