Rupert Murdoch and the Iraq War

[John Simkin]

The Liberal Democrat Lord Avebury requested details of the meetings between Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Blair refused to reveal this information on grounds of "national security". In other words the information would cause him embarrassment.

The day after Blair left office Gordon Brown gave permission for the Cabinet Office to release these documents. Blair met Murdoch three times in the days running up to the invasion of Iraq (11th, 13th and 19th March) that took place on 20th March.

Blair also talked to Murdoch at the same time that the Sun newspaper leaked details of the Hutton Report. These details gave the impression that Blair was completely cleared of manufacturing information on the need to invade Iraq.