The Intelligence Committee Gets it Right

“more weight was placed on the intelligence than it could bear”

Lord Butler at the press conference on the Report of the 

Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction, 14 July 2004

War is good for an inquiry about what we got wrong.  

We get wrong the weight we put on the evidence.  

The evidence is weighed by those 

who have almost reached the top.

To almost reach the top you must know 

how to look and sound the part.

Those who look and sound the part gather in a room.

The room will be too cold or too hot.  

There is always a table plus chairs at the edge 

for experts who can only frown or nod.

The room is consistently the critical part

who’s there, who’s not.

You were there. The critical part is

I watched them destroy you 

before you entered this room.  

The thought of those who look and sound the part,

although you too are almost at the top, 

was stronger than the power in your brief.  

I was there at the edge. The critical part is

I nodded for you till it hurt

kept a tally of the gender of those who spoke,

refused to be dazzled by the glare in the room,

showed you how the room and the chair firmly set

the frame for what goes on.

Then I was at the table. The critical part is

the room conspired with me

that my frame looked and sounded the part.

And I’m far from the top so what did it matter,

it’s not like I’d be back there again soon

to disagree as effectively as I could.

We didn’t get wrong the weight we put on the evidence.

The evidence justifies honours and promotions all round,

around those who will now reach the top.

The top will leave untold the stories,

the stories of how we made the inquiries stop.

This war won’t be good for an inquiry.

Kay Feneley