Iraq probe 'may be partly public'Source:
BBC=snip=
Former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major said the findings risked being denounced as a "whitewash" and said the decision to hold it in private was "inexplicable".
General Sir Michael Jackson, who was head of the Army during the 2003 Iraq invasion, told the BBC it "must be open wherever possible".
And in a report published on Thursday, the Commons public administration committee said: "Inquiry proceedings should as a rule be held in public, with only very limited exceptions to consider the most sensitive evidence.
"Decisions to conduct particular proceedings in private should be made by members of the inquiry itself, not by the government."
Lord Butler, a former cabinet secretary, told peers: "I reluctantly conclude that the form of the inquiry proposed by the government has been dictated more by the government's political interest than the national interest and it cannot achieve the purpose of purging mistrust."
He said the way it had been arranged would ensure "that we will hear no more about it until after the general election" and it must both allow lessons to be learned but also enact a "truth and reconciliation process" for those who felt misled.
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