Will Bush Administration Figures Cooperate With British Iraq War Inquiry?

British government sources tell Declassified that investigators for Britain's official Iraq War inquiry panel—which has been conducting a lengthy probe into the origins and conduct of the war—want to make a fact-finding trip to the United States. One sensitive item on the agenda: trying to get interviews with former Bush administration officials.

But the sources, who asked for anonymity when discussing private information, said there are already indications that Bush administration "principals"—senior policymaking officials including George W. Bush and Dick Cheney—have indicated that they have no intention of talking to the British investigators.

Last December, Declassified first reported that the U.K. inquiry was interested in interviewing American citizens about how and why the war started and how it has been conducted. On Friday, Al Kamen, a Washington Post columnist, reported that the panel e-mailed invitations to former Bush administration figures asking them if they would be willing to talk. Kamen wrote that the response was "decidedly cool," even though the U.K. panel has indicated that it is willing to conduct its interviews in private. A British source confirmed this, and added that the panel would even consider keeping the testimony of U.S. officials confidential when it writes up its final report on the investigation.

Bush and Cheney are not the only ones who are expected to turn down the Brits' invitation. The U.K. source acknowledged that other top-tier Bush administration officials—including Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld—are unlikely to speak with the U.K. inquiry, which has no power to compel their cooperation. The Washington Post reported that Stephen Hadley, Bush's former national-security adviser, has been among those "voicing a strong disinclination to participate." If the higher ups won't talk, the panel hopes at least to secure interviews with lower-level U.S. officials who had a hand in planning and carrying out the invasion.

The investigators have had better luck on their own soil. The panel has already taken testimony  from Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair, both of whom strongly defended the war. It has also heard from other lesser-known military and government officials who raised serious questions about whether the U.K. and U.S. government adequately prepared for the conflict, and whether it was justified under international law. A spokesman for the inquiry panel declined to comment.