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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/straw-sent-mi6-iraq-paper-to-blair.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Jack Straw speaks at the Chilcot Inquiry in London" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/min-straw-sent-mi6-iraq-paper-to-blair.jpg" alt="Jack Straw speaks at the Chilcot Inquiry in London"/></a></p>
<p>Jack Straw recommended that Tony Blair should read an MI6 paper setting out a &#8220;route map for regime change&#8221; in Iraq, the inquiry into the war has heard.</p>
<p>The former foreign secretary said the December 2001 briefing by a senior officer from Britain&#8217;s overseas intelligence agency was &#8220;very perceptive&#8221; and sent a copy to 10 Downing Street.</p>
<p>Mr Straw was questioned about why he promoted this document despite his frequently stated position that regime change in Baghdad was not UK policy and could not be a legal justification for attacking Iraq.</p>
<p>He told the inquiry: &#8220;As secretary of state I would have read these papers late at night and scribbled on them, &#8216;these are very perceptive, make sure Number 10 see them&#8217;.</p>
<p>&#8220;That would have been translated into an official note from my private secretary. That does not mean I&#8217;ve endorsed the policy within those papers.&#8221;</p>
<p>The inquiry, led by Sir John Chilcot, has heard that the paper began: &#8220;At our meeting on 30 November we discussed how we could combine an objective of regime change in Baghdad with the need to protect important regional interests which would be a grave risk if a bombing campaign against Iraq were launched in the short term.&#8221;</p>
<p>The document was the second of three MI6 briefing notes on how to deal with Iraq sent to 10 Downing Street and Mr Straw&#8217;s office in early December 2001.</p>
<p>The foreign secretary&#8217;s private secretary wrote back to the then-head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove: &#8220;Thank you for your letter of 3 December which the Secretary of State has read. He thought the two papers very perceptive and hopes that the Prime Minister reads them. I&#8217;m sending a copy to David Manning (Mr Blair&#8217;s foreign policy adviser).&#8221;</p>
<p>Inquiry panel member Sir Roderic Lyne, a former senior diplomat, asked why Mr Straw commended a paper that suggested how Saddam Hussein&#8217;s regime in Iraq could be overthrown.</p>
<p>The former foreign secretary answered: &#8220;The view I have expressed publicly is the same as the views I expressed privately, that regime change was not a good idea for us to pursue as an objective, and in any event it was palpably illegal so it was not an option.&#8221;</p>
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