Chilcot inquiry team quizzes US officials in secret

Senior American officials and military officers are being quizzed in secret by the official inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war. Sir John Chilcot's committee is spending five days in Washington and Boston interviewing members of the administrations of President Bush and President Obama. Suggestions that Tony Blair secretly agreed with President Bush to join the war more than a year before the invasion are likely to be one of the key areas of interest to the inquiry. Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to Washington, has told the inquiry that the Prime Minister "signed in blood" a deal to overthrow Saddam Hussein during a private meeting at the President's ranch in Texas. Some senior military officers have told the inquiry that their American counterparts were convinced British forces would join the war while politicians in London were still publicly insisting that no decision had been reached.