Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Did the Taoiseach discuss the situation in Iraq with the British Prime Minister? Did the Prime Minister throw any light on the disaster that has followed the invasion of Iraq of which he was a prime mover? Did the British Prime Minister apologise to the Taoiseach for misleading him and his Government in claims he made to justify the invasion of Iraq on the definite presence of weapons of mass destruction, and also apologise for convincing the Taoiseach that he should lend assistance to that invasion and be an auxiliary to it by providing logistical support at Shannon?

Did they raise the issue of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers and the abuse and deaths of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of both British and American soldiers? Since the credibility of any claim to moral or democratic standards advanced by the British Prime Minister, Mr. Blair, and the British and US occupiers now lies in the gutters of Abu Ghraib following the prisoner scandal, how does the Taoiseach propose to deal with the British Prime Minister in regard to these matters?

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