Results 1-20 of 76 for iraq speaker:Mike Gapes

Opposition Day — [14th allotted day]: Iraq Inquiry (24 Jun 2009) has video

Mike Gapes: ..., and I wish to discuss the eight years that the inquiry is supposed to cover. Why does the period start from 2001? Why will no account be taken of the reason why there was a problem with Saddam's Iraq? The inquiry will have to look at that context, so it is wrong that there is an arbitrary date of 2001. I questioned the Prime Minister about that when he gave his statement. He said that it...

Oral Answers to Questions — Children, Schools and Families: Iraq (15 Jun 2009)

Mike Gapes: I, too, welcome the removal of the brutal, fascist regime of Saddam, and I think that Iraq is a much better country today than it could ever have been while the regime continued. However, it is important that the inquiry also look at the origins of the conflict, which did not start in 2001. We were bombing Iraq in 1998. Saddam was gassing the Kurds in 1988. There is a context and a history. I...

Opposition Day — [9th Allotted Day]: Iraq War Inquiry (25 Mar 2009) has video

Mike Gapes: Yesterday, I met a delegation of Iraqi Members of Parliament, representing all the diverse communities in that country, and they wanted a message sent to the British people to say, "Thank you for what you've done to get rid of Saddam Hussein and please keep supporting us in our transition to democracy." Will the Foreign Secretary ensure that the inquiry, when it happens, is not narrowly...

[Robert Key in the Chair] — Human Rights (18 Dec 2008)

Mike Gapes: ...it was not explicitly referred to. I wish also to draw attention to the fact that there are ongoing allegations about how some private security firms, including the US firm Blackwater, operate in Iraq. The announcement has just been made of a pending British withdrawal from Iraq, but there will presumably be private security companies operating there, which will employ British citizens,...

[Robert Key in the Chair] — Human Rights (18 Dec 2008)

Mike Gapes: No, I am not. Perhaps the Minister could respond to that question when she winds up. I have mentioned the Government's statement on Iraq. We raised concerns about the people who were employees of the British Government in Iraq and who at present are required to become refugees outside Iraq before they can apply for the gateway programme to get into the UK. Many people have had to flee Iraq...

Points of Order: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights (13 Oct 2008)

Mike Gapes: .... Of course, we have already seen the malign influence, which has gone from the UN system, of the unlamented John Bolton. His successor, Zalmay Khalilzad, who was ambassador in Afghanistan and in Iraq, is doing a much better job in assuaging people's concerns. In his urbane style, he is able to act as an antidote to the provocative and inflammatory work of his predecessor. However, we...

Orders of the Day: Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (23 Jun 2008) has video

Mike Gapes: ..., in a kind of limbo in Camp Ashraf. The question that has not been answered in this debate so far is: why are they there? Those people are on that site because, for many years, they were living in Iraq and being protected by Saddam's regime. I have been told many times, over many years, by many people in the Kurdish political movement that those people were used by Saddam for his own...

Opposition Day — [12th Allotted Day]: Burma (14 May 2008) has video

Mike Gapes: ...a very difficult situation because we know that intervention is not always easy, and there are unintended consequences. Reference has been made to the no-fly zones in connection with the Kurds in Iraq. I think that John Major's Government deserved enormous credit for establishing that. It may have been said that it was in accordance with international law, but it is doubtful whether it...

Opposition Day — [12th Allotted Day]: Burma (14 May 2008) has video

Mike Gapes: ...concerned, or at least their acquiescence, while people come in and in effect take over and create a kind of safe haven. It might be argued that that was done with the northern no-fly zone in Iraq to protect the Kurds, and with the southern no-fly zone to protect the Shi'a population. Actions have consequences, so the term "responsibility to protect" needs to be clearly defined. Gareth...

Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government: Iraq (1 Apr 2008) has video

Mike Gapes: As the Secretary of State said, our forces in Iraq continue to play a vital role in support of the democratically elected Iraqi Government, but does he have any view on or assessment of the role of the Iranians in interfering in Basra and the region to assist the insurgents and the militias who oppose the central Iraqi Government?

[Hywel Williams in the Chair] — Strategic Export Controls (27 Mar 2008)

Mike Gapes: ...we do. For the record, the full list is Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, the People's Republic of China, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. The report says, however, that that is...

Opposition Day — [8th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (25 Mar 2008) has video

Mike Gapes: Since 2003 there have been four inquiries into the events leading up to the war in Iraq, as has been stated. There has been the Butler inquiry, the Hutton inquiry, the Intelligence and Security Committee inquiry and the Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry, which was agreed in June 2003. However, there is a need for ongoing investigation and inquiry, and for lessons to be learned. I gave...

Opposition Day — [8th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (25 Mar 2008) has video

Mike Gapes: If the motion before us today proposed an inquiry into all aspects of UK relations with Iraq over the past 30 years, I would indeed support it, speak to it and vote for it. However, that is not the focus of the narrow motion that we are debating today. I will therefore not support it.

Opposition Day — [8th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (25 Mar 2008) has video

Mike Gapes: I am always in favour of Select Committees of this House initiating inquiries. I was a member of the Defence Committee, which carried out an inquiry into the lessons of Iraq. It was published in 2004 and, incidentally, was very critical of the then Secretary of State for International Development for failing to get her officials to prepare for the aftermath of the conflict. If I remember...

Opposition Day — [8th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (25 Mar 2008) has video

Mike Gapes: ...intervention that took place in 2003. My right hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley made the point very strongly that some people tried to find other ways to get rid of the Ba'athist regime in Iraq. They tried to do so in 1991, when the Shi'as in the south rose up and were massacred. They rose up with the encouragement of the first President Bush, and ended up being slaughtered, and the...

Opposition Day — [8th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (25 Mar 2008) has video

Mike Gapes: ...it is right to exercise a responsibility to protect as called for under the UN system by the Canadian commission and as debated at the millennium summit. We need to look at the issues surrounding Iraq in that context.

Opposition Day — [8th Allotted Day]: Iraq Inquiry (25 Mar 2008) has video

Mike Gapes: ..., perhaps even people in the BBC if that is possible—having heard the "Today" programme yesterday and today, I sometimes wonder whether another agenda is at work, as certain issues about Iraq are not mentioned. There is a constant litany of one view, which unfortunately does not inform the wider debate. On the way forward, we need an inquiry to look into other aspects before, during...

[Mr. Greg Pope in the Chair] — Global Security (Middle East) (24 Jan 2008)

Mike Gapes: ...in the outcome and could have a malign influence through arming or financing rejectionist groups that do not want the process taken further. The Committee commented in passing on the situation in Iraq, about which we were probably unduly pessimistic. We concluded that the surge in Iraq did not look as though it would succeed. However, from the outside, judging by certain criteria—the...

[Mr. Greg Pope in the Chair] — Global Security (Middle East) (24 Jan 2008)

Mike Gapes: ...out of factions and groups, brought under the new arrangements and used in the new forces. That has happened with some of the Palestinian groups and in other countries and conflicts. I have visited Iraq three times and have seen the work and training carried out by our military and police. I saw Gurkhas and the British Army doing the same in Sierra Leone as well. The quality of that...

Written Answers — Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs: Departments: Middle East (19 Jul 2007)

Mike Gapes: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many London-based departmental staff were assigned to working primarily on (a) the Middle East excluding Iraq and (b) Iraq in each year since 2000.