Editing Geoff Hoon (section)

==Secretary of State for Defence==
[[File:Geoff Hoon Pentagon.jpg|thumb|210px|left|Geoff Hoon (right) at Pentagon briefing with [[Donald Rumsfeld]]]]
On 11 October 1999 Hoon was appointed [[Secretary of State for Defence]].<ref name=bbc-19991012>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/471795.stm |title=For the defence: Geoff Hoon |work=BBC News |date=12 October 1999 |access-date=5 August 2018}}</ref> His term took him through the 2000 [[British military intervention in the Sierra Leone Civil War]] and the [[NATO]] intervention in the [[2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia]]. The rest of his term was dominated by the start of the [[War on terror]] in 2001, including British participation in both the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|War in Afghanistan]], [[Operation Herrick]], and the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], [[Operation Telic]].<ref name=guardian-20040123>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/jan/23/uk.military2 |title=The Guardian profile: Geoff Hoon |last=Wintour |first=Patrick |newspaper=The Guardian |date=23 January 2004 |access-date=5 August 2018}}</ref>

Asserting the importance of deterrence, in a 2003 interview on the BBC's ''[[Breakfast with Frost]]'', Hoon asserted that the UK was willing to use [[nuclear weapons]] against Iraqi forces "in the right circumstances, namely in extreme self defence."<ref name="BBC">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2717939.stm |title=UK restates nuclear threat |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date=2 February 2003}}</ref><ref name="frost">Geoff Hoon, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/38769000/rm/_38769013_iraqweapons10_hoon_vi.ram interview] by [[David Frost]], ''Breakfast with Frost'', BBC News, 23 February 2003</ref>

On 23 June 2003, Hoon, following a detailed briefing given to the United Nations by US Secretary of State, [[Colin Powell]], continued to claim that two trailers found in Iraq were [[mobile weapons laboratory|mobile weapons laboratories]].<ref name="hansard2">{{Cite web|date=23 June 2003| url = https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/vo030623/debtext/30623-02.htm | title = Hansard – Written Answers – Column 696 | publisher = House of Commons Hansard | access-date = 16 January 2008 | last= Hansard}}</ref> This was in spite of the fact that it had been leaked to the press by [[David Kelly (weapons expert)|David Kelly]]<ref name="hutton3">{{Cite web|date=24 September 2003| url = http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/transcripts/hearing-trans17.htm | title = Hutton Inquiry Hearing Transcripts – Peter Stuart Beaumont | publisher = The Hutton Inquiry| access-date = 16 January 2008 | last= Hutton}}</ref> and other weapons inspectors that they were nothing of the sort. The trailers were for filling hydrogen balloons for artillery ranging and were sold to Iraq by a British company, Marconi.<ref name="Observer ">{{cite news|date= 15 June 2003| url = https://www.theguardian.com/Iraq/Story/0,,977916,00.html| title = Iraqi mobile labs nothing to do with germ warfare, report finds | newspaper = The Observer| access-date = 24 July 2007 | last= Peter Beaumont, Antony Barnett and Gaby Hinsliff | location=London}}</ref>

In an April 2004 interview, Hoon said that more could have been done to help Kelly, who committed suicide on 17 July 2003 after being named as the source of [[Andrew Gilligan]]'s disputed ''[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today]]'' programme contribution.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3654913.stm |title=Hoon admits mistakes over Kelly |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date=24 April 2004|access-date=3 October 2008}}</ref>

Hoon gave evidence about the Iraq war both to the 2003 [[Hutton Inquiry]] during his term,<ref name=guardian-20040123/> and later on 19 January 2010 [[List of witnesses of The Iraq Inquiry#January 18|gave evidence]] to the [[Iraq Inquiry]] about his time as Defence Secretary.<ref name="BBC Iraq inquiry">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8466828.stm |title=Iraq inquiry: 45-minute weapon claim 'new' to Hoon |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date=19 January 2010}}</ref>

===Comments on cluster bombs===
Shortly after the US/UK led invasion of Iraq began in 2003, following an admission by the Ministry of Defence that Britain had dropped 50 airborne cluster bombs in the south of Iraq and left behind up to 800 unexploded bomblets, it was put to Hoon in a Radio 4 interview that an Iraqi mother of a child killed by these [[cluster bombs]] would not thank the British Army. He replied "One day they might." Hoon continued, "I accept that in the short term the consequences are terrible. No one minimises those and I'm not seeking to do so," he said. "But what I am saying is that this is a country that has been brutalised for decades by this appalling regime and that the restoration of that country to its own people, the possibility of their deciding for themselves their future ... and indeed the way in which they go about their lives, ultimately, yes, that will be a better place for people in Iraq."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hoon-is-cruel--for-claims-on-cluster-bombs-claims-593447.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226020729/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hoon-is-cruel--for-claims-on-cluster-bombs-claims-593447.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 February 2009 |title= Hoon is 'cruel' for claims on cluster bombs By Paul Waugh and Ben Russell |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |date=5 April 2003 | location=London | access-date=3 May 2010}}</ref>

===HMCS ''Chicoutimi'' comments===
In 1998, Canada purchased four [[Upholder/Victoria-class submarine|''Upholder''-class submarines]] and a suite of trainers from the [[Royal Navy]] to replace their decommissioned [[Oberon-class submarine|''Oberon''-class submarines]]. The ''Upholder'' class entered Royal Navy service from 1990 to 1993 at the end of the [[Cold War]], and were deemed surplus as part of the [[Peace Dividend]] and refocus on a nuclear submarine fleet. They were placed into storage until Canada purchased them.

On 5 October 2004 [[HMCS Chicoutimi (SSK 879)|HMCS ''Chicoutimi'']], sailing from [[Faslane Naval Base]] to Nova Scotia, declared an emergency northwest of Ireland following a fire on board.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3719760.stm|title=Rescue ship reaches sub crew|work=[[BBC News]]|date=7 October 2004}}</ref> The fire was caused by seawater entering through open hatches in rough seas; an inquiry established later that this was an "incorrect operating procedure". It soaked electrical insulation (which had not been sufficiently waterproofed since it conformed to an older specification than the three other submarines), starting a fire. The ''Chicoutimi'' lost power and wallowed in the seas NW of Ireland. An Irish Naval vessel was damaged by the heavy seas when trying to get to the ''Chicoutimi'' but another the LÉ ''Aoife'' was able to reach her and took over from British [[Royal Navy]] frigates [[HMS Montrose (F236)|HMS ''Montrose'']] and [[HMS Marlborough (F233)|''Marlborough'']] as the scene coordinator on the 6th of October. Three crewmen were airlifted to Sligo General Hospital in Ireland where Lt(N) Chris Saunders died subsequently from the effects of smoke inhalation.

Following claims made in the Canadian media about the cause of the fire, blaming the UK for supplying an unsafe vessel, Hoon accompanied his condolences for Saunders by stating that Canada would be charged for the rescue and stating that Canada as the [[caveat emptor|buyer had to beware]]. In Canada, many [[World War II]] veterans were outraged by his comments, considering Canada's sacrifice for Britain during both World Wars.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20041018/sub_inquiry_041017?hub=EdmontonHome/feed/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706175250/http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20041018/sub_inquiry_041017?hub=EdmontonHome/feed/|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 July 2011|title=Chicoutimi fire could have been worse: report|publisher=[[CTV News]]|date=18 October 2004|access-date=3 September 2010}}</ref>

===Comments on Extraordinary Rendition===
Hoon was criticised by an international delegation of European MPs for evading questions about Britain's co-operation with the CIA's so-called 'extraordinary rendition' programme, even though he knew nothing about the programme.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hoon-unhelpful-and-evasive-about-american-rendition-flights-say-meps-419046.html Hoon 'unhelpful and evasive' about American rendition flights, say MEPs], by Ben Russell. ''The Independent'', 7 October 2006.</ref> Hoon, then Minister for Europe, was being quizzed in the wake of [[Dick Marty]]'s Council of Europe [http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2006/20060606_Ejdoc162006PartII-FINAL.pdf report] which found extensive involvement of European countries, including Britain, in the US kidnapping and torture programme.