Final Winograd report to be released within 2 weeks
Sources say comprehensive final report similar in its findings to partial conclusions. Military advocacy demands letters of warning be issued to officials whose conducted called into question
The final report of the Winograd Commission, probing the Second Lebanon War, will be released within two weeks, Ynet has learned. Representatives for the Commission testified on Wednesday that the final
report was written in the same vein as the partial report and will also hold individual public officials responsible for the war's failures.
The representatives testified at a special hearing held by the High Court of Justice to discuss the petition filed by the IDF Military Advocate General against the Commission.
"The Commission has not gone back on any of what was said in the partial report, that is why it was classified as a partial report and not an interim one," said the representatives in court.
The petition, filed by the army's chief defense counsel, demanded that parties who may be implicated in the report be allowed a chance to testify before the Commission and respond to any accusations made against their conduct. The petition further demanded that the court issue an interim injunction preventing the release of the final report until such action is taken.
The Winograd Commission submitted its response to the IDF's petition in an atypically cynical fashion. In its response to the court, the committee members wrote, "We were aware of the fact that the military prosecution has an important role in providing IDF officers and soldiers with legal assistance, but we did not know that the military prosecution has supernatural powers and is capable of predicting the future, knowing what will be written and what won't be written in the Winograd Commission's final report.
Justice Hanan Meltzer, who presided over Wednesday's proceedings, further added that it would be befitting of the senior officers named in the report to "come forward and fight for their reputations themselves instead of choosing to hide behind the army defense counsel."
The High Court reiterated that those implicated by the Commission retain the right to appeal any accusations made against their conduct following the release of the report.
The final report is not expected to contain any recommendations against individual State or military officials. The Commission's partial report, which was released in late April, also refrained from doing so but did harshly criticize the conduct of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and wartime Defense Minister Amir Peretz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz.
