Chris Ames is a freelance investigative journalist. He has been researching the origins of the Iraq dossier since 2003. In July of that year, he researched and wrote an article for the New Statesman magazine, The difference a day made. This pointed out that to find out how the notorious 45 minutes claim got in the dossier, it was necessary to look at the events prior to 10 September 2002, the date on which Joint Intelligence Committee Chairman John Scarlett had produced the draft on which the government had based its defence.

During the Hutton Inquiry, Chris noticed among many references to the involvement of spin doctors in the drafting of the dossier that John Williams, press secretary at the Foreign Office, had produced a draft on 9 September 2002. The draft was provided to the Inquiry late and - possibly in consequence - was not passed to the other parties or published. When the Freedom of Information Act came into force at the beginning of 2005, he made a request for the Williams draft. The Foreign Office refused to release the document but confirmed its continued existence. In November 2006, Martin Bright revealed the story of the missing draft in the New Statesman, naming Chris as having provided the information. (The draft was finally published in February 2008).

Since then, Chris has continued to write about the dossier, jointly with Martin Bright and in his own name, and about other issues, including freedom of information and secrecy. He also writes the Spin and Spinners blog.