Iraq Inquiry: secret documents show Blair’s frustration over ‘illegality’ of war
July 1st, 2010 - 6:37 pm ICT by ANILondon, July 1 (ANI): The Iraq inquiry has released top secret Government documents showing former former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair’s irritation and frustration at being told by Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, that going to war in Iraq would be illegal.
According to The Telegraph, the documents have been kept secret since the war but were released to the Chilcot Inquiry, which is holding hearings into the Iraq conflict, after Sir Gus O’Donnell, the head of the civil service, ruled that they raised “unprecedented” matters of public interest.
On one note, written six weeks before the March 2003 invasion, Blair scrawled, ‘I just do not understand this’ alongside a warning from Lord Goldsmith, that military force would be illegal without a fresh United Nations resolution.
The paper stated that the document is one of a number which were declassified by the Government showing that in the run up to the war, Goldsmith was repeatedly told that his formal advice about the legality of an invasion was not welcome.
A note of a meeting held at 10 Downing Street in December 2002 shows that Jonathan Powell, Mr Blair’s chief of staff, had assured the then-attorney general that the United Kingdom would not support an American-led invasion of Iraq without the consent of the UN.
“There would be no question of the UK supporting military action,” the paper quoted, the note, as saying.
Goldsmith also personally handed Blair a draft legal note warning that he did not accept that prior UN Security Council resolutions relating to Iraq could be used to justify war.
Goldsmith had expressed reservations about the legal justification for a military conflict without the support of the UN for months before changing his mind on the eve of the war after flying to the United States to discuss the matter with officials working for President George W Bush.
He then released a second draft saying that resolution 1441 is not clear.
“The language of resolution 1441 is not clear … In these circumstances, I remain of the opinion that the safest legal course would be to secure the adoption of a further Council decision … which would authorise the use of force,” the paper quoted the second draft as saying. (ANI)
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