Transcripts show No 10's hand in war legal advice

[ze_dscherman]

Transcripts of evidence given in private by the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, to an official inquiry suggest that the crucial advice on the legality of war, presented to parliament in his name, was written for him by two of Tony Blair's closest allies.

The document, seen by the Guardian, reveals the attorney general's private exchanges with Lord Butler during the course of his inquiry into the use of intelligence in the run-up to war against Iraq.

In them, the attorney general suggests his parliamentary statement giving legal backing to Britain's participation in the invasion was "set out" by Charles Falconer, then Home Office minister, and Baroness Morgan, the prime minister's director of political-government relations.

In apparent contradiction to his Butler evidence, the attorney general yesterday sought to deny that 10 Downing Street had any influence over his decisive statement.

more: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1424130,00.html

[barbaraann]

1. I guess "It's the British Empire, stupid."

Did it die or just morph into something else?

[mogster]

2. Um..wonder if Lord Hutton did the same

His report looked like it was written by someone who wanted the story to go away.

[struggle4progress]

3. kick