(UK Attorney General) Lord Goldsmith warned ministers that Iraq war would be illegal

[sabra]

Source: UK telegraph

Lord Goldsmith, then the attorney general, warned Cabinet ministers in 2002 that he did not believe attacking Iraq would be legal.

The law officer wrote to ministers in March 2002, almost exactly a year before the UK joined the US in invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein.

Documents released today by Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the war show that Lord Goldsmith wrote to rebuke Geoff Hoon, then the defence secretary, for stating publicly that war could be justified in international law.

Mr Hoon made the claim in a television interview on March 24, 2002.

Four days later, Lord Goldsmith wrote him a formal note, prepared by his office and kept in Whitehall files. The letter was also sent to Jack Straw, then the foreign secretary.

Lord Goldsmith made clear in the note that at the time, he did not see clear legal justification for an attack.

He told Mr Hoon: “As you are aware, the Law Officers’ opinion has not been sought on the legality of possible action and I have not therefore offered any views on the legal position. The clarity of your statement and the apparently authoritative way it was produced puts me however in a difficult position.

He said: “I see considerable difficulties in being satisfied that military action would be justified on the basis of self defence.”

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/7025672/Lord-Goldsmith-warned-ministers-that-Iraq-war-would-be-illegal.html

[Piewhacket]

1. OK. It was illegal. Now what?

[frazzled]

2. If you haven't seen "In the Loop," you really should now

It's about precisely this situation, a British minister who makes an inadavertent comment to the media during an interview and sets up a hilarious tug-of-war between pro- and anti-war forces within the governments at Downing Street and Capitol Hill.

Here's a trailer (carefully scrubbed of the endless array of hilarious cursing that is the mainstay of the film):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQrqMkCuHqA

Don't mean to make light of this news ... but in retrospect, sometimes satire gets at the truth about these governmental matters more precisely than any white paper.

[lobodons]

3. Imagine that

Invading a sovereign country based on falsified intel for political gain conflicts with International law. Who'da thunk..??

[Solly Mack]

4. k/r