Blair Broke Code to Keep War Advice from Cabinet..UK

[Gloria]

From the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


1//The Independent, UK 09 March 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=618151



BLAIR BROKE CODE TO KEEP WAR ADVICE FROM CABINET

MPs clamour for inquiry as row flares again over legality of Iraq invasion



By Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent



Tony Blair is facing calls for a formal investigation after it emerged that he breached the official code of conduct for ministers by failing to show the Attorney General's full advice on the legality of the Iraq war to the Cabinet.



MPs demanded that Sir Andrew Turnbull, the Cabinet Secretary, launch an immediate inquiry into whether Mr Blair and the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, flouted the code.



Politicians from all parties seized on a written answer from the Prime Minister as an admission that cabinet ministers should have been given Lord Goldsmith's full legal opinion before Britain went to war.



The former cabinet minster Clare Short stepped into the row yesterday when she accused Mr Blair and Lord Goldsmith of flouting the code. In a letter copied to the Prime Minister and Sir Andrew, Ms Short accused Lord Goldsmith of failing "to comply with the ministerial code when giving your advice to the Cabinet".



She said: "I am afraid that it is now clear to me that by failing to reveal your full legal advice and the considerations that underpinned your final advice, you misled the Cabinet and therefore helped obtain support for military action improperly. This is a very serious matter in relation to the war in Iraq, the integrity of your office, your own integrity and the proper working of UK constitutional arrangements."


More

[AndyTiedye]

1. You Broke A Lot More Than That, Tony Bliar

Welcome to your new home.

[emad]

15. Do you mean:

Belmarsh Jail, London SE27 OR

Tower of London...
???

[AndyTiedye]

22. No, This Is The One in The Hague, Where They Put the War Criminals

the prison wing of the Palace of Peace in the Hague.

[leesa]

2. I like this news.

[Moderator]

3. kick to combine

[emad]

4. Blair broke code to keep war advice from Cabinet

MPs clamour for inquiry as row flares again over legality of Iraq invasion
By Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent
The Independent
09 March 2005


Tony Blair is facing calls for a formal investigation after it emerged that he breached the official code of conduct for ministers by failing to show the Attorney General's full advice on the legality of the Iraq war to the Cabinet.

MPs demanded that Sir Andrew Turnbull, the Cabinet Secretary, launch an immediate inquiry into whether Mr Blair and the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, flouted the code.

Politicians from all parties seized on a written answer from the Prime Minister as an admission that cabinet ministers should have been given Lord Goldsmith's full legal opinion before Britain went to war.

The former cabinet minster Clare Short stepped into the row yesterday when she accused Mr Blair and Lord Goldsmith of flouting the code. In a letter copied to the Prime Minister and Sir Andrew, Ms Short accused Lord Goldsmith of failing "to comply with the ministerial code when giving your advice to the Cabinet".

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=618151

[benburch]

5. The poodle is going down.

This will end him.

[emad]

11. Blair has been caught in a long, complex military intelligence sting.

His personal role in 9/11 fiasco, Enron collapse and WMDs dud are part of the trail to identify him as ringleader of European organised crime gang.

Look out for the resumption of the Rome murder trial of "God's Banker" Roberto Calvi (Ex- Banco Ambrosiano CEO). City of London Police files dating back to 1978 were submitted last year to the Rome prosecutors who adjourned the hearing to give time for evidence to be assessed.

Blair was hip-deep with Robert Maxwell RIP in this scam.
Tories hid all connections when John Major was PM.

Bush Jr was equal partner in cover ups of criminal activity going back 30 years.

End of the road now in sight.

[Massachusetts]

26. One can only hope.

[BlueEyedSon]

6. Impeach the Poodle!

http://www.impeachblair.org/

[ewagner]

7. I hope this does it

He's just about as teflon coated as Chimpy!!!!!

[atommom]

8. That's what he gets for emulating Bush! At least his government

is striking back at him now. I see a lot of parallels here ... but for some reason the Brits are doing a much better job of fighting back.

[realFedUp]

9. Blair as well as Bush are international war criminals

why the populace is so confused about
this is beyond me.

[tanyev]

10. Somewhere in the Gannon threads there was

an innuendo that he had been used to get compromising photos of Blair (among others). That would finally give me an explanation I can understand for Blair's unshakable support of our liar-in-chief.

[EFerrari]

28. Gannon posted to a board

"I will be entertaining Tony Blair". On the other hand, you have to consider the source. :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. A page straight out of Washington D.C. Accentuate the positive,

bury the negative.

[Barkley]

31. What exactly did Gilligan get wrong?

This is worse than the 'sex-up' dossier and the 45 min claim combined. Why bother to ask for legal council when you're going to war anyways?

[Vladimir]

13. I suspect, if there are any causalties over this at all,

that some low-ranking staffer will get it in the neck for not 'attaching' the full legal advice as 'instructed'. On the other hand, maybe miracles do happen - but don't hold your breath!

[emad]

14. Bid to block probe into 'Iraq breach'

By Paul Waugh Deputy Political Editor, Evening Standard
9 March 2005

Downing Street today rejected claims that Tony Blair breached his own ministerial code of conduct over the Government's legal advice on the Iraq war.
....

The ministerial code says that when advice from law officers is included "in papers for the Cabinet", the conclusions may be summarised but "the complete text of the advice should be attached". But former minister Clare Short says she received no copy of Lord Goldsmith's full legal opinion .

In a move critics said was " hairsplitting", No 10 today said the code did not apply because Attorney General Lord Goldsmith gave oral testimony to the Cabinet.

The official spokesman said the two-page written answer given to the Cabinet was not a "paper" in the code's terms. He said the answer to Parliament, which said the war was legal under previous UN resolutions, was Lord Goldsmith's view not formal advice.

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/17141788?source=Evening%20Standard

[DemoTex]

16. Tony, Tony. Tony ...

You've been hanging around that Bu$h hoodlum too long. Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas. However, I'm being too hard on dogs by comparing them with that Bu$h boy.

[Supersedeas]

21. but Blair will be the only one to be accountable to his peers--Frat Boy

is accountable to noone.

[D-Notice]

17. Unfortunately

the story states that the person who decides whether to launch investigations into breaches of the Ministerial Code of Conduct is the Prime Minister, i.e. Poodle...

Forgive me for not having high hopes that anything will happen as a response...

Unless of course he launches an investigation into himself...

[Briar]

18. Even if he does

he'll pick someone to do it who will clear him.

[emad]

20. He thinks he's got away with crime for some 38 years...

But it's a matter of record that he raped a nine year old member of the Royal Family in 1967 and left her for dead.

This was whitewashed over under Official Secrets Act priviledges that gag all awful Royal Family stuff.

Unfortunately for him, the family members who sued successfully in the civil courts have never destroyed the evidence or the documents relating to this.

Can't see it remaining covered up for much longer...

[D-Notice]

24. Really?!

Are there any links to this?

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. No

Don't you know that these 'civil courts' have spent years righting all kinds of wrongs in our society, but put a blanket ban on their decisions ever being reported to us, the civil population? And that they let the miscreants do whatever they want, time and time again (apart from losing cases in 'civil courts', of course).

[emad]

27. Four aplications under the Freedom of Information Act to access

evidence are still under appeal in the UK High Court.

Witnesses to the 1967 rape/murder attempt testified in the Children of God case. Two are still alive and living under new IDs issued as part of witness protection programme deal.

Don't know how successful UK journos will be in getting to the documented evidence via this means.

ANYTHING to do with Royal Family is gagged under the most draconian interpretations of the Official Secrets Act.

[Roland99]

19. Can't get the page to load beyond the ad up top.

:(

[IndianaGreen]

23. Stick Blair's head on a spike outside the Tower of London

Traitor!

[Moderator]

29. kick to combine

[emad]

30. MPs urge Bar Council to investigate advice on war

Independent
By Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent
12 March 2005


The Attorney General is facing a damaging inquiry by the barristers' ruling body after the revelation by the country's most senior civil servant that Britain went to war on the basis of one page of legal advice.

MPs have lodged a formal complaint with the Bar Council, which regulates barristers, and asked for an investigation into Lord Goldsmith's conduct in offering his "definitive advice" on the legality of invading Iraq on a single page of A4. It came as the Government confirmed yesterday it would not release the legal advice for war despite a request to review its decisions.

Yesterday, Clare Short, the former international development secretary, was also told her complaint about the Attorney General's presentation of legal advice - with no supporting documentation - would be investigated by the council's complaints commissioner.

The chief executive of the Bar Council, David Hobart, confirmed in a letter to Ms Short that its complaints division would look into the matter. "I am told the inquiry will be independent," she said. The Attorney General has strongly denied Ms Short's allegations.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=619248

The Attorney-General's war advice:

[Flammable Materials]

32. "Politicians from all parties ..."

There's such a wonderful ring to that phrase.

Sad that we will never hear it used in the States.

[Moderator]

33. kick to combine

[keymaker]

34. Blair Caught Short

Clare Short, the former overseas development minister who resigned over Iraq, has managed to ambush Tony Blair, Jack Straw and the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith all in one week with regard to the flawed legal basis upon which we went to war.

First, she sent the government reeling by pointing out that Blair was in breach of the ministerial code in witholding the Attorney General's full advice from the cabinet. When he and the Attorney General then panic and deny that there was any advice other than a one-page parliamentary answer (pa) of 18 March 2003, they were contradicting Jack Straw's statement to the House that the pa was only a summary of the Attorney General's full advice. On the basis that they can't all be telling the truth Straw has now been accused of lying to Parliament. But Blair and Goldsmith were also denying what we already knew that there was a mysterious 13 page advice dated 7 March 2003 that had said the war was illegal but which has been witheld from public disclosure.

Ms Short then referred Goldsmith's behaviour to the Bar Council for professional misconduct on his own position that, if there was no such full advice, then his opinion about the war was furnished on a single piece of bog paper which must be professionally inept. The Bar Council has confirmed that Goldsmith will now be investigated for breach of the Bar Regulations :-).

keymaker

[aquart]

35. You mean lying to Parliament is wrong?

I'm pretty sure lying to Congress is just ducky.

[keymaker]

37. LOL! Well not exactly...

... there's a sort of unwritten rule that lying is fine as long as you cover your tracks and don't get caught... ;-).

keymaker

[Jokinomx]

52. Welcome to the Democratic Underground....

Its great to have you aboard. I will look forward to seeing your point of view on the issues that affect us all.

:toast:

[keymaker]

63. Thanks

I appreciate the welcome...

keymaker

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

48. Perhaps they were.

But what of Funkadelic? Them too? ;-)

[nolabels]

49. So it's a double whammy then?

Getting caught short and then lying about it


http://www.stayerect.com/mspf-goo.html

[keymaker]

64. I think it might have been a triple...

... getting caught short, lying about it, and then cr@pping himself that anyone is going to find out ;-).

keymaker

[IndianaGreen]

57. John Profumo lied to Parliament, and it costs him his job

Lying to Parliament is a serious charge that has led to the demise of many political careers. We won't see Blair's head atop a spike outside the Tower of London, but we will see his political corpse being removed from Number Ten.

[hlthe2b]

36. Go Clare! Now if only some of our DEMS would get the same spine!

[Wilms]

38. Drip. Drip. Drip.

[Enquiringkitty]

39. I hope Blair has his resume up to date. References anyone?

[paineinthearse]

40. What happened to Charles Kennedy's amendment to impeach?

It was to have been filed as an amendment to the queen's remarks opening parilament.

Welcome to DU, keymaker - :hi:

[keymaker]

42. Impeachment ran out of steam...

HI :hi:

yeah... ran out of steam because of the various reports, especially Lord Hutton's, which whitewashed the government's deceit. I don't think the Lib Dem party was ever officially backing impeachment but some of its MP's were members of an ad hoc all party group backing the call.

keymaker.

[pk_du]

41. welcome to DU keymaker!

.....Claire has balls (so to speak)

[keymaker]

43. thanks...

and hi :hi:

keymaker

[pretzel4gore]

44. blair's help was critical

and, racialism aside, i see no reasoning behind it! blair's a liberal, ferchrissake! Could 'anglo' solidarity (some kind of dr who-ish philosophy at work in whitehall, to support of the bush 'white' house which bushinc was forcing by barrelling ahead invading iraq) have been invoked by bush's rash and foolish intent? Could bushinc have been blackmailing
1)the US congress? 2)the United Nations? 3) tony blair and the british Australian (and canadian) establishments?
The only reason canada never got trapped in the scheme was because of quebec, which makes canada 'un-blackmailable' on those narrow racial grounds...
???
blair is the neville chamberlain of our era: he gave hitler the go ahead when just saying no would have strengthened the opposition enough to fatally weaken hitler....

[Briar]

45. Well no

I don't think Blair is a liberal either politically or socially. Don't forget, his religiosity is deep in the closet most of the time, but it's there all the same, leading him to support things like Faith Schools (some run by weirdo creationists) and appoint women like Ruth Kelly (linked with Opus Dei) way above her level of competence. Moreover, I think he has the instincts of an authoritarian and a populist, not a liberal. He explicitly boasted of wrecking the post war liberal consensus.

[oscarmitre]

46. Ease off

poor old Neville C - at least he bought some time for the Brits to get tooled up for war ;)

[pretzel4gore]

47. that's dismissing the basic contention

buying time for britain to get ready for all out war happened, no doubt, but had chamberlain (and france's Daladier, who, if anything, is more guilty) stood up to hitler at munich, hitler would have had no choice but back off; he never had the german military yet...such a climb down would have been fatal...enough germans saw through hitler to have kept the power play (remember, german army/navy etc was still intact) within the reichstag, and upset the nazi momentum.....even shirer mentions how hitler etal were sweating while waiting for the allies response to all the provocations...

[Hoping4Change]

61. Hey there oscarmitre.

I notice you're in the Great Down Under. Welcome to DU, mate.:toast:

[mom cat]

50. Nice fetch, Keymaker! Welcome to DU.

:hi:

[keymaker]

51. okay, thanks...

and hi :hi:

keymaker

[emad]

53. Iraq war advice 'was coloured': Cook blames ladies of Downing St

Iraq war advice 'was coloured'
12 March 2005

The Attorney General appears to have allowed pressure from Tony Blair to "colour" crucial legal advice on war with Iraq, former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said.

Lord Goldsmith, who currently holds the post, met the head of Tony Blair's political team, Baroness Morgan, and the Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, in No 10 before producing his final verdict.


Mr Cook, who quit the Cabinet in protest at the war, said: "There were what looks like to the outsider very much like a process of negotiation between the ladies in Downing Street and the Attorney General as to his opinion.

"I think it is very important that we restore the difference and make sure there is that detachment of the Attorney General to give independent advice not coloured by political considerations."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/PA_NEWPOLIT...

[keymaker]

54. Not only that but...

... the saga seems to have 6 main stages which include a decision to go to war without refenence to legality and a switch from the Attorney General's 'monochrome' advice against the war at stage 3 to the 'coloured' version in favour at stage 4:

1. April 2002 ~ Blair agrees to join Bush in an invasion of Iraq;

2. October 2002 ~ US military plans passed to the British military;

3. 07 March 2003 ~ Lord Goldsmith provided 13 page written advice that the war would be illegal without a new SC Resolution specifically authorising military force. This has been witheld from the public;

4. 17 March 2003 ~ Goldsmith advised the cabinet in person, producing a copy of his Parliamentary answer to be delivered next day, which contained only the arguments in favour of legality and not repeating the weightier arguments against which had featured in his earlier advice. Clare Short described this as being 'railroaded through' cabinet without discussion;

5. 18 March 2003 ~ Goldsmith delivered his one-sided answer to Parliament;

6. Last 2 years ~ long public campaign, which still continues, for publication of Goldsmith's original advice featuring some lateral thinking by Clare Short in referring Goldsmith's conduct to the Bar Council.

keymaker

[emad]

55. The whiff of the dodgy dossier just won't go away. CIA had its

problems post-Aldrich Ames fiasco. MI6 may be part of that same mess.
Time for Captain Scarlett and the others in the JIC to undergo a little polygraph testing? Or maybe DNA?

Hi Keymaker, are you anywhere near Henfield in Sussex??

[keymaker]

56. Don't tell me you're...

a Brit? I'm very familiar with Sussex :-) why do you ask?

keymaker

[emad]

58. Just curious having seen your DU profile. Was in Henfield area on

Mothers Day....
Edit: I'm 50/50, living in exile in old smokey for the time being but itching to get back to Monterey....

[keymaker]

59. old smokey

right on... yeah, I live on the Sussex coast in sunny Bexhill on Sea :-)... Henfied is over on the West side of the county - but not a million miles away for sure.

keymaker

[Hoping4Change]

60. This is a great information and it's people like you that makes DU

a great site. DU is now my first news source because DUers are "news editors" who rock by knowing which stories matter. Welcome to the undergound keymaker. Cheers.:toast:

[keymaker]

62. thanks...

... I'll drink to that!

keymaker

[Pert_UK]

65. Screaming genius..........

That's the problem when you lie so much - you have to remember which lies you told and who you told them to.........

Hahahahahahahahahaaaa!

P.

[autorank]

66. Welcome to DU!!! keymaker. This makes perfect sense, therefore

it will be ignored. That's the rule we've established here. I hope you do better with it over there. I'm of the opinion that Blair is a war criminal. I suspect that he is a major "nut case" with his grandiosity, pressured speech, and obvious delusional thinking. I do hope you get rid of him soon.

I appreciate you post a great deal. It's the type of information that makes DU such a valuable resource.

BTW, do you see Labour going down in the next election, as in tossed out. My sympathies are on the left but I believe that the party needs a wake up call for supporting this miscreant, Blair, and not tossing him out on the multiple occasions when they could have done so.

Thanks again.

[keymaker]

67. Delusional

Thanks for your comments :-).

My personal view is that Blair has mental difficulties ranging from attention deficit disorder to megalomania. Only this can fully explain his behaviour.

As to the election Labour would already have lost it over the war IMO but the Tories will pay for a serious breach of trust with the people in failing to reflect their concerns in Parliament. The Lib Dems will get credit for their principled opposition but some of their other policies, such as greater European integration and electoral reform, are not popular. Current thinking is on a Labiour victory by default but the Tories are closing the gap.

keymaker

[adigal]

68. I'm glad the British have the guts to call their leader a liar

because our republican congress certainly doesn't have the stomach for it here, even with all of the new torture information coming out every day.

What will it take for our leaders to get some guts???

[autorank]

69. Genetic engineering, faith healing, or spontaneous healing.

It's taken four years to get the Democrats leadership that looks like it wants to kick a little ass. The thought of the Republicans standing up is truly far fetched, as you imply. Graham, L, D, SC was outraged at the torture scandal as was Warner, R, VA. Neither followed through. Profiles in cowardice! Ah well, both Labour and the Republicans need severe punishment. Hey, where's Jimmy/Jeff?