Attorney General warned Blair on legality of war

[DoYouEverWonder]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=542151

18 July 2004

Tony Blair was warned before the Iraq war by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, that a UN court could rule Britain's invasion unlawful, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.

The warning was in Lord Goldsmith's so far undisclosed legal opinion from 7 March last year, less than two weeks before the conflict began. Fearing that the International Court of Justice could rule it was illegal to go to war without the express authority of the UN Security Council, the Attorney General put senior barristers and international legal experts on standby to help to prepare the Government's defence if needed, legal sources said.

As Mr Blair prepares for Tuesday's parliamentary debate on the Butler inquiry, the revelation will intensify pressure on him to publish all Lord Goldsmith's legal advice leading up to the war.

Michael Howard, the Tory leader, is expected to join the chorus of those saying that John Scarlett, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, should be denied promotion to the job of the next head of MI6. But the Conservatives plan to concentrate their fire on Tony Blair.



Seems things are getting hot for Tony again. This coming week should be interesting. I don't think he can continue to get away with all his flimsy excuses.

[shockingelk]

1. Deja Vu or division of labor

This is eerily familiar of all the effort trying to make a legal argument to insulate top brass from charges of torture. "OK, Tony, you do the fancy legal footwork to get around the illegality of launching an invasion, and we'll figure out how we can ignore Geneva Conventions."

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Mentor

Seems things are getting hot for Tony again. This coming week should be interesting. I don't think he can continue to get away with all his flimsy excuses.<<

Tony needs a mentor who won't get him into this sort of trouble. His choice of partners leaves much to be desired. I hope his judgement kicks back in soon. It's probably too late for him to avoid the repercussions of having GW for a pardner.... eh.

I'll smoke 'em out of their holes... bring 'em to justice.... dead or alive... how brave is that? You would think the dude would've found a more intelligent manner in which to make himself "famous".

[Cha]

3. But he knows in his "heart that he was

right". Black heart that it is.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. This probably the reason that they will deny any culpability

in this and point to "intelligence failures" that way nobody is to blame. This was probably the strategy they had planned to use all along, since none of them were stupid enough to believe that Iraq actually had WMD.

[struggle4progress]

5. kick

:kick: