- The attorney general initially told Tony Blair that an
invasion of Iraq would be illegal without a new resolution from the United
Nations and only overturned his advice when Washington ordered Downing
Street to find legal advice which would justify the war.
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- The devastating claim will be made by eminent QC and
Labour peer Baroness Helena Kennedy in a television interview today.
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- It is one of a series of attacks which put Blair under
renewed and increasing pressure to reveal full details of the legal backing
for the war against Iraq.
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- Lawyers, including one from Cherie Blair's legal chambers,
Matrix, will demand improved compensation and an inquiry into the deaths
of Iraqi civilians killed by British troops, which could raise the spectre
of the government being forced to disclose its advice on the legality of
the war.
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- It is widely believed that the government's reluctance
to do this was behind its decision to drop all charges against GCHQ whistleblower
Katherine Gun last week.
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- The environmental group, Greenpeace is also demanding
access to Lord Goldsmith's advice in order to defend 14 activists due to
appear in court in connection with anti-war protests carried out last year.
-
- Former cabinet minister Clare Short continued her relentless
attack on Blair when she described the way attorney general Lord Goldsmith's
"truncated opinion authorising war appeared at the very last minute"
as "very odd".
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- Together, the new developments signal that the legal
case for the allied invasion of Iraq without a specific UN instruction
authorising them to do so has become the most dangerous threat to the Prime
Minister and is unlikely to go away.
-
- Kennedy's claims, which will be made this morning in
an interview on GMTV, are arguably the most damaging. Her position as a
member of the highest echelons of the legal community will add credence
to her claims that the British government could find only two senior lawyers
in the UK prepared to back the case for the invasion.
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- Baroness Kennedy points out that Lord Goldsmith was a
commercial lawyer with no experience of international law and initially
relied heavily on the advice of lawyers within the Foreign Office in the
months before the war. It is widely believed that advice overwhelmingly
warned against invading without a UN resolution.
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- She claims that when Washington was told of this advice
their response was succinct: find a new lawyer.
-
- Goldsmith then turned to Professor Christopher Greenwood
of the London School of Economics, who was known to support the invasion.
Greenwood was already on record as stating: "It would be highly desirable
to have a second UN resolution because that puts the matter beyond serious
question. But if that's not possible, I would support the use of force
without the resolution.''
-
- After consulting Greenwood, Goldsmith told the cabinet
an invasion could take place within international law without the new UN
resolution.
-
- However, sacked Labour MP George Galloway insisted yesterday
that Goldsmith warned ministers that his advice relied on the accuracy
of intelligence information that Saddam posed a serious threat to British
interest ñ information which has since been discredited.
-
- Baroness Kennedy says Blair is being "haunted"
by the fallout of a war "that will just not go away".
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- Clare Short yesterday said Foreign Office lawyers disagreed
on the legality of war and that senior officials in Whitehall were "worried
that they were being asked to prepare for illegal action".
-
- After her disclosure that she had seen transcripts of
material taken in bugging operations conducted inside the office of the
secretary general of the UN, Kofi Annan, it remained a possibility she
would either be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act or even be thrown
out of the Labour Party.
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- Yesterday the chairman of the Labour party, Ian McCartney,
appeared to rule out any party censure. "I'm not going to make her
a martyr," he told BBC Scotland.
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- Lord Alexander of Weedon QC, a leading peer and lawyer,
yesterday described the content of Lord Goldsmith advice as "the most
important legal opinion of the last 50 years". He said without it
the war would not have gone ahead and 20,000 Iraqis would not have been
killed.
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- © newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights
reserved
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- http://www.sundayherald.com/40318
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