I don’t need to comment at all, the thing speaks for itself.
The Independent
11 June 2007 13:38
Home > News > UK > Legal
Ex-Navy chief ‘took private legal advice on Iraq’
By Kim Sengupta
Published: 11 June 2007The head of the Royal Navy at the time of the Iraq invasion was so worried about the legality of the conflict that he sought his own private legal advice on justification for the war.
Admiral Sir Alan West, the First Sea Lord, approached lawyers to ask whether Navy and Royal Marines personnel might end up facing war crimes charges in relation to their duties in Iraq. The extraordinary steps taken by Sir Alan – which The Independent can reveal today – shows the high level of concern felt by service chiefs in the approach to war – concern that was not eased by the Attorney General’s provision of a legal licence for the attack on Iraq.
The apprehension felt by the military commanders was highlighted at one meeting where General Sir Michael Jackson, the head of the Army, is reported to have said: “I spent a good deal of time recently in the Balkans making sure [the former Serb leader Slobodan] Milosevic was put behind bars. I have no intention of ending up in the cell next to him in The Hague.”
In the approach to the 2003 invasion, Lord Boyce, the Chief of Defence Staff, insisted that the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, provide an unequivocal written assurance that the invasion was lawful. He eventually received a two-line note from Lord Goldsmith on 14 March 2003 confirming the supposed legality of the war. It has since emerged that the Attorney General had twice changed his views on the matter prior to that note.
Lord Goldsmith also wrote to Tony Blair on 14 March, stressing it was “essential” that “strong evidence” existed that Iraq was still producing weapons of mass destruction. The Prime Minister replied the next day, saying: “This is to confirm, it is indeed the Prime Minister’s unequivocal view that Iraq is in further material breach of the obligations”. The information he relied on for this had formed the basis of the now discredited Iraq dossier.
On 17 March, Mr Blair presented what was described as Lord Goldsmith’s opinion, presented on one side of an A4 page, to the Cabinet. The following day, Parliament voted for war..
