Date published: 2005/03/23
The BBC says:
The Iraq war amounted to a "crime of aggression", the former deputy legal adviser to the Foreign Office has said.
Elizabeth Wilmshurst made the claim before war in her resignation letter, obtained by the BBC News Website.
But part of the letter has not been released. A report on Channel 4 claims it shows the attorney general changed his mind on the legality of the war.
The attorney general's spokesperson said Lord Goldsmith's independent view was that action in Iraq was lawful.
Ms Wilmshurst resigned from her post on the eve of war because she did not believe military action in Iraq was legal.
In her resignation letter, Ms Wilmshurst says military action in Iraq was "an unlawful use of force" which "amounts to the crime of aggression."
"Nor can I agree with such action in circumstances which are so detrimental to the international order and the rule of law," she says.
The letter was requested by the BBC News Website's World Affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds under the Freedom of Information Act - but part of the letter was not revealed.
The Foreign Office said the missing part was covered by exemptions relating to the professional privilege applying to a law officer in the formulation of government policy.
...
According to Channel 4, in the missing piece Ms Wilmshurst says: "My views accord with the advice that has been given consistently in this Office (the foreign office legal team office) before and after the adoption of UN security council resolution 1441 and with what the Attorney General gave us to understand was his view prior to his letter of 7 March. (The view expressed in that letter has of course changed again into what is now the official line.)"The significance of the missing paragraph is that it appears to show a late change of mind by the attorney general.
It's been pretty clear all along that Goldsmith changed his mind and that he did so because Tony Blair told him to find an excuse to change his mind. Tony Blair should be charged with war crimes. (Goldsmith too, probably.)
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").