Government publishes Iraq war legal advice

The government has published the legal advice provided by the Attorney General before the Iraq War, following the leak of some of the information to the media.

The leaked information from Attorney General Lord Goldsmith’s March 7, 2003 document, which was never shown to parliament, showed that he had reservations about the legality of war in Iraq.

The 13-page document raised a number of concerns about going to war against Iraq without a second resolution from the United Nations Security Council.

However, in the advice presented to parliament on March 17, Lord Goldsmith did not mention any such concerns.

The row over the leaked information forced the government to publish the Attorney General’s full advice.

Liberal Democrat Deputy leader Sir Menzies Campbell said: “The government has been dragged kicking and screaming into publication. But this grudging decision should have been taken a lot earlier than a week before polling day.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair has furiously denied that he lied about the advice he was given, saying that the Attorney General’s advice had not changed. He also described the document as a “damp squib”, not a “smoking gun”.

Lord Goldsmith has also maintained that he always believed the war in Iraq was legal.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has defended the Prime Minister, saying that he trusted and respected his decision.

However, Mr Blair has come in for heavy criticism from both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Conservative leader Michael Howard said that the document was “devastating” and showed that when Mr Blair claimed he had never lied, “he was not telling the truth”.

The Conservative leader said that “serious and profound” questions had been raised by the information in the document and said that Mr Blair now had to explain “why he said the advice hadn’t changed when we know it had, and what or who changed the Attorney General’s legal advice.”

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said that Mr Blair now had to “come clean” to the British people about the decision to go to war in Iraq. He said: “If the Prime Minister wasn’t prepared to trust his cabinet with the facts, if he wasn’t prepared to trust the House of Commons with the full facts, why should the country trust him on May 5?”

However, the Liberal Democrat leader, whose party had been totally opposed to the war in Iraq, also criticised the Conservatives, saying they were “every bit as guilty and culpable as the government”. He said: “Michael Howard’s Tories have prejudged and misjudged over Iraq every step of the way. They prejudged and misjudged the case for war. They prejudged and misjudged the Hutton inquiry. They prejudged and misjudged the Butler inquiry. They must not be allowed to distract attention from their own uncritical support for the war.”

Mr Kennedy said that the issue should not be about throwing personal insults at party leaders. He added: “The real insult is to the intelligence of the British electorate. The Cabinet, the Commons and the country are entitled to feel seriously misled.”

(KMcA/SP)