Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (226132)	3/24/2005 5:51:00 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1586774

Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 25 March 2005 0113 hrs British legal adviser resigned on eve of 'illegal' Iraq war LONDON : A government legal adviser resigned on the eve of the US-led invasion in Iraq as she deemed the action illegal without a second UN resolution, Britain's foreign minister confirmed. The comments by Jack Straw came after the BBC revealed that the Foreign Office's former deputy legal adviser Elizabeth Wilmshurst had written in a resignation letter that the war would amount to a "crime of aggression". Fuelling a row over the legality of the March 2003 invasion, the letter also reportedly highlighted how Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith had considered the war unlawful up until March 7 before changing his mind at the last minute. The latest Iraq debate comes at a bad time for the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair as it prepares for a general election in the coming weeks. Wilmshurst "submitted her resignation on March 18, 2003, because she disagreed -- and I quote from her minutes at that date -- 'that it was lawful to use force against Iraq without a second security council resolution'," Straw told the House of Commons. The letter -- with the exception of two sentences -- came to light after the BBC used the newly passed Freedom of Information Act to ask for its disclosure. Wilmshurst said military action in Iraq, which began with an air strike on March 19 and then the invasion a day later, was "an unlawful use of force" which "amounts to the crime of aggression," according to extracts of the letter quoted on the BBC's website. "Nor can I agree with such action in circumstances which are so detrimental to the international order and the rule of law," Wilmshurst said. Straw explained that the two missing sentences were blocked out because they contained confidential legal advice to the government on the use of force against Iraq. Private television Channel 4, however, said that the omitted quotes referred to government advice given by Lord Goldsmith. Without citing a source, Channel 4 quoted Wilmshurst as indicating that the attorney general -- Britain's top legal authority -- changed his mind at the last minute, giving approval for the war after having previously opposed it. Trying to take the heat out of his apparent change of mind -- which has already prompted speculation that Goldsmith was leaned on to enable Britain follow Bush into war -- Straw said he had just followed the evolving situation. The attorney general, along with the whole of the Foreign Office, had initially pressed for a second UN Security Council resolution but it soon became apparent that this could not be achieved. "What changed between March 7 and March 17 was that it became very clear that that consensus was not possible," said Straw, adding that with Saddam Hussein still in breach his UN obligations, the case for law was made. Unwilling to accept such excuses, Dominic Grieve, the main opposition Conservative party's legal expert, urged the government to come clean about the full legal advice it received from Lord Goldsmith. It is "quite clear the attorney general changed his mind," Grieve told BBC radio earlier. The smaller opposition Liberal Democrats also seized on the government's action in the run-up to war as proof that it could not be trusted. "Before and after the event this government has huge questions to answer," said Liberal Demorat leader Charles Kennedy. "The sooner they answer them and publish in full and, if necessary be damned, the better for Britain and the better for the quality of debate in the forthcoming general election," he told a party rally. channelnewsasia.com