Defiant Blair releases legal advice on Iraqi war

TONY BLAIR defied his critics on Iraq yesterday and published controversial legal advice from Attorney General Lord Goldsmith in full.

The British Prime Minister described leaks of the document yesterday as “a damp squib” and promptly ordered Downing Street to release the 13 pages of argument sent to him by the attorney general on March 7, 2003.

On March 17, Mr Goldsmith told the Cabinet that war would be lawful without a second, specific, United Nations resolution.

Mr Blair stunned reporters, telling them: “You have probably got it all anyway. I see no reason not to publish it.”

Until yesterday he had steadfastly refused demands from the Tories and the Liberal Democrats to make the advice public, saying it would breach long-standing conventions protecting the confidentiality of legal advice to the Government.

In the paper, marked “Secret”, Mr Goldsmith concludes there would be “a reasonable case” that UN resolution 1441 warning Saddam Hussein to take a final opportunity to comply with international demands or face “serious consequences” would make military action legal. But he adds: “We would need to demonstrate hard evidence of non-compliance and non-co-operation.”

Tory leader Michael Howard described earlier leaks of the document as “devastating”. He told his party’s news conference: “We received devastating new information which exposed that when Mr Blair said ‘I have never lied’, he was not telling the truth. The questions that this new information raises are serious, are profound.

“It’s important for the British people to understand what has happened and what the implications are. We know that the Prime Minister took us to war with Iraq. We know that he told the British people that the advice of the attorney general was that it was legal to do so.

“He told people that ‘the advice of the Attorney General was very clear’. Last night, official documents obtained by the media prove that on March 7, 2003, the attorney general gave legal advice that was full of qualifications and warnings.”

Mr Blair had said the legal advice had not changed.

“We now know beyond doubt that it had changed. So the first question Mr Blair has to answer is why did he say that the advice hadn’t changed when we know that it did?

“The second question that needs to be answered is what, or who, changed the attorney general’s legal advice?”

The latest twist in the affair dominated the election campaign as Mr Blair was forced to field questions on the issue at the launch of Labour’s business manifesto.

Sections of Mr Goldsmith’s advice were leaked to Channel 4 News and the BBC on Wednesday night.

Mr Blair said: “The key thing was the Attorney General’s advice that it was lawful to proceed. This so-called smoking gun has turned out to be a damp squib, because he did advise it was lawful to proceed.” Chancellor Gordon Brown and Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt rallied round Mr Blair. Mr Brown, asked if he would have proceeded in the same way as Mr Blair, replied simply: “Yes”.

“I not only trust Tony Blair, but I respect Tony Blair for the way he went about that decision.”

Ms Hewitt added: “When the Attorney General came to the Cabinet meeting, he gave us his advice that conflict would be lawful and he spelt out to us that although a second resolution would have been preferable, it wasn’t essential. Its absence did not make the conflict unlawful.”