The Iraq Inquiry - Chilcott's Circus Clowns Come to Town

[Jan Klimkowski]

In establishment inquiry terms, even with a deck stacked to protect the powerful, this is a smoking gun. We shall see shortly whether the Chilcott Inquiry chooses to categorize it as such or not.

No more is needed.

In one damning letter to Mr Blair dated January 30, 2003 – less than two months before the invasion – Lord Goldsmith told him that UN resolution 1441, on which the government came to rely, ‘does not authorise the use of military force’.

Mr Blair scrawled in the margin of the letter: ‘I just don’t understand this.’
The same document exposes the huge irritation in Downing Street at the Attorney General’s reluctance to give the green light for an invasion.

No 10 aide Matthew Rycroft made clear that Lord Goldsmith’s missive was unwelcome.

‘[We] specifically said we did not need further advice [on] this matter,’ he wrote.
The word ‘not’ was underlined.

Blair was repeatedly told the war was illegal. He and his aides told Attorney General Goldsmith that they did not need to hear his advice.

Eventually, Goldsmith capitulated and changed his advice.

British soldiers and Iraqi men, women and children, are still dying every day as a result of moral cowardice and political ambition.