Goldsmith: No pressure to shift Iraq legality
Former attorney general Lord Goldsmith gave evidence to the Iraq inquiry
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By Matt Hallam. |  |
Wednesday, 27, Jan 2010 05:30
By Alex Plough.
The former attorney general Lord Goldsmith has dismissed claims he was forced to change his legal advice on the Iraq war as "complete nonsense".
Giving evidence at the inquiry into the war, the government's former chief legal advisor described how he eventually gave the "green light" to the invasion of Iraq just weeks after warning ministers that military action without a second United Nation's resolution would be illegal.
On Tuesday the inquiry, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, heard from Elizabeth Wilmshurst, then deputy legal adviser to the Foreign Office, that Lord Goldsmith had advised former prime minister Tony Blair on January 14th 2003 that a second UN resolution was needed before military action.
The former attorney general revised his draft advice on February 12th 2003 and told Mr Blair's advisors on February 27th that, "in the light of further enquires. I [am] of the view that there [is] a reasonable case that a second resolution was not necessary".
Describing his revision at the inquiry, Lord Goldsmith admitted "this constituted a green light [to the invasion]".
When asked by Sir Roderic Lyne, one of the inquiry committee members, what had convinced him, Lord Goldsmith replied: "It was a combination of talking to Jack Straw, Jeremy Greenstock [Britain's ambassador to the United Nations from 1998 to 2003] and what happened in Washington that changed my mind."
He added that he was partly persuaded by American lawyers he met in Washington who argued that the US would not have approved UN resolution 1441, giving Saddam Hussein a final opportunity to comply with disarmament obligations, if it had required a second resolution before military action could be taken.
Lord Goldsmith said that Mr Blair told him in January 2003 that he was free to make up his own mind and that: "'Your advice is your advice'.it was for me to make a judgement and he would accept that."
Later he was asked to react to allegations that he had been "pinned" to the wall by Labour peer Lord Falconer, a close ally of Mr Blair, during a meeting and told to do what the former PM wanted.
Lord Goldsmith denied the story, saying: "It is true that [Lord] Faulkner is a more forceful person [than Baroness Sally Morgan, also allegedly present] but there is no way he would've persuaded me to change my view."
He went on to describe how after the invasion he advised on the legal implications of being an occupying power and expressed unease over the actions of US forces in Iraq.
"An occupying power has certain [legal] responsibilities and there was concern that without [another] UN resolution, reconstruction couldn't begin." he said, adding: "I was concerned that some of the things the US wanted to do did go beyond the powers of an occupying force."
He also said he gave advice on the UK's human right's obligations, specifically regarding several incidents of prisoner abuse by British soldiers.
"I did have to advise [on whether] the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights] apply to activity in relation to Iraq. My advice was that the obligations about the proper treatment of people contained in the convention did apply," he claimed.
"I gave advice on the application of the convention in regards to certain. methods of treatment [of Iraqi detainees by British soldiers] that had been outlawed by the Heath government in 1972 after they were used in Northern Ireland."
Lord Goldsmith finally finished his six-hour evidence session by criticising the government for not anticipating the problems of occupation.
"It would have been better if we had appreciated in advance about what needed to be done. rather than happening after the event," he concluded.
The Chilcot inquiry will next take evidence on Friday from its early-awaited star-witness, Mr Blair.