Former top judge condemns advice for Iraq war
LONDON (AFP) – A former top judge said that legal advice given to then prime minister Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was fundamentally "flawed".
In a speech in London on Monday, Thomas Bingham said the statement by the government's then chief lawyer, Peter Goldsmith, just before the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, "was flawed in two fundamental respects".
He said it failed to acknowledge the lack of hard evidence implicating Iraq's non-compliance with United Nations Security Council resolutions, which prompted Britain and the United States to take military action.
"It was not plain that Iraq had failed to comply in a manner justifying resort to force and there were no strong factual grounds or hard evidence to show that it had," he said.
"Hans Blix and his team of (UN) weapons inspectors had found no weapons of mass destruction, were making progress and expected to complete their task in a matter of months."
In his speech at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, Bingham also suggested that Goldsmith's advice neglected to make clear that only the UN Security Council could authorise further action.
The former law lord said that if military action was unauthorised, "there was, of course, a serious violation of international law and of the rule of law".
The debate revolved around whether UN Security Council Resolution 1441 on Iraq, agreed in 2002, revived the authorisation of the use of force in earlier resolutions or whether a second decision on military action was needed.
Britain and the United States believed it was not.
Goldsmith defended his advice Monday, saying: "I stand by my advice of March 2003 that it was legal for Britain to take military action in Iraq. I would not have given that advice if it were not genuinely my view.
"Lord Bingham is entitled to his own legal perspective five years after the event, but at the time and since then many nations other than ours took part in the action and did so believing that they were acting lawfully."
He said the UN resolution that Iraq was deemed to have failed to comply with did not need further agreement by the security council.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw supported Goldsmith, saying: "I do not accept Lord Bingham's conclusions, which do not, I am afraid, take proper account of the text of Security Council Resolution 1441 nor its negotiating history."