Papers reveal commitment to war

[__Kratos__]

Secret documents revealed yesterday show that, almost a year before the Iraq invasion, Tony Blair was privately preparing to commit Britain to war and topple Saddam, despite warnings from his closest advisers that it was unjustified.

The documents show how Mr Blair was told how Britain and the US could "create the conditions" for an invasion, partly, in the words of Jack Straw to "work up" an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein even though in the foreign secretary's own words, "the case was thin".

They also show how Mr Blair was planning to justify regime change as an objective, despite warnings from Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, that the "desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action".

In his legal advice on March 7 2003, released by the government last week, the attorney repeated his view that "regime change cannot be the objective of military action".

In a classified document published by the Sunday Times, headed Iraq: Conditions for Military Action, Whitehall officials noted on July 19 2002: "When the prime minister discussed Iraq with President Bush at Crawford [the Bush ranch in Texas] in April he said that the UK would support military action to bring about regime change".

The officials said "certain conditions" should be met and that efforts should be made to "shape public opinion". Before and after his Texas meeting, Mr Blair insisted to MPs that no decision had been taken on military action.

That regime change was an objective of the prime minister appears clear from a document leaked last year. It records Sir David Manning, the prime minister's foreign policy adviser, writing to Mr Blair about a meeting with Condoleezza Rice, then President George Bush's national security adviser, on March 14 2002, a year before the war. Sir David reported: "I said that you would not budge in your support for regime change but you had to manage a press, a parliament and a public opinion".

Another document leaked last year records Sir Christopher Meyer, British ambassador to the US at the time, as telling Sir David on March 18 2003, the eve of the invasion, about a meeting with the US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz. He said: "I opened by sticking very closely to the script that you used with Condi Rice. We backed regime change, but the plan had to be clever and failure was not an option."

A second highly classified document published yesterday by the Sunday Times records Mr Blair on July 23 2002 as saying: "If the political context were right, people would support regime change."

The document is a minute, drawn up by Matthew Rycroft, a Downing Street foreign policy adviser, of a high-level meeting at Downing Street on July 23 2002.

The meeting was attended by Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, Mr Straw, Lord Goldsmith, Sir Richard Wilson, the cabinet secretary, John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (now head of MI6), Francis Richards, then director of GCHQ, Lord Boyce, then chief of defence staff, Sir Richard Dearlove, Mr Scarlett's predecessor, and three of Mr Blair's close aides: Jonathan Powell, Baroness Sally Morgan, and Alastair Campbell.

After a discussion about military plans, Mr Straw said it seemed clear that President Bush had made up his mind on military action.

He added: "But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran."

He continued: "We should work up an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force."

The meeting concluded that Downing Street "should continue to work on the assumption that the UK would take part in any military action" but "not ignore the legal issues".

Pressed on BBC1's Breakfast with Frost, Mr Blair said: "The idea that we had decided definitively for military action at that stage is wrong, and disproved by the fact that several months later we went back to the UN to get a final resolution, and actually the conflict didn't begin until four months after that."

Michael Howard said the memo showed Mr Blair had tricked not just his cabinet, but the British people.

Iraq: new claims

· Minutes from a Downing Street meeting reveal that Tony Blair backed regime change in Iraq at a meeting in July 2002, nine months before the war. Meeting intelligence and military chiefs, Mr Blair discussed military options, having already committed himself to supporting President Bush's plans to oust Saddam

· Sir Michael Boyce, former chief of the defence staff, was not shown the attorney general's opinion of July 7 2003, which questioned the legality of the war, but was later given assurance of legality without caveats. He said he did not have full cover from prosecution at the international criminal court

Source

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I bet Tony Blair is muttering curses under his breath now!

[wunarmdscissor]

not suprisingly from the guardian lol.

[warden]

not suprisingly from the guardian lol.

602413[/snapback]

Typical remark from Wun,did you know that not all guardian readers are torries