Tuesday 26 January 2010

The Iraq Enquiry and this Government

Well at last, piece by piece, the events which led up to the Iraq War and in effect have all been aired in public are being confirmed. Today one of the few people that could tell the truth, because she had nothing to hide, came forward and nailed Jack Straw.

Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who had the courage to resign her position in the Foreign Office Legal Team, in protest against what she regarded as an illegal war told the enquiry that the whole legal team at the Foreign Office told Jack Straw that the war was illegal and he ignored them! Bingo! So far Straw has always skirted around the Blair cabal but now he is firmly tied into the scandal.

She also seemed to imply that the Attorney General, at the time (Lord Goldsmith) did not follow the advice of his team and ploughed a lone furrow in declaring the war legal. I well remember and there is archive film of both Straw and Blair arguing ferociously in the House of Commons that we had to invade Iraq on the grounds of the evidence they had that Saddam Hussein was hoarding weapons of mass destruction.

Of course we now know that it was a lie, we all now suspect that Bush and Blair cooked it all up (for what reason I have to ask) and the rest fell into line. Only the late Robin Cook and Clare Short had the courage to oppose the Blair cabal. I fear that Lord Goldsmith is in for a rocky ride tomorrow and on Friday if this keeps up Blair might be fighting to keep himself and Jack Straw out of The Hague!

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