‘UK Army chiefs doubted legality of war’

Britain’s Army chiefs refused to go to war in Iraq amid fears over its legality just days before the coalition’s bombing campaign was launched, former Cabinet minister Clare Short has claimed. Short told The Observer newspaper that she knew of the military being adamant on not leaving for Iraq without the Attorney-General’s assurance over the campaign’s legality.

‘‘I was told at the highest level in the department (Department for International Development) that the military were saying they wouldn’t go, whatever the PM said, without the Attorney General’s advice,’’ she told the daily. The report said quoting sources that Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith redrafted his advice on the war to Tony Blair at the last minute to give an ‘‘unequivocal’’ assurance to the forces that the conflict would not be unlawful. ‘‘The question is was the AG leant on?’’ Short said. ‘‘This was a very personal operation by Tony Blair. The Attorney-General (Lord Goldsmith) is a friend of Tony’s, put in the Lords by Tony and made Attorney-General by Tony.’’ The daily said Goldsmith had written to Blair at the end of January 2003 voicing concerns that the war might be illegal without a second United Nations resolution. Quoting a senior government source involved in providing legal advice on the issue, the report said Goldsmith was ‘‘sitting on the fence’’ until the very last minute and that his advice, even two weeks before war, was ‘‘prevaricating’’.

Goldsmith’s advice was ‘‘tightened’’ up only days before the war began after concerns were raised by Sir Michael Boyce, the then Chief of Defence staff. Boyce is understood to have raised his concerns in writing to Blair and voiced them in person in Downing Street, the report said.

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Boyce demanded an unequivocal statement that the invasion of Iraq was lawful. Only after seeing Goldsmith’s final advice, given just days before the outbreak of war, did the Defence Chief give his approval. Refusing to commit troops already stationed in neighbouring Kuwait, senior military leaders had also been adamant in early March that war could not begin until they were satisfied that neither they nor their men could be tried for war crimes. Two weeks later, Britain and America began bombing Iraq.

Opposition MPs have demanded a commons statement from Blair and will redouble the pressure for an explanation. The revelations also increase pressure for the Butler inquiry, set up by the Prime Minister into intelligence in the run-up to the war, to study the case of Katherine Gun, the intelligence officer dramatically acquitted of secrecy charges last week.