-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [apfn-1] Tony Blair Headed to Jail
Date: Sun, 1 May 2005 06:11:30 +0300 (EEST)
From: Charles Bremer c@host202-125.esp.mediateam.fi
British military chief reveals new legal fears over Iraq war
Forces head in remarkable 'jail' claim
Top law officer met key Bush officials
Antony Barnett and Martin Bright
Sunday May 1, 2005
The Observer
The man who led Britain's armed forces into Iraq has said that Tony Blair
and the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, will join British soldiers in
the dock if the military are ever prosecuted for war crimes in Iraq.
In a remarkably frank interview that goes to the heart of the political
row over the Attorney General's legal advice, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce,
the former Chief of the Defence Staff, said he did not have full legal
cover from prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
'If my soldiers went to jail and I did, some other people would go with
me,' said Boyce.
In his most detailed explanation yet of why he demanded an unequivocal
assurance from lawyers that the war was legal, he said: 'I wanted to make
sure that we had this anchor which has been signed by the government law
officer ...
'It may not stop us from being charged, but, by God, it would make sure
other people were brought into the frame as well.'
Pressed by The Observer on whether he meant the Prime Minister and the
Attorney General, Boyce replied: 'Too bloody right.'
The admiral added that he had never been shown the crucial 7 March advice
by Goldsmith that questioned whether the war was legal. He had only been
given a later assurance of legality, which contained none of the caveats.
It was only after he questioned Number 10 about legal 'top cover' that he
was given Goldsmith's opinion.
Boyce has consistently said he believed the war was legal and morally
justified. But, asked whether the government had provided him with the
legal cover necessary to avoid prosecution for war crimes, he replied:
'No.'
He added: 'I think I have done as best as I can do. I have always been
troubled by the ICC. Although I was reassured ... when [discussions over
signing up to the ICC were] going through Whitehall about five years ago,
I was patted on the head and told: "Don't worry, on the day it will be
fine." I don't have 100 per cent confidence in that.'
In a further damaging development for the government, documents leaked to
a Sunday newspaper appeared to show that Tony Blair was considering
military action to topple Saddam Hussein as early as 2002.
According to minutes from a meeting held in Downing Street on 23 July,
obtained by the Sunday Times, the assumption had been made that 'the UK
would take part in any military action' initiated by the United States.
Blair said it 'would make a big difference politically and legally if
Saddam refused to allow in the UN inspectors.' He added: 'If the political
context were right, people would support regime change.'
The minutes confirm that the Attorney General did not believe regime
change was a basis for military action.
A further confidential document leaked this weekend is the Foreign Office
legal opinion that expressed grave doubts about the legality of war
without a second UN resolution.
An Observer investigation into the legal ramifications of the war also
reveals that Goldsmith's advice authorising war was shaped after meeting
the five most powerful Republican lawyers in the Bush administration, in
February 2003.
These included Alberto Gonzales, Bush's controversial chief legal adviser
who has been at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.
Gonzales once famously described elements of the Geneva Conventions on the
treatment of prisoners of war as 'quaint'.
The four other lawyers were William Taft IV, chief legal adviser to the
then Secretary of State Colin Powell; Jim Haynes, chief legal adviser to
Donald Rumsfeld in the Pentagon; John Bellinger, chief legal adviser to
Condoleezza Rice; and the then US Attorney General, John Ashcroft.
Speaking to The Observer from his Virginia home, Taft explained how the US
argument that a second UN resolution was not needed before invading Iraq
was put to an undecided Goldsmith. Taft said: 'I will say when we heard
about his statement in Parliament [on 17 March] ... what he said sounded
very familiar.'
Last week, the government was forced to disclose the 13-page legal
document, drawn up by Goldsmith on 7 March, following leaks to the media.
This revealed the importance of Goldsmith's trip to Washington, which
provided the backbone of the 'reasonable case' for war without a second UN
resolution.
In paragraph 23 of his 7 March advice, Goldsmith said: 'I was impressed by
the strength and sincerity of the views of the US administration which I
heard in Washington.'
In contrast to his 'unequivocal' legal authority for war given to
Parliament 10 days later, this document revealed Goldsmith's misgivings
over the legality of the war without a UN resolution.
Neither ministers nor Parliament were shown the complete advice, leading
to claims they were misled into backing the war. The revelation that the
man in charge of Britain's armed forces was also not shown the advice has
been described as 'staggering' by Philippe Sands QC, an expert in
international law.
Boyce told The Observer: 'I didn't see it - it was not copied to me.'
Last night, government sources confirmed that Goldsmith met the five
Washington lawyers on 11 February 2003. A spokeswoman for the Attorney
General said he had travelled to Washington to listen to American opinion
and had not been pressured to change his view on the war.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1474276,00.html?=rss
=======================
Death deals devastating blow to Iraq arms hunt
Martin Bright
Sunday July 20, 2003
The Observer
David Kelly was about to lead the British hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and had contacted former UN inspectors as recently as two weeks ago to sound them out about a new mission.
He was acting as the senior British scientific adviser to the Iraq Survey Group, the body set up by the US Government at the end of May to replace the United Nations weapons inspection regime.
One former UN inspector, who worked with Kelly on two missions to Iraq in the Nineties, said he had received an email from the scientist two weeks ago asking him join the survey group mission. Kelly was working directly under Brigadier John Deverell, the British second in command of the survey group.
The unit was set up in May and is led by Major-General Keith Dayton, director of operations for the US Defence Intelligence Agency. With offices in Iraq, near Baghdad airport, and a logistics base in Qatar, the survey group has a staff of around 1,400 people drawn from the US, Britain and Australia.
Former inspectors said the death of the British Government's most senior chemical and biological weapons scientist would be a devastating blow to the survey group.
'Everybody very much deferred to him. Other experts turned to him, he was a leader and people always listened when he spoke,' one former inspector who had worked with Kelly said.
The news that Kelly was to play a central role in the coalition's search for WMD will provoke further questions about the Ministry of Defence's decision to identify him and place him at the centre of a row between Downing Street and the BBC.
His prominence also contradicts briefings from the MoD that the man they believed to be the source of BBC reports that the Government had 'sexed up' its claims about Saddam Hussein's arsenal was a junior figure.
The survey group has already seized thousands of documents, computer records and reports that are believed to have informed the Government's view that some evidence of WMD programmes would be found, if not the weapons themselves.
His death was described as a devastating blow to the search for WMDs by colleagues who had worked with him in Iraq. 'All his knowledge died with him,' a former soldier who worked with him in Iraq said.
A UN nuclear inspector said Kelly was present when he was debriefed by the intelligence services on his return from Iraq. 'He was the boffin who used to sit in the background and ask questions. He was very senior on the weapons team in the Nineties and was very trusted by the MoD.'
Colleagues said they were appalled that such a senior and respected scientist has been treated so disrespectfully by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. 'I found that particularly unpleasant,' one said.
'It was nasty and unprofessional. The people who were doing the interrogation were not fit to sharpen his pencils.'
The work of hunting for weapons of mass destruction after the war was originally carried out by the 75th Exploitation Task Force of the US army.
Despite international demands for the job to be passed to the UN the allies set up the survey group with the aim of combining the work of US, British and Australian intelligence under one roof.
Although the US Government refused to allow the post-war inspections to be run under UN auspices, most of the senior staff are former UN weapons inspectors with many years of experience searching for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.
MUCH MORE:>>
http://www.apfn.org/APFN/DKELLY.HTM
=======================
##############################################
For liberty in our lifetimes.
by ANY means necessary.
Madd Maxx-
"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been
like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an
arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say
goodbye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for
example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city,
people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling in terror at every
bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had
understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the
downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers,
or whatever else was at hand. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a
shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's
thirst; the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!"
The Gulag Archipelago,
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
http://www.apfn.org/APFN/DKELLY.HTM
Subject: [apfn-1] Tony Blair Headed to Jail
Date: Sun, 1 May 2005 06:11:30 +0300 (EEST)
From: Charles Bremer c@host202-125.esp.mediateam.fi
British military chief reveals new legal fears over Iraq war
Forces head in remarkable 'jail' claim
Top law officer met key Bush officials
Antony Barnett and Martin Bright
Sunday May 1, 2005
The Observer
The man who led Britain's armed forces into Iraq has said that Tony Blair
and the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, will join British soldiers in
the dock if the military are ever prosecuted for war crimes in Iraq.
In a remarkably frank interview that goes to the heart of the political
row over the Attorney General's legal advice, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce,
the former Chief of the Defence Staff, said he did not have full legal
cover from prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
'If my soldiers went to jail and I did, some other people would go with
me,' said Boyce.
In his most detailed explanation yet of why he demanded an unequivocal
assurance from lawyers that the war was legal, he said: 'I wanted to make
sure that we had this anchor which has been signed by the government law
officer ...
'It may not stop us from being charged, but, by God, it would make sure
other people were brought into the frame as well.'
Pressed by The Observer on whether he meant the Prime Minister and the
Attorney General, Boyce replied: 'Too bloody right.'
The admiral added that he had never been shown the crucial 7 March advice
by Goldsmith that questioned whether the war was legal. He had only been
given a later assurance of legality, which contained none of the caveats.
It was only after he questioned Number 10 about legal 'top cover' that he
was given Goldsmith's opinion.
Boyce has consistently said he believed the war was legal and morally
justified. But, asked whether the government had provided him with the
legal cover necessary to avoid prosecution for war crimes, he replied:
'No.'
He added: 'I think I have done as best as I can do. I have always been
troubled by the ICC. Although I was reassured ... when [discussions over
signing up to the ICC were] going through Whitehall about five years ago,
I was patted on the head and told: "Don't worry, on the day it will be
fine." I don't have 100 per cent confidence in that.'
In a further damaging development for the government, documents leaked to
a Sunday newspaper appeared to show that Tony Blair was considering
military action to topple Saddam Hussein as early as 2002.
According to minutes from a meeting held in Downing Street on 23 July,
obtained by the Sunday Times, the assumption had been made that 'the UK
would take part in any military action' initiated by the United States.
Blair said it 'would make a big difference politically and legally if
Saddam refused to allow in the UN inspectors.' He added: 'If the political
context were right, people would support regime change.'
The minutes confirm that the Attorney General did not believe regime
change was a basis for military action.
A further confidential document leaked this weekend is the Foreign Office
legal opinion that expressed grave doubts about the legality of war
without a second UN resolution.
An Observer investigation into the legal ramifications of the war also
reveals that Goldsmith's advice authorising war was shaped after meeting
the five most powerful Republican lawyers in the Bush administration, in
February 2003.
These included Alberto Gonzales, Bush's controversial chief legal adviser
who has been at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.
Gonzales once famously described elements of the Geneva Conventions on the
treatment of prisoners of war as 'quaint'.
The four other lawyers were William Taft IV, chief legal adviser to the
then Secretary of State Colin Powell; Jim Haynes, chief legal adviser to
Donald Rumsfeld in the Pentagon; John Bellinger, chief legal adviser to
Condoleezza Rice; and the then US Attorney General, John Ashcroft.
Speaking to The Observer from his Virginia home, Taft explained how the US
argument that a second UN resolution was not needed before invading Iraq
was put to an undecided Goldsmith. Taft said: 'I will say when we heard
about his statement in Parliament [on 17 March] ... what he said sounded
very familiar.'
Last week, the government was forced to disclose the 13-page legal
document, drawn up by Goldsmith on 7 March, following leaks to the media.
This revealed the importance of Goldsmith's trip to Washington, which
provided the backbone of the 'reasonable case' for war without a second UN
resolution.
In paragraph 23 of his 7 March advice, Goldsmith said: 'I was impressed by
the strength and sincerity of the views of the US administration which I
heard in Washington.'
In contrast to his 'unequivocal' legal authority for war given to
Parliament 10 days later, this document revealed Goldsmith's misgivings
over the legality of the war without a UN resolution.
Neither ministers nor Parliament were shown the complete advice, leading
to claims they were misled into backing the war. The revelation that the
man in charge of Britain's armed forces was also not shown the advice has
been described as 'staggering' by Philippe Sands QC, an expert in
international law.
Boyce told The Observer: 'I didn't see it - it was not copied to me.'
Last night, government sources confirmed that Goldsmith met the five
Washington lawyers on 11 February 2003. A spokeswoman for the Attorney
General said he had travelled to Washington to listen to American opinion
and had not been pressured to change his view on the war.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1474276,00.html?=rss
=======================
Death deals devastating blow to Iraq arms hunt
Martin Bright
Sunday July 20, 2003
The Observer
David Kelly was about to lead the British hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and had contacted former UN inspectors as recently as two weeks ago to sound them out about a new mission.
He was acting as the senior British scientific adviser to the Iraq Survey Group, the body set up by the US Government at the end of May to replace the United Nations weapons inspection regime.
One former UN inspector, who worked with Kelly on two missions to Iraq in the Nineties, said he had received an email from the scientist two weeks ago asking him join the survey group mission. Kelly was working directly under Brigadier John Deverell, the British second in command of the survey group.
The unit was set up in May and is led by Major-General Keith Dayton, director of operations for the US Defence Intelligence Agency. With offices in Iraq, near Baghdad airport, and a logistics base in Qatar, the survey group has a staff of around 1,400 people drawn from the US, Britain and Australia.
Former inspectors said the death of the British Government's most senior chemical and biological weapons scientist would be a devastating blow to the survey group.
'Everybody very much deferred to him. Other experts turned to him, he was a leader and people always listened when he spoke,' one former inspector who had worked with Kelly said.
The news that Kelly was to play a central role in the coalition's search for WMD will provoke further questions about the Ministry of Defence's decision to identify him and place him at the centre of a row between Downing Street and the BBC.
His prominence also contradicts briefings from the MoD that the man they believed to be the source of BBC reports that the Government had 'sexed up' its claims about Saddam Hussein's arsenal was a junior figure.
The survey group has already seized thousands of documents, computer records and reports that are believed to have informed the Government's view that some evidence of WMD programmes would be found, if not the weapons themselves.
His death was described as a devastating blow to the search for WMDs by colleagues who had worked with him in Iraq. 'All his knowledge died with him,' a former soldier who worked with him in Iraq said.
A UN nuclear inspector said Kelly was present when he was debriefed by the intelligence services on his return from Iraq. 'He was the boffin who used to sit in the background and ask questions. He was very senior on the weapons team in the Nineties and was very trusted by the MoD.'
Colleagues said they were appalled that such a senior and respected scientist has been treated so disrespectfully by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. 'I found that particularly unpleasant,' one said.
'It was nasty and unprofessional. The people who were doing the interrogation were not fit to sharpen his pencils.'
The work of hunting for weapons of mass destruction after the war was originally carried out by the 75th Exploitation Task Force of the US army.
Despite international demands for the job to be passed to the UN the allies set up the survey group with the aim of combining the work of US, British and Australian intelligence under one roof.
Although the US Government refused to allow the post-war inspections to be run under UN auspices, most of the senior staff are former UN weapons inspectors with many years of experience searching for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.
MUCH MORE:>>
http://www.apfn.org/APFN/DKELLY.HTM
=======================
##############################################
For liberty in our lifetimes.
by ANY means necessary.
Madd Maxx-
"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been
like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an
arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say
goodbye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for
example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city,
people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling in terror at every
bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had
understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the
downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers,
or whatever else was at hand. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a
shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's
thirst; the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!"
The Gulag Archipelago,
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
http://www.apfn.org/APFN/DKELLY.HTM
