War was legal, says Attorney General
The Attorney General has said his advice to the Government was that taking military action against Iraq without a second UN Security Council resolution was legal.
His comments come after the publication of the Butler Report into the use and gathering of intelligence prior to the second Iraq war.
Though Lord Butler does not publish the Attorney General’s advice to the Government he devotes a number of pages to discussing it.
The Liberal Democrats have been calling for the full advice to be published, arguing that the country deserves to know the full legal basis for action.
However, Lord Butler notes that there have been only three cases in the past 100 years of the actual advice of Law Officers being published, two in judicial proceedings and one following the partial leak of a document.
Lord Butler reveals that the Attorney General’s advice that war was legal required the Prime Minister, in the absence of a further resolution, to be “satisfied there were strong factual grounds for concluding that Iraq had failed to take the final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations under relevant resolutions of the Security Council”.
Also that “it was possible to demonstrate hard evidence of non-compliance and non-co-operation with the requirements of Security Council Resolution 1441, so as to justify the conclusion that Iraq was in further material breach of its obligations.”
Following the breakdown of negotiations on a further resolution, the Prime Minister wrote to the Attorney General saying it was his “unequivocal view” that Iraq was in further material breach of 1441, so fulfilling the criteria of the legal advice.
Lord Butler notes that this decision was taken in consideration of the intelligence picture and information available. However, in a later paragraph he notes that “despite its importance to the determination of whether Iraq was in further material breach” the JIC made no further assessment of the Iraqi weapons declaration beyond its initial assessment.
He also records “surprise” that, given the negative results of the weapons inspection teams, the quality and reliability of evidence of Iraqi weapons breaches was not reassessed.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General said today: “The Attorney’s view is that the military action taken in Iraq was lawful. That was his independent view at the time, and it is still his view. The Government has acted in accordance with the Attorney’s advice at all times.”
“Lord Butler’s Review has seen the Attorney General’s advice. His report confirms – as we have always maintained – that it was ‘based on the interpretation of relevant Security Council resolutions and negotiating history in the United Nations, and not on WMD-related intelligence’ (para. 379). So the lawfulness of the conflict is not undermined by the failure to find WMD or by any reassessment of the intelligence.”
