Sunday Times: US and UK manufactured pretext for war against Iraq
Regional-USA, Politics, 6/16/2005

The Sunday Times reported on Sunday that British ministers "were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal."

The Sunday Times report said "The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier."

The Sunday Times report said "The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair's inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was 'necessary to create the conditions' which would make it legal."

The Sunday Times in its reporting about these revelations, over the course of several reports, have exposed the great concern the British Cabinet had over the fear by Cabinte members of the illegality of the war, because the Brittain, unlike the United States was a party to the International Criminal Court treaty, and is subject to it.

The Sunday Times report said "The document said the only way the allies could justify military action was to place Saddam Hussein in a position where he ignored or rejected a United Nations ultimatum ordering him to co-operate with the weapons inspectors. But it warned this would be difficult. 'It is just possible that an ultimatum could be cast in terms which Saddam would reject,' the document says. But if he accepted it and did not attack the allies, they would be 'most unlikely' to obtain the legal justification they needed."

The Sunday Times report said "The suggestions that the allies use the UN to justify war contradicts claims by Blair and Bush, repeated during their Washington summit last week, that they turned to the UN in order to avoid having to go to war. The attack on Iraq finally began in March 2003."

US Congressman John Conyer is holding a hearing on this issue today. A spokeswoman in his office said on Monday that only Democrats were participating in the hearing.

Previous Stories:
  The Guardian: US official prevented investigation into Iraq WMDs   (6/13/2005)
  The Sunday Times: US and UK manipulated intelligence in order to attack Iraq, causes inquiry   (6/7/2005)
  The USA V.S. ArabicNews.com   (3/17/2003)

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