Secret letter reveals Lord Goldsmith's fury over legal approval for war
Full coverage from the Iraq hearings
Full coverage from the Iraq hearings
The Attorney-General sent a furious letter to the Defence Secretary a year before the invasion of Iraq warning that he saw “considerable difficulties” in giving legal approval for war, it emerged this morning.
Lord Goldsmith complained to Geoff Hoon that he had put in a “difficult position” by the Defence Secretary’s public claim that Britain would be entitled to use force without a specific United Nations resolution.
In a previously secret letter released by the Iraq Inquiry this morning, Lord Goldsmith said that he had given no opinion on the legality of military action.
“I think you should know that I see considerable difficulties in being satisfied that military action would be justified on the basis of self-defence,” he wrote.
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“In particular I am not aware of the existence of material indicating the existence of an imminent threat from Iraq of the sort which would justify military action without support of a [UN]Security Council Chapter VII authorisation.”
Lord Goldsmith criticised Mr Hoon for giving a television interview with Jonathan Dimbleby in March 2002 in which he appeared to say that Britain was entitled to take military action without a new UN resolution.
“The clarity of your statement and the apparently authoritative way it was produced puts me, however, in a difficult position,” he wrote.
Mr Hoon replied that a transcript of the interview made clear that “in principle” military action could be taken if it was shown that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction capable of a threat to the UK.
“My subsequent statements about the need to go back to the UN for a specific resolution need to be seen against that background,” he wrote.
“I do not think that my statements curtail your ability to offer an opinion on the legal position in due course. As you say, we will need to satisfy ourselves that this threat exists should we want to justify legal action on the basis of self-defence.”
Mr Hoon will be questioned this morning about the build-up to the invasion of Iraq and is also expected to face scrutiny over claims that troops were inadequately equipped for the conflict.
Mr Hoon, defence secretary from 1999 to 2005, will be the first former minister to appear before the inquiry, following a string of military leaders, advisers and officials.
The inquiry has already heard from senior military figures that preparations for the invasion were hampered by ministers’ fears that developments would leak.
Admiral Lord Boyce, who was the chief of the defence staff at the time, said he was allowed by ministers to start full-scale planning only four months before the invasion.
Ministers had been concerned that news of their planning would undermine efforts to get a new UN resolution requiring Saddam to give up his weapons of mass destruction.
The issue was considered so sensitive, Lord Boyce said, that he was ordered by Mr Hoon not to discuss it with the chief of defence logistics.
As a result, the military chiefs were unable to take any practical steps to prepare for military action, such as buying in the extra equipment they would need for the operation.
There are also expectations that Mr Hoon, who jointly organised the recent plot to oust Gordon Brown, might use his appearance to increase pressure on the Prime Minister.
Leaked ministerial letters have apparently shown that Mr Brown vetoed the purchase of military helicopters for the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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