Tuesday 26 January 2010

Will the UK ever be subject to International law?

An interesting day today at the Chilcott Inquiry.  Foreign office lawyers advising on the legality of the Iraq War today told the panel that they were in agreement that the war would be illegal without a second UN resolution (one actually resigned at the time). They also claimed that Goldsmith, the Attorney general, did a 180 degree turn in the time between sending a draft of his advice to Blair in January 03 (illegal) and the formal advice given in March (legal).

Leaving aside the dubious and "unprecendented" (according to said lawyer who resigned) act of giving a draft to a repcipient for comment when giving apparantly expert advice, it is clear that Goldsmith's 11th hour turnaround went against the general consensus of international lawyers convening on the matter. Goldsmith is up tomorrow... check out www.guardian.co.uk for good live comment.

Also, www.arrestblair.org is picking up steam. A bounty is being collected for people who attempt citizens arrests on Blair.  At the time of writing the pot had grown to over £7000.  1/4 of the bounty to anyone who gets an attempted arrest in the news... good timing what with the recession and all.

Also, it appears that the coroners report on the suicide of David Kelly, whistle blower to the BBC of the 'sexed-up' Iraw war dossier delivered by Labour has been classified for the next 70 years!!! Five doctors requesting information through freedom of information laws were told this by people apprantly unaware they were meant to continue keeping it secret. Why a suicide, as the conclusion of investigations stated it was, would need classifying for 70 years seems incredibly suspicious to say the least.

After the Dutch ruling that the war was illegal, there is mounting anger in the UK at the moment. More and more is coming out about the dubious nature of the build-up to the Iraq war. 

We can but hope that one day those who commit acts of aggression get what they deserve.  Kissinger, Bolton, Blair... it's nuts how just because you come from the 'moral' West, you seem to be above suspicion.  It's as though the notion 'everyone but us' is implicit in the concept of International Law.

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