This entry was posted on
Friday, February 3rd, 2006 at
9:03 am and is filed
under It’s War! It’s Legal! It’s Lovely!.

BBC – Iraq pact ‘was made before war’: Tony Blair and George W Bush had already decided to invade Iraq in January 2003, a new book by a human rights lawyer has claimed. The book – an updated edition of Lawless World by Philippe Sands – says the two leaders discussed going to war regardless of any United Nations view. The book quotes a note the author said was made after a meeting of the two. Downing Street said on Thursday it did not comment on discussions that “may or may not have happened” between leaders.

Guardian – Blair-Bush deal before Iraq war revealed in secret memo: Tony Blair told President George Bush that he was “solidly” behind US plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about the invasion’s legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution, according to a new account of the build-up to the war published today. A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 – nearly two months before the invasion – reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme. “The diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning”, the president told Mr Blair. The prime minister is said to have raised no objection. He is quoted as saying he was “solidly with the president and ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam”.

Independent – Bush ‘plotted to lure Saddam into war with fake UN plane’: George Bush considered provoking a war with Saddam Hussein’s regime by flying a United States spyplane over Iraq bearing UN colours, enticing the Iraqis to take a shot at it, according to a leaked memo of a meeting between the US President and Tony Blair. The memo appears to refute claims made in memoirs published by the former UK ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, who has accused Mr Blair of missing an opportunity to win the US over to a strategy based on a second UN resolution. It now appears Mr Bush’s mind was already made up.

Oh come now, people… can’t you see what’s going on here? This Philippe Sands fellow is obviously trying to sell his book! (Sorry, but we refuse to be drawn on details of this or that, and wish to move the debate forward. Can we begin by bringing an end to childish and over-simplified claims that the Iraq invasion was all about money or oil? Oh, well you would bring that up, wouldn’t you? How typical. We try to stage a constructive debate and…)