By IRNA,
London : Veteran British lawyer Sir Louis Blom-Cooper Wednesday called on the Iraq Inquiry to give a clear view on the legality of the 2003 US-led war when it reports its findings at the end of the year.
The inquiry “should say so, without qualification” ahead of the invasion whether Attorney General Lord Goldsmith “unequivocally told the Blair cabinet that to go to war with Iraq would be illegal under international law without further coverage from a UN resolution,” Blom-Cooper said.
“It would be just as important that, should they find also that between 7 and 17 March 2003 Goldsmith appeared to change his opinion and advice to cabinet, and, if so, why he did, the inquiry should say so they,” he said.
Giving evidence to the inquiry in January, the former attorney general revealed that he changed his mind about the legality of the Iraq war after travelling to the US to meet President Bush’s lawyers.
Blom-Cooper, aged 84, is a former High Court judge, who has chaired more than a dozen inquiries himself in Britain over the last decade. He was also involved in the foundation of Amnesty International human rights group in 1961.
In a letter to the Guardian, he called on the inquiry, even though it has insisted it is not a court of law, to indicate whether Goldsmith was “right or wrong on either occasion”.
“Nothing along these lines would in any way constitute a usurpation of the function of any court which may or may not in the future be entrusted with the task of determining civil or criminal liability for the war,” said the lawyer, who specialises in public law and administrative law.
“But the public interest in a thorough examination and unbiased report demands no less than a determination of legality at any stage in the process leading up to and involving the invasion,” he said.
Last week, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg provoked controversy by describing the Iraq war as ‘illegal’ while standing in at parliament for the first time for Prime Minister David Cameron.
The inquiry has also found that lawyers at the Foreign Office disagreed with Goldsmith changing his mind to declare the war as legal to give former Prime Minister Tony Blair to proceed with the invasion on March 20 2003.
Giving evidence also in January, the Foreign Office’s chief legal adviser, Sir Michael Wood, revealed that he had warned former foreign secretary Jack Straw that invading Iraq would be illegal just before the invasion.
The inquiry into the war was set up by Blair’s successor Gordon Brown last year with the aim of learning lessons of the war for future governments.
Many MPs as well as peace campaigners and international lawyers have previously called for the former British prime minister to be put on trial for war crimes.
Declaring the war as illegal could also make Britain and the US liable for billions of dollars in compensation for criminal damages as well as undermining their international reputations.