Iraq war: The smoking gun?

See Independent of London

Foreign Office official's resignation letter reveals that Attorney General did change his mind on legality of Iraq warBy Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor24 March 2005

Documentary evidence has emerged showing that the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, changed his mind about the legality of the Iraq war just before the conflict began. The damning revelation is contained in the resignation letter of Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a legal adviser at the Foreign Office, in which she said the war would be a "crime of aggression". She quit the day after Lord Goldsmith's ruling was made public, three days before the war began in March 2003.

The critical paragraph of her letter, published yesterday under the Freedom of Information Act, was blanked out by the Government on the grounds that it was in the public interest to protect the privacy of the advice given by the Attorney General. But last night the contents of the paragraph were leaked, and Tony Blair was facing fresh allegations of a cover-up. There has long been speculation that Lord Goldsmith was leant on to switch his view, and to sanction the war - and confirmation of that would be devastating for the Prime Minister. The Wilmhurst letter stops short of explaining what caused Lord Goldsmith to change his mind.

The revelations come two weeks after it emerged that there had never been a detailed dossier from the Attorney General setting out the case for military action before troops were committed, and that Britain went to war on the basis of nine paragraphs on a single sheet of A4 paper.

Last night's revelations - broadcast on Channel 4 News - showed that Ms Wilmshurst said the Attorney General had initially agreed with the Foreign Office legal team that a war on Iraq would be illegal without a second UN resolution.

In the blanked-out paragraph from her letter of resignation on 18 March 2003, she wrote: "My views accord with the advice that has been given consistently in this office before and after the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 1441 and with what the Attorney General gave us to understand was his view prior to his letter of 7 March. (The view expressed in that letter has of course changed again into what is now the official line)."

The revelations were seized upon by critics of the Iraq conflict. Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: "The Government blacked out that section not in the public interest but in the government interest. The Government is severely embarrassed by the fact that there is continuing controversy about the legal advice given by the Attorney General and the way in which he arrived at his final opinion."

Clare Short, who resigned from the Cabinet after the invasion, said last night: "I think the Government had to try and cover it up because it's so devastating. The bit that was blocked out shows that the Attorney General changed his mind twice in a matter of days before he gave his advice to the Cabinet when he just said, unequivocally, 'My view is the legal authority for war' and kept from the Cabinet any suggestion that he had had doubts about it." She added: "I didn't think there was anything left that would shock me but to have that in black and white and to know that is what he did is really shocking. He said he wasn't leant on, but he certainly turned head over heels a couple of times."

As efforts to get a second UN resolution were stalling in the approach to the 2003 conflict, Lord Goldsmith produced a lengthy legal opinion arguing that a case could be made for war without a second UN resolution, but it could be open to legal challenge.

On 13 March, he told ministers that war without a UN second resolution was legal. But there have been claims that six days earlier, on 7 March, he presented Tony Blair with a legal opinion in which he warned that military action could be challenged in the courts.

The emergence of Ms Wilms-hurst's allegation is likely to prove to be embarrassing for ministers in the run-up to an expected general election in May.

The Commons is due to rise today for the Easter recess and Mr Blair is due to go to Buckingham Palace to ask for the dissolution of Parliament as soon as MPs finish their holiday, around 4 or 5 April, clearing the way for a general election on 5 May. However, the fresh evidence is certain to lead to calls for Mr Blair and the Attorney General to answer the claims that they have sought to cover up the most damaging claim - that they took Britain to war knowing it to be illegal.

The controversy wrecked an attempt yesterday by Mr Blair to limit the damage from the war in the general election campaign. The Government announced changes to Mr Blair's "sofa style" of government which was heavily criticised in the Butler inquiry into the intelligence failures on the Iraq war and the weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Blair unveiled a series of new intelligence safeguards which are being put in place following the intelligence failures that led Britain to go to war on a false prospectus. But many of the changes were attacked as "too little, too late" by the Government's critics. Intelligence officers were sceptical that Mr Blair would be able to change his style of "government by sofa", based on informal meetings without records being kept.

Labour strategists are hoping that the damage to trust in Mr Blair can be repaired in time to stop the memory of the Iraq war driving Labour voters into the arms of the Liberal Democrats in Labour marginal seats in the general election.

Accepting the recommendations of the Butler report, Mr Blair promised there would be no more ad-hoc meetings with ministers and officials. They will be replaced by proper meetings with notes taken and records kept in the future. Ministers are also to be given a guide on how to assess intelligence, including information on the limitations of reports.If ministers had known the "45-minute" claim had come from an uncorroborated single source, it may not have got into the dossier published in September 2002.

The Prime Minister has also accepted the recommendation that a senior intelligence officer should chair the Joint Intelligence Committee, overseeing reports to ministers, at the end of his or her career. It amounts to a rebuke for Mr Blair, who promoted John Scarlett, the former head of the JIC who approved the "dodgy dossier", to be the head of MI6.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER: AN 'EXCELLENT AND ABLE' LAWYER

For nearly three decades, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, worked diligently and competently in the legal department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

She became a civil servant in the department in her mid-twenties and colleagues described her as an "excellent and able" lawyer, with a notably steady character.

Her efforts and expertise in international law were rewarded in 1997 when she was promoted to the position of deputy head of legal affairs for the FCO. The promotion cemented her position as one of Britain's leading experts on international criminal and diplomatic law. The next year, she received further recognition - she was made a Companion of St Michael and St George, one of the highest honours for diplomats.

During her tenure, Ms Wilmshurst led the UK delegation to set up the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, served as legal counsellor to the UK's mission to the UN, and gave evidence for the Foreign Office to the House of Commons International Development Committee on the legality of sanctions.

However, as her resignation letter has revealed, she was as impassioned a defender of her beliefs as she was knowledgeable and successful in her arena.

She resigned in March 2003 after defying her political superiors in the Foreign Office by stating her belief that joining the US invasion of Iraq would constitute a violation of international law.

It was a move that would have considerable political reverberations as well as an impact on her professional position.

She was thought to have been prepared to appear as a witness for Katharine Gun, the former GCHQ translator, who was to stand trial for leaking an e-mail concerning a UK-US spying operation. However, the case collapsed last year without her participation.

Ms Wilmshurst, 56, is now using her expertise as head of the international law programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the London think-tank at Chatham House. She is also a visiting professor at University College, London.

Her areas of international law expertise include the use of force, international criminal law and courts, the law of the United Nations and State and sovereign immunity.

COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS, TACO BELL REACH GROUNDBREAKING AGREEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Lucas Benitez, CIW/239-503-0133
Julia Perkins, CIW/239-986-0891

Laurie Schalow, Taco Bell Corp.
949-863-3915 or onsite at 949-637-1153

COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS, TACO BELL® REACH GROUNDBREAKING AGREEMENT

CIW to end Taco Bell boycott; Taco Bell to pay penny-per-pound surcharge demanded by workers, will work with CIW to raise farm labor standards in supply chain, across industry as a whole

March 8, 2005 (IMMOKALEE/LOUISVILLE) – In a precedent-setting move, fast-food industry leader Taco Bell Corp., a division of Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), has agreed to work with the Florida-based farm worker organization, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), to address the wages and working conditions of farmworkers in the Florida tomato industry.

Taco Bell announced today that it will fund a penny per pound “pass-through” with its suppliers of Florida tomatoes, and will undertake joint efforts with the CIW on several fronts to improve working conditions in Florida’s tomato fields. For its part, the CIW has agreed to end its three-year boycott of Taco Bell, saying that the agreement “sets a new standard of social responsibility for the fast-food industry.”

“As an industry leader, we are pleased to lend our support to and work with the CIW to improve working and pay conditions for farmworkers in the Florida tomato fields,” said Emil Brolick, Taco Bell president. “We recognize that Florida tomato workers do not enjoy the same rights and conditions as employees in other industries, and there is a need for reform. We have indicated that any solution must be industry-wide, as our company simply does not have the clout alone to solve the issues raised by the CIW, but we are willing to play a leadership role within our industry to be part of the solution,” Brolick added.

Taco Bell has recently secured an agreement with several of its tomato-grower suppliers, who employ the farmworkers, to pass-through the company-funded equivalent of one-cent per pound directly to the workers.

“With this agreement, we will be the first in our industry to directly help improve farmworkers’ wages,” added Brolick, “And we pledge to make this commitment real by buying only from Florida growers who pass this penny per pound payment entirely on to the farmworkers, and by working jointly with the CIW and our suppliers to monitor the pass-through for compliance. We hope others in the restaurant industry and supermarket retail trade will follow our leadership.” Yum! Brands and Taco Bell will also work with the CIW to help ensure that Florida tomato pickers enjoy working terms and conditions similar to those that workers in other industries enjoy. CIW/Taco Bell Resolution Page 2

“We are challenging our tomato suppliers to meet those higher standards and will seek to do business with those who do,” said Jonathan Blum, senior vice president, Yum! Brands. “We have already added language to our Supplier Code of Conduct to ensure that indentured servitude by suppliers is strictly forbidden, and we will require strict compliance with all existing laws. Finally, we pledge to aid in efforts at the state level to seek new laws that better protect all Florida tomato farmworkers,” added Blum.

The Company indicated that it believes other restaurant chains and supermarkets, along with the Florida Tomato Committee, should join in seeking legislative reform, because “human rights are universal and we hope others will follow our company’s lead.”

“This is an important victory for farmworkers, one that establishes a new standard of social responsibility for the fast-food industry and makes an immediate material change in the lives of workers. This sends a clear challenge to other industry leaders,” said Lucas Benitez, a leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

“Systemic change to ensure human rights for farmworkers is long-overdue. Taco Bell has now taken an important leadership role by securing the penny per pound pass-through from its tomato suppliers, and by the other efforts it has committed to undertake to help win equal rights for farmworkers,” Benitez added. “We now call on the National Council of Churches, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights and other organizations to join the CIW and end their boycott of Taco Bell, and to recognize the Company by supporting its ongoing leadership in our fight against human rights abuses. But our work together is not done. Now we must convince other companies that they have the power to change the way they do business and the way workers are treated.”

Representatives from the Carter Center assisted the discussions and resolution between the two organizations. “I commend the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for their principled leadership in this very important campaign. I am pleased Taco Bell has taken a leadership role to help reform working conditions for Florida farmworkers and has committed to use its power to effect positive human rights change. I now call on others in the industry to follow Taco Bell’s lead to help the tomato farmworkers,” said former President Jimmy Carter.

Taco Bell Corp., based in Irvine, California, is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. and the nation’s leading Mexican-style quick service restaurant chain serving tacos, burritos, signature Quesadillas, Border Bowls®, nachos and other specialty items. In 2004, Taco Bell purchased approximately 10 million pounds of Florida tomatoes, representing less than one percent of Florida’s tomato production. Taco Bell serves more than 35 million consumers each week in more than 6,500 restaurants in the U.S.

CIW is a membership-led organization of agricultural workers based in Immokalee, Florida, that seeks justice for farmworkers and promotes their fair treatment in accordance with national and international labor standards. Among its accomplishments, the CIW has aided in the prosecution of five slavery operations by the Department of Justice and the liberation of over 1,000 workers. The CIW uses creative methods to educate consumers about human rights abuses in the U.S. agriculture industry, corporate social responsibility, and how consumers can help workers realize their social change goals.

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