The Foreign Office have released the text of Elizabeth Wilmshurst’s resignation letter. Wilmshurst was the Foreign Office’s Deputy Legal Adviser who resigned on the eve of the Iraq war. She described the war as a “crime of agression”. This, after a 30 year career at the FCO.

The FCO censored a passage of the letter but Channel 4 News have obtained the text.

Go and have a look.

On March 7 2003, the Attorney General’s said that war without a second UN resolution would be open to serious legal challenge. By March 13, six days later, he said that war without a second resolution was legal.

I won’t remind you again how many people died.

Developing…

UPDATE:

The Guardian: War resignation letter censored

The government yesterday tried to suppress evidence that the attorney general believed war against Iraq was illegal less than two weeks before British troops joined the US-led invasion of the country.

The Independent - Iraq war: The smoking gun?

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 Times: Attorney ‘changed mind twice’

THE crisis over the Attorney-General’s legal backing for the Iraq war deepened last night after a former colleague claimed that he changed his mind not once but twice. The allegation is contained in the resignation letter from a senior Foreign Office lawyer.

BBC News: Iraq action ‘crime of aggression’

The Iraq war amounted to a “crime of aggression”, the former deputy legal adviser to the Foreign Office has said.

Posted on March 23rd, 2005 at 7:34 pm

See also • Who’s nuancing who? • The torturous road to freedom • The Times: How the leaked documents questioning war emerged from ‘Britain’s Deep Throat’		• Permalink • Trackback • Subscribe • Print
• Filed under Iraq, T.W.A.T., UK politics		•