UK: Mothers ask Lords to order Iraq inquiry

[deminks]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/12/iraq.iraq?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Tony Blair's government exposed soldiers to the risk of death by failing to take sufficient steps to ensure that its proposed invasion of Iraq was lawful, Britain's highest court was told yesterday.

The nine-judge panel of law lords, convened instead of the usual five judges because of the constitutional importance of the case, is being asked to order a public inquiry into the death of two 19-year-old soldiers in Iraq.

The state's duty to safeguard life was owed to soldiers, "who are under the unique compulsory control of the state and have to obey orders", said Rabinder Singh QC, for Rose Gentle and Beverley Clarke, mothers of the two soldiers. "They have to put their lives in harm's way if necessary, because their country demands it. There is what some people call a military covenant between the state and those who are literally prepared to put their lives at risk for the sake of their country."

(snip)

The families wanted an explanation as to how 13 pages of "equivocal" advice from the attorney general were reduced within 10 days to one page of completely unequivocal advice that an invasion would be legal. As the resignation letter of the Foreign Office's deputy legal adviser, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, made clear, the attorney general changed his mind "not once but twice" in relation to the legality of the war, the QC said. The overwhelming body of advice the government had received, including from the Foreign Office itself, was that the war would not be lawful without a second UN resolution.

Mrs Gentle said yesterday: "Tony Blair sent our boys to war on a lie. He just agreed with George Bush right away. They didn't even give it a second thought." She said the inquiry should have been held when Blair was still in office. "It's been five years now - what have they got to hide?"