Dutch Iraq war inquiry revelation: In 2002 Blair sent secret letter re: Iraq plan to Netherlands

[sabra]

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/dutch-iraq-war-inquiry-colours-uk-investigation


The commission concluded there were no legal grounds for the Netherlands to support the Iraq war. Some experts say it will make it very hard for the UK government to maintain that the war was legal.

Unambiguous
British Professor of Law Philippe Sands, who was interviewed by the Davids Commission which lead the inquiry, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that the findings of the Dutch inquiry are clear and unambiguous.

“They concluded that the war was unlawful, so I think the findings are very helpful on the international issue of legality”, Mr Sands says. “It’s the first independent assessment by anybody, anywhere in the world, of the view of the legality of the war. The fact that the report has been written by distinguished law experts gives it authority”.

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Letter
The Davids report included at least one aspect which was of particular interest to the British. According to the commission, then Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a secret letter to Jan Peter Balkenende in 2002 about his plans for Iraq. To date, the letter has never been made public and nobody knows what was in it – not even the Davids commission was allowed to see it.

“The curious thing was that Tony Blair had made it clear he wanted the letter back after Mr Balkenende had read it – which is pretty unusual – but also that Mr Balkenende should not share the content of the letter with anyone”, Mr Sands says.

Duped
“We assume that it contained what Mr Blair knew about Iraq. But of course, we now know that he had nothing. So there couldn’t have been anything of any significance in that letter. It seems that Mr Blair duped Mr Balkenende rather as he duped the entire British population”.

The British inquiry will continue for at least the rest of this year, with its final report expected sometime in early 2011. However, Mr Sands doesn’t think its findings will have the same impact as the Davids report. “I’ve watched much of the inquiry and I don’t think they’re a particularly robust group of individuals”.

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