ALEX Salmond has said there is an “urgent need” for the full facts of the Iraq war to be revealed following allegations that a senior UK Labour figure ordered documents questioning the conflict’s legality to be burned.
In a report in a Sunday newspaper, a senior No 10 figure claimed a document written in 2003 by No 10’s then legal adviser Lord Goldsmith explicitly stated the war in Iraq could be in breach of international law. Tony Blair’s office was quick to deny claims about the alleged document but SNP MP Alex Salmond said the situation showed why the public needed to know the full facts about Iraq.
Commenting on the story, Salmond said: “These new allegations further show the urgent need for full disclosure on the Iraq war.
“The delay in publication of the Chilcot Report is outrageous. It will mean a full seven years from the onset of the inquiry and 13 years after the outbreak of the illegal conflict.”
He added: “Particularly at this time of year, we should be conscious of the feelings of the families of the 179 service men and women who lost their lives, who are feeling bitterly betrayed, not just by the length of the process but the complete failure to explain the reasons for the delay.”
The anonymous Downing Street source claimed there was “pandemonium” after the document was written by Goldsmith.
According to the source, staff were asked to “burn” the 13-page document, which had been received by the prime minister just three weeks before the invasion began.
Blair’s office denied the claims, saying the report was “nonsense as far as Tony Blair knows”.
A spokesperson said: “No-one ever said that in his presence and in any event it would be quite absurd to think that anyone could destroy any such document.”
Just days before the war commenced, a separate document, also accredited to Lord Goldsmith, was published declaring the war to be within national law, and was cited in Parliament to justify the invasion.
Goldsmith was a legal advisor for the government during Blair’s time as PM, and although he admitted changing his opinion on the Iraq war during the 2010 inquiry, he denied claims it was due to political pressure.
He had claimed at the inquiry that up until a month before the war began he had believed that it would be “safer” to get a UN resolution, but in the end gave a “green light” to the war after deciding that the use of force was justified.
According to the reports, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon chose not to destroy the document at the time, but refused to comment on the allegations while the Chilcot Inquiry was still under way.
Last week it was confirmed that the Chilcot Inquiry report would finally be published in either June or July of next year, with the two million-word document currently being reviewed to ensure it poses no threat to “national security”.
Speaking on American TV last weekend, Blair appeared to apologise for the Iraq war, conceding that groups such as Daesh may have formed as a result of the conflict.
Blair said he was sorry that the intelligence his government had received was wrong, which sparked an angry reaction from many anti-Iraq war campaigners, who claimed he was simply pre-empting the findings of the Chilcot Inquiry, which is widely expected to be critical of him.
Recently leaked memos between George W Bush and Colin Powell suggested that Blair pledged his support for the war nearly a year before Parliament voted on the issue.
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