Canadian judge hailed in U.K. for defying Blair - Globe and Mail

[Screaming Lord Byron]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040204/CORY04/TPInternational/Europe

A retired Canadian judge has unleashed a major controversy in the United Kingdom by going over the head of the British government to release findings of his inquiry into possible state collusion in four killings in Ireland.

Former Supreme Court of Canada justice Peter Cory telephoned the families of the four victims recently in frustration at Prime Minister Tony Blair's refusal to keep his commitment to release the findings of the 18-month inquiry.

Judge Cory informed the families that he had found sufficient evidence of state collusion in the killings to warrant a full public inquiry in each case -- an extraordinary move that the British media are calling a humiliating, direct challenge to Mr. Blair.

[JohnyCanuck]

1. A humiliating direct challenge to Blair

Suck it up Tony. There's more of 'em on the way.

Like this:

Intelligence chief's bombshell: 'We WERE overruled on Blair dossier'

The intelligence official whose revelations stunned the Hutton inquiry has suggested that not a single defence intelligence expert backed Tony Blair's most contentious claims on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

As Mr Blair set up an inquiry yesterday into intelligence failures before the war, Brian Jones, the former leading expert on WMD in the Ministry of Defence, declared that Downing Street's dossier, a key plank in convincing the public of the case for war, was "misleading" on Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological capability. Writing in today's Independent, Dr Jones, who was head of the nuclear, chemical and biological branch of the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) until he retired last year, reveals that the experts failed in their efforts to have their views reflected.

Dr Jones was the man whose decision to give evidence electrified the Hutton inquiry as he disclosed that he had formally complained about the dossier. The Government attempted to dismiss his complaints as part of the normal process of "debate" within the DIS and claimed that other sections of the intelligence community were better qualified to assess the 45-minute and chemical production claims.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=345964

[Nihil]

2. Wish there were more like him

If only there were more judges with that level of honesty, integrity
and objectivity in every country of this world ...

The Irish government have started an inquiry into the cases where
Irish security forces were involved in partisan murders but the
British government refuse to do the same where British security forces
were involved in partisan murders. Whilst the ongoing situation with
"government inquiries" means that they are certainly no guarantee of
justice - and can be a complete whitewash - the fact that Blair
continues to stall and bluster is very telling indeed.

This is a disgrace.

Nihil