Wait, A MINUTE !! More Evidence From Downing Street

[ozymandius]

http://dailykos.com/story/2005/5/23/23541/7755

The passage in Wilmshurst's resignation letter was so damning to the Blair government, that one passage was "scrubbed" out of it. 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 following has that passage put back in, in italics.

A Downing Street Minute, dated March 18, 2003

Annex:
A minute dated 18 March 2003 from Elizabeth Wilmshurst (Deputy Legal Adviser) to Michael Wood (The Legal Adviser), copied to the Private Secretary, the Private Secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary, Alan Charlton (Director Personnel) and Andrew Patrick (Press Office):

1. I regret that I cannot agree that it is lawful to use force against Iraq without a second Security Council resolution to revive the authorisation given in SCR 678. I do not need to set out my reasoning; you are aware of it. My views accord with the advice that has been given consistently in this office before and after the adoption of UN security council resolution 1441 and with what the attorney general gave us to understand was his view prior to his letter of 7 March. (The view expressed in that letter has of course changed again into what is now the official line.) I cannot in conscience go along with advice - within the Office or to the public or Parliament - which asserts the legitimacy of military action without such a resolution, particularly since an unlawful use of force on such a scale amounts to the crime of aggression; nor can I agree with such action in circumstances which are so detrimental to the international order and the rule of law.

2. I therefore need to leave the Office: my views on the legitimacy of the action in Iraq would not make it possible for me to continue my role as a Deputy Legal Adviser or my work more generally. For example in the context of the International Criminal Court, negotiations on the crime of aggression begin again this year. I am therefore discussing with Alan Charlton whether I may take approved early retirement. In case that is not possible this letter should be taken as constituting notice of my resignation.

3. I joined the Office in 1974. It has been a privilege to work here. I leave with very great sadness.

Elizabeth Wilmshurst
Deputy Legal Advisor to the Foreign Office
March 18, 2003

Links are listed below to additional documents, including scrubbed letters restored to their full essences.

[getmeouttahere]

1. Let's keep this stuff circulating...

and maybe we can eventually shame the MSM into covering it!

[Double T]

2. This Is Proof Positive That The MSM Will Never Allow The Real Truth ......

....to be known and that they actually suppress this kind of information.

[0007]

20. The "Main Stream Media" is government controlled by the

whore networks and corporate America.

MSM has been efficiently muzzled. Organize crime runs this country and makes no bones about it.

[newscott]

3. At the very least it appears that at least in England

you can still find peoeple of principal in public service.

[GreenPoet64]

4. Kick & nominated n/t

[bunny planet]

5. Kick

I'm sending it to Randi Rhodes.

[stillcool]

6. I'm off to write a letter to the author of these words.....

"an unlawful use of force on such a scale amounts to the crime of aggression; nor can I agree with such action in circumstances which are so detrimental to the international order and the rule of law."

maybe the Brits can do for us what our government can not.

[Vladimir]

7. Well spotted!

this is serious stuff... Ms. Wilmshurst was one of the most senior members of that department.

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. Here is a person of true integrity. Recommended.

How nice if we had even ONE senator or representative who had taken the same stand for truth. There WERE resignatons over the Iraq invasions, but I don't even remember who they were - but they were NOT the big spokespeople in the Congress.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. There were a few resignations of Foreign Service Officers

and I can understand why.

Foreign Service Officers are required to defend the foreign policy of the U.S. when asked about it, no matter what their actual opinions are.

If their conscience won't allow this, they have no alternative but to resign.

[Coexist]

9. wow.

[Lowell]

10. Bush Administration Thinks we have blinders on

Never before has the public had easier access to news and view from around the world. This bunch of insular asshats are living in another time. They actually think that they can get away with their lies and not be caught. Well, perhaps they can fool the average Republiscum here in the US, but anyone who explores the "internets" a little deeper can find the truth. They are being exposed in the world press everyday, how much longer will the american MSM tow the line?

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. And it sure was an experience

to hear Galloway blowing all those elephants away in the one living-room! Not that his snipe-shooting was any less entertaining. Perhaps he should be renamed, "Jungle Jim" or "JJ".

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Except that a huge portion of the population is more concerned

about reality TV.

[hiley]

12. kicked and recommend

more emails to Senate and others.
hiley
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Theodore Roosevelt, 1912

"This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers, stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later by the prisoners who were freed … were not, as some assumed,inflicted methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards, their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees."
Rudolf Hoess,
the SS commandant at Auschwitz.

One thing is for certain: There won't be any more mass graves and
torture rooms and rape rooms."—Bush, press availability in Monterrey,
Mexico, Jan. 12, 2004

14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism
http://www.ericblumrich.com/14.html

[yorkiemommie1]

13. kick

n/t

[redacted]

16. kick

[paineinthearse]

17. Smoking gun # umpteen

Maybe the NYT will print this? Don't hold your breath.

[Stockholm]

18. Contact details for Ms. Wilmshurst at Chatham House

Elizabeth Wilmshurst

Head, International Law Programme
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]


http://www.riia.org/index.php?id=20&eid=142

[ozymandius]

19. thank you n/t

[Dora]

21. What pains me

In addition to the obvious, that is:

What pains me is that these Britons' writing and speaking skills are so keenly sharp while our politicans sound like guests on Jerry Springer (the tv show, not the radio broadcast).

Galloway's visit here showed us that the art of oratory is alive and well across the pond, but Cheney's behavior on the floor of the senate last year is full proof that our "leaders" use their speech to speak to the lowest common denominator, rather than using speech to elevate and educate.

The level of discourse in this country has degenerated appallingly in the last 100 years. Read a political speech from a hundred years ago and compare it with the crap that's being presented as political speech today and you'll see what I mean. And though I'm sure there are exceptions, it does seem to me that this illiteracy is non-partisan.

We're a nation of idiots led by idiots. This is what happens when the government starves our schools.

(I apologize for being off-topic, but I had to say this.)

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. After a week of praise for how great British MPs are at debating

it's time to let Americans in on a secret: George Galloway is the best orator in the British Parliament, and you can't take him as typical. He did win an award for parliamentary "Debater of the Year" back in 2001.

[Dora]

23. Thanks for the info....

I'd have never found out otherwise, living as I do under a rock.

This does make me feel somewhat better, but I still think we could all aspire to speak a bit more like him, and a bit less like we do.

(So does this mean that Brits are just as dumb as we are?)

[Dudley_DUright]

25. One obvious exception is Senator Byrd

Senator Obama is pretty good as well, but your basic point is well taken.

[Nothing Without Hope]

24. Another thread on this here in the General Discussion forum;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3739745#3740724
Thread title: "A Matter of Minutes -- DOWNING STREET DOSSIER (WoW)"