It's Law! And Somebody's Telling Porkies!

The Independent 28 Feb - Clare Short: Was Attorney General leant on to sanction war?The suggestion, however, that the Attorney General's opinion may have been manipulated is very serious. There is no doubt that the way in which a truncated opinion authorising war appeared at the very last minute was very odd.

Indeed.

In fact, I'm curious to know why Lord Goldsmith needed two sides of A4 in which to say "Oh, go on then..."

The Independent 29 Feb - Revealed: Attorney General changed his advice on legality of Iraq war Lord Goldsmith's full opinion on the legality of the war has never been made public. The desire to keep it secret is believed to be the main reason why the Official Secrets Act prosecution of Katharine Gun, a 29-year-old former employee of GCHQ, the Government's monitoring centre, was abandoned at the Old Bailey last week. The case could have revealed that in November 2002 the Attorney General believed Britain required specific authorisation for war from the UN Security Council, but that he later changed his stance.

And for what reason? Could he have been subconsciously influenced?

The Guardian 29 Feb - Beware smoking Guns The reason why many think that Tony Blair remains one leak away from resignation lies in what is known and supposed about the legal advice he received just before the war. Gun's lawyers were determined to get their hands on it.

And it may very well come to light...

Torygraph 1 Mar - Major calls on Blair to publish Goldsmith's war advice John Major added to growing pressure on Tony Blair to publish the Attorney General's full advice on the legality of the Iraq war yesterday after a respected Labour peer said Washington ordered it to be made more hawkish shortly before the conflict began.

UPDATE - Well, perhaps not...

Will the magic of spin & secrecy save Teflon Tony again? I keep turning on the television and expecting to see live footage of 10 Downing St...