The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
January 27, 2010

Ex-Adviser: UK Ignored Warnings of Iraq War Illegality
------------------------------------------------------



A former top legal adviser says he warned the British government that
invading Iraq would violate international law. Testifying at an ongoing
British inquiry into the war, former Foreign Office Senior Legal Adviser
Michael Wood said his opinion was ignored.

Michael Wood: “Then-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw] took the view that I
was being very dogmatic and that international law was pretty vague and
that he wasn’t used to people taking such a firm position. When he had
been at the Home Office, things had often—he’d often been advised things
were unlawful, and he’d gone ahead anyway and won in the courts.”



.