The Iraq disarmament crisis was claimed as one of primary issues that led to the multinational invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003. Since the 1980s,Iraq was widely assumed to have been producing and extensively running the programs of biological,chemical and nuclear weapons. Iraq made extensive use of chemical weapons during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s,including against its own Kurdish population. France and the Soviet Union assisted Iraq in the development of its nuclear program,but its primary facility was destroyed by Israel in 1981 in a surprise air strike.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002,informally known as the Iraq Resolution,is a joint resolution passed by the United States Congress in October 2002 as Public Law No. 107-243,authorizing the use of the United States Armed Forces against Saddam Hussein's Iraq government in what would be known as Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Andrew Turnbull,Baron Turnbull,is a British politician and civil servant who served as the head of Her Majesty's Civil Service and Cabinet Secretary between 2002 and 2005,when he was succeeded by Sir Gus O'Donnell. He now sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
John Choon Yoo is a Korean-born American legal scholar and former government official who serves as the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California,Berkeley. He became known for his legal opinions in the early 2000s concerning executive power,warrantless wiretapping,and the Geneva Conventions while serving in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Department of Justice during the George W. Bush administration. Yoo was the author of the controversial "Torture Memos" set to determine the legal limits for the torture of detainees during the War on Terror after the September 11 attacks.
The Downing Street memo,sometimes described by critics of the Iraq War as the smoking gun memo,is the note of a 23 July 2002 secret meeting of senior British government,defence and intelligence figures discussing the build-up to the war,which included direct reference to classified United States policy of the time. The name refers to 10 Downing Street,the residence of the British prime minister.
On 18 September 2004 the British Daily Telegraph ran two articles titled "Secret papers show Blair was warned of Iraq chaos" and 'Failure is not an option,but it doesn't mean they will avoid it' by reporter Michael Smith,revealing the contents of six leaked British government documents –labelled "secret" or "confidential" –concerning the lead-up to the war in Iraq.
The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland:both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922,the duties of the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General for Ireland were taken over by the Attorney General of Ireland. The office of Solicitor-General for Ireland was abolished for reasons of economy. This led to repeated complaints from the first Attorney General of Ireland,Hugh Kennedy,about the "immense volume of work" which he was now forced to deal with single-handed.
Debevoise &Plimpton LLP is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Harvard Law School alumnus Eli Whitney Debevoise and Oxford-trained William Stevenson,the firm was originally named “Debevoise,Plimpton &McLean”. Debevoise specializes in private equity,M&A,insurance and financial services transactions,private funds,complex litigation,investigations,and international arbitration. In 2021,the firm assisted the Democratic Party in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
A dispute exists over the legitimacy of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The debate centers around the question whether the invasion was an unprovoked assault on an independent country that may have breached international law,or if the United Nations Security Council authorized the invasion. Those arguing for its legitimacy often point to Congressional Joint Resolution 114 and UN Security Council resolutions,such as Resolution 1441 and Resolution 678. Those arguing against its legitimacy also cite some of the same sources,stating they do not actually permit war but instead lay out conditions that must be met before war can be declared. Furthermore,the Security Council may only authorise the use of force against an "aggressor" in the interests of preserving peace,whereas the 2003 invasion of Iraq was not provoked by any aggressive military action.
British Parliamentary approval for the invasion of Iraq was given by the elected members of the House of Commons to Tony Blair's government on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq,in a series of two votes,on 18 March 2003.
Michael Bernard Mukasey is an American attorney and former federal judge who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States from 2007 to 2009.
In law,a legal opinion is in certain jurisdictions a written explanation by a judge or group of judges that accompanies an order or ruling in a case,laying out the rationale and legal principles for the ruling.
Elizabeth Susan Wilmshurst,Distinguished Fellow of the International Law Programme at Chatham House,and Professor of International Law at University College London,is best known for her role as Deputy Legal Adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States,United Kingdom,Australia,Poland and a coalition of other countries was a violation of the United Nations Charter,the bedrock of international relations in the post-World War II world. The then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated in September 2004 that:"I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter. From our point of view and the UN Charter point of view,it [the war] was illegal".
Jack Landman Goldsmith is an American lawyer and Harvard Law School professor who has written extensively in the fields of international law,civil procedure,federal courts,conflict of laws,and national security law. He has been "widely considered one of the brightest stars in the conservative legal firmament."
The Iraq Inquiry was a British public inquiry into the nation's role in the Iraq War. The inquiry was announced in 2009 by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and published in 2016 with a public statement by Chilcot.
A set of legal memoranda known as the "Torture Memos" were drafted by John Yoo as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States and signed in August 2002 by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee,head of the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice. They advised the Central Intelligence Agency,the United States Department of Defense,and the President on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques:mental and physical torment and coercion such as prolonged sleep deprivation,binding in stress positions,and waterboarding,and stated that such acts,widely regarded as torture,might be legally permissible under an expansive interpretation of presidential authority during the "War on Terror".
Official Secrets is a 2019 British drama film based on the case of whistleblower Katharine Gun,who leaked a memo exposing an illegal spying operation by American and British intelligence services to gauge sentiment of and potentially blackmail United Nations diplomats tasked to vote on a resolution regarding the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The film is directed by Gavin Hood,and Gun is portrayed by Keira Knightley. The film also stars Matt Smith,Matthew Goode,Adam Bakri,Indira Varma and Ralph Fiennes.
Steven Andrew Engel is an American lawyer. He served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Donald Trump administration. Engel,who previously worked in the George W. Bush administration as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel,was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 31,2017,and confirmed on November 7,2017. On January 20,2021,he was succeeded by Christopher H. Schroeder,serving under the Biden Administration.
