The Spy Who Tried To Stop A War.

Was the 2003 invasion of Iraq, by the US-led coalition, illegal under international law?

Are Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Tony Blair, et al, war criminals according to international law?

Why did the US Media fail to report on this?

These are questions raised by the House of Commons and the UK Media. While the US has remained silent. 

Here's the thumb-nail outline of what happened. It's post 9/11. Bush cannot find OBL in Afghanistan in 2002. So decides invade Iraq in 2003. However, this would not be lawful without a UN Security Council mandate and especially not if regime change is the objective of the invasion (which it clearly IS). The US suspects that it won't get a UN mandate to invade Iraq. So the US NSA emails British Intelligence GCHQ asking for help in spying on Security Council members to pressurize them into voting for Bush's invasion of Iraq (Resolution 1441). The UK Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, tells Blair that without a UN mandate, an invasion is unlawful. But then changes his mind after an apparent arm-twisting trip to Washington DC. While UN Resolution 1441, crafted by the US and UK, requires Iraq to support inspections by UNMOVIC and IAEA, it contains no "hidden triggers" and no "automaticity" with respect to the use of force. Ergo, no UN mandate to legitimize the imminent Bush/Blair invasion of Iraq. But the US nevertheless decides to unilaterally re-interpret Resolution 1441 to allow for an invasion. And then the NSA email lands on the desk of GCHQ staffer Katherine Gun. Concerned that the UK is about to get drawn into an unlawful war without a UN mandate, Gun leaks the email to the UK media. She quickly confesses to a breach of the British Official Secrets Act and is charged accordingly. Her defense is "necessity" - to save British, American and Iraqi lives in an unlawful war. When Gun appears at the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court to face charges under the OSA, the charges are suddenly withdrawn. Even though she confessed to leaking the document and breaching the OSA. Why? Perhaps in order to refute her defense of necessity, the UK, and by implication the USA, would have to challenge her contention that the war was indeed unlawful. (The defense of necessity does obviously not apply to an imminent threat that is lawful.) And a breach of UN resolution 1441, a unanimous vote on which the UN voters may or may not have been blackmailed by an unlawful joint NSA-GCHG spying operation. 

In not reporting on this, was the US media just asleep at the wheel, or were they too afraid to speak up and speak out? In either case, could they have stopped the war and perhaps saved thousands of American, British, Coalition and Iraqi lives? 

Read the full story : The Spy Who Tried to Stop A War by Marcia & Thomas Mitchell