Aftermath: Attorney General Leak
Updated on 02 February 2006
Channel 4 News reveals legal advice on brink of Iraq conflict in April 2005.
>>Watch the report
"Good evening. This is it - the Attorney-General's summary of his legal advice to the Prime Minister of March 7 2003 on the legality of war on Iraq, revealed for the first time.
"It gives arguments for and against war but it is brim full of caveats and warnings about the legal risk in any decision to send British forces into battle. Warnings and advice never seen by the Cabinet, never seen by Parliament which was asked to vote on the sending of troops."
"It has been suppressed until tonight, and its contents are a dramatic contrast from the unequivocal case to war that the Cabinet was shown 10 days later just before the invasion."
Thus Jon Snow introduced Channel 4 News on 27 April.
As Jon wrote in the following day's Snowmail, "I'm sorry I was unable to let you know ... yesterday that we had this amazing break, but the risks involved in publishing such sensitive material meant we had to play our cards rather close to our chest."
