Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)

Britain is complicit in virtually all US wars of aggression, a special partnership in high crimes.

In July 2002, the notorious “Downing Street memo” was leaked, later publicly revealed, its authenticity never challenged.

Secret Washington/UK collusion was exposed. So-called intelligence claiming justification for war on Iraq was cooked to fit already agreed on policy.

Smoking gun evidence proved it. Bush, Blair and others around them lied. They falsified evidence for war on Iraq. So-called WMDs didn’t exist.

Then Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz later was asked why fictitious WMDs became a casus belli. “It was the only thing we could all agree on,” he said.

Blair’s so-called 2003 “Dodgy Dossier” included more incriminating evidence. Dr. David Kelly’s death followed proof he revealed about sexing up the document to justify unjustifiable war on Iraq.

Subsequent Hutton report misinformation claimed Kelly committed suicide. He was murdered. Coverup tried to conceal it. Ravaging Iraq continues.

In January 2014, London’s Independent headlined “Exclusive: Devastating dossier on ‘abuse’ by UK forces in Iraq goes to International Criminal Court.”

It’s titled “The Responsibility of UK Officials for War Crimes Involving Systematic Detainee Abuse in Iraq from 2003 – 2008.”

“A devastating 250-page dossier” detailed evidence of beatings, burnings, electrocutions, mock executions, sexual assaults, cultural and religious humiliation, as well as threats of rape, death and other forms of torture.

High-level UK officials were complicit with their US counterparts, accountability never forthcoming.

Former Iraqi general Abdul Wahed Shannan Al Rabbat accused Blair, former foreign minister Jack Straw and former attorney general Peter Goldsmith of “aggression” for invading Iraq in 2003.

All three are untouchable, immune from criminal prosecution - because exposing their high crimes would reveal details kept undisclosed under Britain’s Official Secrets Act.

Rabbat’s lawyers sought Supreme Court judicial review of a 2006 House of Lords ruling, claiming aggression isn’t a crime under English law.

It’s the highest of high crimes under international law, Britain responsible for upholding it.

Two London High Court justices dismissed the appeal, saying “no prospect” of it succeeding exists.

The Chilcott Inquiry into Britain’s role in the 2003 Iraq war was damning, released in July 2016 - after seven years of protracted investigation.

It said Saddam posed no threat to UK interests. Faulty intelligence on (nonexistent) WMDs justified the unjustifiable. Peaceful alternatives to war weren’t considered.

America and Britain undermined exclusive Security Council authority to permit war. Waging it was unnecessary and illegal.

Blair deliberately misrepresented a nonexistent threat, disregarding warnings of devastating consequences of military actions.

War on Iraq was based on disinformation and Big Lies. No justification existed. Blair promised Bush he’d ally with him against Iraq no matter how unjustifiable.

Efforts to prosecute him for war crimes were blocked. Millions of lost lives and mass destruction aren’t enough to hold him accountable - nor US officials for waging naked aggression against multiple countries.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."