The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
taken the
view in Government – indeed I told Government lawyers – that they
should
express
their views, however unwelcome they might be.”140
364.
Mr Straw
submitted a ‘Supplementary Memorandum’ addressing this
exchange
before his
hearing on 8 February 2010.141
365.
Mr Straw
wrote that following a “private meeting in mid-January” with
Vice
President
Cheney:
“… the
usual rather cryptic summary of my conversation was issued in a
confidential
FCO
telegram … Reading this Sir Michael sent me his minute of 24
January which,
with my
response, has been the subject of considerable interest by the
Inquiry, and
publicly.
“Far from
ignoring this advice, as has been suggested publicly, I read Sir
Michael’s
minute with
great care, and gave it the serious attention it deserved. So much
so
that I
thought I owed him a formal and personal written response, rather
than simply
having a
conversation with him.”
366.
Mr Straw
told the Inquiry that he had “never sent a minute like that before
or
367.
Mr Straw
also acknowledged that Lord Goldsmith’s letter of 3 February
was
“very unusual”.143
In his
view, it had been sent because Lord Goldsmith thought
Mr Straw
was
“questioning the right of legal advisers to offer me advice”.
Mr Straw had told
Lord Goldsmith
that he was not, and had subsequently put that in
writing.
368.
Mr Straw
explained that his comment to Vice President Cheney
about
Kosovo was
about military action in the absence of a Security Council
resolution.
369.
Mr Straw’s
minute did not address the substance of Mr Wood’s advice on
the
Kosovo
issue.
370.
Mr Straw
told the Inquiry that Kosovo itself was not a precedent and he
fully
accepted
the legal basis was different.144
It was
relevant “only to this extent, that … there
was an
effort made to gain Security Council agreement and that failed, but
the military
action went
ahead”.
371.
In his
‘Supplementary Memorandum’, Mr Straw wrote that he had reached
the
view that
he needed to respond to Mr Wood in writing because he had been
“struck
by the
categorical nature of the advice … and its contrast with the very
balanced and
140
Public
hearing, 27 January 2010, page 94.
141
Statement,
February 2010, ‘Supplementary Memorandum by the Rt Hon Jack Straw
MP’.
142
Public
hearing, 8 February 2010, page 19.
143
Public
hearing, 8 February 2010, page 24.
144
Public
hearing, 8 February 2010, pages 21-22.
68