Letter to Congress on Downing Street Article

The Hon. Kendrick Meek
1039 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515

Friday, July 15, 2005

Dear Kendrick,

I’m enclosing a copy of an article I’ve written about the Downing Street memo and the other official British documents that have been made public regarding the war in Iraq. It explains how legal advisors explicitly and consistently warned the British Government that the American plan to invade Iraq was strictly illegal under international law. This article has not yet been published, but an earlier version can be found at: http://www.onlinejournal.org/Special_Reports/070805Davies/070805davies.html

The U.S. policy of “regime change” was never authorized by any of the U.N. resolutions, and the unilateral use of military force is prohibited under the U.N. Charter except to respond proportionately in self-defense against an actual or imminent armed attack. As Britain’s Attorney General explicitly warned Mr. Blair, the “doctrine of preemption” against “future danger” as claimed by the Bush administration “is not a doctrine which exists or is recognized in international law”. The convoluted and belated legal justification advanced by our government was rejected by British Law Officers at the time and has since been dismissed by international legal scholars.

I hope that you and your staff will find the time to read this, and that it can help you to come to terms with the illegitimacy of our country’s current foreign and defense policy. I hope that you will lend your support to the efforts of Congressman John Conyers to hold our leaders accountable for domestic and international crimes that they have committed, and that you will support widening this investigation to include charges of international aggression and the violation of Article VI of the United States Constitution.

Yours sincerely