Blair aide's Iraq war note must be published, says former foreign secretary

Tony Blair agreed in 2002 that the UK and US would take action against Saddam Hussein even without a second UN resolution, according to the letter. Photograph: Murdo Macleod
The former Labour foreign secretary Lord Owen is demanding the publication of a key document revealing the Blair government's private attitude about the need for UN authority for the invasion of Iraq.
He was responding to a report in Tuesday's Guardian disclosing that Britain and the US were secretly planning to take action against Saddam Hussein without a second UN resolution five months before the invasion.
A note from Blair's private secretary shows Blair privately agreed at a meeting with his closest advisers at Downing Street in October 2002 to commit Britain to war while publicly suggesting it would use military force only after seeking fresh UN authority.
The highly classified note, written by Matthew Rycroft, said it was agreed that "we and the US would take action" without a new resolution by the UN security council if weapons inspectors showed Saddam had breached an earlier resolution. In that case, he "would not have a second chance".
The document was released after a freedom of information request to the Foreign Office. It is not clear whether it has been seen by the Chilcot inquiry into the decisions made in the runup to the Iraq war. The inquiry has not published it and does not comment on official documents relating to the invasion of Iraq.
Owen told the Guardian: "If it has not been shown to the Chilcot inquiry it should have been." The inquiry must also publish it, he said. He insisted that the full story surrounding the invasion, and Blair's role in it, must be disclosed.
Rycroft's note was sent to Mark Sedwill, private secretary to the then foreign secretary, Jack Straw. "This letter is sensitive," he underlined. "It must be seen only by those with a real need to know its contents, and must not be copied further."
The note was copied to a number of other senior officials, including Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's ambassador to the UN. There is no indication that it was seen by Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, who at the time advised that invading Iraq without a fresh UN resolution would be unlawful.
The Chilcot report is now not expected to be published until early next year, Whitehall officials have told the Guardian. One of the reasons for the delay, they say, is an argument with Whitehall, notably the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, over the release of official documents.
Read the letter from Blair's private secretary
Richard Norton-Taylor @'The Guardian'