White House Memo

By BBC

Tony Blair and George W Bush had already decided to invade Iraq in January 2003, a new book by a human rights lawyer has claimed.

The book - an updated edition of Lawless World by Philippe Sands - says the two leaders discussed going to war regardless of any United Nations view.

By: Gary Gibbon, http://www.channel4.com

Revealed: Bush and Blair discussed using American Spyplane in UN colours to lure Saddam into war.

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White House Meeting Memo Special Report

By David Swanson

The Guardian is reporting that Bush told Blair "that the US was so worried about the failure to find hard evidence against Saddam that it thought of 'flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours'. Mr Bush added: 'If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach [of UN resolutions]'."

By Oliver King and Paul Hamilos, Guardian (UK)

Tonight's revelations about Tony Blair and George Bush's White House meeting on January 31 2003 show that the prime minister was prepared to go to war in Iraq before he had tried to get a second UN resolution. Given that the attorney general and Foreign Office lawyers believed at this time that war would be illegal without one, the story throws further doubt on the legality of the conflict.

By Oliver King, Guardian (UK)

A Guardian exclusive tonight reveals that President Bush suggested to Tony Blair in January 2003 the idea of painting UN colours on American U2 spy planes in the hope that Saddam would shoot one down.

By Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian (UK)

· PM backed invasion despite illegality warnings
· Plan to disguise US jets as UN planes
· Bush: postwar violence unlikely

Tony Blair told President George Bush that he was "solidly" behind US plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about the invasion's legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution, according to a new account of the build-up to the war published today.

Published on Sunday, January 29, 2006 by The Mail on Sunday (London)
By Simon Walters

A White House leak revealing astonishing details of how Tony Blair and George Bush lied about the Iraq war is set to cause a worldwide political storm.