In article <c1o8bk$1vvm$1@pencil.math.missouri.edu>, barbara gaines says...

Spy case casts fresh doubt on war legality
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1156539,00.html
Richard Norton-Taylor and Ewen MacAskill February 26, 2004 The Guardian UK

Dramatic new evidence pointing to serious doubts in the government about the
legality of the war in Iraq was passed to government lawyers shortly before
they abandoned the prosecution of the GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun.

The prosecution offered no evidence yesterday against Ms Gun, a former GCHQ
employee, despite her admitting that she leaked information about an American
spying operation at the UN in the run-up to the war.
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The leading prosecutor, Mark Ellison, said it would not be "appropriate" to go
into the reasons for dropping the case.

But the Guardian has learned that a key plank of the defence presented to the
prosecutors shortly before they decided to abandon the case was new evidence
that the legality of the war had been questioned by the Foreign Office.

It is contained in a document seen by the Guardian. Sensitive passages are
blacked out, but one passage says: "The defence believes that the advice given
by the Foreign Office Legal Adviser expressed serious doubts about the
legality (in international law) of committing British troops in the absence of
a second [UN] resolution."