Judge Brands Blair A Criminal

Kiwi judge calls Blair a criminal
By IRENE CHAPPLE - Sunday Star Times Sunday, 13 May 2007

A New Zealand Supreme Court judge has launched a blistering attack on outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, effectively calling him a war criminal for his role in the Iraq conflict.
Justice Ted Thomas, who retired last year but still presides over ongoing cases, told the Sunday Star-Times yesterday that Blair "deceived Cabinet, parliament and the British people" over the war.
And in a hard-hitting essay published in British journal The Spokesman this month, Thomas writes: "As extreme as it sounds, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that, should he be prosecuted at a time when the plea of sovereign immunity is not available, Mr Blair would be found guilty of a war crime."
Thomas said Blair would be guilty of the customary international law crime of aggression as the war was launched without legal basis. "A regime change is not the basis for conducting an invasion of another sovereign state." He said Blair misrepresented - and must have known he was misrepresenting - his attorney-general's advice on the legality of the war.
The essay has drawn conflicting opinion from across the political spectrum. Act Leader Rodney Hide said he was "astounded" a member of the New Zealand judiciary would launch such an attack.
"We get taught at politics 101 there's a distinction between parliament, politics and the judiciary, but here is a judge attacking this PM... his job is to interpret the cases before him, not to engage in politics."
National Party shadow attorney-general Chris Finlayson said the commentary was "not proper - but (Thomas) has always made his own rules".
But Green MP Keith Locke agreed with Thomas and said Blair had personal responsibility for misleading the public.
Locke said it showed admirable judicial independence and could provide Prime Minister Helen Clark with ammunition should she try to talk to the incoming British PM about withdrawing troops from Iraq. Clark was unavailable for comment at press time.
Last week, Blair, his leadership crippled by the decision to invade Iraq, announced he would stand down on June 27. He defended the decision to send troops, saying "hand on heart, I did what I thought was right".
But Thomas's savage essay accuses Blair of treating the foreign affairs portfolio as his "personal fiefdom". Blair, says Thomas, became "almost like a parrot" to the neo-conservatism of US president George W Bush's administration during his tenure.
He says the war is "also an indictment on the political system" which failed to hold him to account over the manipulation of intelligence. The lack of political checks meant Blair "was not constrained from committing political, immoral and illegal misdemeanours".
The US-led invasion began in 2003 after the Bush administration declared Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction, a claim later found to be false. Hussein was hanged in December for his role in the 1982 Dujail massacre.
Since the war began, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of coalition troops have been killed.
Thomas wrote Blair also showed "effective complicity" in the US practice of extraordinary rendition - in which prisoners are deported to countries where they can be tortured.
The essay, written as a judicial investigation, said it was "incongruous" Blair had not resigned or been forced to resign over the war, which "was based on a delusion, and which has had such calamitous and humanly tragic consequences. In short, he has not been held accountable in parliament for the manipulation of the intelligence or the deception he practised in pursuit of the war".
But speaking yesterday to the Star-Times, Thomas said it was "beyond feasibility" Blair would ever stand trial for a war crime. "It will never happen, but (Blair) may have to be circumspect as to which countries he visits."
Thomas has not shied from controversy. He successfully took an injunction to stop the All Blacks touring South Africa in 1985 and worked on a case in which Greenpeace obtained damages against the French government for sinking the Rainbow Warrior. But he told the Star- Times he considers himself a "political eunuch". He published the essay after announcing his retirement because judges should be "aloof" from politics.