A big lie is going public?

In the UK, earlier suspicions of a change of heart on the legality of the Iraqi war have been confirmed.

Documentary evidence has emerged showing that the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, changed his mind about the legality of the Iraq war just before the conflict began. The damning revelation is contained in the resignation letter of Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a legal adviser at the Foreign Office, in which she said the war would be a "crime of aggression". She quit the day after Lord Goldsmith's ruling was made public, three days before the war began in March 2003.

The critical paragraph of her letter, published yesterday under the Freedom of Information Act, was blanked out by the Government on the grounds that it was in the public interest to protect the privacy of the advice given by the Attorney General. But last night the contents of the paragraph were leaked, and Tony Blair was facing fresh allegations of a cover-up. There has long been speculation that Lord Goldsmith was leant on to switch his view, and to sanction the war - and confirmation of that would be devastating for the Prime Minister. The Wilmhurst letter stops short of explaining what caused Lord Goldsmith to change his mind.

The fact that the issue of the legality of the war was a source of hot debate has long been public information. Elizabeth Wilmshurst resigned in protest of the final decision for announce that the war was legal.

The Independent has a good review of where things currently stand. We still don't know if the suspected BIG lie is fact; was Lord Goldsmith change of heart based on legal information, or political pressure.