Britain's former international development chief has said that she warned then-Prime Minister Tony Blair that the US and its allies were unprepared to deal with the aftermath of invading Iraq.
Clare Short, who quit as international development secretary shortly after the March 2003 invasion, made a stinging attack on her former boss at Britain's Iraq Inquiry in London, saying Blair's inner circle was guilty of "secretiveness and deception" over the decision to go to war.
Short told the inquiry she was not properly consulted in the weeks before the invasion.
Blair preferred to work through informal "little chats" rather than full consultation with the Cabinet, she said.
Short also said ministers were misled about whether the war was authorised by international law.
The government's top legal adviser at the time, Peter Goldsmith, has told the inquiry he initially believed war would be unlawful without an explicit United Nations Security Council resolution.
Days before the war, however, he advised that military action could take place under existing UN resolutions.
Short said ministers were not made aware of Goldsmith's earlier doubts.
"That was all kept from us and we were just given the PQ (Parliamentary Question) answer that said unequivocal legal authority. No questions asked, no doubt. I think that's misleading," she told the panel.
Short released a classified letter she sent Blair two weeks before the invasion in which she warned that reconstruction efforts would be illegal without an explicit UN resolution.
The US and its allies were ill-prepared for post-invasion humanitarian needs, Short said.
She told the panel that Blair refused requests to delay the invasion, despite warnings that the military and aid officials were not ready.
"I think he was so frantic to be with America that all that was thrown away," she said.
Senior military officers have told the inquiry that British troops lacked critical equipment, including body armour, at the start of the conflict.
Short resigned in May 2003 to protest the handling of the war.
She said she wished now she had resigned before the conflict.
Britain is holding its third and widest-ranging inquiry into the conflict, which triggered huge protests and left 179 British troops dead before the country's forces withdrew from Iraq last year.
The inquiry, which is scheduled to report by the end of the year, won't apportion blame or establish liability, but will offer recommendations on how to prevent errors in future conflicts.
Blair testified to the inquiry last week, saying he stood by his decision to back the US in removing Saddam Hussein because the Iraqi dictator was a threat to his region and the world.
APTN