The Times (UK) : US General Admits to Secret 2002 Iraq Air War

General admits to secret air war - Sunday Times - Times Online

Addressing a briefing on lessons learnt from the Iraq war Lieutenant-General Michael Moseley said that in 2002 and early 2003 allied aircraft flew 21,736 sorties, dropping more than 600 bombs on 391 “carefully selected targets” before the war officially started.

Congress did not authorize military activity against Iraq until October of 2002, so any activity beyond the policing of "no fly zones" would be an abuse of executive war powers under the US Constitution.

If those raids exceeded the need to maintain security in the no-fly zones of southern and northern Iraq, they would leave President George W Bush and Tony Blair vulnerable to allegations that they had acted illegally.

The British Foreign Office has already taken the position that these raids were illegal.

All of this occurred while the US and UK Governments were "fixing the intelligence" in order to persuade the British and American people--and the rest of the world--that Saddam Hussein posed a genuine threat to them.

Time will be required to prepare public opinion in the UK that it is necessary to take military action against Saddam Hussein. There would also need to be a substantial effort to secure the support of Parliament. An information campaign will be needed which has to be closely related to an overseas information campaign designed to influence Saddam Hussein, the Islamic World and the wider international community. This will need to give full coverage to the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, including his WMD, and the legal justification for action.

And then the real lies began.