Prewar Iraq bombing illegal: Another bombshell drops in the UK in the form of another leaked document. Whether it manages to render a response from the complacent US media is another story:

A SHARP increase in British and American bombing raids on Iraq in the run-up to war “to put pressure on the regime” was illegal under international law, according to leaked Foreign Office legal advice.

The advice was first provided to senior ministers in March 2002. Two months later RAF and USAF jets began “spikes of activity” designed to goad Saddam Hussein into retaliating and giving the allies a pretext for war.

The Foreign Office advice shows military action to pressurise the regime was “not consistent with” UN law, despite American claims that it was...

Full story.

The Downing Street Memos also include British Foreign Office political director Peter Ricketts asking whether the White House had a clear and compelling military reason for war. "U.S. scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al-Qaida is so far frankly unconvincing," Ricketts says in the memo. "For Iraq, 'regime change' does not stack up. It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam."

Wouldn't a grudge match between Bush and the still-at-large Osama bin Laden be more appropriate?