"Philippe Sands", Queen's Counsel/QC is a British and French lawyer at Matrix Chambers, and is Professor of International law at University College London. Sands wrote Lawless World (book)/Lawless World (2006), in which he accused US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of conspiring to invade Iraq in violation of international law. His next book, Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values (2008), dealt with the decisions by top US policymakers to use torture in interrogation of suspects in the war on terror.

He also was the first to refer to the Bush–Blair memo that contained the claim that Bush wanted to lure Saddam Hussein's forces to shoot down a UN plane.

{{cite news

/ title=Bush 'tried to lure Saddam into war using UN aircraft'

/ date=3 February 2006

/ url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2023128,00.html

/ publisher=The Times

/ location=London

/ first1=Rosemary

/ last1=Bennett

/ first2=Michael

/ last2=Evans

More Philippe Sands on Wikipedia.

America has been in a state of fearfulness since Sept. 11 (2001) -- that fear has been able to squelch the debate -- if you're not with us, you're against us, says the administration. Americans should have responded more forcefully.

243

First Manning memo. From a legal perspective, one wants some hard evidence that something is there.

178

The story that emerges is that President Bush decides very early that he's going to get rid of Saddam Hussein.

155

Global rules matter, and I think global rules have contributed in a very large way to American power in the world.

137

It is clear they (Bush and Blair) knew they weren't going to find any evidence (of nuclear weapons) through inspection. The memo is significant because it indicates the clear indecision of the decision-making process.

97