According to the article Pilger knows when Bush is lying - his lips move
in the New Statesman on 20th November, of which there is an archive at
 http://www.bestofdesign.co.uk/antiwarblog/archives/000086.html, Straw
recently claimed on R4 that Article 51 includes "the right of states to
take preventive action".

Pilger points out that Article 51 says no such thing. It refers only to
"the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed
attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security
Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and
security". (See  http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/chapter7.htm.)

In peace,

Alan