Australia ‘lied’ about Iraq threat
msnbc.com
<<...CANBERRA, Australia, Aug. 22 — The Australian government lied about the threat of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction to justify its involvement in the U.S.-led war, an official inquiry into intelligence on Iraq was told on Friday.
A FORMER senior intelligence analyst, Andrew Wilkie, who resigned in March in protest over Australia’s case for war, said Prime Minister John Howard, a close U.S. ally, created a mythical Iraq by dropping ambiguous references in intelligence reports.
“The government lied every time it skewed, misrepresented, used selectively and fabricated the Iraq story...The exaggeration was so great it was pure dishonesty,” Wilkie, formerly of the Office of National Assessment (ONA), told the inquiry.
The ONA is equivalent to the U.S. National Security Agency.
“Key intelligence assessment qualifications like ’probably’, ’could’ and ’uncorroborated evidence suggests’ were frequently dropped. Much more useful words like massive and mammoth were included,” he added.
Controversy has been raging in the United States, Britain and Australia over accusations those governments manipulated intelligence on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction to justify the war with no evidence yet found of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
Wilkie’s comments to the inquiry are some his strongest yet against Howard’s administration. Since his resignation, Wilkie has made numerous attacks on Howard, embarrassing the Australian leader...>> |
