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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (19709)	3/12/2003 12:01:22 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 25898

Australian intelligence expert quits over 'dumb' policy on Iraq Principled people continue to quit. "Iraq does not pose a serious enough security threat to the US or the UK or Australia or any other country," he said. A SENIOR intelligence adviser to the Australian prime minister, John Howard, resigned yesterday in a protest against the country’s likely involvement in a war with Iraq. Andrew Wilkie, an analyst with the Office of National Assessments (ONA) said the Australian government’s backing of war to disarm Iraq, if necessary, was "dumb and not worth the risk". "Going to war against Iraq, invading Iraq, is exactly the course of action most likely to cause Saddam to lash out recklessly, to use weapons of mass destruction, and maybe even play the terrorism card," he told Channel Nine television in an interview. "It’s bad policy, dumb policy, if only because all of the other options have not yet been exhausted," he said. The ONA, an intelligence assessment agency attached to the prime minister’s office, confirmed that Wilkie had resigned but said he did not deal with Iraq issues. "The views he has expressed are not the views of the Office of National Assessments," ONA chief Kim Jones told reporters. "It is not our role to give policy advice, we are an assessment agency." However, Mr Wilkie said he was on stand-by to join an ONA team to focus on Iraq if war broke out. The resignation will be embarrassing for Mr Howard, one of the most vocal supporters of United States’ President George Bush’s tough stance against Saddam Hussein. Mr Howard has sent 2,000 troops to the Gulf and is trying to convince Australians, the majority of whom do not back action against Iraq without United Nations support, that Iraq must now be forced to disarm with or without the UN. Mr Wilkie, a former army lieutenant colonel, said he believed Iraq’s military was weak, poorly trained and equipped, and its weapons of mass destruction programme disjointed and limited. "Iraq does not pose a serious enough security threat to the US or the UK or Australia or any other country," he said. He told the Bulletin news magazine he was troubled that Australia’s stance on Iraq was based on incomplete US intelligence. "We do not have unrestricted access to all US information on this matter," he told the magazine in an article obtained ahead of publication today. "There were certain things in [US Secretary of State] Colin Powell’s address to the UN Security Council a few weeks ago that surprised [me] at ONA." Mr Howard has said no decision has yet been made to join any military action against Iraq, whether UN-backed or US-led. But he has said Australia is a member of the "coalition of the willing" along with Britain and the US. Mr Wilkie, who produced a report three months ago on the humanitarian implications of a war with Iraq, said his main concern was that Saddam, if attacked, could use chemical or biological weapons to create a humanitarian disaster to overwhelm invading forces with civilian casualties and refugees. ©2003 scotsman.com