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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (112275)	8/22/2003 12:41:58 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

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...>>

To: Bilow who wrote (112275)	8/22/2003 2:28:58 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Message 19235179 <<...Much like in Vietnam, those that argue that we will, by force of numbers, will and superior technology "win" against the guerrillas, are living in a tooth fairy world that fails to take into account the realities of guerrilla wars that enjoy significant popular support. Those people should accept the realities "sooner rather than later" so that more families are spared the agony of losing a loved son or daughter, so that American credibility is not further damaged and so that our American wealth is not squandered in a cause that sucks the discretionary spending of our country dry...>>