Weapons claims fitted US plans, says Wilkie

By Peter Fray, Herald Correspondent in London

June 20 2003



The Australian and British governments grossly exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction to stay in step with the United States' plan to invade Iraq, a former senior Australian defence analyst has told a British parliamentary inquiry.

Andrew Wilkie, formerly with the Office of National Assessment, also accused John Howard of repeating false claims about Iraq trying to buy uranium from Niger so that he could be a player on the world stage.

Mr Wilkie said both governments had ignored warnings from their own intelligence agencies that the US was intent on deposing Saddam Hussein for "strategic and domestic reasons".

Deliberately distorted and doctored evidence about Iraq's weapons program had backed up a series of "ridiculous", "preposterous" and "fundamentally flawed" claims before the war.

"The British and Australian governments were deliberately intent on using WMD to exaggerate the Iraq threat so as to stay in step with the US . . .

"It was a rare opportunity for the Australian Prime Minister to be a player given the involvement of Australian agencies in this matter."

Mr Wilkie was invited to give evidence to the foreign affairs select committee - one of two British parliamentary inquiries examining the Blair Government's justification for war.

He said the heavily qualified language from intelligence agencies about the reliability of information from Iraqi dissidents was ignored.

"The apparent direct political interference with intelligence agencies in the United States and the more subtle political pressure applied in London and Canberra, meant that the rules were different with Iraq," he said.

"Intelligence that once would have been discarded was now useable, with qualification. The problem was that the juicy bits of intelligence most in accord with governments' position were being latched on to and the qualifications were being dropped."

He told the Herald outside the hearing that US interests in Iraq included gaining access to Iraq's oil reserves and trying to restart the Middle East peace process.

Mr Wilkie, an analyst who had worked on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, resigned on March 11 in protest against the Government's war stance.

While he did not deny Saddam had a weapons program or was a "horrid" ruler, it was obvious several claims made by the Australian, British and US governments were exaggerated and in some cases "simply wrong".

These included the "ridiculous" suggestion in the Blair Government's first dossier released last September that Saddam had extensive stockpiles from the 1980s and 1990s of unaccounted-for chemical or biological weapons - including 360 tonnes of bulk chemical agent and 3000 tonnes of precursor chemicals.

He said it was impossible to make such claims when not even the Iraqis themselves knew how much had ever been produced, how much had been used against Iran in the 1980s or how much had been destroyed outside the UN's gaze in the 1990s.

"Most chemical and biological agents soon break down unless produced to a very high level of purity and then effectively stabilised," he said.

Claims about Iraq's weapons build-up between 1998 and 2002, when UN weapons inspectors were absent, were also "unconvincing" as Iraq had neither the technical nor practical abilities to rebuild its program so quickly.

"For the Iraqis to have rebuilt their WMD program since 1998, virtually from scratch, would have been an enormous undertaking."



This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/19/1055828436631.html

" Mr Wilkie said both governments had ignored warnings from their own intelligence agencies that the US was intent on deposing Saddam Hussein for "strategic and domestic reasons". "

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you all have to be kidding me.... you are all pretending as if the Irak war was the beginning of the lying and murdering of thousands by the "new" US. Please wake up ! This has been going on for years. Please read up on " PAX AMERICANA " and you will begin to understand that the US has longed to dominate the world since the beginning of the 2nd World War, only the distribution of military hardware was a bit unfortnuate; until now. The US doesn't care what anyone thinks or says or does. And all you american citizens who have the right to vote are guilty too. It's your Tax Dollars that are financing the brutal murder of the innocent around the world. And heed this warning, because it is not only the beginning, it is the continuation of a 50 year old policy. Wake up and do something. For one , you can be sure that I will never buy an american made product ever again ! All you americans are murderers through direct or indirect affiliation! Can you grasp it ? I don't think even the bravest of you have the balls to admit to it, because if you could , then you just might actually do something about it. They will probably kill you for it. Aha, so your hamburger is worth more to you than stopping the new Nazis, and so you continue to do nothing but babble and complain a little on the internet. Do any of you people out there actually realize that 911 was orchestrated by CIA and B'nai B'rit ? Hey they are fucking with you guys like little children and you do nothing because you are all cowards.

Once again:

Who do you hate more? America or Jews?

Which do you hate more?

the Constitution or the Bill of Rights?

I hate them both.

you are a traitor to this great country.

What's your excuse, lefty?

I think that you need one more than us.

Love the sound of your own cackling?

This is your job isn't it?

I'm a disinformation agent and a propagandist for the Government.

Now tell "us". What's YOUR job?

I'm a disinformation agent and a propagandist for the Government.

Cuba or North Korea?

I'm fond of Israel. I have a portrait of Sharon above my bed.

www.kobehq.com

******

Eric

by KOBE SBM • Tuesday June 24, 2003 12:17 PM

kobehq@yahoo.com



I'm fond of Israel. I have a portrait of Sharon above my bed.

http://www.kobehq.com

******

Is there a purpose to them? Does the imposter have the ability to write more than say....four or five words? What's more, what he says is so asinine as to be creepy. I wonder if he giggles while he types them. PATHETIC.

What's PATHETIC is how those "four or five words" get you so riled up. You're just a weak-minded individual. You must actually like letting everyone know how much the imposter gets to you.

I did not write the above.

I did not submit the above post.