ABC Online
AM - Australia's role in the Iraq intelligence process under scrutiny
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1036751.htm]
AM - Tuesday, 3 February , 2004 08:08:02
Reporter: Rafael Epstein
TONY EASTLEY: One of the things the inquiries will be considering is how the intelligence findings dovetailed, or clashed, with the findings of the UN weapons inspectors, the ones physically on the ground before the invasion. Did they have a much clearer picture of the true state of Iraq's weapons? The inspectors found little evidence beyond some illegal missiles.
In Canberra, Labor wants the Government to own up to its role in the intelligence process, but the ALP is not yet pushing for another review of Australia's intelligence assessments.
Rafael Epstein explains.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld said last year "we know where they are". But what did they know?
Speaking to the UN Security Council, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, spoke about decontamination vehicles associated with chemical warfare. But the UN inspectors, acting on US information, said they were simple fire trucks.
Saddam Hussein had tonnes of VX and anthrax before 1991 and never showed proof they'd been destroyed. They're the weapons Prime Minister John Howard said could cause death and destruction on a mammoth scale.
But inspectors from the US-led teams in Iraq after the war told the Washington Post newspaper they did not exist before the war and no work had been done to try and reconstitute them.
US Vice President Dick Cheney said there was no doubt Iraq had reconstituted nuclear weapons and it was evidence gathered by Australian secret intelligence service that led the US to believe 60,000 aluminium tubes seized in Jordan were to be used to enrich uranium for a bomb.
But all that the US-led Iraqi Survey Group found was some parts of an old centrifuge to enrich uranium hidden for 12 years underneath a rose bush in the garden of an Iraqi scientist.
Yesterday, before the US announcement, Prime Minister John Howard wouldn't say if Australia's intelligence needed to be reviewed.
JOHN HOWARD: Well, I'm going to analyse what he said, I've heard a report of it. You've got to bear in mind of course that almost all of the intelligence that came our way in relation to the war against Iraq came from British and American sources. It didn't come from our own independent sources. Obviously it was independently assessed and so forth, but it was primarily British and American intelligence, and I'll see what the detail of that statement is.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Australia receives the so-called raw intelligence from its allies and the analysis and conclusions are Canberra's alone.
But even the renegade intelligence analyst, Andrew Wilkie, conceded before the war there was no doubt Iraq had chemical and biological weapons. He did argue however, that Iraq's illegal weapons program was disjointed and limited.
Mohamed el Baradei, the Head of the UN nuclear agency told the Security Council in March that inspections of nearly 150 sites revealed "no evidence of resumed nuclear activities nor any indication of prohibited activities at any related sites".
And the UN's Chief Weapons Inspector, Hans Blix, conducted 731 inspections between November 2002 and March 2003. He found no evidence of illegal weapons stockpiles, saying "one must not jump to the conclusion that they do exist".
Here in Australia, Labor's Foreign Affairs Spokesman is Kevin Rudd.
KEVIN RUDD: Well President George Bush has raised the temperature on John Howard. Currently we have a parliamentary inquiry here in Australia. We understand it will report soon. As soon as we've read its conclusions we'll be making a decision then on whether an independent commission of investigation is required here in Australia as well.
Yesterday he makes a claim that almost all intelligence Australia relied on in the lead up to the Iraq war was American or British. Roll the clock back 12 months, what does John Howard say to the Australian Parliament? He says and I quote "the intelligence material collected over recent times, to which Australia has contributed, points overwhelmingly to Saddam Hussein having acted in systematic defiance to the resolutions of the Security Council and having maintained his stockpile".
So yesterday we have John Howard saying not an Australian problem, it's a US and UK intelligence problem. Twelve months ago, when it was to his political advantage, he was there wrapping himself in the entire enterprise saying that Australia had made a significant input to the intelligence conclusion that Iraq possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons when we went to war.
Once again, Honest John being loose with the truth on national security.
TONY EASTLEY: Labor's Kevin Rudd speaking there to Rafael Epstein.
In Canberra, Labor wants the Government to own up to its role in the intelligence process, but the ALP is not yet pushing for another review of Australia's intelligence assessments.
Rafael Epstein explains.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld said last year "we know where they are". But what did they know?
Speaking to the UN Security Council, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, spoke about decontamination vehicles associated with chemical warfare. But the UN inspectors, acting on US information, said they were simple fire trucks.
Saddam Hussein had tonnes of VX and anthrax before 1991 and never showed proof they'd been destroyed. They're the weapons Prime Minister John Howard said could cause death and destruction on a mammoth scale.
But inspectors from the US-led teams in Iraq after the war told the Washington Post newspaper they did not exist before the war and no work had been done to try and reconstitute them.
US Vice President Dick Cheney said there was no doubt Iraq had reconstituted nuclear weapons and it was evidence gathered by Australian secret intelligence service that led the US to believe 60,000 aluminium tubes seized in Jordan were to be used to enrich uranium for a bomb.
But all that the US-led Iraqi Survey Group found was some parts of an old centrifuge to enrich uranium hidden for 12 years underneath a rose bush in the garden of an Iraqi scientist.
Yesterday, before the US announcement, Prime Minister John Howard wouldn't say if Australia's intelligence needed to be reviewed.
JOHN HOWARD: Well, I'm going to analyse what he said, I've heard a report of it. You've got to bear in mind of course that almost all of the intelligence that came our way in relation to the war against Iraq came from British and American sources. It didn't come from our own independent sources. Obviously it was independently assessed and so forth, but it was primarily British and American intelligence, and I'll see what the detail of that statement is.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Australia receives the so-called raw intelligence from its allies and the analysis and conclusions are Canberra's alone.
But even the renegade intelligence analyst, Andrew Wilkie, conceded before the war there was no doubt Iraq had chemical and biological weapons. He did argue however, that Iraq's illegal weapons program was disjointed and limited.
Mohamed el Baradei, the Head of the UN nuclear agency told the Security Council in March that inspections of nearly 150 sites revealed "no evidence of resumed nuclear activities nor any indication of prohibited activities at any related sites".
And the UN's Chief Weapons Inspector, Hans Blix, conducted 731 inspections between November 2002 and March 2003. He found no evidence of illegal weapons stockpiles, saying "one must not jump to the conclusion that they do exist".
Here in Australia, Labor's Foreign Affairs Spokesman is Kevin Rudd.
KEVIN RUDD: Well President George Bush has raised the temperature on John Howard. Currently we have a parliamentary inquiry here in Australia. We understand it will report soon. As soon as we've read its conclusions we'll be making a decision then on whether an independent commission of investigation is required here in Australia as well.
Yesterday he makes a claim that almost all intelligence Australia relied on in the lead up to the Iraq war was American or British. Roll the clock back 12 months, what does John Howard say to the Australian Parliament? He says and I quote "the intelligence material collected over recent times, to which Australia has contributed, points overwhelmingly to Saddam Hussein having acted in systematic defiance to the resolutions of the Security Council and having maintained his stockpile".
So yesterday we have John Howard saying not an Australian problem, it's a US and UK intelligence problem. Twelve months ago, when it was to his political advantage, he was there wrapping himself in the entire enterprise saying that Australia had made a significant input to the intelligence conclusion that Iraq possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons when we went to war.
Once again, Honest John being loose with the truth on national security.
TONY EASTLEY: Labor's Kevin Rudd speaking there to Rafael Epstein.
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