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A former senior Australian defence
analyst who resigned in March claiming the government was
exaggerating the Iraqi threat is to appear before British MPs
probing intelligence on Baghdad's weapons programmes, it emerged
today.
Andrew Wilkie is a former army officer
who worked at Australia's Office of National Assessments, which
provides intelligence evaluations for the government in
Canberra.
He quit in protest over the case Prime
Minister John Howard made to the public for going to war in Iraq
without a United Nations mandate.
Howard backed US and British claims
that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and links to the al-Qaida
terror network. He sent 2,000 Australian troops to the war that
toppled the Iraqi regime.
After resigning, Wilkie argued that
intelligence available to Australia suggested Iraq did not pose a
serious threat to the United States and its allies. He also claimed
the war would only fuel terrorist fervour for more attacks on the
West.
Wilkie told The Sydney Morning Herald
he would expose the government's "exaggeration" of intelligence on
weapons of mass destruction and "concoction" of links between former
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and terrorists in his appearance at
the inquiry.
"The claim was obviously false. There
is no doubt that Iraq did have weapons at one time and something
will eventually be found and dressed up as justification, but it
won't be anything of the magnitude we were led to believe," Wilkie
said.
He was speaking at Sydney airport
yesterday before flying to London to appear before the inquiry this
week.
Iraq's alleged nuclear programme and
cache of chemical and biological weapons was the prime justification
used by the US and its allies for going to war in Iraq. So far,
troops investigating suspected weapons sites in Iraq have returned
empty handed.
Wilkie is not qualified to talk about
Iraq, Howard said today.
He told MPs the former analyst was now
a private citizen and could say what he wanted.
"Mr Wilkie had been an analyst working
mostly on illegal immigration issues and in a branch that was not
responsible for (Iraq)," Howard said.
"I do not share his views and those
views are not shared by the organisation he used to work for," the
prime minister said.
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