From the Sydney Morning Herald:
The Howard government will be dragged into a potentially explosive British parliamentary inquiry into the doctoring of intelligence on Iraq after a former Australian defence analyst was unexpectedly called to give evidence.
Andrew Wilkie, formerly with the Office of National Assessments (ONA), will use his appearance this week to tip a bucket on the Government's use of the now-suspect intelligence to justify Australia's role in the war.
Mr Wilkie said he would expose the Government's "exaggeration" of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction and "concoction" of links between Saddam Hussein and terrorists.
"Australia went to war with the US and UK, without international endorsement, on the basis of what our Prime Minister described as a massive weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq," he told the Herald before leaving for London yesterday.
"That 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 existed."
Mr Howard has recently begun deflecting any blame for manipulation of intelligence from himself and towards the US and British governments by asserting that no doctoring had been done by "the Government I lead".
Also at the weekend, a British investigation into two trailers found in northern Iraq has concluded that they are not mobile germ warfare labs, as claimed by Mr Howard, Mr Blair and the US President, George Bush.
Instead, the inspectors found, they were used to produce hydrogen for artillery balloons, as the Iraqis have maintained.
Soldiers Died
"Our studly leader says
we need more time! It MUST
be true!"
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