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Oppn 'skeptical' over Iraq intelligence
The Federal Opposition says the Federal Government should reveal what
it knew and when in relation to questions over intelligence on Iraq's
attempts to buy uranium from Africa for its nuclear weapons program.
Yesterday the Defence Intelligence Organization (DIO) joined the
Office of National Assessments (ONA) and the Department of Foreign
Affairs in admitting it had doubts about the intelligence.
Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd says he is sceptical of
claims the Government was not told.
"John Howard's invoking the same defense he did with children
overboard, namely that everyone else out there may have known there
was a problem with this, but of course I, John Howard, did not -
frankly, this stretches credibility and belief," Mr Rudd said.
Mr Howard says he still has faith in the spy agencies.
"Intelligence is always an imprecise science and you've got to make
allowance for that," Mr Howard said.
Mr Rudd says he wonders how many more agencies will reveal they knew
of question marks.
"We're going to get to the stage soon I think where the cook, the
cleaning lady and the Comcar driver at Kirribilli all knew there was a
problem with Mr Howard's claim, but mysteriously the Prime Minister
didn't," Mr Rudd said.
The DIO is the third government organisation to admit it knew claims
that Iraq was trying to source weapons-grade uranium from Africa were
possibly false before Prime Minister John Howard mentioned the
allegations in a speech to Parliament in February.
The Office of National Assessments (ONA) and the Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFAT) have already admitted to knowing about the intelligence
doubts.
None of the bodies sought to inform Mr Howard.
The DIO's deputy secretary of intelligence and security, Ron
Bonighton, says the oversight was discovered yesterday.
However, he says doubts over the veracity of the intelligence were
only raised by one US spy agency and were buried deep within a lengthy
and highly classified report.
Mr Howard used the Africa link to help justify Australia's role in the
coalition of the willing but he says the intelligence failure was
incidental and would not have altered the Government's decision to go
to war.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says his department
knew of serious doubts about the reports in January but did not inform
him.
Mr Howard says the intelligence failure was incidental and would not
have altered the Government's decision to go to war.
In other developments:
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing fresh claims of misleading
the public over Iraq on after a newspaper reported the Government's
first weapons dossier had lifted old information from the Internet.
The director of the CIA has accepted responsibility for the use of
fraudulent intelligence in US President George W Bush's State of the
Union address this year.
The Federal Government has confirmed the Foreign Affairs department
also knew intelligence on Iraq's nuclear program was unreliable.
The Australian Democrats says it is extraordinary that both the Office
of National Assessment and the Department of Foreign Affairs did not
pass on information surrounding claims made about Iraq's nuclear
weapons program.
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