Iraq war lies rebound on Australian PM

[IndianaGreen]

Iraq war lies rebound on Australian PM
By Rick Kelly
16 July 2003

Like George Bush and Tony Blair, Australian Prime Minister John Howard faces a mounting political crisis over the lies and fabrications used to justify invading Iraq and his efforts to foist the blame onto the Australian intelligence agencies.

In a remarkable display last week, no less than three Australian intelligence agencies followed the American CIA in declaring that they knew the claims of Iraq seeking to buy uranium in Africa were false, yet failed to inform the government. Far from shoring up the government’s credibility, this transparent attempt to shield Howard has only led to further questions as his assertions about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction continue to unravel.

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Howard has sought to minimise the significance of the intelligence on the Niger uranium claim, saying that it was just one piece of information in a much broader case for war. But the fact that the government exploited what it knew to be fraudulent intelligence calls into question the government’s entire case for war. There is no reason to believe that any of the evidence concerning Iraq’s weapons programs was more plausible than the Niger uranium allegation.

Three months after the fall of Baghdad, not a single shred of evidence has been found in Iraq to support any of the accusations made by the American, British and Australian governments prior to the invasion. In response to the growing public disquiet, Howard, like Bush and Blair, is engaged in a frantic effort to prevent the whole web of lies about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction from collapsing.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/howa-j16.shtml

[Violet_Crumble]

1. The government's lied before...

Last time it was the Children Overboard Affair which helped Howard win the election. Nothing like spreading the lie that asylum-seekers are so heartless and demonic that they'd throw their own children into shark-infested waters to try to get their own way...

http://www.dawn.com/2002/10/25/int11.htm

SYDNEY: Australia's government deliberately lied to the public during last year's parliamentary election when it said that refugees had thrown their children into the sea to attract the attention of an Australian naval patrol, an inquiry has found.

A report by the Australian senate issued on Wednesday said that Peter Reith, the then defence minister who has since retired from politics, "engaged in the deliberate misleading of the Australian public concerning a matter of intense political interest during an election period".