*Ø* Blogmanac | Richard Butler, Andrew Wilkie give evidence to Iraq inquiry

The USA and the UK have their inquiries into the lies told by their governments in order to excuse their "blood for oil" pre-emptive invasion of Iraq. Australia also has a scandal currently being exposed.

Background
The prominent Australian diplomat, Richard Butler, was chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq in 1998. The media often say that Hussein expelled the UN wepons team, but that is not so – the team withdrew, and the US started bombing a day or so after.

Butler marched in the February 15 peace rally in Sydney, and that morning, in an interview on ABC radio, said "... I’m sick to death of the lies that we’re being told about this by the Prime Minister of Australia. I heard him again this morning on a national television interview, and it was shocking ..."

Andrew Wilkie, a senior Australian intelligence officer, bravely resigned from the Office of National Assessments in protest at the Government's reasons for sending Australian troops to Iraq. He told ABC radio: "Iraq does not pose a security threat to any other country at this point in time. Its military is very weak, it's a fraction of the size of the military at the time of the invasion of Kuwait. Its weapons of mass destruction program is very disjointed and contained by the regime that's been in place since the last Gulf War. And there is no hard intelligence linking the Iraqi regime to al-Qaeda in any substantial or worrisome way."

Butler, who has just been appointed Governor of Tasmania, and Wilkie, are now being quizzed at a Parliamentary Inquiry. Here's today's report from Canberra:

"We begin with the first day of the Federal Parliamentary inquiry into the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which started in Canberra today.

"Two key players have been giving evidence: the Governor designate of Tasmania and former chief UN weapons inspector, Richard Butler; and former senior intelligence officer Andrew Wilkie, who quit the Office of National Assessments in protest at the Government's reasons for sending Australian troops to Iraq.

"This morning, Mr Wilkie has been giving a scathing assessment of the Federal Government's behaviour over Iraq and accused the Government of fabricating material for its case against the regime of Saddam Hussein.

"He says he doesn't back away from his allegation that the Government lied over Iraq, claiming the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister have a lot to answer for ..."

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