Aussie PM denies Iraq 'lies'

2003-09-15 11:57

Canberra - Australian Prime Minister John Howard has rejected opposition allegations that he lied about the terrorist threat stemming from Iraq after a British parliament report last week contradicted claims he used to justify joining the United States-led war.

A staunch US ally, Howard sent 2 000 troops to fight in Iraq. Like British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush, Howard said Saddam Hussein had to be toppled because he possessed weapons of mass destruction.

He also claimed that if rogue states like Iraq were not disarmed, their weapons of mass destruction would find their way into the hands of terrorists.

Deposing Saddam's regime would make the world safer from terrorism, Howard consistently argued, including in a major televised speech to the National Press Club on March 14.

However, a British parliamentary committee said last week that intelligence chiefs had warned in a report to the British government that invading Iraq could increase the terrorist threat to the West.

Howard denies seeing report

The report, which was given to Australia under an intelligence-sharing agreement, also warned that the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime would improve the chances of terrorist groups obtaining chemical or biological weapons.

Opposition leader Simon Crean told parliament on Monday: "The findings of the British joint intelligence committee demonstrate beyond doubt that the prime minister sent this country to war based on a lie."

Howard confirmed the intelligence report was received by Australian agencies on February 10, but said he'd never seen it, nor had anyone in his office or other ministers.

The government made the right decision in joining the assault on Baghdad and the report did not change that, Howard said.

"We made the judgment... that the action would reduce the likelihood of proliferation, would reduce the likelihood that weapons of mass destruction would fall into the hands of terrorists.

"That was a judgment... made courageously by this government in the medium- to longer-interests of this country and it's a judgment from which I will never resile."

Still more popular than opposition

An Australian parliamentary committee is also investigating the use of intelligence by the government to justify going to war after the failure of coalition forces to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

It mirrors the controversy that has engulfed Blair, whose government is accused of having "sexed up" intelligence reports to justify the conflict.

A poll in July showed that 36% of Australians believed the government knowingly misled them on Iraq.

Still, unlike Blair, whose popularity has fallen, the same poll showed Howard held a lead of 40 percentage points over opposition leader Simon Crean.

- AP