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Australia to Conduct Review of Intelligence Agencies
Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced plans today for an independent review of Australia’s intelligence assessments of Iraq’s prewar WMD capabilities (see GSN, June 18, 2003; Belinda Goldsmith, Reuters, March 1). His decision followed a recommendation in a parliamentary committee report released today that found that Australia’s estimates may have been overstated, but the report largely cleared the government of exaggerating those estimates and said that Australian assessments were more accurate than U.S. and British ones, according to the Associated Press. “The committee found that the presentation by the Australian government was more moderate and more measured than that of its alliance partners,” said committee chairman David Jull. The report “vindicates the government’s use of intelligence in stating the case for disarming Iraq,” said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer (Emma Tinkler, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 1). Nevertheless, “We will follow the advice to have a former intelligence expert constitute the inquiry and the terms of reference will broadly reflect what was recommended,” Howard said. The committee found that most Australian intelligence agencies had determined that Iraq possessed, at best, “small stocks” of weapons of mass destruction before the war. The Office of National Assessments, which advised Prime Minister John Howard, however, was more willing to use untested information to determine that it was “highly likely” that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, according to Reuters. “Despite their caution, insofar as they thought there were any weapons of mass destruction left in Iraq, it is possible they overstated their case,” Jull said (Goldsmith, Reuters). Australia sent 2,000 military personnel to Iraq, and to date has suffered no casualties (Tinkler, Associated Press/Yahoo!News).
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