Who Knew What When, Part MCXXVII

SATURDAY JUNE 19 2004 5:28 PM

Submitted by TheFuckOffKid. Edited By legionnaire.

In the week that saw the 9/11 Commission disavowing evidence of any connection between Iraq and Al-Qeada, Andrew Wilkie's book Axis of Deceit is about to be launched in Australia.

Wilkie caused consternation earlier this year in Australian intelligence circles when he resigned from the Office of National Assessments and spoke out against the intelligence being used in the run-up to the war, and the claims that were being made on the basis of that intelligence.

Wilkie's observations have less implication for the debate in the US, but they have implications for how the British and Australian governments both went along with US intelligence assessments, and the stated justifications for war coming from the US administration.

What jumped out at me was that the war had little to do with weapons of mass destruction and almost nothing to do with al-Qaeda. We were on the cusp of waging an unjustified war on the basis of a preposterous lie...

By late 2002 nothing could stop the countdown to war.

Tony Blair and John Howard understood this clearly because their intelligence agencies were telling them so - I know this was the case in Australia and I'm certain the situation was identical in the UK. ONA knew Australia would participate in a war by late 2002; the Australian Defence Force had begun to prepare even earlier...

Thanks to such efforts, Howard (and by his own means, Blair) knew before the war began that the US was intent on invading Iraq for many reasons, not only those involving WMD and terrorism. I recall numerous ONA assessments that explored the machinations in Washington and the thinking of George Bush and his circle.

If this knowledge is juxtaposed with the public case for war that was made in London and Canberra, something very interesting is revealed: Blair and Howard's oft-repeated justifications for going to war were quite hollow. Their statements about WMD and terrorism were made in the full knowledge that such justifications were not the central reasons for the US's actions.

4 Comments

Patrick_Lasswell

Portland, OR

January 2003

JUN 21, 2004 11:56 AM

In the week that saw the 9/11 Commission disavowing evidence of any connection between Iraq and Al-Qeada,

This is not factually correct. The 9/11 Commission said that there was not a collaborative connection with regard to the 9/11 attack. Your statement distorts the Commission's findings well beyond reasonable licesnse.

ChrisSick

Philadelphia, PA

March 2008

JUN 21, 2004 12:19 PM

yeah, besides it was only Colin Powell who had a press conference six fucking months ago to admit there were no links between Al-Qeada and Iraq. so the 9/11 commission really didn't have too much more work to do in that regard.