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Australia Doesn't Plan Weapons Inquiry
Washtington Times - AP ^ | Feb. 2, 2004

Posted on 02/03/2004 5:10:30 AM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl

Feb 2, 10:25 PM EST

Australia Doesn't Plan Weapons Inquiry


SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Australia has no need for a special inquiry into its intelligence on Iraq because it is sure Saddam Hussein had illicit weapons, Defense Minister Robert Hill said Tuesday.

Australia received its intelligence from Britain and the United States, whose leaders both plan to name special panels to investigate the intelligence they used for going to war in Iraq.

But Hill said he had confidence in the intelligence Australia received and there was no doubt Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

"There were weapons. That is not in dispute," Hill told reporters in Sydney. "The issue is what happened to those weapons."

Australia contributed 2,000 troops to the Iraq war tha toppled Saddam and stood by the U.S. administration's assertions the war was justified.

President Bush decided on the investigation after David Kay resigned as the head of the U.S. mission to find banned weapons in Iraq, saying he thought Saddam likely had no such arms.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will also appoint a commission to investigate faulty intelligence, Blair's spokesman said Monday.

Hill said Australia had already conducted a parliamentary inquiry to which Australian intelligence agencies had given evidence, and it was "difficult to see what benefit would flow from yet another Australian inquiry." The earlier inquiry has not completed its report and will not present its findings until March.

In a speech to Parliament before fighting broke out in Iraq, Prime Minister John Howard justified the war by saying intelligence sources showed Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction and could give them to terrorists. Opposition lawmakers then used their control of the parliament's upper house, the Senate, to start an inquiry into Howard's claims.

Some opposition lawmakers have raised the possibility of another inquiry depending on the outcome of the U.S. probe.

On Monday, Howard said Australia's intelligence on Iraq came largely from the United States and Britain.

"It didn't come from our own independent sources, obviously it was independently assessed and so forth, but it was primarily British and American intelligence," Howard said.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.



TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: allies; coalition; freedom; gnfi; goodguys; humanrights; liberation; nonunilateral
Related:



CPA-Iraqi commission set up to locate the missing and protect the mass graves:

8 Mass Graves of Iraq: Uncovering Atrocities ~ Coalition Provisional Authority | 1/05/04

Eyewitness testimony:

8 Baghdad, with Victims ~ To those with eyes to see, Saddam Hussein’s butchery was reason enough for war ~ Commentary  | 12/03/03 | Steven Vincent

8 THE CRUELEST COVER-UP ~ Tales of Saddam's Brutality ~ White House | Various

Pictures, important ~ and mostly absent from mainstream coverage of Iraq, and from the net:

8 Graphic proof from Saddam's Killing Fields ~ http://www.9neesan.com | 1/12/04 | the dead of Iraq


1 posted on 02/03/2004 5:10:31 AM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl
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To: MJY1288; xzins; Calpernia; TEXOKIE; Alamo-Girl; windchime; Grampa Dave; anniegetyourgun; ...
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Australia has no need for a special inquiry into its intelligence on Iraq because it is sure Saddam Hussein had illicit weapons, Defense Minister Robert Hill said Tuesday.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bless our awesome Aussie allies!
Non-UN-ilateral, common sense,
freedom, ping!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want on or off the Pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me, Calpernia or xzins.
Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).

2 posted on 02/03/2004 5:15:33 AM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Bless Australia , Freedom will win . we must support Iraq war for freedom !
3 posted on 02/03/2004 5:26:56 AM PST by serurier (We come here for the freedom of the world)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Bump!
4 posted on 02/03/2004 8:50:50 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Bless our awesome Aussie allies ~ Bump!
5 posted on 02/03/2004 9:02:51 AM PST by blackie (Be Well~Be Armed~Be Safe~Molon Labe!)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Ragtime Cowgirl,Bump.
6 posted on 02/03/2004 9:23:14 AM PST by fatima (Karen ,Ken 4 ID,Jim-Karen is coming home from Iraq March 1st,WooHoo)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
'There were weapons. That is not in dispute," Hill told reporters in Sydney. "The issue is what happened to those weapons."'

Australians get to the point.
7 posted on 02/04/2004 5:53:29 AM PST by windchime (Podesta about Bush: "He's got four years to try to undo all the stuff we've done." (TIME-1/22/01))
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