Sydney, Sept 16: Prime Minister John Howard today denied misleading the Australian public over whether the country's involvement in the US-led Iraq invasion increased the risk of terrorist attacks in Australia.
The government has admitted it knew of a British
intelligence report written before the war that warned a
strike against Baghdad would increase terrorist threats in
western countries, contradicting Howard's stated position in
the lead up to the war.
Howard said the British report was just one
information source and he stood by his government's contention
that removing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein would lead to a
reduced terrorist risk in the long term.
He said the country's top spy, Asio director-general
Denis Richardson, had agreed with the assessment.
"We made a judgment that involvement in a war in Iraq
would not, in the absence of credible and specific
intelligence, warrant a raising of the overall threat level
in Australia. Now this was the judgment of the
director-general of Asio," Howard told parliament.
"It wasn't John Howard's judgment, or (foreign
minister) Alexander Downer's judgment, but it happened to
correspond with the judgment we had taken."
Opposition leader Simon Crean said Howard lied to the
public by arguing Australia's involvement would not increase
the country's terrorist risk when he had intelligence saying
the exact opposite.
"He ignored damning evidence to the contrary, he
continued to make speeches asserting what this report refuted
and he sent our troops to war based on a lie," Crean said.
Bureau Report
