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PM's office exaggerated Iraq threat, inquiry hears.

A former intelligence analyst has accused the Prime Minister's office of
exaggerating the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

From ABC News - August, 2003

The claim has been made to a federal parliamentary inquiry investigating the accuracy of intelligence about Iraq's banned weapons.

Andrew Wilkie quit the Office of National Assessments in March because he believed the Government was deliberately misleading the public about the case for war.

He says the Government lied about Iraq's weapons programs.

"I will go so far as to say that the material was going straight from ONA to the Prime Minister's office and the exaggeration was occurring in there," he said.

Mr Wilkie says the Government ignored gaps in intelligence reports about Iraq's banned weapons, so that its public statements were in step with the United States and Britain.

He says Iraq may have been producing chemical and biological weapons on a limited scale before the war and he concedes evidence of the weapons programs may still be found.

Mr Wilkie says there was not enough evidence to justify a war against Iraq.

He told the inquiry the Government misled the public, creating a mythical Iraq where every factory was producing banned weapons.

"The Government was prepared to deliberate exaggerate the Iraqi WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and terrorism threat so as to stay in step with the United States," he said.

Butler puzzled

Former United Nations chief weapons inspector Richard Butler has questioned why the United States has not revealed what it has learnt from interrogating senior Iraqi officials about the country's banned weapons program.

Mr Butler was one of the first witnesses to appear before a federal parliamentary inquiry examining the accuracy of intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

He says he cannot explain why banned weapons have not been found since the war in Iraq ended.

But Mr Butler says officials who surrendered to US authorities, including Iraq's former deputy prime minister, know the answers.

"What arrangement has been made with Tariq Aziz? He knew everything," Mr Butler said.

"Certainly [former presidential scientific adviser] Amir [Hamudi Hasan] al-Saadi did.

"Why aren't they putting us out of our misery by telling us the truth of these matters?

"Have they already told the United States but the United States for some reason isn't telling ... others. I'm making no accusation, I'm puzzled."