Howard NOT an uberdictator after all!
PUBLIC servants were not brow-beaten into holding back intelligence information on Iraqâs weapons of mass destruction program before the Iraq war, public service chief Peter Shergold said today. Before the war, Prime Minister John Howard said in a speech that Iraq had sought to import uranium from Niger. It has since emerged a key government intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments (ONA), had received information before the speech that the claims were false, but did not tell the Prime Minister.
i guess they had to weigh up those claims against counter claims and non-related evidence that actually supported the thesis and was valid and verified
Dr Shergold, the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, said government agencies, including the ONA, had been consulted by the Prime Ministerâs department before Mr Howard gave his speech on Iraqâs weapons capacity. "There was this very strong flow of information," Dr Shergold told ABC radio. "And yet the media have been writing as if that is not the case, as if what you see is a cowed public service not being able to get its advice across â itâs just wrong."
NO! our media isnât BIASED or anything is it? I mean, it seems so fair when SBS and the ABC persistently blame America for all their terrible genocidal capitalist globalisation world-domination policies...
While not wanting to comment on why the ONA did not tell Mr Howard the Niger uranium claims had been discredited, Dr Shergold said it was often difficult for government agencies to verify the credibility of intelligence reports.
Either that, or it hadn't actually been discredited... | "Intelligence, Iâve discovered in my time in this department, is a remarkably difficult area," Dr Shergold said. "It is every bit as much art as it is science."
so you mean just because the intelligence agencies didnât tell us 100% certainty about 911 and the Bali Bombing ahead of time, it doesnât mean it is all a conspiracy and that the US and Israel and ASIO really planned it all along as an excuse to wage war on the Arabs????
Dr Shergold said some people believed public servants were too scared to give ministers advice they might not want to hear. "Iâve got to say itâs absolute balderdash and poppycock," Dr Shergold said.
And Iâve got to agree with you. Thankyou Dr Shergold. Unfortunately, though, as the WHISTLEBLOWER, he will now likely be ostracised and forced out of the public service
Posted by: Anon1 2003-07-30 |