BY TIM BYRNES
CANBERRA — Andrew Wilkie, the former senior intelligence officer at the centre of a storm following his resignation in protest at Prime Minister John Howard's government's stance on Iraq, admits to having a soft spot for Tamworth.
Tamworth-born and -bred, Wilkie gets back there often to visit his parents, sister and brother, who still live in the city. Wilkie completed year 12 at McCarthy Catholic Senior High School before moving to Canberra in 1980 to study at the Royal Duntroon Military College. He spent five years studying and majored in politics. He was commissioned an officer in 1984.
He worked in the private sector for a short time before gaining a position with the Office of National Assessments (ONA), Australia's senior intelligence agency that answers directly to the prime minister. It has prepares intelligence assessments on offshore issues.
When Wilkie resigned from the ONA on March 11, he was a senior "transnational issues analyst". "Transnational issues are those that don't have a nation-specific link, they are issues that cross borders, such as international crime and terrorism", Wilkie explained to me.
Although Iraq was not involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, they were "used by right-wing elements" in US President George Bush's administration, Wilkie said. The US invaded Iraq because of a number of complex issues, but the main reasons were to stamp its authority on the Middle East, control the region's oil, gain "a centre of gravity" outside Saudi Arabia and to safeguard its closest ally, Israel. "In all fairness to the United States, they wanted to democratise Iraq in the hope it would spread in the region", Wilkie added.
"I thought [Iraq] had an active weapons of mass destruction program all along and from the evidence I had seen I was satisfied that they were up to no good, [but] it was not a justification for war", he said. "The United Nations weapons inspectors should have been given more time", Wilkie said.
Wilkie resigned over the Howard government's misrepresentation of the intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs and links with the al Qaeda terrorist network. He says he would do it all again. "Time and time again, the [Howard government] played up the risk of terrorists using weapons of mass destruction", he said.
When he went to the media to contradict Howard's claims, Wilkie was told he had contravened the ONA's code of conduct and had let his colleagues down. "I contravened my code of conduct and I should not have done that, but the Iraq issue and my concerns about the Australian government's position easily outweighed my conduct", he said.
Wilkie believes that US invasion of Iraq has moved Hussein closer to al Qaeda, the very thing that the US claimed it was trying to prevent. "Iraq is now a magnet for foreign fighters, just like Afghanistan was during the Soviet occupation."
Wilkie says he is not against the United States and considers it to be a close ally, but he is concerned about Howard's unconditional support for the Bush administration. "George Bush is a dangerous and stupid man and is surrounded by stupid and dangerous men and women", he said.
Since resigning, Wilkie has received much support and has been invited to give evidence at an inquiry into the British government's claims about Iraq's weapons programs. He has also visited the US. "I have given hundreds of media interviews", he said.
Wilkie has signed a contract to write a book, which will be "a little about me, a little about Iraq and a little about the intelligence community and looking ahead, the aim is to get it out some time next year", he said.
[Tim Byrnes is a Sydney-based freelance journalist.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, October 22, 2003.
Visit the