SYDNEY, 8 June 2003 — Australian Prime Minister John Howard yesterday denied his government doctored intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, saying it relied on intelligence from the United States and Britain.
Howard said Australia, the only country besides Britain to commit troops to the US-led invasion of Iraq, remained confident weapons of mass destruction would be found.
As debate rages in Washington and London questioning whether intelligence information was manipulated in order to justify the war, Howard said Australia had relied on the word of it allies before becoming involved.
“There was no doctoring of intelligence advice by the government I lead,” Howard told the Liberal Party’s national convention in Adelaide.
“The advice was ... carefully based on the information that properly flowed to the Australian intelligence agency by virtue of the very close intelligence links we have with the United States and the United Kingdom.”
Howard was confident the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq would prove successful.
“I remain of the view that there will be evidence ultimately emerging of weapons of mass destruction to which we referred before the war started,” he said.
Australia has sent a small team to Iraq to join 1,200 US and British experts searching for weapons of mass destruction.
Chief United Nations arms inspector Hans Blix this week called for UN weapons inspectors to conduct the search, saying they would have more credibility than inspectors from an occupying army.
