June 17, 2003

WMD Inquiry Must Not Be A Whitewash

Friends Of The Earth Australia
Australian Peace Committee
Campaign For International Cooperation And Disarmament (CICD)
Ozpeace

Australian peace groups have welcomed a decision by the Labor Party to support an inquiry into weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but pointed to problems with the proposed inquiry.

According to Friends of the Earth Australia, the Australian Peace Committee, Ozpeace, and Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD),

"The inquiries in the US and the UK into the quality of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq shows that the credibility gap that has always existed on that issue has broadened into a yawning chasm of the proportions of the 'children overboard' issue. However, the proposed inquiry has potential problems: The government has the numbers on the joint intelligence committee, and it may be unable to look at DIO and ONA. It is vital that the inquiry is independent, and that it takes evidence from people like ONA's Andrew Wilkie."

"It was always perfectly clear from the reports of the UN weapons inspectors that there simply was never a program in Iraq of the sort of dimensions claimed by Mr Howard, Tony Blair or George Bush. A program like that simply cannot be hidden."

"Even the so-called bioweapons trucks now seem to be most likely, designed to provide hydrogen for artillery ranging balloons."

"Any weapons of mass destruction that are 'found' by US personnel from now on in will simply not be believed. People around the world will rightly assume that they have been planted."

"Australians have been led up the garden path by the government, and by the governments of the US and the UK, and people have died for a lie. Meanwhile, the real WMD arsenals - 12,000 nuclear warheads in the US, 22,000 in Russia, 400 each in France, China and Israel, plus those in India, Pakistan and now North Korea - remain all but untouched."

For more information contact:

John Hallam
FoE Australia
Ph: (02) 9567 7533

Jacob Grech
Ozpeace
Mob: 0402 246 491