AAP
Friday, November 24, 2006
CANBERRA - A senior diplomat tipped off the Australian Wheat
Board a year before the Iraq war that Australia would join the
United States-led invasion, new documents show.
The evidence appears to contradict the Howard Government's statements
that it did not decide to join the war before the invasion was
debated in the United Nations in late 2002 and early 2003.
The revelation prompted the Opposition to call for the Cole inquiry
into the AWB's Iraq kickbacks to be reopened and its terms of
reference expanded - just 24 hours before the final report is
handed to the Government.
The documents, released by the Cole inquiry, show Australia's
then United Nations Ambassador John Dauth revealed the Howard
Government's position to former AWB chairman Trevor Flugge.
Dauth briefed Flugge in New York in February 2002 - 13 months
before the invasion - and the details appear in minutes of AWB's
February 27 board meeting of that year, tendered to the inquiry.
"The Ambassador stated that he believed that US military
action to depose Saddam Hussein was inevitable and that at this
time the Australian Government would support and participate in
such action," the minutes say.
"The Ambassador believed that the Iraqis grossly underestimated
the US reaction to September 11 (with the consequent military
response in Afghanistan) and that Iraq's request to renegotiate
UN weapons inspectors was a direct result of their nervousness
about US action.
"The Ambassador believed that the latest olive branch from
the Iraqis was likely to stave off US action [for] 12 to 18 months
but that some military action was inevitable."
Dauth - now High Commissioner in New Zealand - predicted the Iraq
war would be similar to the campaign in Afghanistan, with heavy
use of air support followed by the deployment of ground troops.
"He undertook to ensure that AWB was given as much warning
as would be possible under such circumstances but noted that in
these instances often the Australian Government had little notification,"
the board minutes said.
Opposition leader Kim Beazley said the documents showed the Howard
Government was prepared to take AWB into its confidence a year
before going to war - but not the Australian people.
The Cole inquiry, which is likely to recommend criminal charges
against current and former AWB executives over the A$290 million
($339 million) in illicit payments the company made to Iraq, should
be allowed to continue with expanded terms of reference, Beazley
said.
"It lends further weight to that complaint that we've made
about the terms of reference of the Cole commission, since the
Cole commission was established," he said.
Commissioner Terence Cole will hand his report to Governor-General
Michael Jeffery in Sydney at 4.30pm today.
It will be tabled in federal Parliament next week, though the
Government is refusing to say on which day.
