AUSTRALIA'S spy agencies can expect an external inquiry into their
handling of intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction within
months.
*Spy agencies to face new WMD inquiry*
By Dennis Shanahan, Political editor
The Australian 12feb04
AUSTRALIA'S spy agencies can expect an external inquiry into their
handling of intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction within
months.
The Howard Government is expected to agree to an independent inquiry
into the Australian agencies' assessment of secret reports from US and
British intelligence bodies after a parliamentary committee reports next
month.
The committee's findings are unanimous, without the usual dissenting
report on political lines, and a recommendation for an independent
inquiry is expected.
The bipartisan parliamentary intelligence committee chaired by former
Howard government minister David Jull and including former Labor leader
and defence minister Kim Beazley is highly regarded, and its findings
and recommendations will be hard for the Coalition to resist.
The Government and intelligence agencies may not accept all the findings
of the report, but John Howard is likely to follow the examples of US
President George W.Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair and order
an inquiry into the intelligence agencies' collection and analysis of
information about Iraq's chemical weapons and nuclear capability.
Pressure has grown for an independent inquiry and an explanation as to
how Australian troops were committed to the war in Iraq, and why no
evidence of chemical weapons stockpiles has been found since.
The Prime Minister continued yesterday to defend the Government's
decision and did not rule out an independent inquiry.
"I take the opportunity of repeating that the decision taken by the
Government was the right decision. It was based on the intelligence
available to us at the time. I have no regrets of any description about
that decision," Mr Howard told parliament.
"The world is better off as a result of what we did and this Government
has nothing to apologise for."
Unlike the British and US examples, the external inquiry into
Australia's intelligence assessment is not expected to include
politicians. Nor is the inquiry likely to be conducted in as public a
manner as the British and US inquiries.
In the long tradition of investigations into the operation of
intelligence services, the Australian inquiry could be conducted by a
judge or a former intelligence official.
It is also likely to be more secretive than the US inquiry, which is
going to be run by a commission including experts and both Republican
and Democrat politicians.
Mr Blair's plan includes sitting members of the House of Lords examining
any deficiencies in the British assessment of intelligence on Iraq.
Mr Howard so far has resisted calls for an independent inquiry into
Australia's intelligence agencies, arguing that most of the intelligence
relied on came from US and attempts to rip off sensitive data such as
bank account information. Australian banks have been plagued by phishing
scams in recent months.
With the digital world awash in viruses and worms that often exploit
weaknesses in Microsoft software, Microsoft founder and chief software
architect Bill Gates admitted last year that Microsoft had "a lot of
work to do" in the security area.
The software giant is under increasing pressure to improve its security
threat response times, and this week's critical patches come on the eve
of a submission from a US presidential advisory council report on how
technology companies should respond to software vulnerabilities that
could affect national security. The Prime Minister has also recently
made the point that "of course" the Australian agencies assessed and
reviewed the US and British raw material themselves.
Mr Howard has refused to order an external inquiry until the findings of
a parliamentary inquiry, due to be released in March, are made public.
Mark Latham and Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd have both
questioned the accuracy of Australia's intelligence on Iraq and raised
the need for an external inquiry.
But both the Opposition Leader and Mr Rudd have fallen short of
demanding such an inquiry until the parliamentary committee reports.
Yesterday the Coalition and the ALP joined forces in the Senate to block
a Greens motion to hold a judicial inquiry into the intelligence agencies.
Mr Howard told parliament that "for once I agree with the Leader of the
Opposition" and that they should wait until the parliamentary inquiry
reported before making a decision.
*http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,8657046,00.html
___________________________________________________________
*
*Is Prince of Darkness Richard Perle About to Go Down in Flames?*
* */By Andrew I. Killgore
/
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
*January/February 2004, pages 9, 95*
RICHARD PERLE has played the American political system like an
orchestra. In Tehran in 1973 he informed this writer that it was Sen.
Henry (Scoop) Jackson of Washington state, for whom Perle was
administrative assistant at the time, who got him interested in the
Middle East. This was surely a prevarication since, from all
indications, Perle has always been a fervent Zionist, a dyed-in-the-wool
Israel-Firster. (Regrettably, he did not reveal the source of his
fascination with the south of France, where he maintains a second home.)
The senator from Boeing and his assistant had come to Tehran as part
of a congressional delegation, and it was as a member of the U.S.
Embassy staff that I had breakfast with the pair. Despite the Zionist
lobbys intensive efforts to promote Jackson for president of the United
States, the campaign sputtered out because of Jacksons flat personality.
Perle has been in and out of the governmentand always active in Zionist
organizationssince he first joined Jacksons staff in 1969. His most
important assignment was as assistant secretary of defense for
international security policy from 1981 to 1987, during the Reagan
administration. In the first year of the current Bush administration,
Perle was named chairman of the Pentagons advisory Defense Policy Board
by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In that capacity Perle arranged
for a nonentity, Rand Corporation analyst Laurent Murawiec, to make a
speechimmediately leakeddenouncing Saudi Arabia, the neocons favorite
target.
While the Prince of Darkness may be best known as a Zionist idealogue,
on occasion he also has attracted press notice as a man interested in
making money (after all, those French villas dont come cheap). Finally,
however, in mid-November, his desire for profit may have gotten the
better of ideology.
Perle is seriously mixed up in the problems of Hollinger International
and its founder, Sir Conrad Black, who gave up his Canadian citizenship
to accept a British peerage. Blacks publishing empire includes the/
British Daily Telegraph/, the /Chicago Sun-Times/ and the /Jerusalem
Post/. In his original incarnation as a Canadian wheeler-dealer, Conrad
Black gobbled up most of that countrys daily newspapers. At one time,
in fact, he had the fastest growing newspaper business in the world,
according to the Nov. 18 /Financial Times/. He ingratiated himself with
conservative elites such as Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger (who also
is on the board of Hollinger International), and William Buckley. A
glance at Hollingers board and executives might give an impression that
it was the Israel Lobby personified. Richard Perle is a board member of
Hollinger International.
According to the Nov. 19 /Washington Post,/ Hollingers tangled
corporate structure paid/ /Black and his close associates $200 million
in salary, management fees and non-compete compensationwhile the
conglomerate itself made only $23 million in profit.
Now the Securities and Exchange Commission has issued subpoenas to
officials of Hollinger International. The SEC is looking for
unauthorized payments by Black to current and former company executives.
According to the Nov. 20 /Washington Post/, The regulators are likely
to shine a brighter light on the actions of Black, the companys
auditors and its other directors, who include Henry A. Kissinger and
Richard N. Perle, the former chairman [and still member] of the National
Defense Policy Board.
According to the /Post, /Perle heads Hollinger Digital, which put $2.5
million into a venture capital firm called Trireme Partners that aimed
to cash in on the huge post-9/11 U.S. military and homeland security
buildup. Coincidentally, Triremes managing partner is Perle
himselfwho, from his position on the Defense Policy Board, pushed for
just such a military buildup.
Gerald Hillman, managing partner of Hillman Capital, received $14
million from Hollinger, according to Londons /Financial Times./ Hillman
also is a Trireme partner. The Dec. 10 /Financial Times /reported that a
minority invester in Hollinger International is taking steps to file a
lawsuit against its management and current and former board members,
including former Illinois Gov. James Thompson and defense adviser Perle.
Boeing, the American aircraft manufacturer, gained access to Perles
Defense Policy board in 2002 by taking a $20 million stake in Trireme,
according to the /Financial Times. /Boeing said it made the investment
as part of a broad strategy to invest in companies with promising
defense-related technology.
This past* *August*,* according to the /Financial Times,/ Perle
co-authored an op-ed piece in the /Wall Street Journal /arguing in favor
of a controversial deal in which the Air Force would lease from Boeing
one hundred of its 767 aircraft refueling tankers. Perle did not
disclose Boeings $20 million stake in Trireme, and Boeing said it had
no knowledge that Perle had advised the company on the leasing arrangement.
Boeing chief executive Phil Condit recently stepped down following
allegations of misconduct.
Is the Teflon Perle also about to get caught in the web he so artfully
has woven?
*http://www.wrmea.com/archives/Jan_Feb_2004/0401009.html*
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