Australia: Rudd slams Howard over weapons intelligence

ABC News Online

7 February 2004

The Federal Opposition says new information provided by Australia's most experienced weapons inspector clearly shows the Prime Minister failed to tell the truth about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction.

In a newspaper interview today, weapons inspector Roger Hill says Australian troops were told in an official briefing days before entering Iraq that the country did not have the capability to launch weapons of mass destruction against its neighbours.

Labor's Foreign Affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says the Prime Minister should have been aware of such information.

"When you have a senior Australian weapons inspector saying to Australian troops on the eve of going to war in Iraq that Iraq has virtually no capability of launching an attack with weapons of mass destruction, you'd assume that information would find its way back to the political arm of government," he said.

"But of course John Howard runs a million miles away from accountability on this matter.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1040166.htm