Wilkie, Bolt and ONA at odds over top secret report

This is Jack Robertson’s second report on the leak of Andrew Wilkie’s top secret ONA report to Andrew Bolt. His first report is at Andrew Bolt: I did ‘go through’ leaked top secret report by Wilkie. More to come.

 

Andrew Wilkie, the former ONA analyst who was the primary author of a top secret report leaked to Melbourne journalist Andrew Bolt last year, says that the Herald-Sun article Bolt published after reading the report was a �very mischievous� misrepresentation of its contents and its purpose.

The intelligence veteran�s description of Bolt�s June 23 article, which sparked an on-going Federal Police investigation into the leak, contrasts with Bolt’s insistence that he presented an �accurate� portrayal of the report�s contents.

The Office of National Assessments has to date said only, of Bolt�s article about the leaked report, that ��it [did] not contain any specific comment on intelligence material�.

The row between Wilkie and Bolt comes amid growing calls by the Opposition for a Royal Commission into the state of Australia�s intelligence agencies, after accusations that the Howard government is misusing intelligence material for political purposes, and also as the Opposition expressed frustration at the slow progress of the Bolt leak investigation. Last week Opposition Foreign Affairs spokesperson Kevin Rudd wrote directly to the Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock questioning the apparent lack of action

Andrew Bolt maintained that ��my [article] is accurate, and I�d like [Wilkie supporters] to deal with the revelations it [contains] that go to the credibility of Mr Wilkie.�

But Wilkie – who compiled the report in late 2002 – vigorously disputes Bolt�s defence of his article, in particular rejecting its explicit suggestion that the pre-invasion risk analyis the still-classified report contained, and which was circulated widely throughout government departments as part of Australia�s pre-war planning phase, amounted to little more than an ONA �fairytale� about Saddam Hussein�s Iraq.

Wilkie told me last week that the leaking of the report to Bolt, and what he said was the journalist�s misleading use of its contents to ridicule his analytical credentials was part of a concerted campaign to neutralise his criticisms of the government over the invasion of Iraq. At the time Bolt�s article appeared, Wilkie’s critique was receiving considerable local and international attention.

Since resigning his ONA post in March 2003 Wilkie has argued that from late 2002 – as the war issue came to a head – John Howard and his media backers consistently and knowingly exaggerated the intelligence community�s threat assessments regarding Saddam Hussein�s WMD and links to al-Qaeda in order to sell the invasion to a sceptical Australian public.

The Opposition suspects that the government leaked a copy of the top secret report to Bolt some time in June 2003 with the express purpose of Bolt using it to discredit a plausible expert who was becoming a vindicated critic of John Howard�s decision to go to war.

Last year Kevin Rudd repeated pressed Mr Howard and Mr Downer over what he described as the government�s �motive� for leaking the document, arguing that the six month delay between the report�s initial issue and the Bolt article made the question of whether or not any government Minister had sought an extra copy of the report immediately prior to 23 June a matter of public interest.

It is on the record that a single copy of the report was sought from and released by ONA to an �authorised� recipient in June, over six months after it was first issued. In a Senate Estimates Committee session on 16 February Senator Robert Ray asked newly-appointed ONA Director-General Peter Varghese (formerly John Howard’s foreign affairs adviser):

Senator Robert Ray: Was a copy of this document issued to anyone in the week prior to 23 June 2003?

Mr Varghese: The records here of the document’s circulation do have a reference to a document being circulated in June, but can I just make the observation that since this matter is the subject of an incomplete –

Senator Ray: Don’t anticipate the next question. You can answer the question so far and you can assume that I will be smart enough not to ask you the following question – or you can refuse to answer it. But my question is a legitimate one thus far.

The Committee did not pursue the question of to whom the report was released, nor for what purpose such an apparently redundant, pre-invasion analysis might have been required.

Last September Labor Senator John Faulkner told Parliament that he believed the copy had been leaked by someone inside government with the sole aim of discrediting Wilkie.

On the matter of the relationship between Bolt�s article and the contents of the actual report, now the subject of fierce dispute between Bolt and Wilkie, the only public view ONA has expressed to date has been via Varghese�s predecessor Kim Jones expressed to the Prime Minister last year, which Mr Howard then revealed in Parliament. On 9 September Mr Howard responded to a question on the matter from then Opposition leader Simon Crean:

Mr Howard: The other information I can provide to the House is that, in its request to the AFP, the Office of National Assessments has stated that the Bolt article – that is, the Melbourne Herald Sun article – does not contain any specific comment on any intelligence material.

This view is at odds with ONA�s immediate referral of the leak to the Australian Federal Police and ASIO as a possible breach of national security, and also with Bolt�s confirmation that he had obtained the report.

Wilkie said Bolt selectively quoted sections of his report. “�Bolt was very mischievous when he quoted that [ONA report]. He quoted [it] as though: �Wilkie said the following things would go wrong, they didn�t go wrong – hence Wilkie�s judgement is discredited�. That was the essence of the attack.�

The report�s aim and context was in fact far more nuanced, Wilkie said. He was asked to prepare through late 2002 – for what might ultimately be Cabinet war-decision purposes – a wide-ranging examination of all the many potential humanitarian dangers associated with the government�s developing invasion plans. Wilkie, an intelligence veteran with more than twenty years experience, said:

“I didn�t say anything �would� happen [in that report]. I said the following things �could� go wrong. The essence of the paper was the possible humanitarian implications. The aim was to inform the government of all the things that could go wrong, so that they were well-informed when they made their decision to go to war.”

Bolt, he said, seized only upon those �potential� invasion dangers Wilkie had examined which did not in fact transpire – or had yet to transpire by June 2003 – and then presented them to his readers as solid predictions which were hopelessly wrong.

“Now, some things did go wrong. Some things didn�t go wrong. And some things are now going wrong. Even with the benefit of hindsight, I�d write much the same paper.”

Last week Bolt denied that his article was motivated by anything other than his responsibilities as an opinion columnist to help foster balanced debate. Having had the opportunity to �go through� Wilkie�s Top Secret pre-invasion assessments, Bolt said his interest in writing the piece lay “… in the fact that Andrew Wilkie was making wild claims that traded on what he has promoted as his superior knowledge of Iraq”.

He maintains that Wilkie�s credentials to speak with authority on Iraq issues have been over-inflated by invasion opponents too inclined to give credence to anyone who shared their opposition, and defended his June article as providing valuable counter-evidence at a time when Wilkie�s media profile was climbing.

Bolt said that those who accused him – and the source who leaked him the Top Secret report – of �misusing intelligence material for political purposes� could and should just as easily �..ask themselves why Andrew Wilkie has used his intelligence knowledge for political purposes�.

He said he expected Wilkie to exploit his intelligence background in the upcoming election campaign, during which Wilkie will be standing as a Greens candidate in the Prime Minister�s seat of Bennelong.

Of Wilkie�s accusation that his article was not a fair reflection of the report�s content but a �mischievous� distortion designed to discredit its author, Bolt said: �That�s the first time I�ve ever heard anyone make that allegation. I haven�t heard it from Andrew Wilkie [before]. In fact, he [said at the time] that he recognised this description of his report.�

“If [Wilkie] has any evidence to back up these claims – which are as ludicrous as many others he�s made – I would look with interest for him to present such evidence.”

Testing the two conflicting descriptions – of both Wilkie�s report and Bolt�s article about it – is impossible while Wilkie�s report remains classified.

The Australian Federal Police are yet to respond to my inquiry last Friday as to the status of their investigation – including whether or not they have yet interviewed Bolt about his source – but last Tuesday Andrew Wilkie said that since his own AFP interview in late 2003 he had been made aware �for sure� of some �interesting� new information on one potential avenue of further investigation that may yet inject police enquiries with renewed optimism and urgency.

The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, and the Director General of the ONA have also yet to respond to Wilkie�s new claims, which relate to internal records of the movement and handling of copies of Wilkie�s report for June 2003, and which I forwarded to their offices last Thursday and Friday respectively.

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