Andrew Wilkie - Axis of Deceit: The Extraordinary Story of an Australian Whistleblower

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AXIS OF DECEIT

Published by Black Inc. Agenda
Series Editor: Robert Manne

Other books in the Black Inc. Agenda series:

Whitewash: On Keith Windschuttles Fabrication of Aboriginal History ed. Robert Manne

The Howard Years ed. Robert Manne

Axis of Deceit Andrew Wilkie

Following Them Home: The Fate of the Returned Asylum Seekers David Corlett

Civil Passions: Selected Writings Martin Krygier

Do Not Disturb: Is the Media Failing Australia? ed. Robert Manne

Sense & Nonsense in Australian History John Hirst

The Weapons Detective Rod Barton

Scorcher Clive Hamilton

Dear Mr Rudd ed. Robert Manne

The Dreaming & Other Essays W.E.H. Stanner

Goodbye To All That? On the Failure of Neo-Liberalism and theUrgency of Change eds. Robert Manne and David McKnight.

AXIS OF DECEIT

ANDREW WILKIE

Published by Black Inc. Agenda
an imprint of Schwartz Media Pty Ltd
3739 Langridge Street
Collingwood Vic 3066 Australia
email: enquiries@blackincbooks.com
http://www.blackincbooks.com

First published in 2004.
Second edition Andrew Wilkie 2010
Appendix Morry Schwartz 2010

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the
prior consent of the publishers.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Wilkie, Andrew.

Axis of deceit : the extraordinary story of an Australian
whistleblower / Andrew Wilkie.

2nd ed.

ISBN: 9780977594962 (pbk.)

Wilkie, Andrew--Contributions in intellegence service--Australia.
Australia. Office of National Assessments. Iraq War, 2003---Personal
narratives, Australian. Iraq War, 2003---Causes. Whistle blowing-Australia.
Intelligence Officers--Australia--Biography. Intelligence
service--Australia. Weapons of mass destruction--Iraq. Australia-Politics
and government--21st century.

956.70443

Printed by Griffin Press

Dedicated to the victims of the Iraq war.
May you rest in peace.

And may those whose lies killed you
be one day brought to justice.

CONTENTS

On 8 September 2010, the Australian Electoral Commission declared that I had won the federal seat of Denison, in Tasmanias south, with a swing of over 16 per cent. Im now one of a handful of independents in the Australian Parliament and one of just four members holding the balance of power in the House of Representatives.

The declaration of this result came about a week after the official end of US combat operations in Iraq. Almost exactly the same amount of time before the war started, on 11 March 2003, I had resigned from the Office of National Assessments (ONA) in protest at the Howard governments deceitful justification for joining in the invasion.

Desperately needing my political support, the Liberal Partys leader, Tony Abbott, rang me shortly after the 21 August 2010 poll and apologised for the way the Howard government had vilified me over my criticism of their Iraq policy. Liberal Senator David Johnston, a man who had called me everything from reprehensible to outrageous in one particularly memorable Senate outburst in 2003, also tried to get in touch to apologise, once it became clear the Liberal Party needed my support.

Ultimately I decided to back Labor. I did so not because I hold a grudge against the Liberal Party, but because I judged Julia Gillard and Labor to be more likely to deliver the better government over the next three years.

From national-security threat to MP was how one journalist described it. How did it come to this? It has been a long journey. First, there was the immediate aftermath of my decision to become a whistleblower, much of which is described in Axis of Deceit. Since then, Ive become active politically, initially joining the Greens and running twice for federal parliament, including against Prime Minister John Howard in his Sydney seat of Bennelong in 2004. Early in 2008 I left the Greens and struck out as an independent, running first for the Tasmanian Parliament, where I missed out by a mere 315 votes, and now fi nally winning a seat in Canberra.

Ive been so active politically because the Iraq war was for me as much about poor governance as about the unwarranted invasion of a country for fraudulent reasons. And the more you immerse yourself in politics, the more you learn about the opportunities missed in Australia and the countless people not so much falling through the cracks as being shoved through them. Political activism is an enriching experience; almost every day I encounter a new human story, putting a face to what was once a somewhat theoretical concern. I now find myself emotionally involved in important public-policy areas from gambling-law reform to public health.

Along the way my first marriage ended and Ive linked up with a former ONA colleague, Dr Kate Burton. We moved to Tasmania, married and have two beautiful little girls, Olive and Rose. To pay the bills weve run a little Persian rug shop an endeavour not altogether unrelated to the part of the world that got me into so much trouble in the first place.

Kate is central to my story. Although I acted alone when I resigned from ONA, she shared my concerns and gave me a shoulder to lean on. This was to cost her a good job when in 2004 she was sacked on her first day as secretary of the parliamentary committee on the intelligence services. Some members of that committee, knowing of her connection with me, were concerned that her personal views were inconsistent with the committees. There was no room for diversity of opinion, not to mention frank and fearless advice, when it came to national-security planning during the days of the Howard government.

That governments vendetta against me didnt stop with Kates sacking. As the first edition of Axis of Deceit was about to be printed, the attorney-generals department advised the publisher that the book couldnt possibly be published on account of security concerns. Nonsense. There was nothing in the original version that threatened Australia. As a man criticising the government for its misuse of information, I was hardly about to misuse it myself.

In the end I did agree to the book being censored so that at least what was left of it would see the light of day. There was no substance to the Howard governments concerns; the government wished only to bully me and intimidate my former colleagues as well as the publishing industry. The Howard government left us all in no doubt that it was prepared to do anything in its power to try to silence dissent.

Returning to Canberra after all this was almost inconceivable. As much as I enjoyed living there, the best jobs in the nations capital would always be blocked to me. Sometimes just walking the streets of Canberra during my infrequent visits made me feel uncomfortable on account of the memories I harboured and the stares I attracted. But now all that has changed. The one job that could bring me back to Canberra is mine, at least for now, and Im going back with a sense that somehow Ive prevailed.

Dampening my mood, however, is the knowledge that my journey started with Iraq more or less intact, and with the US and its allies having a range of options to deal with the odious Saddam Hussein. But George W. Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard decided to race to war with their fanciful arguments about weapons of mass destruction and terrorists. Almost 5,000 US and allied troops are now dead, while the Iraqi death toll has reached somewhere between 100,000 and 1.5 million (estimates vary markedly). Even now, 50,000 US troops remain in the country, the violence continues and Iraqis keep dying. All for a lie.

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