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Friday, August 20, 2004

Inside the Axis of Deceit

4:05 PM

I know by now it is a tired old saw, but an interview in Mother Jones with Andrew Wilkie, a senior analyst at Australia's top intelligence agency who resigned when his nation joined the "Coalition of the Duped," is well worth your time. I will offer the first two graphs below:

Inside the Axis of Deceit

As a senior analyst at Australia�s top intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments, Andrew Wilkie had high-level access to the raw data pouring in before the Iraq war. But while his country�s prime minister, John Howard, resolutely supported an invasion, Wilkie saw a significant gap between the evidence the intelligence community collected and the way Howard, George Bush, and Tony Blair argued the case for war.

Just a few days before the U.S., UK and Australia led the �Coalition of the Willing� into Iraq, Wilkie resigned his post at ONA in protest, and took his case against the Howard government public. Since then, he has spoken at numerous protests, testified before government inquiries in Australia and the UK, and won the inaugural Whistleblower of the Year award from the United Nations Association of Australia.

The rest of the profile and interview is at: Mother Jones

4:05 PM / Editor / permalink 2 comments

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2 Comments:

I am pretty sure that W has not "duped" me, however, I am positive that a Democrat has lied to me about a Bob Dylan concert that never took place.

By Anonymous, at 2:05 AM

Anonymous,

If bush didn't "dupe you," then you are clairvoyant, a former member of Saddam's inner-most circle, or a Republican fool who cares not to know why the United States goes to war.

I am quite puzzled--but also intrigued--by the seeming non sequitur of your reference to a Bob Dylan concert that apparently wasn't but was so announced by a member of the Democratic Party. I can only surmise that you are the anonymous who left another cryptic Dylan comment on another post, namely the indecipherable five word phrase: "Bob Dylan and Richard Gere."

Having tried to put those two names together in a context that had anything to do with me, I could only come up with one remote connection: Sometime not long after I was covering the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, my long-time brother in art and soul, Patrick Weathers, and I attended a Dylan concert at the Palladium in old Hollywood and sitting nearby was Richard Gere and party, whom Patrick knew in passing--Patrick knows just about everyone in the biz, starting from when he was a staff-writer on "Saturday Night Live" during its golden years, up to now with his band The Timber Shieks.

Now, what that has to do with anything in these pages stumps the devil out of me. Who is lurking 'round out there? Identify yourself, unless your initials are V.P.--then please stay anonymous, forever.

Joseph Bosco

By Joseph, at 9:49 PM