Learn from the mistakes of others

Secrets and Lies

Reporter: Liz Jackson

He lives quietly in Canberra’s outer suburbs. He comes and goes a lot. When he is home he may be seen tending his roses in the front yard.

This unobtrusive, quietly spoken man has been privilege to some of the world’s best-kept secrets for two decades. He knows from long personal experience how intelligence agencies and big defence bureaucracies operate.

Since the first Gulf War in 1991 his unique expertise on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction has been sought by the CIA, Canberra and the UN.

Now he’s decided to talk to Four Corners…

"You’re imbued with this idea of keeping secrets … you’re not allowed to talk about who you are – even who you work for … What we’re saying now will come as a surprise - even to some of my friends," he says.

"I think the world should know some of the truths, which at times, I’d have liked the world to have known - but I couldn’t say anything."

Via interview and contemporaneous diary notes, the insider paints a disturbing picture of the backroom political forces at play in the run-up to the Iraq War and in its aftermath, as the coalition conducted its fruitless search for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

He details to Four Corners:

• how he quit in disgust after the CIA censored a crucial WMD report, leading to deletion of central facts and conclusions. "We left the impression that maybe there were, was WMD out there … I thought it was dishonest," he says;
• his personal observations of the present head of Britain’s MI6, who also played a key role in the David Kelly affair, applying pressure to "sex up" the same report;
• his pre-war advice to the Australian and US governments that Iraq’s weapons did not threaten either country;
• how he reported to Australian authorities his suspicions about systemic abuse of prisoners in Iraq by coalition forces, before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, and how his concerns were ignored;
• his and other Australians’ roles in interrogating "high value" Iraqi prisoners - despite Canberra’s denials of Australia’s involvement in interrogations. "Someone was brought to me in an orange jumpsuit with a guard with a gun standing behind him … of course I didn’t pull any fingernails out … but I think it’s misleading to say no Australians were involved. I was involved."

This compelling insider’s account of war, politics and the manipulation of truth has been prepared by award-winning reporter Liz Jackson. It is her last report for Four Corners before she takes up her new position as presenter of Mediawatch.

"Secrets and Lies" – Four Corners, 8.30pm, Monday 14 February, ABC TV.

Repeated at 11pm on Wednesday 16 February.

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