Australian minister fails to fend off attacks over Iraq

By GREG ANSLEY, Herald Correspondent

CANBERRA - The Australian Government failed to deflect renewed attacks yesterday over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and its wider roles in the war in Iraq.

Defence Minister Robert Hill's detailed rejection of allegations of a cover-up on the Government's knowledge of Abu Ghraib was howled down by commentators and the Labor Opposition, which called for his resignation.

Labor also used the conclusions of the US commission investigating the September 11 terror attacks - that there was no credible evidence linking Iraq and al Qaeda - to renew its assault on Prime Minister John Howard's decision to go to war last year.

Shadow Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the findings torpedoed Howard's claims at the time that the invasion of Iraq was part of the wider war against terrorism and was needed to reduce the global threat of militant Islamic fundamentalism.

"Once again it's quite clear from what's been produced in the US that the core argument advanced by John Howard that attacking Iraq was part of the war against terrorism has been blown apart," Rudd said.

Although key domestic social and economic issues will be the main battleground for this year's election, Howard has conceded that Iraq could hurt the Government, a vulnerability Labor is hammering.

Rudd's focus yesterday adds to the collapse of the Government's other key justification for going to war - the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction.

Polls have shown that opinion is swinging against a war that shows no sign of ending and from which Canberra has no clear exit strategy, beyond a commitment to remain in Iraq for at least another year.

The revelation that Australian military lawyers working at the headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad knew of claims of abuse at Abu Ghraib months before the Government admitted knowledge, and had passed reports back to Canberra, has added to Howard's problems.

In the Senate on Wednesday, Hill repeated his position that no Australians were involved in the abuse, that the Government did not know of the allegations until the US announced an inquiry in January, and that the full extent of the abuse was not realised until pictures were published in April.

But documents tabled by Hill showed that 25 reports had been sent to Canberra regarding concerns about Abu Ghraib, dating back to Red Cross complaints of overcrowding passed on by military lawyer Colonel Mike Kelly last June.

Over the next two months, Kelly reported Amnesty International's allegations of torture at the prison, and concerns of human rights abuses made by the late Sergio Viera de Mello, the United Nations representative in Iraq.

Another lawyer, Major George O'Kane, had helped coalition officials to respond to Red Cross complaints and had later handed reports on the concerns to Canberra, although Hill said these had not been passed up the chain of command.

Labor Senate Leader John Faulkner described Hill's statement as "an absolute disgrace ... a complete whitewash", and said it revealed a dysfunctional Defence Department and a minister asleep at the wheel.

Labor was supported by commentators in leading newspapers.

The Australian Financial Review said Hill's statement showed "a breathtaking contempt for any obligation to be accountable to voters".

And the Canberra Times said the "very vague and incomplete statement ... suggests that there is still a cover-up going on about the affair".

Herald Feature: Iraq