Andrew Wilkie

Andrew Wilkie (born 1961, Tamworth, Australia) is a former soldier and intelligence analyst who resigned from the Office of National Assessments (ONA), an Australian intelligence agency, in March 2003 over concerns that intelligence was being misrepresented for political purposes in making the case for Australia's contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Wilkie trained at Duntroon (1980-84) and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel (1999) before transferring to the ONA. He joined the Young Liberals while a cadet at Duntroon, and after graduation and being stationed in Brisbane, he became a member of the Liberal Party. Wilkie has reportedly since let his membership lapse.

In the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war, the Australian, UK and U.S. governments were asserting that intelligence reports showed that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction. Wilkie resigned at this time, claiming that the reports did not support such claims and in the years since his resignation, no valid evidence supporting the pre-war claims of weapons of mass destruction has ever been found.

Wilkie has stated that he increasingly encountered ethical conflict between his duty as an intelligence officer and his respect for the truth, and on 11 March 2003, he resigned from ONA and placed evidence of this conflict before the Australian public. In response to widespread opposition to the war, Wilkie gave extensive television interviews and accepted numerous offers of public speaking engagements.

Wilkie was subsequently called to give evidence to the official U.K and Australian enquiries into the government's case for involvement in the Iraq war.

In 2004, Wilkie published "Axis of deceit" [Andrew Wilkie, "Axis of deceit". Schwarz Publishing, Melbourne, 2004. In series Black Inc. Agenda. ISBN 0-9750769-2-2 ("the story of the intelligence officer who risked all to tell the truth about WMD and Iraq": cover)] , an account of the reasons for his decision and its results. He describes his views on the nature of intelligence agencies and the analyst's work, the history of the Iraq war, the untruths of politicians, and the attempts to suppress the truth.

ubsequent political career

Wilkie stood as an Australian Greens candidate for Bennelong against John Howard in the Australian House of Representatives in the Australian federal election, 2004 [" [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/09/1070732214670.html?from=storyrhs Former spy eyes greener pastures] ", "The Sydney Morning Herald", 10 December 2003] . Polling 16% of the primary vote, Wilkie achieved the fifth highest Green vote percentage across the nation. This result was a considerable increase from the Green's previous (2001) election figure of 5%. The seat reverted back to 5% in 2007, however Green votes were amongst the preferences that saw Labor's Maxine McKew defeating John Howard.

Although Wilkie's vote was nowhere near enough to win the seat, there was a swing of -3.18% against John Howard, the sitting Liberal Party member and Prime Minister of Australia, who achieved a primary vote of 49.89%, which resulted in the seat being decided on preferences [" [http://results.aec.gov.au/12246/results/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-12246-105.htm House of Representatives Division First Preferences] ", "Australian Electoral Commission", 9 November 2005] .

Wilkie also supported the 'Not happy John!' campaign which ran during the 2004 Federal Election campaign.

He was nominated as the Greens' second Tasmanian candidate for the Australian Senate at the 2007 Federal Election, behind the Greens federal leader, Bob Brown. [ [http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Greens-announce-Tasmanian-Senate-ticket/2007/02/16/1171405424983.html Greens announce Tasmanian Senate ticket] , The Age, 16 February 2007]

See also

*Wayne Sievers

References

Persondata
NAME = Wilkie, Andrew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Australian soldier, intelligence officer and environmental activist
DATE OF BIRTH = 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH = Tamworth, New South Wales
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =