Australian (& British) PM Had To Plead With Bush For Iraq Intelligence

Taken from Yahoo News, Wed Oct 4 2006

Australian Prime Minister John Howard admitted that he was forced to plead with ally US President George W. Bush for access to secret intelligence on the war on Iraq. Howard, one of the key US allies in Bush's global war on terror, personally intervened to end delays in receiving key intelligence on the war in Iraq that Canberra is helping fight, he said in comments published Wednesday.

"He (Bush) said it would happen, and then when it didn't happen immediately, I expressed my concern," Howard said.

His comments confirmed claims by US journalist Bob Woodward that Howard and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were forced to make repeated appeals to Bush for access to highly classified intelligence.

The Pentagon denied the allies access to vital information in ways that "went beyond the absurd", Woodward said in his latest book, "State of Denial".

Rather than follow White House orders and allow unfettered access to its intelligence network, the Pentagon instead created a parallel version that excluded information the military did not want Australia and Britain to see, Woodward said.

"I wasn't very happy with those delays," Howard told reporters. "That's why I intervened, and now I'm advised that (information) flows are occurring that are meant to occur."

However, the access was not granted until 2005, a year after Howard first appealed to Bush and two years after the start of the war in Iraq, according to the Sydney Morning Herald
In September last year, Bush upgraded Australia to the highest rank of US intelligence partner, despite resistance from US intelligence organisations, The Australian newspaper said.
Howard put the delays down to "inter-agency jealousy" between US intelligence organs.

"These agencies in Washington tend to act as laws unto themselves," he said. "Even the president doesn't always get what he wants straight away."

Bush's special assistant and senior director of defence policy, Franklin Miller, said the Pentagon's treatment of Australia and Britain was "one of the most inexcusable examples of a failure to get things done", according to Woodward.

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If this is the way the US treats its allies then what chance is there for global peace? Can the allies trust the United States? Critical information could've been used to save lives of British & Australian soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan but were denied. Thanks America.

This is the same US administration that did not share tsunami intelligence.

By Hasan Suroor, AP
LONDON, JAN. 7. The controversy over accusations that American authorities did not share their intelligence over the tsunami disaster with the rest of the world was given a new edge on Friday after a British newspaper claimed that it had "established'' that the U.S. military base in the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia was given prior warning of the impending tsunami but it was not passed on to other countries in the region.

"Unlike other countries devastated by the huge wave, the military base on Diego Garcia was alerted by America's tsunami warning centre on Hawaii in the Pacific,'' The Guardian reported claiming that a spokesman for the U.S. national weather service had "confirmed'' this to the paper.

It said the spokesman did not know if the American military personnel on the base alerted anyone else in the region.

The newspaper said that according to a log of America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Pacific Command, including Diego Garcia, was given a "specific warning'' about the tsunami.

"It gave Diego Garcia advance warning of about an hour,'' the report added.

But Britain which also has military presence on the island, officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, denied any prior knowledge.