Former UN weapons chief calls on Howard to resign

[rooboy]

Former chief UN weapons inspector Richard Butler says Prime Minister John Howard, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Defence Minister Robert Hill have all mislead the Australian Parliament, and should resign.

Mr Butler says the Government ministers must take responsibility for intelligence officials failing to provide accurate information on weapons of mass destruction in the lead up to the war in Iraq.

"They are now seeking to blame intelligence officials for this, for not informing them of the relevant materials with respect to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-12jul2003-44.htm

[glarius]

1. Butler is a phony...He was always on CNN cheerleading for the war until

just recently and now he's suddenly on the other side....I think he thinks the tide has turned and just wants to be on the winning side.

[unfrigginreal]

2. Yeah, this bothers me a little

He's never been on the right side. Let's hope that it's a case of every dog having their day.

[rooboy]

3. I never saw him cheerleading the war...

He was very anti-Saddam, but whenever I saw him, he was always calling for giving inspections more time.

Butler doesn't think that the tide has turned. There is no way Howard and his government are going to resign, much less get kicked out. He's a career diplomat who knows as much as anyone else the damage that is being done to his country.

I don't like Butler much myself, but he's no hawk.

[glarius]

4. I'm going by his appearances with Paula Zahn on CNN

He was always on there with her and was used to refute everything Scott Ritter would say....

[bicentennial_baby]

6. Depends on what country he's in

I've noticed that he only talks smack about the war or the US misadministration when he's outside the US, but when he's on CNN, he's all gung-ho.

[rooboy]

7. Yeah....

he'd argue with Ritter all the time. I've got a quicktime somewhere of Butler and Ritter debating the issue and practically accusing each other of being liars. One thing they both agreed on, though, was that more inspections was the answer.

Butler has spoken out a lot in the last few months about how crazy US foreign policy is. But he still considers the UN security council a boys' club for the nuclear powers to keep their superiority intact. I never noticed how the countries with the veto all happened to be (until recently) the countries with nukes.

The thing about Butler is that he's still held in reasonably high regard 'down under', and his criticism will make a dent on Howard.

[Gloria]

5. Check the WMW (URL) below for an article

I posted about how Howard is saying he knew NOTHING about the dodgy dossier....he's saying that two (If I recall correctly) of his intelligence sources didn't tell him anything!!!!!