The Wire

Today Mike Scrafton wrote an open letter to The Australian newspaper, revealing that, in his former role of senior advisor to the then Defense Minister, Peter Reith, he had spoken on the phone with Prime Minister, John Howard, on three occasions, advising him that the children had not been thrown overboard a boat carrying asylum seekers in 2001. At the time, John Howard said he was given incorrect advice. He has also made this statement on a numbe rof other occasions. For instance, most recently, he said that he was given incorrect advice on the facts of prisoner abuse going on in the Abu Graib prison in Iraq. He also stated that he was given incorrect advice on the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and also on publicly funded study tours for politicians and their partners. How much longer can our leader plead ignorance….? Will Farrell spoke to Dr Frank Cain, Senior Lecturer, ADFA University College, School of History, at the University of New South Wales.