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AFP. 12 March 2003. Fearing protests, Australian PM changes venue for key Iraq speech. SYDNEY -- Prime Minister John Howard was forced Wednesday to shift the venue for a key speech laying out his reasons for backing war against Iraq due to planned street protests, officials said. Facing growing opposition to his hardline policy on Iraq, Howard decided to give Thursday's speech in parliament in the capital Canberra rather than at the nearby National Press Club building. Officials said police asked for the change to the more secure parliament after learning that protestors planned to demonstrate against Howard outside the press club. Howard's readiness to join a US-led war to disarm Iraq even without formal UN authorization has already fueled the biggest protest demonstrations in Australia since the Vietnam war era in the 1970s. A new opinion poll this week showed growing public opposition to any war without UN backing. Howard's position was further weakened by the highly public resignation Tuesday of a senior government intelligence analyst, Andrew Wilkie, who said a war against Iraq at this time would be misguided and dangerous. Wilkie, a former army officer who worked for the office responsible for passing intelligence assessments to Howard, said all available evidence indicated Iraq's military was too weak and its weapons programs too disjointed to pose a serious threat. He also said a war with Iraq would cause a humanitarian disaster and could lead Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to either use weapons of mass destruction or pass them on to terrorists. "What worries me is that a war, an invasion, is the option that's most likely to prompt Saddam to do exactly what we're trying to prevent," he said. Howard has been uncharacteristically silent on Wilkie's charges, but reaffirmed his commitment to swift action on Iraq during a telephone conversation Wednesday with US President George W. Bush, his office said. "We know the prime minister hasn't been listening to the Australian people, now he's not even listening to his own expert advice," said opposition Labor Party leader Simon Crean. Crean said Wilkie's revelations showed there was no evidence justifying a war at this time and called on Howard to "come clean" during Thursday's speech. "Unless he's got the evidence, he's got to withdraw from his commitment to back a US-led attack on Iraq," he said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ProletarianNews http://www.utopia2000.org --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bdn7KI.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^================================================================
