Latham said he is convinced Australia "went to war on a lie"

SYDNEY, April 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Australian Premier John Howard's government is under mounting pressures to withdraw troops from Iraq, amid accusations from the opposition of misleading the public on Iraq's alleged WMDs.

Muslim groups, representing some 300,000 of the country’s 19-million population, joined forces to call for the return of troops with the security situation in the Arab country slipping out of control.

"There must be an exit strategy and that must be discussed very vigorously, keeping in mind the situation the Coalition has created by attacking Iraq and creating a [power] vacuum there," the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils spokesman said Wednesday, April 14.

Amjad Mahboob was quoted by the Special Broadcasting service (CBS) network as saying that the federal government has not specified clearly enough what factors influence how long the troops will stay.

He noted the federation does not necessary agree with a promise by the opposition that a Labor government would have the troops home by Christmas.

The chairman of the Australian Arabic Council, Roland Jabbour, agreed, saying Howard needs to specify what he means by staying until the "work is done".

"Under the current circumstances they should be withdrawn as soon as possible. And not just have an open-handed situation and arrangement where they are going to be caught up in the turmoil and chaos that is taking place in Iraq," Jabbour said.

'Lie'

In another related development, Howard's government came under a more heavy fire for misleading the public and magnifying the threat posed by Iraq to justify its invasion.

Opposition leader Mark Latham said that a briefing with the defense department's chief intelligence official in January left him convinced Australia "went to war on a lie".

"I walked away from that briefing knowing and understanding the government's policy on Iraq was a fiasco, an absolute fiasco," he was quoted by the Guardian as telling Parliament on Tuesday, April 13.

His statements were rejected by the government, which said notes of the briefing mentioned no significant discussion of Iraq.

'Sacked'

But a former senior Australian defense adviser said she was edged out of her job because she refused to lie about the case for the Iraq invasion.

Jane Errey, a former adviser to Australia's chief defense scientist working in the department's science and technology organization, said she had been sacked after taking leave because of her refusal to mislead the public.

"I felt like I was part of the propaganda machine," Errey was quoted as saying by the British daily.

Errey said she went on leave as the invasion started after being instructed to compile media advice on Iraq's alleged WMDs for defense minister Robert Hill.

"I believe I was being asked, as was the rest of the department, to perpetuate the lie that the government was putting forward in so far as the weapons of mass destruction existed and that they were a grave threat to the rest of the world," she told ABC radio.

A spokesman for the department said Errey, a former candidate for the Democrat party, was sacked last week because she had failed to turn up for work since March 2003, despite completing all agreed terms of leave.

This was not the first time a senior intelligence official has criticized the handling of the Iraq invasion, the Guardian said.

Andrew Wilkie, a senior analyst at Canberra's intelligence clearing-house, the Office for National Assessments (ONA), resigned a week before invasion in protest at the government's misrepresentation of evidence about Iraq's alleged WMD and claims of links between the Iraq and Al-Qaeda.

A parliamentary committee report in February concluded the government's case for invasion of Iraq had not been supported by the evidence available to it, and suggested the ONA had caved in to political pressure in ramping up its assessments of Iraq's weapons capability late in 2002.

No weapons of mass destruction – the main justification for invading Iraq - have been found one year after the occupation of the country.

Australians were the first to take to the streets on Saturday, March 20, to mark the first anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion-turned occupation of Iraq.

During Bush's speech before Parliament during a visit in October, two senators staunchly opposing the Iraq invasion heckled him as chants of thousands of anti-war protestors were rising outside.