Newsletter of Whistleblowers Australia PO Box U129, Wollongong NSW 2500
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“All that is needed for evil to prosper is for people of good will to do nothing”—Edmund Burke The Whistle NO. 47, JULY 2006 Newsletter of Whistleblowers Australia PO Box U129, Wollongong NSW 2500 Fred Gulson, tobacco industry whistleblower (see p. 3) Media watch AWB whistleblower If AWB continues to play hardball are suspicious, with penalty for failing with Mr Hogan, the taxpayer may end to comply.” left high and dry up footing at least part of his bill. However, Dr Paul Nisselle, senior on the fees front Mr Hogan is unemployed, having adviser in risk management for the Caroline Overington been unable to work since he collapsed Medical Defence Association of The Australian, 10 April 2006, pp. 1-2 with a stress-related disorder shortly Victoria, stressed that the law was before the war in Iraq broke out in more about the protection, rather than Dominic Hogan suffered a nervous 2003. He survives on a weekly the prosecution, of potential whistle- breakdown while working for AWB. workers compensation payment, and blowers. He says it was caused by the stress of must attend regular medical appoint- “How would any lawyer prove that knowing money was being funnelled ments to deal with depression. a doctor had a suspicion about possible to Saddam Hussein’s regime. AWB spokesman Peter McBride abuse but failed to report it? In the vast Exhausted and torn apart by guilt, said: “We have agreements with all majority of cases that would be he quit the monopoly wheat exporter former employees to cover reasonable impossible. shortly before war broke out in 2003. costs.” He said Mr Hogan had decided “If it is introduced it is going to Earlier this year, he agreed to blow not to sign the original agreement “and offer statutory protection to those the whistle on AWB. It is largely so my understanding, as of last Friday doctors who report potential incidents because of his evidence that commis- is, we are still negotiating.” of abuse in good faith from being sued sioner Terence Cole QC has been able for defamation. This is going to to uncover the truth about Australia’s empower GPs. wheat deals with Iraq. Now AWB — “I think the way the referral system which is covering the legal costs of Whistleblowers is set up there is an expectation from most, if not all, other former employ- will be protected the aged care homes that the GP is somehow beholden to them. This will ees — appears to have decided that his Paul Smith allow doctors, where they have bills can take care of themselves. Gary Australian Doctor, concerns about a resident, to demand Taylor, of Melbourne-based solicitors 10 March 2006, p. 16 Clark and Toop, said Mr Hogan had action from an aged care facility or else threaten a formal complaint.” been unable to get AWB to agree to GPs who alert authorities to suspected “any reasonable offer to cover the abuse of elderly patients will be fees.” “He appears to have been left offered legal protection should out,” Mr Taylor said. “AWB is paying campaigners win the battle for Words of mass deception the legal fees of its other employees, mandatory reporting of abuse in aged Rod Barton blew the whistle on and its other former employees. care facilities. Australian, US and British lies about “Our question is, why not our Next week a national summit, Iraq’s hidden weapons cache. And the client?” convened by the Federal Government, Australian Government has made sure In a controversial move, AWB will meet to discuss elderly abuse and he pays a high price for his stand. originally offered to pay legal fees up the possibility of introducing a Hamish McDonald reports to $50,000 for all former employees, mandatory reporting system. provided there was no “adverse find- The Elder Abuse Prevention Sydney Morning Herald, ings against them.” Association, which supports the push, 13 May 2006, p. 35 Mr Hogan refused this deal, estimated there were about 80,000 claiming it was designed to stop him cases of elderly abuse taking place in For a decade Rod Barton knew the turning whistleblower. He wanted to nursing homes every year — the vast special loneliness of a United Nations tell the truth, which involved admitting majority still going unreported. weapons inspector in Iraq, teasing out that he was aware that UN sanctions The group’s executive director, Ms clues from one of the world’s nastiest were being busted, and millions were Lillian Jeter, claimed that mandatory regimes about biological weapons of flowing to Saddam in exchange for a reporting requirements would mean unspeakable effect. lucrative wheat trade. GPs working in aged care facilities He worried about assassination by Clark and Toop have since put could be prosecuted if they failed to Saddam Hussein’s secret services, not forward a copy of their bill, and say it report suspicions of abuse. an unrealistic fear. He felt the derision is nowhere near the amount other “For those working with older of the ascendant hawks in Washington, lawyers are charging, although it is persons, if they saw suspicious confident they knew better than the believed to be in six figures. circumstances, under the law they UN inspectors about Saddam’s secret “We’ve put forward what we would be required to report it,” she weapons. consider to be a reasonable offer, but said. “There needs to be a statutory Now Barton is suffering a new kind we just haven’t had a response,” Mr requirement to report situations that of isolation after turning whistleblower Taylor said. on how the American, British and PAGE 2 THE WHISTLE, #47, JULY 2006 Australian leaders distorted intelli- George Bush, Britain’s Tony Blair and Government something that’s gence to justify their invasion of Iraq Australia’s John Howard was false. unpopular,” he says. and how they condone the torture of Blair and Howard knew it was One bit of unwelcome reporting by Iraqi prisoners. false, Barton says. Bush may not have Barton, to Australia’s Defence De- Back home in Canberra, Barton is known, because his intelligence partment, was the first indication of the ostracised and unemployed in his old agencies were reporting what he special “purgatory” centre being run intelligence profession, to which at 58 wanted to hear. by US Special Forces at Camp Nama, and still formidably incisive, he could When shown the Australian intelli- next to Baghdad Airport. still contribute a lot. He looks at the gence assessment, Howard even asked: “High value” prisoners selected for view of the Brindabellas. He roams the “Is that all there is?” disorientation before interrogation world’s trouble spots on Google Earth, Barton saw both the British and have a hessian bag put over their heads the satellite imagery website. The Australian intelligence assessments for up to 72 hours, and are deprived of house could not be any tidier, nor the about Saddam’s weapons of mass food, water and sleep, made to stand garden crammed with any more destruction before the March 2003 up for long periods, exposed to intense shrubs. invasion. Saddam had at most a few heat or cold, and bashed at random Barton made waves and is being chemical and biological weapons left intervals. Unlike the improvised punished. In March 2004, he and over from the 1980s, and no means of brutality by US soldiers exposed at the another Australian, the Foreign Affairs delivering them. There was no Abu Ghraib prison, all this is sanc- disarmament specialist John Gee, evidence he had resumed WMD tioned by the US Administration, resigned in protest from the Iraq programs after UN weapons inspectors which claims it does not amount to Survey Group, set up by the US were kicked out in 1998. torture. “That’s what makes it so much Central Intelligence Agency to find the It was no grounds for war, so the worse,” Barton says. Iraqi nuclear, chemical and biological intelligence was doctored — notably in “We went to war on WMD, which weapons that had been the excuse for the British “dossier” published on the is withdrawn now. And now the casus invasion. The CIA was refusing to face orders of the British Joint Intelligence belli is to bring democracy and human the truth that Saddam’s weapons had Committee chairman, John Scarlett, rights — yet we, the coalition, are been destroyed in 1991. which claimed Saddam had chemical detaining people without trial, and we In February last year, Barton went and biological weapons deployable the coalition are using torture tech- public on ABC television. Now he has “within 45 minutes of an order to use niques,” Barton says. “As a member of written a devastating book about it, them.” the coalition we have a responsibility. The Weapons Detective (Black Inc. Howard cited the British dossier in We, the Australians, should be telling Agenda, $29.95). His security clear- assuring the Australian public and our American colleagues: This is just ances withdrawn, Barton knows he Parliament his Government had not acceptable; if you want us as a will not be getting any more contracts “compelling evidence” that Saddam member of the coalition, to continue from his old employer, the Defence possessed these weapons. “Is it a lie or our presence there, then we ask you to Intelligence Organisation, which he is it a spin or what?” Barton said. “But stop this practice. had joined as a young microbiologist it’s certainly misleading the people.” “But of course this Government in 1972. The liars and spin doctors have doesn’t want to upset the Americans, Old colleagues at the intelligence prospered, the whistleblowers have so we won’t do that.” organisation have been warned not to been shafted.