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Cole Inquiry: Watch the spin and lies

David Marr is one of Australia's finest journalists and writers. Lawyer by training his sharp eye and background has served him well in his writing on a host of subjects. In today's SMH he deals with the Report of the Cole Inquiry into AWB and the UN's program of Food for Oil - to be released in Federal Parliament later today. As Marr says, watch out for the spin and lies. But then again, as Margo Kingston so convincingly showed in her best-selling book, "Not Happy John", a couple of years ago, PM Howard is a serial liar.

As Marr writes:

"The finest spin doctors in the land have assembled. The Prime Minister is heading for the trenches to defend his ministers even against allegations of negligence. Already Canberra has been spreading the word that the Government is "off the hook" because Commissioner Terence Cole, QC, reckons it never knew about AWB's sanctions-busting kickbacks.

But the evidence cannot be spun away.

So many people knew about Iraq's scams. Our intelligence services knew; our diplomats knew and their reports were read all around Canberra; The New York Times knew; and towards the end Iraq's demands were even on the internet. So how did the Australian Government not know?"

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