"Is that all there is?"

Rod Barton blew the whistle on Australian, US and British lies about Iraq's hidden weapons cache. And the Australian Government has made sure he pays a high price for his stand. Hamish McDonald reports.

Barton saw both the British and Australian intelligence assessments about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction before the March 2003 invasion. Saddam had at most a few chemical and biological weapons left over from the 1980s, and no means of delivering them. There was no evidence he had resumed WMD programs after UN weapons inspectors were kicked out in 1998.

Blair and Howard knew it was false, Barton says. Bush may not have known, because his intelligence agencies were reporting what he wanted to hear.

When shown the Australian intelligence assessment, Howard even asked: "Is that all there is?"

It was no grounds for war, so the intelligence was doctored - notably in the British "dossier" published on the orders of the British Joint Intelligence Committee chairman, John Scarlett, which claimed Saddam had chemical and biological weapons deployable "within 45 minutes of an order to use them".

Howard cited the British dossier in assuring the Australian public and Parliament his Government had "compelling evidence" that Saddam possessed these weapons. "Is it a lie or is it a spin or what?" Barton said. "But it's certainly misleading the people."

In February last year, Barton went public on ABC television. Now he has written a devastating book about it, The Weapons Detective (Black Inc. Agenda, $29.95). His security clearances withdrawn, Barton knows he will not be getting any more contracts from his old employer, the Defence Intelligence Organisation, which he had joined as a young microbiologist in 1972.