(Australian) Spy network putrid, army man tells PM

A high-ranking military analyst has accused the Federal Government of systematically putting foreign policy objectives ahead of intelligence, seriously undermining the work of its own spies.

A saga that has wracked the military for six years has culminated in General Peter Cosgrove's senior intelligence analyst during the East Timor conflict, Lieutenant-Colonel Lance Collins, writing to the Prime Minster demanding a Royal Commission into the spy services.

The letter says there has been a litany of intelligence failures, from the Sandline affair in Papua New Guinea to East Timor and the Bali bombings and, most recently, the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"I strongly urge you, Prime Minister, to appoint an impartial and wide-ranging Royal Commission into intelligence," the letter says. "To do otherwise would merely cultivate an artificial scab over the putrefaction beneath".

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/13/1081838723574.html