| Office Of National Assessments |
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ONA is a strategic intelligence producer, in that its reports are generally designed to assist the Australian Government in strategic decision making and ensure that government is fully briefed on emergent threats both in the South East Asian region and globally. Although not a secretive organisation, ONA usually attracts little attention. However, a striking exception occurred in 2001 when the Prime Minister, John Howard publicly relied upon an ONA assessment to support his claims about asylum seekers on the MV ''Tampa'' , in an incident which became known as the "Tampa affair". The ONA assessment was later leaked to the public in its entirety, showing that the assessment was ultimately based on nothing more than Press Releases from various government ministers. In 2003 , in the lead-up to the 2003 Invasion Of Iraq , an ONA intelligence officer named Andrew Wilkie resigned from the agency, citing pressure from the Australian government to exaggerate intelligence on the matter of Iraq And Weapons Of Mass Destruction . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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