TONY JONES: Alexander Downer, do you, like Tony Blair, now take...

TONY JONES: Alexander Downer, do you, like Tony Blair, now take the philosophical view that history will forgive you if weapons of mass destruction are not found in Iraq?

ALEXANDER DOWNER, FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, my view is that weapons of mass destruction will be found and I think, as I've said on many occasions over the last few weeks, that once the Iraqi survey group, as it's called, has done its work and the details are presented to the public of what they've found, it will be perfectly clear that Saddam Hussein's regime did have weapons of mass destruction.

He had aspirations to build up those weapons capabilities.

I just have no doubt about that.

TONY JONES: So you say weapons -- actual weapons -- whereas Tony Blair, and indeed the President of the United States, now talks about weapons programs as if we're not going to find actual weapons?

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well, I think it's going to be in the end a question of what is found and what isn't found.
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2003/s905538.htm
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Australian Foreign Minister denies suppressing report which confirmed that "hunt for Iraqi WMD was flawed"

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has denied trying to suppress a letter from an Australian expert that said the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was flawed.

Dr John Gee wrote to the federal government when he resigned from the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) in 2004, saying there was a reluctance in Washington and Canberra to accept Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.

Dr Gee said today he was told Mr Downer had ordered the damning letter be suppressed

But Mr Downer denied he had given any instructions for the letter to be buried.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/weapons-coverup-revealed/2006/08/30/1156816970606.html
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Rudd accuses Downer of WMD report cover-up
The Federal Opposition says Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is still not telling the truth about a report that criticised the search for weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq.

Mr Downer has denied that he suppressed a report by Australian chemicals weapons expert Dr John Gee, which expressed concern that the search for WMDs was primarily focused on trying to justify pre-war statements.

But the Opposition's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, says Mr Downer is not offering a credible explanation.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200609/s1730309.htm
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WMD expert quit Iraq search over 'flawed methods' of the CIA
AN expert who took part in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq said today that he quit because he felt the programme was being used to justifying the United States' decision to go to war.

John Gee, a chemical weapons expert with Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, quit the US-led Iraq Survey Group in March 2004.

His resignation came months before it finally concluded that Saddam Hussein's regime had dismantled its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes years before the US-led invasion in early 2003.
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=911&id=1286782006