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Andrew Damien Wilkie (born 8 November 1961) is an Australian politician and independent federal member for Clark. Before entering politics Wilkie was an infantry officer in the Australian Army. Wilkie served with the Australian Army from 1980 to 2004. An officer with the Royal Australian Infantry Corps who had earlier commanded a company of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, at the time of his entry to public life Wilkie was posted to Australia's Office of National Assessments as an intelligence analyst. In 2003, in the lead-up to the Iraq War, he resigned from his position at ONA because he feared the humanitarian consequences of invasion, such as Saddam Hussein using his weapons of mass destruction or assisting terrorists. Following his resignation he said: Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction program is very disjointed and contained by the regime that's been in place since the last Gulf War. And there is no hard intelligence linking the Iraqi regime to al-Qaeda in any substantial or worrisome way." He opposed Australia's contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq under the Howard government. Wilkie later argued the Iraq War was based on a "lie". Wilkie has been active in politics since 2003. He was a Greens candidate for the federal Division of Bennelong in the 2004 federal election and for the Senate in Tasmania at the 2007 federal election. In 2010 he stood as an independent candidate for the state seat of Denison at the Tasmanian state election, narrowly missing out on the final vacancy. Later in the year, again as an independent candidate, he ran for the federal seat of Denison at the 2010 federal election and won, finishing third on the primary vote but winning the seat after the distribution of preferences. Wilkie finished first on the primary vote at both the 2013 federal election and 2016 federal election, increasing his margin each time. In 2019, the Division of Denison was replaced by the Division of Clark, to which Wilkie was transferred. He retained the seat at the 2022 Australian federal election by a margin of 20.82%. Early life and education Wilkie attended St Gregory's College, Campbelltown and later trained at the Royal Military College, Duntroon and graduated in 1984. He joined the Young Liberals while a cadet. He also studied at the University of New South Wales, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Graduate Diploma of Management, and a Graduate Diploma of Defence Studies. After graduation and being stationed in Brisbane, he joined the Liberal Party before allowing his membership to lapse. His military career spanned 1980–2001 and he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was seconded to the ONA, an Australian intelligence agency, from 1999 until late 2000. After a stint with US defence company Raytheon, Wilkie returned to the ONA shortly after the September 11 attacks. Military career, 1980–2003 Wilkie joined the Army in 1980, and was first stationed in Brisbane, Queensland. He served in the Royal Australian Infantry Corps and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was discharged in 2001. Opposition to Iraq War In the aftermath of the September 11 Terror Attacks, the United States called upon Australia to assist in enforcing the 1991 Gulf War peace treaty which had been repeatedly breached by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Iraq failed to comply with demands to allow unfettered arms inspections, and the Howard government elected to send forces to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq. While the Government was considering the case for war, Wilkie was asked to report on humanitarian considerations. According to a leaked report published in the Herald Sun, in December 2002 Wilkie submitted to the government an Office of National Assessments report on the humanitarian implications of war in Iraq. In the report he cautioned against unpredictable and potentially serious humanitarian consequences of war with Iraq, such as the use of weapons of mass destruction against civilians. In response to widespread opposition to the war, Wilkie gave extensive television interviews and accepted numerous offers of public speaking engagements. He subsequently gave evidence to official British and Australian inquiries into the government's case for involvement in the Iraq war. In 2004, Wilkie published Axis of Deceit, an account of the reasons for his decision and its results. He describes his views on the nature of intelligence agencies and the analyst's work, the history of the Iraq war, the untruths of politicians and the attempts to suppress the truth. Following Britain's 2016 Chilcot Report which criticised the Blair Government's prosecution of the war, Wilkie said that Howard, Bush and Blair should be brought before an international court, and called for Australia to hold another inquiry into the war. Howard rejected Wilkie's proposition and called him "irrational", telling the media: "Andrew Wilkie said the Iraq invasion was responsible for the Bali attack of 2005. What about the Bali attack of 2002? And he blamed it [the Iraq War] on the Lindt Cafe siege. I mean, this is irrational." Resignation from ONA (2003) On 11 March 2003, Wilkie resigned from the ONA, stating that while it was likely that Iraq did possess weapons of mass destruction, its program in this area was contained, that international sanctions were having an effect, and therefore an invasion was premature and also reckless in potentially provoking Saddam Hussein to use those weapons and possibly even begin supporting terrorism. He told the ABC: "I think that invading Iraq at this time would be wrong. For a start, Iraq does not pose a security threat to any other country at this point in time. Its military is very weak, it's a fraction of the size of the military at the time of the invasion of Kuwait. Its weapons of mass destruction program is very disjointed and contained by the regime that's been in place since the last Gulf War. And there is no hard intelligence linking the Iraqi regime to al-Qaeda in any substantial or worrisome way." Wilkie later told the press that in the lead up to his resignation he had increasingly encountered ethical conflict between his duty as an intelligence officer and his "respect for the truth". In 2016, after appearing at the Chilcot enquiry, Wilkie said the notion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and co-operated with terrorists had been "a lie ... No wonder John Howard and Tony Blair and George W Bush do stand accused of war crimes". He linked the 2005 Bali bombings and the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege to Australia's participation in the invasion of Iraq. Political career, 2004–present Candidacy for Australian Greens (2004–2008) Wilkie became a member of the Australian Greens by 2004, and stood as their candidate for the seat of Bennelong in that year's federal election, running against sitting Prime Minister John Howard. He was a supporter of the 'Not happy, John!' campaign which ran during the election campaign. Polling 16.37% of the pri.... Discover the Ad Wilkie popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Ad Wilkie books.