Former SAS commander breaks silence on Tampa

Former Defence Force personnel have spoken out about the Tampa and children overboard affair, accusing the Howard government of manipulating events for political purposes.

In August 2001, the Norwegian freighter Tampa rescued 438 Afghan asylum seekers and was then refused entry into Australian waters.
The former second-in-command of the SAS counter-terrorism squad, Labor MP Peter Tinley, says sending SAS troops in to deal with the Tampa was a complete overreaction.
"I can't help but feel the PM John Howard viewed the SAS as something that would resonate politically to the message of border security," he said.
"You can't amp it up more in the public's mind than saying 'We're going to send in the SAS, we'll show you how tough we are on border security'."
The former head of Military Public Affairs, Brigadier Gary Bornholt, says the asylum seekers on board were never a threat to Australia.
"In Defence it wasn't a big deal, because these numbers of people were very, very small and that's why they didn't represent a security threat," he said.
The claims come in a new documentary, Leaky Boat, co-produced by the ABC.
Former prime minister John Howard insists his government's actions were in the national interest.
"I was never afraid to have this debate, people want governments to represent them occasionally, and to actually express how they feel," he said.
"The Australian people didn't want their Government to look as though it was being pushed around."
Former Labor leader Kim Beazley also faces criticism from within Labor for initially backing Mr Howard's approach to dealing with the asylum seekers.
Former Labor MP Carmen Lawrence gave a blunt assessment.
"On this, I just think he was absolutely wrong," she said.
After the Tampa affair, the boats kept coming, and then the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks happened.
Fears of terrorism were mixed in with the asylum seeker debate - a ploy criticised by the retired Commander of Australian Theatre with the Navy, Vice Admiral Chris Ritchie.
"It seemed to me to be a funny way to get to Australia if you were a terrorist. There are other easier ways to get into Australia than spend six months in Nauru," he said.
Children overboard scandal
The debate was further inflamed when the Government released photographs it claimed showed children had been thrown overboard.
That in fact never happened.
In the documentary, former Defence minister Peter Reith reads from a scrapbook diary from the time.
Regarding the photos, he says: "They're from Defence. Release them. I didn't have a view about what they proved or didn't prove. In fact I didn't think they proved much anyway."
Brigadier Bornholt says he called Mr Reith's media adviser to explain that children were not thrown overboard.
"He didn't take the call. It went through to his voicemail. This would be the only voicemail that I can ever recall leaving for him ... and I used to leave a number, that he never received," he said.
The documentary also reveals how the thoughts of ordinary Australians polled in focus groups were used to develop the rhetoric uttered by politicians during the debate.
Political debate
When it came to information made public by the Defence Department, former head of publicity Jenny McKenry revealed details were carefully filtered.
"We were told that there was to be nothing in the public forum which would humanise these people. We were quite stunned," she said.
The director of the Leaky Boat documentary, Victoria Midwinter Pitt, hopes it will give people a window into how the political debate operates.
"It's not so long ago that you can't remember your own feelings and your own impulses at the time, but it's long enough ago that there's distance and there's perspective," she said.
"What I hope is that it will give people a chance to question their own thinking, and the way that we come to the conclusion and join the political debate.
"You know our collective will matters. It does. It's why these things happened."
Ten years on from the Tampa, the issue of asylum seekers is as polarising as ever.
Ms Pitt says the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants come to Australia by plane.
"We don't hear that on the news. We hear another boat's arrived, but I don't switch on the news and hear another plane has just landed and 70 people are going to overstay their visa from it," she said.
"And that's really the issue with illegal immigration, people who come by plane."
Adrian Raschella @'ABC'