Rod Barton is the author of The Weapons Detective: The Inside Story of Australia's Top Weapons Inspector. Since the first Gulf War in 1991, Barton's unique expertise has been sought by the CIA, Canberra and the UN.

A principal investigator with UNSCOM, he was invited by Hans Blix to be his special adviser in the lead-up to the 2003 Iraq war. In December 2003, Barton returned to Iraq to become for a time the de facto leader of the Iraq Survey Group. In 2005, ABC TV's Four Corners devoted a program to Barton's story and his public stand against prisoner abuse in Iraq, which led to an Australian parliamentary enquiry.