The Hyping of Hawke 3

By now, after reading my previous two posts questioning his virtual canonisation, it should be apparent that the late, former Australian prime minister, Bob Hawke, was, with his fatal decision to involve Australia in the brutal US-led Gulf War of 1991, very much the war hawk.

Of course, the impacts of war today are seldom confined to the immediate area of conflict, but consideration of their wider impact is of scant concern to those who, like Hawke, are hell-bent on waging them. One of those areas of impact is inevitably the home front.

The following three extracts, detailing the dark forces unleashed by St Bob here in Australia, come from academic Christine Asmar's invaluable essay The Arab-Australian Experience, in Australia's Gulf War (1992). Although the 'experience' she describes took place almost ten years before 9/11, it is chilling to note the sheer depth of Arabophobia and Islamophobia of the time, a phenomenon that Hawke cannot evade responsibility for unleashing, and one that continues to haunt us today with a vengeance:

"For Arabs born and brought up in Australia the experience of the Gulf War was shattering: 'I'd never thought of myself as anything but Australian', said Mary Rebehy, 'and suddenly I realised that some people had never accepted us as Australians at all'. Similarly, John Brennan of the Ethnic Affairs Commission told an audience at the University of Sydney of his shock at having to confront in Australia the 'reservoir of pathological loathing' towards both Arabs and Muslims. A writer to the Age expostulated: 'Australians be damned! They are an alien fifth column and should be interned'. Arab children were abused from passing cars as they walked to school and intimidated by fellow-students while at school, sometimes without teachers intervening. Muslim Arab women were spat at, abused, and had their headscarfs ripped off their heads... Islamic institutions such as the mosque and Islamic Centre at Lakemba in Sydney; the mosques at Preston and Coburg in Victoria; and a Muslim primary school in Perth were all subject to abusive calls, bomb threats and break-ins as were the premises of Arab organisations such as the Lebanese Women's Association and the Australian Arabic Welfare Council, both in Sydney. Many Muslim Australian women became afraid to leave home, even to go shopping." (p 65)

"A particular source of contention arose from the belief that ASIO (the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization) had carried out surveillance, and possibly even harassment of members of the Arab community. An article in the Bulletin in January 1991 claimed that ASIO had mounted 'an operation which has seen the surveillance of scores of Moslems living here, phone tapping, [and] a recommendation to intern certain people'. ASIO was reported to have claimed that 'NSW could be a target of Arab terrorist attacks or sabotage', and that six terrorist plots had been foiled in Australia during the Gulf War. Such reports encouraged the tendency to equate 'terrorist' with 'Arab'. Since no Australian of Arab origin has ever been charged with any crime involving political violence, the reports added to the Arabs' sense of being victimized. Responding to a claim that Muslims were behind attacks on Jewish institutions, the President of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board made it clear that 'there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that any Muslim community is behind these attacks'. A large number of individuals in the Arab community, mostly political activists, reported that they had been visited by security personnel and questioned, although there was no suggestion of any physical harassment taking place. Some, however, alleged other forms of harassment and surreptitious surveillance. Whether true or not, those who believed such actions were taking place felt intimidated." (p 73)

"The widespread stereotyping of Arabs left a legacy of vulnerability and alienation. The experience of an unprecedented level of hostility has traumatized many Arabs in Australia, leading some to question the the Australian model of multiculturalism. In the words of Hassan Moussa, a prominent member of the community: 'The war has had a terrible effect on the community's sense of identity. Even today a lot of people are reluctant to say they are of Arab origin. It is very possible that the community may have become isolated and marginalized as a result of this crisis'. Ramsey Jebeile of the Australian Arabic Welfare Council has noticed that, after the Gulf War, Arab schoolchildren and their parents were showing an increased alienation, and a willingness to attribute any unwelcome developments at school to racist discrimination. Even more disturbing is the potentially self-fulfilling sense of hopelessness among school leavers about discrimination ruining their job prospects." (p 79)

To be continued...

Kevin Rudd's 'The PM Years'

It is in the nature of political lobbies to operate behind closed doors, away from the public eye. Australia's Israel (or Zionist) lobby is no exception. In fact, it is probably true to say that most Australians are simply unaware of its existence, let alone its powerful hold over our elected representatives, not to mention its relentless policing of the corporate media. And that lack of awareness, to be sure, is just the way the lobby would have it.

Be that as it may, given the Israel lobby's hugely successful impact on Middle East policy formulation by governments from both sides of the political divide, as well as its equally successful role in shaping and managing mainstream media discourse on the Middle East, any inside account of its modus operandi is more than welcome. Recent memoirs, by former foreign minister Bob Carr, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, and journalists John Lyons and Mike Carlton, have helped expose the lobby's interventions and manipulations in these two key areas. Indeed, judging by their revelations, it could be said that we are approaching critical mass here - to the point where no truly sentient Australian can any longer feign ignorance of either the Israel lobby's existence or its clout.

I've already mined Carr's Diary of a Foreign Minister (2014) and John Lyons' Balcony Over Jerusalem for their insights. As time permits, I'll move on to Carr's Run for Your Life (2018) and Carlton's On Air (2018) in later posts. For now, I'll deal here with Rudd's Kevin Rudd: The PM Years (2018), annotating where necessary:

"Then there was the question of Israel. Back in 2003, under the Howard government, the Israeli intelligence services had taken it into their heads to use forged Australian passports in one of their operations abroad. They had been found out. Dennis Richardson, the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation at the time, had hauled them over the coals. The Israelis had been forced to sign an agreement with us that if we were to continue intelligence cooperation with them in the future, they would never do this again. Obviously the Israelis had not taken us seriously, because they did it again - this time in a botched intelligence operation which culminated in the assassination of a Hamas leader visiting Dubai. Mossad had left their paw prints all over the operation. The Israeli authorities plainly did not care that by using and abusing Australian passports, they were placing at risk not just the integrity of our passport system but, more importantly, the safety and security of hundreds of thousands of Australians who travelled on these passports through the Middle East each year.

"The matter was brought to the National Security Committee of the cabinet. Dennis Richardson, who had recently been appointed secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs by our government, was an experienced senior diplomat of the old school. His advice to us was unequivocal: unless Australia wished to be seen as a 'soft touch' by the Israelis, we had to act firmly and decisively. We should expel the Mossad representative at the Israeli embassy in Canberra, and make public our reasons for doing so. Only then would it be considered a significant enough issue in Israel to force the political arm of the government to rein Mossad in.

"I looked around the room. Everyone was nodding in agreement - except Julia [Gillard]. I asked her explicitly whether she supported the recommendation. She grunted her assent. I knew for a fact that Julia had been cultivating a close relationship with the Israeli lobby in Australia. There was nothing wrong with that, particularly given her own pro-Palestinian background from her days as a left-wing political activist. I was also conscious that her partner, Tim, had gone to work for a prominent member of the Jewish community in Melbourne. I didn't want any fractures in the government on this one."

Just how close Gillard's relationship with the Israel lobby was is explored in some detail in Carr's Diary of a Foreign Minister. For the details, I refer you in particular to my posts The Carr Diary: Reflections 4, 5 & 6 (18-20/4/14) and my 18/1/13 post The Prime Minister who Put Her Job on the Line for Israel.

With respect to Rudd's assertion that Gillard had a "pro-Palestinian background from her days as a left-wing political activist," he is mistaken. Just the opposite is the case. (See my post 14/8/10 post The Real Julia Gillard.)

"When [foreign minister] Stephen Smith made our position public, the Israeli government was less than impressed. Their ambassador, Yuval Rotem, came in to protest. And that's when the complaints from the Australian Jewish lobby started to come in thick and fast. I had no qualms about saying publicly that the decision by Israeli intelligence services to use and abuse the Australian passport system was not the action of a friendly government. I then said as much to Prime Minister Netanyahu, and I told him I expected him to take action against Mossad.

"Colin Rubenstein, a leading conservative political activist from Sydney, and Mark Leibler from Melbourne went off their heads. How could Australia have the temerity to treat our friend and ally Israel in such cavalier fashion? How could we be certain that Mossad had done this? Surely we were mistaken... And even if Mossad had done it, weren't such things done on a regular basis in the ugly world of intelligence? I was then lobbied by our own Jewish members of parliament, led by Michael Danby and Mark Dreyfus. They came to see me, demanding that I 'do something'. My response was to ask what they would have done if they were either foreign minister or prime minister of a country and another country had forged their passports in order to assassinate someone who at that stage was under the protection of another country (the UAE) with whom Australia also had a close relationship."

Rubenstein is the executive director of Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) and Leibler is its national chairman. AIJAC is based in Melbourne.

"However, out of respect for my parliamentary colleagues, I suggested that we invite leading members of the Jewish community to the Lodge for dinner to discuss the matter further. The dinner was held on 3 June, and I remember the evening well. I sat there politely as Mark Leibler berated me for having committed a hostile act. I found this remarkable as I had been a strong defender of the state of Israel from the earliest days of my diplomatic career and had always been a vigorous campaigner against all forms of anti-Semitism. And for Leibler to attack the democratically elected prime minister of his country as he sought to argue the interests of another country was beyond the pale.

"'You do realise that this is Israel's second offence?' I said. 'What do you mean?' he asked. 'They did exactly the same under Howard, got a gentle rap over the knuckles, and promised never to do it again.' Leibler looked stunned. 'I don't believe you.' 'Then why don't you sit down with the head of Foreign Affairs, who is the former head of ASIO, and I'll authorise him to brief you on exactly what has happened here,' I countered. 'I think you'll find that our response to Israel's actions has been entirely reasonable under the circumstances.'

"Leibler still stared at me in disbelief. And then disbelief turned to anger. Apropos of nothing, he said, 'Julia is looking very good in the public eye these days, Prime Minister. She's performing very strongly. She's a great friend of Israel. But you shouldn't be anxious about her, should you, Prime Minister?' It was Leibler at his menacing worst." (Kevin Rudd: The PM Years, 2018, pp 282-84)

Rudd's dinner at the Lodge is the subject of a most interesting report by Peter Hartcher, the Sydney Morning Herald's international editor, for which see my 22/6/10 post The Best Israel Policy Money Can Buy. See also the account of same in The Australian Jewish News, quoted in my 11/6/10 post Those Irresistable Zionist Pheromones Again 2.

Sadly, "Leibler at his menacing worst" was not the wake-up call that Rudd needed on the matter of Israel, because just over a year later we find him, with Danby, in a Melbourne Max Brenner outlet condemning those advocating its boycott. A more disillusioned Rudd can be seen later in Carr's 2014 Diary of a Foreign Minister, for which see my 20/4/14 post The Carr Diary Reflections 6. Finally, we have the Israel critic of later years, for which see my 23/2/17 post Rudd & Netanyahu Cross Swords, as well as the following  passage from his memoir:

"Elsewhere on the international front there was good news to be had. In October 2012, nearly five years after I had launched the initial campaign, the news finally came through of Australia's extraordinary win for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Gillard was never an enthusiast. Through the influence of her 'Middle East Advisor', Bruce Wolpe, Gillard had already begun unravelling a number of Australian votes on UN General Assembly resolutions on Palestine in order to appease the far-right Jewish lobby in Melbourne. When I was prime minister and foreign minister, Australia's voting profile on Israel had changed from one of unquestioning compliance with US and Israeli interests, to one which was much more aligned with British voting patterns in the UN. Our votes were still more sympathetic to Israel than those of the rest of Europe. But this was not good enough for Gillard. The far-right Jewish lobby in Melbourne wanted to go back to the good old days of the Howard government. And Gillard wanted to deliver. This would be coordinated through her loyal operative Wolpe to ensure that Australia would once again join the likes of the US, Palau and maybe two or three other Pacific micro-states, in voting against UN General Assembly resolutions that were critical of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. It was no surprise that Gillard would later be awarded, together with Abbott, an honorary doctorate at an Israeli university for her services to the cause. The only problem was that these were not services to Australia's cause. They were services to the Israeli Government's cause under prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his total opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state." (pp 508-09)

Of course, Rudd still hasn't broken through his childhood/religious/Labor Party conditioning to arrive at a real understanding of the dark apartheid heart of the Zionist project in Palestine, and probably never will, but at least he's experienced a learning curve of sorts.

Rambam for Spooks

Blink and you'd miss these things:

"A group of business people, intelligence experts and academics have participated in the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce Security Delegation to Israel co-organised with Perth's Edith Cowan University." (Australia security experts visit Israel, jwire.com, 20/5/16)

Led by former ASIO head David Irvine in his current manifestation as Chairman of the Australian Cyber Security Research Institute...

The Incredible, Shrinking Opposition

Australia's political arena has long been, and still is, dominated by two political parties, Labor and Liberal. As the latter is now the governing party, the former is currently referred to as the Opposition.

However, when it comes to protecting Australians' basic rights and freedoms from a Government hell-bent on eliminating them (on the pretext that it is necessary to combat terrorism), astonishingly, the Labor Opposition has gone AWOL.

What was the Labor Opposition - some 55 MPs - has now shrunk to just one, Melissa Parke, the only Labor MP to oppose new legislation granting expanded powers to our spies and criminalising reporting on their operations.

Here's an excerpt from her very fine speech in federal parliament:

"Tony Abbott made a speech to the IPA in 2012 in which he referred to the Coalition as the 'freedom party'. However, as Prime Minister Mr Abbott now believes that 'the delicate balance between freedom and security may have to shift' and that 'there may be more restrictions on some so that there can be more protection for others.'

"I do not support a number of key elements in this Bill, and I am aware there are further even more controversial Bills coming before parliament in the near future.

"I question the premise of the government's general approach to this area of policy, which is essentially that freedoms must be constrained in response to terrorism; and that the introduction of greater obscurity and immunity in the exercise of government agency powers that contravene individual freedoms will both produce, and are justified in the name of, greater security.

"So far the debate on this issue has occurred within a frame that posits a direct relationship between, on the one hand, safety and civility in our everyday lives and, on the other, the powers that impinge upon and make incursions into individual freedom.

"If we want to continue our lives free from terrorism and orchestrated violence - so the argument goes - we have to accept shifting the balance between freedom and constraint away from the observance of basic rights and towards greater surveillance, more interference, greater silence.

"Let me say that no one should be fooled into believing it is as simple as that.

"The truth is that the remarkable peace, harmony, and security we enjoy in Australia is in fact produced and sustained by our collective observance of freedoms and human rights, rather than existing in spite of such values and conditions. It is wrong to say we have been complacent about security on two counts. First, because we have strong, well-resourced, and competent security agencies, and second because our commitment to a way of life that puts faith in freedom, respect and tolerance, that puts faith in democracy and the rule of law, is itself productive of peace and shared security.

"These are the reasons we must be so careful when we legislate to constrain those freedoms - because contrary to the reductive argument that says we're making a straight trade of less freedom for more safety, the reality is likely to be, and indeed has proved to be many times in the past, that constraining our fundamental liberties achieves nothing more than making us less free and in fact does ourselves harm through licencing the abuse of powers." (Restricting freedom, privacy could be the real threat to the nation, 1/10/14, melissaparke.com.au)

Whipping Up Fear & Loathing in the Abbottoir

"Suspicion, scepticism, resentment. These are the sentiments that best describe the reaction of Australia's Muslim community to the news Australia's terrorist alert level is poised to go from medium to high, the first such change ever." (Muslim leaders sceptical of threat, Paul Maley, The Australian, 11/9/14)

I wonder why?

Well, wouldn't you be suspicious, sceptical and resentful after reading the following?:

"A small number of Islamic radicals have 'settled plans' to conduct terrorist attacks in Australia, bolstering the case for the nation's spy chief to recommend an increase in the terror threat level, which could happen as early as tomorrow... The move will come a day after AFP counterterrorism officers conducted raids across Brisbane, and on the 13th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the US..." (Terror attack 'plans' in place, Paul Maley/Cameron Stewart, The Australian, 11/9/14)

OMG... settled plans? Head for the hills!

But wait, what's this?:

"The Australian has been told that, while authorities are unaware of extremists 'bolting together' a bomb, ASIO and the AFP have identified a number of radicals with 'settled intentions' to perpetrate terrorist acts in Australia."  (ibid)

Uh huh. No settled plans but settled intentions. Tell me more:

"A counter-terrorism source said although the sort of plans being discussed were 'vague', the intentions were becoming increasingly serious." (ibid) 

I see, although the plans have been downgraded from settled to vague, the intentions have been upgraded to increasingly serious. Seriously. 

"'It's like (they're saying), 'we've got to do something, we can't go to Syria',' the source said. 'It's gone beyond bravado, they are seriously talking about it'." (ibid)

You couldn't possibly, like, make this stuff up. Wait, there's an idea...

Heads He Wins, Tails We Lose

An absolute must-read from The Sunday Telegraph - that's right, Murdoch's Sunday paper - of August 17:

Why I fear the severed heads are fakes by Duncan Lay

"The carefully pixelated pictures of a young Australian boy holding up a severed head have rightly enraged people this past week. Politicians have been lining up to condemn the boy's father, Aussie-born Khaled Sharrouf, and to promise 'action' - tough penalties, new laws, and anything they can think of to appease the justified community outrage. But here's the thing. I have the horrible feeling the heads in the Sharrouf pictures, including the one with his son, are fake. I think Sharrouf is an evil fantasist, rather than evil in reality, similar to that fantasist jihadist who was caught in The Philippines while claiming to be on the front line of the war.

"Why, you may well ask? I confess I don't have a series of freshly-cut heads in my cellar to compare them against. But I have been able to see the unpixelated images and they just don't look right. Take away the black boxes the papers have been adding and you'll see that:

1) There are no necks on them. They're just heads. So what, you may ask? But it is impossible to cut off heads that close to the skull without damaging the chin. Those heads are pristine, which is also highly unlikely. Not a trace of a wound anywhere, just a disembodied head.

2) If they had been cut off while alive, there would be variety of agonised expressions, probably cries of fear and pain. The faces of these 'heads' all look asleep. They are also plump and filled out and the mouth is closed and the chin firm. Gravity alone suggests the jaw would drop down and the mouth gape open, while the loss of blood and fluid would make the cheeks look hollow. The hair would also be in disarray. None of this is happening. It's all perfect.

3) The skin colour. Dead bodies are pale, due to blood draining down to whatever side it is lying on. Obviously it's far worse in something that has been cut off. Those heads are far too ruddy.

4) No oozing. Heads are full of liquid. Even hours later, holding one up like that would cause drippage - and yet there is nothing.

5) They're too light. The boy's forearms are showing little strain. Turn to our fishing page and you'll see kids having more difficulty holding up a 2kg fish than he's showing holding an adult head. And he's holding it by the hair. Unless he's the world's strongest kid, it seems unlikely.

6) Too much fun. Kids can't fake facial expressions and he thinks what he's doing is hilarious. But if it was a real head, dripping, stinking and bloody, I can't see him cuddling it.

7) All the Sharrouf 'head' pics are like this one. All of the ones showing him and 'heads' feature these perfect, disembodied heads with no necks and no bloody mess. There's even one of him holding a 'head' by the ear showing the neck 'wound'. It's still red. Dried blood would have been brown-black by then.

"Look, they could be real. I have never seen a genuine severed head. But it feels wrong. My guess is he's using a store dummy head and photoshopping. He's trying to appeal to all the wannabes and disaffected youths out in the suburbs who think it's somehow cool and edgy, all those teenage boys filled with a mixture of rebellion and bravado.

"Now that doesn't take away the fact he's a twisted little scumbag who doesn't deserve to have kids and, if he ever lobs back in Australia, needs to be locked up and have the key thrown away. It doesn't change the fact he's seriously messed up his children. But my fear is, he now has everyone so whipped up into a frenzy that we'll rubber stamp whatever ASIO puts up. It's like a spy agency's dream. And while we must throw the book at the deluded freaks who think that killing people to create an Islamic state is great, we know that spy agencies never give up power once they have it. If we give them carte blanche now, based on a spoof, we could live to regret it. Let them explain how keeping metadata is going to stop the next generation of Sharroufs. Because if they can't keep track of these publicity-hungry nutjobs without it, we have a great deal to fear. Let's use our heads, not be used by a fake head."

Unlovable Rogues

Monday's 7.30 Report:

Leigh Sales, Presenter: The furore over Australia's spying activities overseas has taken a new turn today with revelations of potential domestic spying here at home on Australian soil. A new document dating from 2008, purportedly from American whistleblower Edward Snowden, appears to show Australia's surveillance agency, then known as the Defence Signals Directorate, discussing the idea of sharing data collected about Australian citizens with its overseas counterparts.

Carl Ungerer, Security Analyst: Australians have to understand that the Australian Signals Directorate is operating within Australian law and doing so for the direct benefit of Australia's national security. The idea that they're a rogue agency out there collecting in inappropriate ways should be anathema to anyone who understands national security.

Tuesday's 7.30 Report:

Leigh Sales: As we go to air tonight, there are reports that ASIO has raided the office of the Canberra-based lawyer who claims Australia bugged the East Timorese cabinet during sensitive negotiations about a billion-dollar gas deal. For the first time there's a hint as to who provided the information that's the basis for that case, with the East Timor lobby claiming a retired Australian spy who acted as a whistleblower was arrested today.

Frank Brennan, Law Faculty, Aust. Catholic Uni: It seems that yesterday, 15 ASIO agents descended on the home and office of Bernard Collaery... conducted a very ruthless search... and took away everything which is germane to this case. There was also a visit made to the home of the prime witness for the Timorese and these proceedings, a retired ASIS agent. He and his wife were detained and he was questioned for some time. Whether or not he was arrested, I am not apprised of that information. But I can tell you that on Thursday these proceedings were to begin at the Hague with the arbitration. And the understanding was that the parties were to determine how to deal with the witnesses, particularly this key whistleblower, the allegation of the Timorese being that this whistleblower is able to provide credible, direct evidence of the bugging of the cabinet room and that that was done for commercial gain and would require the approval not only of the Director-General of Intelligence but of the requisite Australian Minister.

Today's 7.30 Report:

Conor Duffy, Reporter: Under the guise of an aid program for the impoverished country, a spy from the ASIS slipped into Dili. Far from helping out, he was there to bug the East Timorese cabinet, the room where the negotiating team talked tactics... The spy has now revealed all and is the star witness for an East Timorese legal action in The Hague to have the billion-dollar treaty scrapped... 7.30 has part of his crucial affidavit, which says that the then head of ASIS instructed him to plant a listening device in East Timor on the orders of then ASIS head and now ASIO boss, David Irvine... Yesterday, ASIO launched a pre-emptive strike, raiding Mr Collaery's home and office just before the hearings in The Hague, which start on Thursday... They also raided the ASIS whistleblower, seizing his passport and cancelling it, effectively stopping him from backing up his affidavit with oral evidence... Today, Attorney-General George Brandis rejected suggestions the raids were designed to hobble East Timor's case.

The War on Civil Liberties

The following sentence, taken from a Herald feature on those-who-would-be-politicians following this September's federal election, neatly encapsulates the opportunism of young people who see one or other of the two major parties as a vehicle to feather their nests:

"For political hopefuls, budding careerists, and the lamentably rarer policy-motivated, election 2013 spells opportunity." (The game of thrones, Mark Kenny & Jacqueline Maley, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/4/13)

These are the kind for whom, as often as not, you'd need a pair of tweezers and a microscope to tell whether they're Lib or Lab.

Now they may be in it for Number 1, but the system has no problem whatever with that. The system loves these budding political careerists. In fact, they're an integral part of the system.

And we love them too. That's why we elect them, time and time again. They're correctly called the politicians we deserve.

But there's another breed of young people who involve themselves in activism for political change with no regard whatever for personal gain or status. Their only motivation is a simple desire to defend victims of injustice and oppression, whether near or far, and to resist the hell-bent pillaging and plundering of Planet Earth.

Unfortunately, however, the system doesn't in the least approve of such people. No, it abhors, smears, and harasses them. In other places it silences them - permanently. The following experience, described by Green Left Weekly's Patrick Harrison, documents that harassment:

"I received a knock on the door on April 16 from two members of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, better known as ASIO. The two told me they would like to have a conversation. When I asked what they wanted to speak about, they told me they were doing their job - protecting 'national security' - and had a few questions about my involvement in political campaigns in Sydney. Apparently the latest threat to 'national security' is 'political violence' in the activist community.

"The agents wanted to speak to me, as a Palestine solidarity activist involved in organising the Sydney rally to commemorate Nakba (the catastrophe, when the state of Israel was created and Palestinians dispossessed), about any concerns I might have, or for me to identify any individuals who I was worried might be responsible for acts of political violence.

"I replied that the only fears of violence that I had from my involvement in Palestine solidarity activism were from the far-right groups and individuals who often organise counter-mobilisations or send threatening and intimidatory emails, messages and phone calls to try to stop or derail our protests and other events...

"Other people involved in campaign groups have also been approached by ASIO and asked not to speak about these visits.

"In a context of the 'war on terror' overseas - which has involved Australian troops in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the past decade - there is a war on civil liberties at home. Security organisations have had their powers expanded and budgets increased by Labor and Coalition governments, and consequently have increased their monitoring of Australians.

"Last year, Green Left Weekly reported on activists involved in pro-Palestine and pro-Tamil solidarity campaigns in Adelaide who had also been visited by South Australian police working in 'security and intelligence'. These visits are an attempt to intimidate people into ending their involvement in legitimate political organisations.

"Organising and attending demonstrations is not illegal and people involved in these activities should not be monitored by ASIO. There is no law that prevents people from speaking publicly about a visit from ASIO. Shining a light on these practices is important to show that we will not be intimidated against exercising our democratic right to protest. As it is a politicised police force, ASIO should be abolished. Australian troops should also be withdrawn from the costly and unjustifiable occupation of Afghanistan." (ASIO spooks harass activists, 1/5/13)

Prisoner X: Well Hello...?

"Fairfax media understands that ASIO and Mossad had an explicit deal not to use each other's nationals as spies but that the Israelis broke the agreement by recruiting Mr Zygier and at least two other dual citizens." (Officials broke rules on Zygier, David Wroe & Tom Allard, Sydney Morning Herald, 7/3/13)

Well hello, what part of dual nationality doesn't ASIO understand? When Mossad recruited Zygier was it recruiting an Israeli or an Australian?

"Foreign Minister Bob Carr... admitted that DFAT had been wrong to rely on ASIO, which was in turn accepting the assurances of the Israeli government that Mr Zygier was being well-treated." (ibid)

Well hello, ASIO continued to accept these assurances after Mossad had misused Australian passports in the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai?

"Former attorney-general Robert McClelland has confirmed he was briefed on the Ben Zygier case in 2010, making him the only politician to date to admit any first-hand knowledge of the affair... He said ASIO briefed him on the case shortly after Zygier's arrest in January 2010. As attorney-general, Mr McClelland had responsibility for ASIO, the agency first told of the 34-year-old's arrest. He recalled a high degree of security accompanying the Zygier briefing. Mr McClelland said an official had brought the material to him and sat with him in his office when he read it. When he was finished, the officer retrieved the documents, meaning he retained no copy. Such practices were standard for sensitive briefings." (Former A-G admits he was briefed on Zygier, Paul Maley, The Australian, 8/3/13)

Well hello, who's running the country here, the elected government or ASIO?

"Mr McClelland would not discuss the content of the briefing. 'But what I can say is that I had recommended to me the course of action that ASIO proposed to take - to brief relevant agencies, departments and officials, a course of action I approved and thought was appropriate,' he said." (ibid)

Well hello, is it a case of whatever ASIO wants, ASIO gets?

"[Kevin Rudd] says he has 'no recollection' of being informed about the matter..." (Rudd still in the dark about facts of Zygier case, Judith Ireland, SMH, 8/3/13)

Well hello, PM Rudd knew nothing?

"Yesterday, a spokesman for [then foreign minister Stephen] Smith said he had no recollection of being briefed on the case. [His chief of staff Frances] Adamson also had no recollection of being briefed." (Former A-G admits he was briefed on Zygier, Paul Maley, The Australian, 8/3/13)

Well hello, foreign minister Smith also knew nothing?

"An internal investigation by the Department of Foreign Affairs revealed yesterday that Dennis Richardson, then head of the department... [was] briefed by ASIO... on February 24, 2010, about 3 weeks after the arrest." (Officials broke rules on Zygier, David Wroe & Tom Allard, SMH, 7/3/13)

Well hello, he didn't think it worth mentioning to the minister?

"The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Vivienne Thom, said she was satisfied that ASIO had not acted unlawfully and inappropriately, and would take no further action. Wednesday's report, despite its broad criticisms of the handling of the case, acknowledges this was an unusual situation and says the DFAT officials' judgment not to follow up on Zygier 'Was reasonable in the circumstances'. Perhaps most tellingly, the report adds that their decision 'took into account concerns that a diplomatic approach might jeopardise the intelligence channel'." (Spies like us, David Wroe & Ruth Pollard, SMH, 9/3/13)

Well hello, Australia can't possibly survive without an intelligence channel to Israel?
Well hello, does this mean that ASIO is telling our polliewaffles that (to tweak the words of St Wilders) 'The struggle against Israel is a struggle against us. We are Israel. The reason Australian parents can sleep soundly without having to worry about their kids is that Israeli parents stay awake at night because their children are in the army'?
Well hello, is ASIO that dumb?
Well hello, are our polliewaffles that dumb?
Well hello, are WE that dumb?

Prisoner X 4

Since significant new material has emerged in today's Fairfax press regarding the case of Prisoner X, I'll leave the other two aspects of the case I'd intended writing about to a later post, possibly the next.

The most important piece on the issue has to be Philip Dorling's report, Zygier 'close to spilling on Israel', which offers an eminently plausible explanation for Prisoner X's incarceration and suicide/murder:

"Australian security officials suspect that Ben Zygier, the spy who died in secret in an Israeli prison cell in 2010, may have been about to disclose information about Israeli intelligence operations, including the use of fraudulent Australian passports, either to the Australian government or to the media when he was arrested. '[Zygier] may well have been about to blow the whistle, but he never got the chance,' an Australian security official with knowledge of the case told Fairfax Media yesterday. Sources in Canberra are insistent that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was not informed by its counterparts of the precise nature of the espionage allegations against Mr Zygier. However, it is understood that the former Melbourne law graduate had been in contact with Australian intelligence. He was in contact the day before he died with human rights lawyer Avigdor Feldman, who said last night: 'When I saw him, there was nothing to indicate he was going to commit suicide', adding that he was rational, focused and without self-pity. Mr Feldman said he was surprised 'that a man who was being held in a cell like that, a cell which was being monitored and checked 24-hours a day, could manage to commit suicide by hanging himself. I understood that he was told he was likely to face the longest possible jail term and that he was likely to be ostracised by his family,' he said. Israeli intelligence informed ASIO of Mr Zygier's arrest and detention just 8 days after authorities in Dubai revealed that suspected Israeli agents had used fraudulent Australian passports in the assassination of a Palestinian militant leader. The subsequent crisis in Australian-Israeli intelligence relations provided the context in which the Australian diplomats did not seek access to Mr Zygier, who was regarded by Australian security officials as being a potential whistleblower on Israeli intelligence operations." 

Dorling goes on to say that, although ASIO's liaison office in Tel Aviv was notified of Zygier's detention by Israel's domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet, and that it in turn notified DFAT, "as no request for consular assistance was made by Mr Zygier or his family, the matter was left to be dealt with through intelligence channels."

Two matters arise here.

First, if Zygier had wanted to blow the whistle on Mossad's abuse of Australian passports and had contacted Australian intelligence with this in mind, how did he end up in Shin Bet's hands?

Two possible explanations come to mind. The Shin Bet were already onto him and picked him up before he could tell all to his Australian intelligence contact(s), or the latter cold-shouldered him or worse to avoid the kind of falling out with Israel that a full disclosure of the passport abuse by an Australian-Israeli intelligence insider might have precipitated. If so, the question arises as to just how far up the Australian chain of command, security and political, that decision might have been made. Certainly, the suspicion that then PM Rudd and his FM, with their expressions of 'grave concern', their vows to 'take action', their carpeting of the Israeli ambassador, and their expulsion of an Israeli 'diplomat' - but no real severing of intelligence links - were really just taking part in an elaborate charade had crossed the mind of one of our more astute and combative television news presenters/interviewers, Kerry O'Brien. (See my 16/8/10 post Diplomatic Dancing.)

Second, I can't quite get my head around the implications of the assertions that a) "[Zygier] was told... that he was likely to be ostracised by his family"; and b) "no request for consular assistance" was made by Zygier's family. What is going on here?

These assertions are further complicated by Konrad Marshall's report,  We want justice for Ben Zygier, family friend says:

"A family friend of Melbourne man Ben Zygier... has called for 'justice' and transparency two years after the 34-year-old's death. Henry Greener... said he could no longer abide by a 'sleeping dogs lie' credo. 'We all knew there was something suspicious and underhanded about Ben's death and nobody wanted to go there because of the suppression order in Israel... But now that the cat's been let out of the bag, we are going to find out a lot more, and in that process I think there should be justice for Ben..."

One is left wondering why, if "we all knew there was something suspicious and underhanded about Ben's death," we're reading references to family ostracism, a failure to seek consular assistance and respect for an Israeli suppression order.

Finally, my attention was caught by this particular exchange, in a report by David Wroe, 'We failed our duty' to Prisoner X:

"Asked by Greens senator Christine Milne why no embassy official had gone to visit Mr Zygier in jail, [DFAT] secretary Peter Varghese said communications had been between intelligence agencies, not the respective governments... Senator Milne asked: 'My question is just why did the Australian government hand over the welfare of one of our citizens to the spooks? Why?'" (14/2/13)

Could you ever imagine Milne play the terrier over the fate of an Arab-Australian in Israeli hands?

Prisoner X 3: How Dumb Are We?

Apart from the inevitable fascination with the reason for Prisoner X's incarceration and suicide/murder in Israel's top security prison, at least 4 other aspects of the case should give us pause for thought. In this post I'll discuss the two I consider to be of lesser importance, leaving the other two for the next post.

To begin with the least important, consider this extract from Fairfax Middle East correspondent Ruth Pollard's 14/2/13 report Strange fate of Benji, the suspected spy:

"It is believed Mr Zygier travelled back to Australia in 2009 to attend Monash University, where he was doing an MBA... A source observed him over several days sitting with a group of students from Saudi Arabia and Iran at the university's Caulfield campus. The source said: '[Australian Taxation Office] records from 2008 show that he applied for and was approved a HECS loan for postgraduate studies at Monash University where he is currently [November 2009] studying."

In light of the current HECS debt of $6.2 billion dollars* it's appropriate to ask whether Ben Zygier, or whatever name he'd been using at the time, had discharged his debt to the Australian taxpayer before returning to Israel. If not, the Australian taxpayer surely has a right to know that he/she is unwittingly funding the education/work of Mossad operatives and to ask the classic question: How dumb are we then?

[*See Lost HECS debt $6.2bn, & rising, Andrew Trounson & Christian Kerr, The Australian, 21/1/13.]

Next, consider the following data from the same report:

"Each of the men had travelled back to Australia separately to change their names and obtain a new passport, two intelligence sources said... One man had changed his name 3 times, with others having changed theirs twice, the source said, from names that identified them as European-Jewish to ones that were Anglo-Australian. The men had used the new passports to travel to Iran, Syria and Lebanon..." 

Now that was back in the last decade when ASIO, which, according to Pollard, "won't comment," was supposedly "investigating" these 3 dual Australian-Israeli citizens.

So what, if anything, has been the result of ASIO's investigation? Is any member of the government aware of its findings? If not, why not? If so, what steps have been taken/are being taken to ensure that this blatant abuse of our passport system by foreign agents does not continue?

And beyond that, there's the question of whether, in light of this, it is really in the national interest for our intelligence agencies - ASIO and ASIS - to be in bed with Mossad, a matter dealt with in my 29/5/10 post All the Way With Mossad?

Surely too, this particular aspect of the Prisoner X case, warrants a reiteration of the above classic question: How dumb are we?

Prisoner X 2

The latest developments:

"An Australian diplomat knew that Melbourne man Ben Zygier was being held in an Israeli prison before he died in his cell, the government has admitted amid explosive reports that Mr Zygier was a Mossad agent known as 'Prisoner X'. Foreign Minister Bob Carr was forced into an embarrassing backflip on Wednesday as he ordered his department to investigate the Zygier case. His office was forced to correct earlier claims that the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv knew nothing of the case until after Mr Zygier died in prison in December 2010 when his family - a prominent Jewish family in Melbourne - asked for his body to be repatriated. In a revelation that raises questions about the extent of the Australian government's knowledge, Senator Carr's spokesman said an Australian diplomat - who was not the ambassador - was aware that Mr Zygier, 34, was being held by Israeli authorities... His father, Geoffrey Zygier, executive director for B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission, did not comment on Wednesday... Zygier's death in 2010 was met with more than a dozen condolence notices in the Australian Jewish News. These included notices from Monash University, the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, the Beth Weizmann Community Centre, the Jewish Holocaust Centre, and the National Council of Jewish Women. None would comment yesterday." (Australian diplomat 'aware Zygier being held', David Wroe & Ruth Pollard, The Age, 14/2/13)

"When Ben Zygier died in a maximum-security prison in Israel he was under investigation by the spy agency ASIO, which suspected him of using his Australian passport to spy for Israel, Fairfax Media can reveal. Benji, as he was known by those close to him in Jerusalem's Jewish community, reacted angrily when Fairfax Media confronted him in early 2010 with allegations that he was working for the Israeli security agency Mossad. 'Who the f..k are you?' an incredulous Mr Zygier told Fairfax's then Middle East correspondent, Jason Koutsoukis. 'What is this total bullshit you are telling me?' He expressed shock at the suggestion he was under any kind of surveillance and said that he had also changed his name for personal reasons. 'I have never been to any of those countries that you say I have been to,' Mr Zygier said. 'I am not involved in any kind of spying. That is ridiculous.' 'He was at first angry, then exasperated that I wouldn't accept his denials at what I was putting to him,' Koutsoukis said. 'He told me that he was like any other Australian who had made aliyah and was trying to make a life in Israel.'

"Fairfax Media spoke to Mr Zygier after learning that ASIO was investigating at least 3 dual Australian-Israeli citizens who had all emigrated to Israel in the previous decade. ASIO would not comment. On Wednesday the agency again refused to comment. Each of the men had travelled back to Australia separately to change their names and obtain a new passport, two intelligence sources said at the time in Koutsoukis's story... The man had changed his name 3 times, with others having changed theirs twice, the source said, from names that identified them as European-Jewish to ones that were Anglo-Australian. The men had used the new passports to travel to Iran, Syria and Lebanon - all countries that do not recognise Israel and do not allow entry to Israelis, or anyone else with an Israeli stamp in their passport... It is believed Mr Zygier travelled back to Australia in 2009 to attend Monash University... along with his Ben Zygier identity, he also used Ben Alon, Ben Allen and Benjamin Burrows... Since 2006, Monash University has been involved in education in Middle Eastern countries... It is well known that Israel approached immigrants to assist Israel by handing over their passports, an Israeli intelligence expert told Fairfax Media in 2010. It is understood the ASIO investigation into Mr Zygier and the other 2 men began at least 6 months before the January 10, 2010 assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, widely believed to have been carried out by Mossad using passports obtained from Australia and Europe." (Strange fate of Benji, the suspected spy, Ruth Pollard, Sydney Morning Herald, 14/2/13)

Hm, Hasmi... Harakat... Hamas...

... I think we may be on to something here, inspector.

Last night's SBS Television's World News was the occasion for a brief outburst of hilarity in this household.

Hot on the heels of the prime minister discoursing earnestly on her new 'Australia in the Asian Century' white paper (which highlighted the need for Australians to learn one of the major Asian languages) came a report on the foiling by Indonesian police of a new "terror plot" aimed at the US embassy in Jakarta.

There was SBS reporter Marion Ives busy telling us that "Indonesian authorities say a new militant group called Hasmi is behind the plot," when the report cut suddenly to an unidentified, shaven-headed, forty-something Australian male (presumably a spokesman for the Australian Federal Police or ASIO, or one of their proliferating band of counterterrorism 'experts') discoursing earnestly on the ideological intricacies of the alleged Hasmi plot. Caught in mid-sentence, this genius was recorded saying:

"... and the attacks it was about to carry out are believed to be the first ones it had organised. It's almost certainly a successor organisation to Gema [his pronunciation] Islamiyah and similar groups which have a long history in Indonesia. The other is that the first part of its name is Harakat and that is a name of a number of militant Islamic organisations including Hamas, Al-Shabaab..."

Ergo, Hasmi must be directly related to Hamas. Not!

Allow me to explain. 'Haraka' is simply the Arabic word for 'movement', as in 'political movement'. It has no religious connotations whatever. Hamas' official name in Arabic is thus 'harakat al-muqawama al-islamiya' (Islamic Resistance Movement). Likewise, Hamas' secular Palestinian rival, Fatah's official name is 'harakat at-tahrir al-watani al-filastiniya' (Palestinian National Liberation Movement).

It's precisely this kind of cluelessness that has me wondering yet again about our bloated security apparatus, which is based on legislation which, according to the Law Council of Australia, is "contrary to the most fundamental principles of our criminal justice system,"* and costs us over a billion dollars annually. (See my posts Beautiful Sets of Figures (31/1/12) and Behind the ASIO Assessment (23/11/10).)

[*Terrorist laws 'go too far', Harriet Alexander, Sydney Morning Herald, 26/10/12.]

The Sixth Eye

These are the two opening paragraphs of Fairfax scoop Intelligence world rocked by charge against Canadian:

"An alleged Canadian spy compromised Australian intelligence information in an espionage case that has sent shock waves through Western security agencies. The alleged sale of top secret intelligence to Russian agents by naval officer Jeffrey Paul Delisle has been the subject of high-level consultation between the Australian and Canadian governments and was discussed at a secret international conference of Western security agencies in New Zealand this year." (Philip Dorling, Sydney Morning Herald, 25/7/12)

OK, but what interested me most about Dorling's "exclusive" were these words:

"Sub-lieutenant Delisle worked at the Royal Canadian Navy's Trinity intelligence and communications centre at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Much of the information he allegedly sold was much more highly classified than the WikiLeaks cables and included top secret intelligence collected by the 'Five Eyes' intelligence community of the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand."

Only 5 eyes, Philip?

Not according to Israeli intelligence expert and Haaretz journalist, Yosi Melman:

"A third role [of Mossad] was to maintain secret, clandestine but very vital and useful contacts with its counterparts, whether it's... ASIO or... the CIA or...M16... And they have developed over the years very, very intimate relations, sharing information and... assessments and even, nowadays, going into the field, enjoying the operations in the war against global terrorism." (The Mossad, Rear Vision, 24/3/10)

You can read the full excerpt in my 28/3/10 post Up To Our Necks. See also my 29/5/10 post All the Way With Mossad?)

Australian Activism Goes on Trial

"Our response to BDS forms part of a coordinated national strategy... endorsed by counterparts abroad and Israel's Foreign Ministry." Vic Alhadeff, CEO NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, BDS explained, The Australian Jewish News, 29/7/11*

News of the arrest and coming trial of  19 Australian BDS activists has been predictably largely absent from the slumbering/self-censoring/censored entity known as the Australian corporate media. Here's the latest (25/4) information about this concerted, unprecedented and ominous assault against peaceful and legitimate dissent from the studentsforpalestine.org website, Palestine solidarity on trial:

"On 1 May 19 Melbourne activists will be put on trial for their political activity. In a precedent-setting case, these pro-Palestine activists will be fighting a variety of charges designed to criminalise dissent in Baillieu's Victoria and intimidate supporters of Palestine in Australia.

"On 1 July 2011, Victoria Police attacked a peaceful demonstration in Melbourne's CBD. In one of the largest political arrests in a decade, 19 activists were detained during a Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) action against the Max Brenner store. The chocolateria is owned by Israeli conglomerate the Strauss Group, a company that provides 'care rations' for the Israeli military, including the Golani and Givati brigades. These were 2 of the key Israeli military brigades involved in Israel's brutal assault on Gaza in December 2008/January 2009 that killed more than 1300 Palestinians. In more recent times, the Golani brigade has been noted for its brutal enforcement of Israeli colonisation of Palestinian Hebron in the West Bank.

"After a series of peaceful demonstrations against Max Brenner, the 1 July action was kettled by police before activists were individually targeted in an unprovoked attack by the riot squad. The police used pressure point tactics on some of the demonstrators; others reported bruising and rough treatment. One woman had her shoulder dislocated.

"Damian Ridgwell, one of the arrested protesters told Electronic Intifada about his experience: I was dragged behind police lines. Once they grabbed me and started dragging me, I went limp and dropped to the ground... As I was being carried through the corridors of the loading dock, I lost consciousness because one of the police had me in a choke hold. I am not sure how long I was out, probably a few minutes. I woke up on the loading dock floor and heard the police saying I was 'out'.

"The majority of those arrested were charged with trespass in a public place (yes, that is apparently a crime) and besetting (an archaic law that means 'to surround a building'); a small number were also charged with behaving in a 'riotous manner'.

"After attending another protest, 4 of these 19 protesters were again arrested (for breaking their bail conditions) in dawn raids on their homes. These anti-democratic conditions stipulated that activists may not return within 50 metres of Max Brenner stores in the Melbourne CBD. Three were released from jail on a bail of $2,000 each. One of the more prominent campaigners, Vashti Kenway, was made to pay a $10,000 bail or face prison. All up the activists are facing fines of around $30,000.

***

"The fines, and the aggressive manner of the Victorian government's pursuit of the activists, reveal a further series of intersecting agendas.

"The first is the hostility of the Australian establishment towards those who support Palestine. To get anywhere in mainstream Australian politics requires a display of unwavering support for Israel. It is bipartisan policy to back the apartheid state. Because Israel is a key link in the US chain of command across the Middle East the Australian ruling class is a champion of the Israeli state. It is significant that, with the exception of a few individuals, the overwhelming consensus in parliament is to offer a hand of friendship to Israel. This commitment is what accounts for the hysteria in the establishment press (particularly The Australian) after Marrickville Council attempted to boycott particular Israel-owned goods and services last year. The liberal press is hardly any better with Melbourne's Age recently jumping on the bandwagon with a slanderous piece attacking not only the German poet Gunter Grass for his mild critique of Israel's brutality - but also the Max Brenner protesters for their supposed 'hostility to Jews'. No mention of Israel's war crimes, or of the thousands of Jewish critics across the world who back Palestinian demands for freedom and justice.

"The case against the Max Brenner 19 also highlights the behind the scenes collusion between the Victorian government, the police, the shopping centre management (of QV and Melbourne Central) and the Australian Zionist establishment. Vic Alhadeff, CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, outlined their anti-BDS strategy, stating that it includes 'but is not limited to, engagement with civil society and politicians, patronage of boycotted outlets, cooperation with police, shop owners and centre management and exposure of the motives behind the BDS movement'. The strategy should be one which seeks to 'speak softly' but to also carry 'a suggestion of a big stick'.

"Furthermore, during a bail variation hearing at the Victorian Magistrate's Court on 27 July 2011, Victoria Police confirmed that the decision to arrest the protesters had been made before the demonstration. This decision was made after meeting with Zionist organisations, the Victorian government, shopping centre managements and the management of Max Brenner.

"This kind of collusion reflects increasing attempts to criminalise BDS and pro-Palestine solidarity activism internationally. Currently in the US, France and Greece, hundreds of pro-Palestine activists are facing criminal charges for non-violently standing up for Palestinian human rights.

"The response to these demonstrations also reflects a broader social phenomenon: the growing militarisation of the police force. New highly-trained units have been established, such as the Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Critical Incident Response Team. These forces are trained in increasingly hostile forms of crowd control such as kettling. Such tactics have been utilised against other protests such as Occupy Melbourne. There are squads whose sole purpose is to 'monitor' and 'infiltrate' activist groups. One senior sergeant's court testimony suggested that police infiltrators had been sent to pro-Palestine solidarity meetings in order to monitor the activity of BDS activists.

"These intersecting interests have found targets in the Max Brenner 19 and will be on display during the 3-week trial."

For a backgrounder on the issues and players in this matter, please read my posts:

How Sweet It Is (12/7/09), on Max Brenner
BDS Update (11/7/11), on last year's arrests
Criminalising BDS (9/8/11), on Zionist lawfare against BDS
We Need to Talk About Ted (10/8/11), on the company Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu, keeps
Wielding Zionism's Big Stick in the Senate (15/9/11), on the Zionist lobby's strategy to counter BDS
Ted Bailleu's Mr Unforgettable (4/12/11), on Ted's chief of staff, Michael Kapel

[*This disclosure of endorsement by counterparts abroad and Israel's foreign ministry is quoted in full in my post Wielding Zionism's Big Stick in the Senate. Please tell me it doesn't come under the heading of  'acts of foreign interference', one of the security threats ASIO is supposed to be protecting Australians from. In the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979, the term 'acts of foreign interference' is defined as "activities relating to Australia that are carried on by or on behalf of, are directed or subsidised by or are undertaken in collaboration with, a foreign power, being activities that : (a) are clandestine or deceptive and: (i) are carried on for intelligence purposes; (ii) are carried on for the purpose of affecting political or governmental processes; (iii) are otherwise detrimental to the interests of Australia; or (b) involve a threat to any person."]

The Carr Doctrine So Far 2

Dear Bob,

Congratulations on the prime minister's offer of the foreign ministership you just couldn't refuse.

In light of the Carr Doctrine So Far (See my previous post of the same name), which can perhaps accurately be summed up by the expression, Iranian nukes? Bollocks!, can you please, in the name of sanity and Australian independence, pull all stops out NOW to save this unfortunate Australian man from being caught up in the latest round of USraeli military madness currently sweeping the world?:

"If David Levick was a willing participant in the global conspiracy to nuclearise Iran, he was doing a pretty good job of hiding it yesterday. 'I'm as nervous as shit', the Sydney businessman said when The Australian phoned. 'I'm in a sweat and I feel like I should be going out and getting drunk'. (Sanctions? What sanctions? Aussie accused of exporting goods to Iran, Paul Maley, The Australian, 2/3/12)

"Just 20 minutes earlier, Mr Levick learned he had been indicted by US authorities on 5 counts of selling prohibited goods to Iran in defiance of strict US trade restrictions aimed at thwarting Tehran's nuclear weapons aspirations."

I draw your attention to journalist Maley's failure to insert the word 'alleged' before "nuclear weapons aspirations" in the above sentence. But then, that's The Australian for you, right? Remember your own words: "There is only challengeable evidence they are going to get [the bomb] anyway"? (The US under threat, 18/12/11, bobcarrblog.wordpress.com)

"The small businessman, who for 10 years has made a living selling semi-conductors out of his one-man office in the northern Sydney suburb of Thornleigh, faces the possibility of extradition to the US and a maximum 25-year jail sentence.

"Mr Levick admits to selling material destined for Iran - mainly helicopter parts - but strongly denied he knew he was flouting the law. 'I didn't know there was a thingamajig against them', Mr Levick said, referring to the raft of UN, EU and US sanctions imposed on Tehran.

"A 21-page grand jury indictment... however, argues otherwise. According to the US government, between March 2007 and March 2009 Mr Levick knowingly and wilfully conspired to circumvent the trade ban and defraud the US government. The indictment alleges that Mr Levick used his Sydney company ICM Components to procure banned goods from US suppliers using a Florida-based broker on behalf of his Iranian client. 'Defendants Levick and ICM intentionally concealed the ultimate end end-use and end-users of the Restricted Goods (sic) from manufacturers, distributors, shippers, and freight forwarders', the government alleges. The indictment goes on to accuse Mr Levick of misleading his suppliers, telling them the equipment he sought was for use in 'unmanned helicopters that survey rural Australia' or for 'BHP Billion (sic), a mining company in Australia, for use in either Malaysia or Papua, New Guinea (sic)'.

"It includes an email Mr Levick allegedly sent to an Iranian client in late 2008 saying he had been raided by Australian authorities and US customers. Mr Levick denies any wrongdoing.

"His troubles began in 2007 when he received an email from an Iranian man representing a company called SkyLife Worldwide. The sender of the email, whom Mr Levick declined to name, claimed he had been trying to contact a company in Austria. Austria, Australia. It seemed like an honest mistake, Mr Levick thought. 'A sale's a sale as far as I was concerned', he said.

"Among the items the firm wanted were helicopter rotor blades, brake bearings and helicopter lights, all of which Mr Levick duly procured. But what Mr Levick claims not to have known is that SkyLife was part of an elaborate network of Iranian front companies whose real purpose, according to the US State Department, was to procure parts for Tehran's illicit weapons program."

You'll note again, Bob, that's not alleged "illicit weapons program".

"He said the first hint he had that things were not quite above board was when he was contacted by ASIO in 2007. 'I got a phone call from ASIO saying, 'Come to the office, please', Mr Levick, 50, said. 'I was just about to do my Christmas shopping'. Armed with a warrant, ASIO officers seized Mr Levick's computers and began quizzing him. 'They came out for an interview and said, 'Look, you can't sell all these sort of parts to them'. So I said, 'OK'. Then they asked me all the same questions, who I was supplying them to, where they were going to'. He then halted all pending transfers to Malaysia, which included an emergency flotation kit for a helicopter and miniature gyroscopes, which, among other things, can be used to stabilise target drones, missiles, torpedoes and remotely piloted vehicles. Mr Levick said he never heard from ASIO again.

"However, in a September 2008 email, one apparently sent after the ASIO visit, Mr Levick told his Iranian client of the authority's suspicions.

"He has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the US and breach the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Arms Export Control Act. The claims against Mr Levick drew silence from the Australian government yesterday. ASIO would not confirm it had raided Mr Levick. Nor would it say whether it had supplied information to US authorities or if that information now formed part of the criminal case against Mr Levick."

Can you please get to the bottom of this, Bob, or is what you just said to Geraldine Doogue on Radio National's Saturday Extra program this morning about your Doctrine So Far - "That's a commentary from a private citizen. I now speak for Australia" - your get out free card?

The Devil & David Irvine

"There are hundreds of terrorist plots under way in Australia... [This] startling and disturbing figure... comes from an important speech this week by David Irvine, director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation [ASIO]... In Irvine's important speech, he points out that the death of Osama bin Laden has not changed the dynamics of anti-Western, transnational terrorism. He comments: 'Ideology remains, in the absence of leaders like Osama bin Laden, and it is virulent'. He goes on to say: 'Of particular concern to us in Australia is the current targeting of this message to young English-speaking Muslims, specifically, through both al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula's Inspire magazine, and the readily available English language lectures by radical Yemen-based US sheik, Anwar al-Awlaki'." (The unheeded steps of a psycho killer, Greg Sheridan, The Australian, 28/7/11)

While the above may sound plausible, face it, Anwar al-Awlaki's lectures can only provide work for so many spooks.

So, what with ASIO's 471% expansion between 2001 and 2010 and its shiny new $590 million headquarters in Canberra*, there must be a helluva lot of potential for thumb-twiddling over at HQ.

With this in mind, therefore, the Devil could well be finding work for idle ASIO hands at Melbourne's Preston Mosque:

"Heavy-handed ASIO attempts to recruit young Muslims from Preston Mosque, bullying and harassment are creating fear and disquiet among the community, according to a Muslim leader. Young Muslim men at the mosque for Friday prayers yesterday described how ASIO agents would not take no for an answer when they asked to meet 'for a chat' and had recently changed from insistent requests to making legal demands, threatening 5 years' prison for refusing. One told how an ASIO agent provocateur tried to get him to transfer money to a terrorist organisation... ASIO said yesterday that to protect Australia it relied on public help. It maintained dialogue with representatives of a wide range of groups, but such engagement was confidential." (ASIO tactics creating fear in community, say Muslims, Barney Zwartz, The Age, 18/2/12)

[*See my 31/1/12 post Beautiful Sets of Figures.]

Beautiful Sets of Figures

Hanging with the big boys doesn't come cheap:

"Each of the 1550 Diggers on the ground in Afghanistan is costing Australian taxpayers $1 million. That was the figure for Australia's war effort last financial year - and it is only going to get bigger. Taxpayers will be hit with a new bill of more than $1 billion next year to fund the war in Afghanistan as the government struggles to conjure up a promised May budget surplus. The cost of the war hit $1.6 billion for the past financial year. By June 2013, the overall outlay for the Afghanistan campaign will reach more than $7.4 billion..." (Million-dollar Diggers: What each soldier in Afghanistan costs taxpayers, Ian McPhedran, Daily Telegraph, 18/1/12)

"Australia's spies now cost more than $1 billion a year to run ... according to a landmark review of the country's intelligence community... ASIO alone grew by 471% between 2001 and 2010 and this year will occupy new headquarters in Canberra worth $590 million..." (Soaring cost of spy force passes $1b, Dylan Welch, Sydney Morning Herald, 26/1/12)

Taxpayer? How stupid are you?

The Right Stuff

Having already written about the Kafkaesque plight of the Rahavan family in my 23/11/10 post Behind the ASIO Assessment, I was reminded of them again by a report in yesterday's Australian, which revealed just how much it was costing the Australian taxpayer to 'protect' us from them:

"They are Australia's most expensive refugees. The Rahavans, a Sri Lankan family of 5, most of whom journeyed to Australia on the ill-fated Oceanic Viking, were until recently costing the Australian taxpayers a staggering $428,861 every 3 months in security bills. Yogachandran Rahavan and his wife, Sumathi, were declared security threats by ASIO 18 months ago over alleged links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or Tamil Tigers... The family had all been found to be genuine refugees, meaning Australia was prevented by law from deporting them to Sri Lanka. But their negative security assessment means they can never be given visas, either, potentially consigning them to a life of perpetual detention. Because of ASIO's concern, guards were assigned to live with the family 24 hours a day. For 9 months they had to maintain their dignity as a family with 2 guards in their house at all times... The Immigration Department said that between November 2010 and February 2011 the cost of placing 'static guards' inside the Rahavan's family compound had run to $428,861. That adds up to about $1.14 million in the 8 months the security remained in place." (Million-dollar refugee family caught in perpetual detention, Paul Maley, 27/5/11)

We know virtually nothing of the heinousness of the Rahavan's 'crimes', all evidence of which is kept strictly under wraps by ASIO. What we do know, however, is shocking in the extreme: "Sumathi had worked as a legal officer in the LTTE-run court system in Sri Lanka's north... [but] it is not known what Sumathi's husband, who came to Australia ahead of his family on a separate boat is alleged to have done." (ibid) OK, I did warn you!

Why revisit this bizarre story from Australia's Gulag then? Well, I'd read the following tale the day before and it got me thinking, a dreadful curse I know:

"Variously described as publicity-shy, secretive, even mysterious, Ivan Glasenberg's most prized asset had been his closely guarded privacy. But that came to an end with his dramatic emergence as Australia's second-richest person on the BRW Rich List, worth an estimated $8.8 billion. Before yesterday, few knew the powerful South African-born businessman was an Australian citizen. The decision to partially float the world's largest commodity trader, Glencore, where Mr Glasenberg is chief executive, has made instant millionaires of 485 senior employees - and catapulted the company's boss into the limelight." (Mysterious financier blitzes the rich list, Philip Wen, Sydney Morning Herald, 26/5/11)

You see, it was Ivan Glasenberg's story, and that of the Rahavan family, that led me to ponder the weighty subject of just who is worthy, and who is not, to enter our little South Pacific paradise, who's in and who's out in Godzone country, so to speak.

Well, obviously the Rahavans are a bit of a worry: that Sumathi, for example, working in the Tiger-infested jungles, sorry, Tiger-administered courts of Tamil Eelam. Now if only she'd made a beeline for Colombo, thrown herself on the mercy of the Rajapaksa bruvvers, denounced the Tigers and all their works, and declared her intention of going public with a heart-rending story of forgiveness and peace in the strife-torn island of Sri Lanka, maybe even penning a little number called I Shall Not Hate, containing maybe a photo of her good self cosying up to the Rajapaksas, and even - why not? - eventually turning up at the Sydney Writers Festival like our good friend Abuelaish... Of course, she'd probably have been raped and thrown into a dungeon somewhere along the way, if not just shot out of hand, but hey, wouldn't that (every cloud having a silver lining, as they say) have saved the Australian taxpayer a pretty penny!

But I digress. You can play what ifs? till the proverbial cows come home - the plain fact of the matter is she's brown!

But Ivan - sorry, our Ivan - what a catch! Yes, yes, he's white, but hey, that's just the beginning. The man's a legend. I mean, who in his right mind would not want Ivan to call Australia home? Among his many assets I need mention but the following:

There's his focus on the things that really matter:

"Glasenberg... became intrigued with commodities trading when studying accountancy in South Africa... 'I observed a man sourcing candle wax from South America and selling it to Japan. I thought, 'That's unbelievable. Talking on the phone in his office, that man made money moving candle wax from one country to another'. It really interested me." (Newsmaker-Ivan Glasenberg's long walk to Glencore billions, Webb & Onstad, Reuters/ my.news.yahoo.com, 5/5/11)

There's his (slag) heaps and heaps and heaps of good work all over the planet:

"News that the London Stock Exchange is on the verge of a mammoth flotation didn't spread quite as far as the Zambian mining village of Mufilira. Even if it had, it's unlikely the villagers there would have seen much cause for celebration. While the rich seams of copper that lie deep in the ground beneath Mulifira have helped to make Swiss-based Glencore the largest and wealthiest commodities trader in the world, the African villagers are still struggling to get by on just a few dollars a day. This is barely enough even to feed their families, let alone pay for the medicine they need to treat the illnesses caused by the dangerous levels of pollution spewed out by Glencore-controlled mines... In Zambia alone, Glencore is accused of manipulating its financial accounts in order to reduce its tax bill, deliberately depriving that poverty-stricken nation of much-needed income. Indeed, the foul-smelling sulphur clouds that hang low over Mulifira are not the only thing about this obsessively secret company leaving a bitter taste in the mouth. The truth is that until now, most people would not have heard of Glencore - it's only as a result of the proposed flotation that questions about its practices are being asked... Its empire stretches from the jungles of Colombia to the plains of Australia. It makes its money from metals, minerals, oil, sugar, grain - commodities that form the very building blocks of world trade. And, armed with the best possible knowledge of global events, its traders buy these at the lowest possible price and sell at the highest possible mark-up." (Flotation to shine light on shadowy Glencore, Sunderland & Davies, thisismoney.co.uk, 4/5/11)

There's his sterling commercial pedigree:

"... Glencore grew out of the business empire of a man cited in the biggest tax fraud indictment in history. American oil trader Marc Rich, who founded the company - originally named Marc Rich & Co - in 1974, arrived in the US as a small boy with his parents in 1941, having fled from the Nazis in Belgium. At the peak of his powers, he dominated the global oil market. He traded with African dictators, Cuban communists and, most notoriously with Iran during the embargo on that country imposed by America during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis. He is also said to have financed operations by Mossad... former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit said Rich helped with the intelligence agency's work in Yemen and Sudan in the Eighties, when Israel was evacuating Jews from those countries. His support for Israel, however, did not prevent him also doing deals with Islamic fundamentalists bent on the destruction of the Jewish state. And he also made a 1.2 billion pound profit selling oil to South Africa during the apartheid years, contrary to an international trade embargo. In 1983, he was charged by lawyer and future New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani with 51 crimes, including evading at least 29m pounds in taxes, racketeering, conspiracy and trading with the enemy, Iran. Rich fled to Switzerland, from where he evaded various attempts by the US authorities to seize him. In 1994, he sold his business empire, handing control to his long-time German associate, Willy Strothotte, who reinvented it as Glencore. Rich was eventually pardoned in 2001 by President Clinton after lobbying by his former wife, a songwriter who has penned hits for such stars as Celine Dion. Today, Glencore may have eliminated all trace of Rich from its website, but his ghost haunts the company. Traders who worked with Rich remain steeped in his philosophy of cut-throat negotiation over prices - operating in a murky world, albeit on the right side of the law." (ibid)

Ivan, of course, has unerringly followed the path of the master:

"During Saddam's rule in Iraq, and the UN sanctions which accompanied its final years, Glencore made handsome profits marketing embargoed oil. In February 2001, Glencore bought 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil destined for the US and diverted the black gold to Croatia, where it was sold for a premium of $3 million, according to a UN Security council report." (Glencore: Profiteering from hunger & chaos, Chris Arsenault, english.aljazeera.net, 9/5/11)

But, best of all he's a sportsman. And... and... I can hardly contain myself at this icing on the cake, he's also an... Israeli citizen and so practically one of us already!:

"A 54-year-old champion race-walker for both South Africa and Israel (he has dual nationality), Glasenberg runs and swims every day to maintain his lean physique. Selected colleagues accompany him on his early-morning jogs - some say under sufferance - to display their loyalty to the workaholic Glencore 'cult'." (Sunderland & Davies)

We are indeed a lucky country. Shame about the Rahavans though. If only Sumathi had pulled her finger out and listened up as somebody was making money moving candle wax from one country to another while on the phone. We might even have forgiven her for being brown.

Behind the ASIO Assessment

An example of the obscenity which is Australia's treatment of asylum seekers:

"Sumathi Rahavan never predicted the Kafkaesque situation that awaited her young family when she boarded the Australian Customs boat, Oceanic Viking, last year. The [Tamil] Sri Lankan has given birth as an immigration detainee, been branded a national security risk by [the] Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and now faces 24-hour surveillance with 3 guards watching over her family, which is being held in detention indefinitely. Her husband, Yogachandran Rahavan, [is] also declared a national security threat by the spy agency... The saga began when Mrs Rahavan decided to join her husband in Australia, bundling their daughter Atputha, 6, and son Abinayan, 3, on to what was to become the most politically charged boatload of asylum seekers under the Rudd government. In its haste to end a diplomatic stand-off with Indonesia, the Australian government offered all refugees on Oceanic Viking a special resettlement deal. As refugees, the government cannot return the Rahavans to possible danger in Sri Lanka. But because ASIO assesses them a security risk, the family cannot be settled in Australia... The reasons ASIO has for its suspicions may never be revealed. The agency's decisions in immigration matters are not reviewable. Mr Rahavan adamantly denied he was involved with the Tamil Tigers separatist group and said he did not know why he could be considered a risk... At Villawood [Detention Centre], the Rahavans are watched 24 hours a day. Emails are blocked and phone calls must go through immigration staff who type in 'approved' numbers and confirm who is on the line before passing the phone over. 'There's all the time - 24/7 - two officers inside the house', Mr Rahavan said. 'There is a Serco vehicle and officer, who watches us 24/7 through the window'. Some family members are authorised to visit and others not." (ASIO ruling puts asylum seekers in no man's land, Yuko Narushima, Sydney Morning Herald, 22/11/10)

You can be sure that lurking somewhere behind ASIO's non-reviewable assessment of these Tamil victims of Sri Lankan genocide is a 'terror expert'. My guess is the ubiquitous Rohan Gunaratna (See my 20/10/09 post Exporting Zionism 2).

James Petras' penetrating analysis of the breed is hard to beat:

"The Terrorist Experts (TE) project the violence of the rulers, their conquistadorial ambitions, their greed to seize land and resources, and their savage destructive impulses onto their victims while the responses of the victims, the survivors, are clothed in the rhetoric of pathological behaviour. The really clinical pathologies are to be found, however, in the minds of the verbal assassins - who cannot decipher the causal relation between the repeated rapes and tortures committed by their patron-states and the desperate cries and attempts at self-defence of the excluded, displaced, and exploited, or arrive at any appropriate moral conclusion. Almost all the terror experts have a chronic psychological blindness to the systematic and comprehensive violence inflicted by the West and Israel on particular groups. Today it is the 'Arabs'; at other times it is all insurgents who respond to imperial violence with violence." (The Power of Israel in the United States, 2006, pp 148-149)

"The TE simply pronounce their diagnosis of the armed resistance fighters: incurable psychopaths, extremely dangerous when at large. The politicians dictate the commands: capture, confine, torture, or kill. The Special Forces break through doors in the middle of the night, cut throats, or take prisoners. The prison commandants establish the rules of 'interrogation'. The guards torture. This is a very coherent international division of labor, in which the TE play an important part in elaborating the rationale. They ply a mortally and scientifically justified war-unto-death of the 'untermensch', the 'inferior' peoples, the 'fundamentalist Arab Muslims', the 'suicide bombers', the 'Terrorists'. A common language is spoken between the TE and their state patrons, and then promoted in and by the mass media." (ibid p 152)