Guest Post from Gary Lord, who regularly blogs at Jaraparilla, and is based in Australia. Follow him on Twitter at @jaraparilla
|
Australian Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd
|
There’s been a sudden explosion of interest in Wikileaks cables down under, after every single one of the US diplomatic cables on Australia
was suddenly released online to the public this week. While hardened
Aussie journalists insist there are no major “bombshells,” plenty of
intriguing new stories are now exploding onto the media landscape.
Overall, the US cables reveal a sovereign nation absurdly subservient to
US foreign policy, with Australian ministers queuing to discuss
confidential party deliberations with their friends in the US embassy.
Previously, only a handful of US cables had been covered by WikiLeaks partners, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, both owned by the Fairfax media organization. Fairfax has faced prolonged criticism
for not releasing original cables along with their stories. They
defended themselves by arguing that there were more stories to come and
they did not want to give the cables to their media competitors at
Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited (who control a whopping 70% of the Australian newspaper industry). But that gig is now up.
A widely reported cable revealed
Senator Mark Arbib, currently the Minister for Sport, was a ‘protected’
US source whose identity should be guarded. Latest cables reveal that
US officials were regularly having confidential meetings with other
government ministers, including Maxine McKew” (a TV personality who famously unseated former PM John Howard in his own electorate) and Michael Danby (a regular visitor with strong links to Israel).
|
Michael Danby, MP Labor Party
|
The Israel connection gets another look with a cable revealing that Foreign Minister and former PM Kevin Rudd defied departmental advice
when he abstained from voting on a UN resolution calling for
investigations into war crimes during the Gaza War. This is only
surprising because Australia’s UN voting record
is slavishly pro-US and pro-Israel, on a par with diplomatic minnows
like Micronesia, Nauru, and Palau. There is little public discussion of
this in Australia.
Other cables discuss regional diplomacy, including former PM John Howard’s threats
to leaders of the Solomon Islands, where Australia has spent over a
billion dollars and eight years to achieve very little real progress. In
Fiji, Australia and New Zealand acquiesced to US requests to “not rush” sanctions against the new military junta, for fear of undermining the war effort in Iraq.
|
Former Prime Minister
John Howard
|
John Howard infamously supported Bush and Blair’s invasion of Iraq, and is praised
for regularly supporting unpopular US political positions. US officials
particularly praised his handling of the local media over questions
about the detention and torture of Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks,
who has just spoken about his incarceration on Australian TV for the
first time. Another Australian detainee from Guantanamo Bay, Mahmoud Habib, has already received an unspecified sum of money from the Australian
government as part of an out-of-court settlement that includes absolving
the government of liability in his torture case. [*Note: Read this confidential cable
where then-opposition leader Kim Beazley tells the US ambassador Hicks
is "a ratbag who had almost certainly been up to nefarious things and
should probably spend a long time in jail."]
|
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley |
Perhaps we Australians should not be surprised when, for example, our government discusses troop increases in Afghanistan
with US officials, while simultaneously denying to us that such talks
are taking place. Diplomacy, after all, has its place. But the broader
picture painted by these cables makes Australia look like a pathetic US
puppet state.
Meanwhile, with so many new Australian Cablegate stories still coming
out, it’s hard to understand why Fairfax, who just recorded a $391 million net loss, did not publish them much earlier. One can only assume that they were under too much political pressure.
*For more on all the Australia cables just released, here is a round-up from Crikey.
(Photos added by Axis of Logic)
Source: Fire Dog Lake
|