Liberal cover-up of Howard government Timor espionage ends

Posted on 8 July, 2022 by C.L.

Well done: Mark Dreyfus orders Commonwealth to drop charges against lawyer Bernard Collaery.

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24 Responses to Liberal cover-up of Howard government Timor espionage ends

Mantaray says:

9 July, 2022 at 4:48 am

C.L. What’s happened to the Shinzo Abe thread from yesterday?

Hoping you are OK, and not being leaned on by the same guys who forced Sinc to shut down the old Catallaxy when he too crossed the Pharmapaths..

If this comment does not appear we’ll all be thinking of you. Good luck!
Bruce of Newcastle says:

9 July, 2022 at 8:25 am

What’s wrong with spying on East Timor? Fretilin are well known to be a bunch of Marxists, it makes perfect sense to keep an eye on such people.

Presumably Collaery is a lefty or Dreyfus would never give him a get out of jail free card. Maybe they could go off and save Assange now, since he did what Collaery did.
C.L. says:

9 July, 2022 at 9:32 am

Bruce, ASIS wasn’t spying on Fretilin – and Collaery didn’t do what Assange did.

It was industrial espionage to get a commercial advantage in negotiations with the new government over gas and oil rights. Whether or not Collaery is a lefty is irrelevant; he was hired by Witness K (who had legal rights to representation) and when it was thought the two would reveal what had gone on at The Hague, Collaery’s office was raided by ASIO and he was charged. That is completely outrageous.

It’s always the cover-up.

Everybody knows what the Howard government did anyway but conventional legal prosecutions through the courts were too dangerous for the Liberals who could have found themselves sworn to testify – up to and including Howard himself.

Incidentally, Australia got a worse deal subsequent to the bugging than it might have done had it played with a straight bat. In addition to everything else, the mission failed.

With everything we’ve come to learn about ‘intelligence’ agencies over the past few years, I have no trust in them whatsoever. They exist to exist. Even the notion of national ‘secrets’ is now mostly bullshit.
Not Trampis says:

9 July, 2022 at 9:36 am

agree with CL.
It is a dark stain on Australia’s reputation. We did not have to do it and anyone with a moral comppass would not have done it.
C.L. says:

9 July, 2022 at 9:37 am

Mantaray, I had the thread up when Mr Abe’s status was critical, took it down when he died (nobody having commented) and intended to publish a new post with world reaction links etc but the afternoon got away from me. I wish I got paid to run the blog and keep it current but, alas, I don’t.

I’m not sure why Big Pharma would want to get to me over Shinzo Abe’s death.

?
Chris M says:

9 July, 2022 at 9:54 am

Ironic that Christian Porter was one of the key figures in this evil. Seems like a long term sleazebag to me.

We like to think our gov is morally superior to China’s etc but sometime just not.
C.L. says:

9 July, 2022 at 9:57 am

Here is the reaction from Shadow Attorney-General Julian Leeser :

“Mr Dreyfus must explain why he has chosen to undermine the good work of Australia’s national security agencies who work tirelessly to keep Australians safe as his first action as Attorney-General,” he said.

“This action sends a dangerous message to those who would seek to do harm to Australia by dealing in government secrets and shows Labor can’t be trusted to manage our national security.”
C.L. says:

9 July, 2022 at 10:14 am

Recall also that it was pompous barrister George Brandis who ordered the ASIO raid. This is the bloke who lectured Pauline Hanson about civilised conduct when she wore a burqa in the Senate. That was Brandis’s finest hour as Attorney-General – defending the rule of law under sharia.
Mantaray says:

9 July, 2022 at 10:38 am

C.L. (9.37am) a dedicated thread on the subject might be interesting…

The MSM reckons a forklift driver (ex-marine?) with a homemade armoury did the Shinzo hit, and that somehow he thwarted security to do it… just like a pro.

Meanwhile. …they also reckon another nut-case ex-marine got JFK and that a night-club bozo-owner then got that marine whilst the target was surrounded by armed coppers…just like Honest Abe was.

Everything goes to motive and opportunity!

BTW: Think Jan 6th and that amazing “breach of security” if the forklift-driver tale still looks plausible to you.
C.L. says:

9 July, 2022 at 10:50 am

I am gobsmacked that he managed to get so close to Abe with that blunderbuss.
cuckoo says:

9 July, 2022 at 11:28 am

If the Abe assassin turns out to be any kind of leftist he will disappear from media as quickly as the July 4th parade shooter, whose motives for shooting up a patriotic crowd celebrating America’s foundational day remain a total mystery.
Not Trampis says:

9 July, 2022 at 11:41 am

not that gobsmacking.
Very few shootings in Japan and at a political rally it is almost unheard of.
Ed Case says:

9 July, 2022 at 12:07 pm

A political leader in Japan was assassinated onstage by sword in 1960, many have been threatened.
Japan is having a Parliamentary Vote on changing the [pacifist] PostWar Constitution next week, they might be rethinking that now?
Abe descends from a long line of Japanese politicians, his old man was PM, maternal Grandad was a Class A War Criminal, later PM.
Chinese Official reaction was celebratory.
Not Trampis says:

9 July, 2022 at 12:48 pm

ex political leader
Bruce of Newcastle says:

9 July, 2022 at 12:54 pm

It was industrial espionage to get a commercial advantage in negotiations with the new government over gas and oil rights.

So what? Entirely justified. Having the Chinese in that country, which they would be in a shot, would be our national interest to know about. As I said: the Timor Leste government are Marxists, they only ever use us as useful idiots. So stuff ’em, we need to know what they’re up to.

I’ve kept track over the years about the Greater Sunrise stuff. The TL kiddies have no idea of the engineering and geology and seem to get everything they know from M-L thought or something.

It is not illegal to snoop on the goings on in a potentially hostile country.
entropy says:

9 July, 2022 at 1:36 pm

I agree with Bruce.
Not Trampis says:

9 July, 2022 at 1:47 pm

they are not marxists and even if they were the illegal snooping is a disgrace.

hostile country?? They were negotiating oil and where it was and whose it was.
engage in the subject
Ed Case says:

9 July, 2022 at 3:05 pm

There was an Inquest earlier in the year into the Whiskey Au Go Go fire of March 8 1973.
Anyway, Bernard Collaery’s name came up as someone who had a connection, either as a witness to what someone involved in events leading up to that night had said, or as part of the investigation.
I forget which.
Anyway, fancy that, eh?
30 years later he shows up at something Downer and some other ne’er do wells were up to, then the Spooks got involved.
Then the Labor Party said:
Nothing to see here, goodbye.
Ed Case says:

9 July, 2022 at 3:09 pm

The elites who run Timor Leste [into the ground] have never been our friends.

Which makes you wonder why John Howard burnt all our goodwill with Indonesia to establish a Government that hated our guts then and still does?
Boambee John says:

9 July, 2022 at 4:48 pm

Non Mentis

Legally, they were entitled resources out to the edge of the TL continental shelf, which is quite close we to Timor. They wanted more. Greedy sods.
NoFixedAddress says:

9 July, 2022 at 7:17 pm

C.L.

You could have titled your post “The Dreyfus Affair”!
NoFixedAddress says:

9 July, 2022 at 7:18 pm

that was a LOL by the way
Bruce of Newcastle says:

9 July, 2022 at 7:26 pm

they are not marxists and even if they were the illegal snooping is a disgrace.

hostile country?? They were negotiating oil and where it was and whose it was.
engage in the subject

Haha, Homer that’s excellent. Not one factual statement or concept in an entire comment. Except for the “negotiating oil” bit. Which they were doing even though it wasn’t theirs by conventional international precedent.
Entropy says:

11 July, 2022 at 10:11 pm

I can’t fathom why we even engaged on doing anything other than continental shelf. Just tell them we were not going to even countenance it.
Of course Turnbull gave away the resources. Not green enough for his arrogance.