Mick Keelty. It took 48 hours, but they got him to sign his name to utter rubbish, humiliate himself, and thus hammer the nail in the coffin of the government�s credibility on security.
Does the government think we�re stupid? The former Spanish government thought its people were when it blamed ETA for the bombings without evidence, and look what happened to it!
When was the last time the government forced a very, very senior public official � one we trusted � to sign a false statement to protect the government�s lies?
Why, it was in the last week of the 2001 federal election campaign, when this government without honour humiliated the then chief of the navy, Admiral David Shackleton.
How sickening is John Howard�s government allowed to get before we sack it?
On November 8, 2001, three days before the election, Admiral David Shackleton told reporters that boat people had NOT thrown children overboard (see Red light questions and Photo fraud). His statement came within hours of John Howard falsely claiming during questions at the National Press Club that ONA had confirmed the throwing (in fact, ONA was reporting press reports of the government�s claim, as it made clear in its brief to the PM�s office).
Within hours, a statement under Admiral Shackleton’s name appeared as follows:
Statement by the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral David Shackleton AO RAN
“An AAP report (1640 8/11/01) attributed to me, following today’s farewell of HMAS Adelaide and HMAS Kanimbla in Western Australia, concerning unauthorised boat arrivals is inaccurate.
“My comments in no way contradict the Minister.
“I confirm the Minister was advised that Defence believed children had been thrown overboard.”
Further information: Tim Bloomfield (Department of Defence) Ph 0404 822361 (See Circling the wagons).
How misleading can you get? As we found out during the unthrown children inquiry, a defence force bloke running on a verbal report and speaking without authority had told the government verbally that children had been thrown overboard, but the Navy tried its arse off, through all available channels including a call from the acting chief of the defence force Air Marshall Houston to defence Minister Reith, to correct the record.
I remember very well calling Mr Bloomfield on the matter. It was interesting, since the Government had insisted throughout the election that journos only speak to Reith�s PR flack Ross Hampton (who later refused to give evidence to the inquiry and is now Brendan Nelson�s press secretary). When the shit hit the fan, of course, the government palmed it off to defence people with orders to say nothing! (For Howard�s lies after the statement, see Howard throw)
Revolting, isn�t it.
And now, AFP commissioner Mick Keelty gets the treatment for telling the truth. God, he�s been loyal. Keelty refused to cooperate with the unthrown children�s inquiry�s questions on SIEV-X, and in the end pleaded privilege to avoid answering questions about how far the AFP had gone in it s �disruption program� of boats.
But when push came to shove, he became just another victim of this government without shame. Now, he says, without explanation, that he was was �taken out of context�. Crap.
This is what Keelty said on the Sunday program, a standard view of every expert in the world who is not compromised by connections with George Bush and his cronies:
JANA WENDT: Well, Commissioner, that brings me to the question that most Australians are asking themselves. Could this happen here?
MICK KEELTY: Well, I think we’ve said all along this is an uphill battle. This is a marathon, not a sprint. The reality is, if this turns out to be Islamic extremists responsible for this bombing in Spain, it’s more likely to be linked to the position that Spain and other allies took on issues such as Iraq. And I don’t think anyone’s been hiding the fact that we do believe that ultimately one day, whether it be in one month’s time, one year’s time, or ten years’ time, something will happen.
And no one can guarantee it won’t. And I think there’s a level of honesty that has to exist here in terms of what the problems are here, not only in Australia but in our region. (Sunday transcript)
Honesty? Was he joking?
That�s the last thing the government which ordered Australian troops to invade another country despite the wishes of the majority of Australians wants. The last thing (see Howard at end of credibility line on Iraq).
The Lateline transcript of Tony Jones� interview with Alexander Downer has not been published as I write, but the interview tells the story of the corner the government is in. At last.
We can analyse it to our hearts content later today, but basically, Downer admits that the war on Iraq is irrelevant to Al Qaeda, except in its usefulness as a propaganda and recruitment tool.
That is, he admits, finally, because there�s nowhere left for him to go, that invading Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with the �war on terror�.
Oh, and he denies that he was critical of Keelty�s capacity to do his job when he said his comments were �expressing a view which reflects a lot of the propaganda we’re getting from al-Qaeda”. Only the ABC had that view, Downer said. No wonder the government wants to get rid of the ABC!
Downer claims a Spanish pullout from Iraq would hurt the war on terror. Bullshit. The first thing the new Spanish leader said was that fighting terrorism was his first priority. The Iraq war has exacerbated the terrorism threat, as every sensible international affairs expert, and the CIA, warned at the time.
Early election please.