owner-sievx-news
Sun, 08 Jun 2003 19:15:55 -0700
[This message was originally posted by Tony Kevin to his SIEVX mailing list] Dear Colleagues, Here is a surprising and potentially important new angle on the SIEV X story. This year's Queen's Birthday Honours list contains no military citations - not one - for any activity in connection with Operation Relex, that was a major Australian combined services border protection military operation in peacetime, that ran from September to December 2001. Yet there are a large number of RAN citations for Operation Slipper - the military peacetime operation of maintaining and commanding the supervision of the naval blockade in the Persian Gulf to uphold the UN-approved sanctions regime against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, during the US invason of Afghanistan. Operation Slipper commenced in November 2001. It was Adelaide's assignment immediately after the interception of SIEV 4. There are also no citations for any acts of meritorious command or bravery in other operations eg Operation Slipper, for any RAN officer that became publicly known to have taken a prominent part in Operation Relex, eg through testimony in the Senate Certain Maritime Incident (CMI) enquiry. Not one. There is one notable SAS award - to Major Khan,. who commanded the SAS boarding party that took control of the Tampa under John Howard's direct orders. But his citation is for his subsequent service in the Afghanistan war. Tampa is not mentioned in the citation for Major Khan. Tampa was the trigger to Operation Relex. It preceded Operation Relex by one week It cannot be claimed that it is too early yet for Operation Relex awards - because Operation Slipper and the Afghanistan war came after Operation Relex. What is happening here? Has the ADF command declined to nominate personnel for any decorations in respect of Operation Relex, or of serving personnel publicly associated with Operation Relex ? Or, has the ADF command been instructed not to put forward any nominations for honours in respect of Operation Relex while that operation remains under a public cloud? If so, by whom ? Have the findings of the Senate CMI Report of 23 October 2002 resulted in a government decision to award no military honours in respect of Operation Relex ? These are important questions. Operation Relex was a major ADF operation at the time. That there are no Relex-related Queen's Birthday Honours - not one - is politically significant. Is the public dishonour that has attached to SIEV X, and to questionable incidents arising in the other 12 SIEV interceptions examined in detail by the Senate CMI Committee and by media, the reason why there have been no Operation Relex honours? These are questions that should be explored by opposition parties and by investigative journalism. They are a clue to the SIEV X smoking gun. References: "Dark Victory", David Marr and Marion Wilkinson. "RAN doctor condemns policy on boatpeople", Paul Toohey, "The Australian", 7 November 2001. I attach a statement of this email list's purpose and operating protocols. It will be included with all my future mailings under this list. Tony Kevin, Canberra, 9 June 2003 ---------- Purpose and Operating Protocols: "Tony Kevin's SIEV X list" This email message is being sent to a "blind" ( "BCC" ) list that currently includes about 100 people: mostly, active SIEV X supporters, and interested or potentially interested parliamentarians and media. It is public information that may be used with or without attribution to me as author. It may also be freely copied by any recipient to any other person they wish to copy it to. Its purpose is to seek to get important facts or analysis regarding the unresolved issue of the sinking of SIEV X, and directly related issues, into the public arena, where they may be taken up by others e.g., politicians and media. It joins the authoritative and credible www.sievx.com , which however is not my website, in that important public role. I reject any notion that the SIEVX story is "over". No unresolved major capital crime in Australia can be considered over, until it is solved and its perpetrators and accessories brought to justice. I will welcome any constructive, especially factual, feedback to my messages sent out on this email list and will always try to respond. But I do not expect feedback. I ask only that my mailings be read by recipients . If anyone on this list asks to be taken off it, I will do so. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This list is hosted by http://sievx.com SIEVX-NEWS is a low-traffic list for disseminating news about the SIEVX Affair. To unsubscribe: send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe sievx-news' in the body. All other requests/comments to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~