Wow. If you get a chance, look at The Drum from yesterday on iView. Tho Peter Carey's new book is about this, the panel poo-pooed it as impossible conspiracy theory. I may rethink and buy Carey's book after all, given the analysis below. "Amnesia" is the title.
Jan At 09:28 AM 24/10/2014, jore wrote: > The forgotten coup - how America and Britain crushed the > government of their 'ally', Australia > >http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-forgotten-coup-how-america-and-britain-crushed-the-government-of-their-ally-australia > > > 23 October 2014 > >/John Pilger/ > > >Across the political and media elite in Australia, a silence has >descended on the memory of the great, reforming prime minister Gough >Whitlam, who has died. His achievements are recognised, if grudgingly, >his mistakes noted in false sorrow. But a critical reason for his >extraordinary political demise will, they hope, be buried with him. > >Australia briefly became an independent state during the Whitlam years, >1972-75. An American commentator wrote that no country had "reversed its >posture in international affairs so totally without going through a >domestic revolution". Whitlam ended his nation's colonial servility. He >abolished Royal patronage, moved Australia towards the Non-Aligned >Movement, supported "zones of peace" and opposed nuclear weapons testing. > >Although not regarded as on the left of the Labor Party, Whitlam was a >maverick social democrat of principle, pride and propriety. He believed >that a foreign power should not control his country's resources and >dictate its economic and foreign policies. He proposed to "buy back the >farm". In drafting the first Aboriginal lands rights legislation, his >government raised the ghost of the greatest land grab in human history, >Britain's colonisation of Australia, and the question of who owned the >island-continent's vast natural wealth. > >Latin Americans will recognise the audacity and danger of this "breaking >free" in a country whose establishment was welded to great, external >power. Australians had served every British imperial adventure since the >Boxer rebellion was crushed in China. In the 1960s, Australia pleaded to >join the US in its invasion of Vietnam, then provided "black teams" to >be run by the CIA. US diplomatic cables published last year by WikiLeaks >disclose the names of leading figures in both main parties, including a >future prime minister and foreign minister, as Washington's informants >during the Whitlam years. > >Whitlam knew the risk he was taking. The day after his election, he >ordered that his staff should not be "vetted or harassed" by the >Australian security organisation, ASIO - then, as now, tied to >Anglo-American intelligence. When his ministers publicly condemned the >US bombing of Vietnam as "corrupt and barbaric", a CIA station officer >in Saigon said: "We were told the Australians might as well be regarded >as North Vietnamese collaborators." > >Whitlam demanded to know if and why the CIA was running a spy base at >Pine Gap near Alice Springs, a giant vacuum cleaner which, as Edward >Snowden revealed recently, allows the US to spy on everyone. "Try to >screw us or bounce us," the prime minister warned the US ambassador, >"[and Pine Gap] will become a matter of contention". > >Victor Marchetti, the CIA officer who had helped set up Pine Gap, later >told me, "This threat to close Pine Gap caused apoplexy in the White >House... a kind of Chile [coup] was set in motion." > >Pine Gap's top-secret messages were de-coded by a CIA contractor, TRW. >One of the de-coders was Christopher Boyce, a young man troubled by the >"deception and betrayal of an ally". Boyce revealed that the CIA had >infiltrated the Australian political and trade union elite and referred >to the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, as "our man Kerr". > >Kerr was not only the Queen's man, he had long-standing ties to >Anglo-American intelligence. He was an enthusiastic member of the >Australian Association for Cultural Freedom, described by Jonathan >Kwitny of the Wall Street Journal in his book, 'The Crimes of Patriots', >as, "an elite, invitation-only group... exposed in Congress as being >founded, funded and generally run by the CIA". The CIA "paid for Kerr's >travel, built his prestige... Kerr continued to go to the CIA for money". > >When Whitlam was re-elected for a second term, in 1974, the White House >sent Marshall Green to Canberra as ambassador. Green was an imperious, >sinister figure who worked in the shadows of America's "deep state". >Known as the "coupmaster", he had played a central role in the 1965 coup >against President Sukarno in Indonesia - which cost up to a million >lives. One of his first speeches in Australia was to the Australian >Institute of Directors - described by an alarmed member of the audience >as "an incitement to the country's business leaders to rise against the >government". > >The Americans and British worked together. In 1975, Whitlam discovered >that Britain's MI6 was operating against his government. "The Brits were >actually decoding secret messages coming into my foreign affairs >office," he said later. One of his ministers, Clyde Cameron, told me, >"We knew MI6 was bugging Cabinet meetings for the Americans." In the >1980s, senior CIA officers revealed that the "Whitlam problem" had been >discussed "with urgency" by the CIA's director, William Colby, and the >head of MI6, Sir Maurice Oldfield. A deputy director of the CIA said: >"Kerr did what he was told to do." > >On 10 November, 1975, Whitlam was shown a top secret telex message >sourced to Theodore Shackley, the notorious head of the CIA's East Asia >Division, who had helped run the coup against Salvador Allende in Chile >two years earlier. > >Shackley's message was read to Whitlam. It said that the prime minister >of Australia was a security risk in his own country. The day before, >Kerr had visited the headquarters of the Defence Signals Directorate, >Australia's NSA where he was briefed on the "security crisis". > >On 11 November - the day Whitlam was to inform Parliament about the >secret CIA presence in Australia - he was summoned by Kerr. Invoking >archaic vice-regal "reserve powers", Kerr sacked the democratically >elected prime minister. The "Whitlam problem" was solved, and Australian >politics never recovered, nor the nation its true independence. > >_______________________________________________ >Link mailing list >[email protected] >http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link "Lost Anchors" - Now available on Amazon in both print and Kindle versions. Print: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Anchors-J-Kirsten/dp/1502541556/ Ebook : <http://mybook.to/lostanchors>myBook.to/lostanchors Melbourne, Victoria, Australia [email protected] Twitter: <https://twitter.com/JL_Whitaker>JL_Whitaker Blog: www.janwhitaker.com <https://www.amazon.com/author/jlwhitaker>JL Whitaker "On A Life's Edge" - US Amazon print and digital http://viewBook.at/OALEdge Apple iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/on-a-lifes-edge/id893736824?mt=11 Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you're gonna die, so how do you fill in the space between here and there? It's yours. Seize your space. ~Margaret Atwood, writer _ __________________ _ _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
