Bill F.
Thanks to the courageous whistle-blower Edward Snowden and other investigators, more information is coming out which reveals the extent of Australian government (whether Labor or Liberal) subservience to US imperialism.
For
instance, heavily censored documents released under Freedom of Information laws
show that the Labor government knew about the secretive US email spying system
called PRISM at least two months before Snowden leaked information to the
British paper, The Guardian.
Leaked
documents published in the Washington
Post reveal that PRISM collects email address books and ‘friends’ from Yahoo,
Hotmail, Facebook and Gmail accounts from many countries and that this
so-called ‘intelligence’ is shared with Australia’ Defence Signals Directorate,
plus Britain, Canada and New Zealand – the other trusted ‘running dogs’ who
always come when the master whistles.
The scale is mind-blowing: in a single day the NSA is reported to have
scooped up 444,743 email address books from Yahoo, 105,068 from Hotmail, 82,857
from Facebook, 33,697 from Gmail and 22,881 from other providers. Analysis of
address books and contact lists plots social and political connections and
networks that can then be targeted.
The snooping doesn’t stop there. Most recently the French government
(supposedly an ally?) went crook when it discovered that US intelligence
agencies had secretly taped an incredible 70 million phone calls right across
France within a month. It begs the question – what is happening here?!
Nuclear hypocrisy exposed
Documents obtained by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear
Weapons (ICAN) have exposed the former Gillard government’s abandonment of the
principle of nuclear disarmament when it refused to sign a statement at the
Non-Proliferation Treaty meeting in Geneva in April. The statement, endorsed by
some 80 other countries, included wording that referred to ''the incalculable
human suffering associated with any use of nuclear weapons''. Our craven
diplomats, huddled under the US nuclear umbrella, just squirmed in their seats.
ICAN Director Tim Wright said, “''Australia cannot credibly advocate
nuclear disbarment while claiming that US nuclear weapons guarantee our security
or prosperity. Not only is this a ludicrous notion, it is also a dangerous one
because it signals to other nations that nuclear weapons are useful and
necessary… These declassified exchanges between government officials clearly
demonstrate that Australia's talk of nuclear disarmament has been insincere and
hollow.''
Malcolm Fraser
In an article in the Melbourne Age
on Monday 21, former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser made strong points
which demonstrate the very dangers to Australia by the policies of subservience
to US imperialism.
“Anyone who has a sense of pride in Australia as an independent nation,
as a nation that can make up its own mind, whose values are worth supporting,
should be disheartened.
“We have followed the United States into three wars: Vietnam, Iraq and
Afghanistan. Vietnam and Iraq were costly and tragic failures. Afghanistan is a
failure in waiting. US policies have failed in the Middle East. As a
consequence, that region is in greater turmoil and America's influence has
greatly diminished.
“But if present US policies are pursued, there is a possibility of
conflict ultimately between China and the US. If we are involved, our
relationships with all countries of the region would be affected. A conflict
could be begun by a newly militaristic Japan seeking to change the status of
the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands. It could be caused by the Philippines, believing
they would have American support and behaving aggressively as a consequence.
While the Americans claim not to take sides in disputes in the East and South
China seas, their statements, their dispositions and deployments, suggest they
have sided with Japan.
“These events affect Australia deeply. We have little or no capacity for
independent action or decisions. If America is involved in conflict, our
hosting a powerful Marine air-ground taskforce in Darwin, capable of deploying
power anywhere throughout the region, makes us complicit in whatever that
taskforce may do. Australians have been deceived by statements in Australia,
belittling the significance of that deployment, but outside Australia, US
secretaries of defence have spoken more openly of its capacities.
“Perhaps more important, Pine Gap, whose initial purpose was to gather
intelligence concerning the performance of Soviet missiles, now provides
information, virtually in real time, that can be used by a variety of US
weapons systems, including drones. Pine Gap is part of America's drone killing
program. If targets are selected anywhere in east Asia or the western Pacific,
we are complicit in such actions.
“In any conflict in the western Pacific, because of the Darwin taskforce
and Pine Gap, it would be impossible to say that we are not involved.
Therefore, if America goes to war in the western Pacific, we also will be at
war. Washington will determine whether Australia goes to war or not, just as
Britain and the empire did in days of old.
“We must find a way to reassert our own sovereignty.”
Indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment