Qatar: a strategic geo-political hub for 'US interests'

Written by: (Contributed) on 24 May 2025

 

(Above: Trump at the Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar   Original image from TurDef.com)

It is possible to read anything you want into anything you want; facts, however, have considerable bearing on outcomes and assessments. Trump's recent high-level diplomatic mission to Qatar is but one example in question.

The diplomatic mission was given massive coverage through mainstream media outlets, which invariably relied upon numerous official US diplomatic communiques and mindless, wanton speculation, by the world's editorial boards. Behind the millions of column centimetres of coverage, however, a few relevant facts reveal the strategic and geo-political significance of Qatar for 'US interests'. The main media coverage provided a convenient cover for the main purpose of the high-level diplomacy.

Hidden deep within the trade deal between the US and Qatar, a non-disclosed military budget has been used to elevate the latter as a secure hub for regional 'US interests'. It has been noted that the country's ruling monarchy 'has showered billions of dollars derived from its natural gas reserves on US institutions, mainly the military and universities, while ramping up spending on lobbyists to tilt policy in its favour'. (1)

Turkey’s online TurDef.com revealed some details of the US war manufacturers’ sales successes in Qater, courtesy of super-salesman Trump:

U.S. President Donald Trump announced defence contracts worth $42 billion and an investment worth $10 billion on the Al Udeid Air Base were signed with Qatar.

The defence contract includes C-UAS systems from RTX (Raytheon) for a cost of $1 billion, THAAD anti-ballistic missile systems, MQ-9B SkyGuardian UAVs, GDLS Desert Viper 8x8 armoured vehicles, and KC-46 Pegasus tanker aircraft.

Trump announced the contract during his speech at the Al Udeid Air Base, which houses U.S. armed forces personnel. The defence contract cluster also includes investing $10 billion in the air base to improve its capabilities.
 

A brief statement from Canberra contained in a mainstream media release set the stage for endless speculation. Or was it done to deflect attention away from Qatar? It noted, for example, that, 'as Trump stormed through the region this week in a gilded display of pomp and pageantry, escorted by Arab horses, trumpets and meetings in opulent palaces, the region's key players – especially Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Gulf States – are scrambling to work out what it all means'. (2) Qatar, interestingly, was not listed as a regional key player, for non-disclosed reasons. Or was it done to avoid unnecessary publicity about a country closely linked to 'US interests'?

The regional role of Qatar has to be viewed in a historical context, with far-reaching implications for present diplomacy and 'US interests'.

Throughout the previous Cold War, Iran was an important centre for 'US interests' in the Middle East. With the opening of sensitive intelligence facilities on Diego Garcia in 1973, the Indian Ocean military base was the central part of a network stretching from Silvermine in South Africa, Kagnew in Ethiopia, Abu-Musa in Iran, Subic Bay in the Philippines and Pine Gap in Australia. (3)

The Diego Garcia facilities had long range capacity with 'communication with security personnel … for … wide area international events in the Asian and Middle Eastern scene', with continual upgrades. (4) The facilities were also linked global networks based in the elite Five Eyes signals intelligence (SIGINT) sharing provision. (5)  

While the Diego Garcia facilities and the Pine Gap connection remain central to US-led military and security provision, official diplomatic silence has been the order of the day, despite a considerable wealth of reliable data about the installation. (6)

The subsequent ousting of the Ethiopian Monarchy in 1974 and the increasingly unstable nature of the country, together with the Iranian Revolution of 1979, however, shook the very foundations of US military and security provision.

Records in the public domain have noted Iran, during the time of the Shah, hosted seven sensitive SIGINT stations, linked into US intelligence networks: Behshahr, Kabkan, Meshad, Klanabad, Astara, Shirabad, and Project Ibex. (7)

Project Ibex, which was based in a previous covert operation, Project Dark Gene, proved a particularly interesting Iranian contribution toward the previous Cold War; it was primarily based in intelligence-gathering against the former Soviet Union with some secret flights flown by serving USAF personnel. (8) Ibex included a secret alliance established between Iran and Israel regarded as highly sensitive by the US. (9) It was used to promote anti-Arab diplomacy in the Middle East; Iranians, historically, regarded as Persian, were treated as puppets by US foreign policy. The subsequent Israeli involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal is best viewed in that light. (10)

Qatar, which won its independence from the UK in 1971, was chosen as a replacement component of the US intelligence-gathering provision soon after the fall of the Shah of Iran. There is no reason to believe its duplicitous role was marked by anything other than an ally of expedience by the US; SIGINT has remained the order of the day. With a geographical location at 52 degrees east and 25 degrees north, for example, the country swings on the same arc as Diego Garcia to Pine Gap, the extended arc then reaches sensitive military facilities in the UK. (11) As a former colonial power, it should be noted that the UK retains extensive diplomatic links inside Qatar through established protocol.

Over the following decades continual upgrades to the US military facilities on Diego Garcia were accompanied by Qatar quietly ushering in a complaint political system to support US-led regional operations, including those specifically within the Middle East.

Qatari-US diplomatic relations, therefore, remain very strong; it has been noted 'multi-billion dollar purchases of arms and other equipment that help intertwine its fate with America's', have taken place. (12)

Some of the other equipment in operation in Qatar would appear to include computer station facilities with access to Echelon. (13) The telecommunications interception facilities are based upon the main UKUSA network, where 'each station in the Echelon network has computers which automatically search through the millions of intercepted messages for ones containing pre-programmed keywords or fax, telex and email addresses … the Echelon system has created an awesome spying capacity for the USA, allowing it to monitor continuously most of the world's communications targeting civilian as well as military traffic'. (14)

Qatar's lobby sector has been noted to possess an 'outsize influence in Washington and has a seat at the table on numerous geo-political issues where it otherwise wouldn't even be an afterthought'. (15) Recent disclosures surrounding 'large sums of money from Qatar landing in the bank accounts of Mr Netanyahu's close aides – even during the war with Hamas in Gaza – raising the prospect of foreign penetration deep inside the highest corridors of political power', are best assessed, however, in the light of the role of the so-called Jonathan Institute. (16) The shadowy Israel-based institute was established by Netanyahu in 1979 and soon became the main link between Israeli and US government officials in an 'emblematic think tank'. (17) Studies of the Jonathan Institute have concluded that it possessed 'substantial ties to MOSSAD'. (18)

While Israel has remained politically divided over the Qatar-Gate revelations, Netanyahu saw fit to actually dismiss the head of the country's domestic security service over the subsequent investigation of the present government; the matter, nevertheless, has remained ongoing. (19) It is considered extremely sensitive although has carried many of the hallmarks of a covert or clandestine operation; influence was being brought to bear from elsewhere.

US diplomatic influence also continues to remain a major consideration with Qatar.

Qatar, for example, has US university campuses in the country, and is also 'the single largest funder of American universities, according to US Department of Education data, providing more than US$6 billion over the past fifteen years through gifts or contracts with schools including Cornell, Georgetown and North-western. Much of that money is tied to 'satellite campuses'. (20) A rising intelligentsia in both Qatar and the US have relied upon the connivance to serve other interests and agendas.

And with it, comes strings: the puppet-masters lurk behind the scenes and their puppets dance to the music; the main theme song remaining Middle Eastern foreign policy initiatives, including covert operations.

 

1.     Qatar's gambit to gain influence, Australian, 16 May 2025.
2.     Trump's bold Mid-East gambit, The Weekend Australian, 17-18 May 2025.
3.     Essential instruments in US strategy, two new gendarmes: Iran and South Africa, Le Monde Diplomatique, December 1976.
4.     See: Shortwave Central, The radio scene on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, 25 July 2019; and, RealClear Defence, Shifting sands at Diego Garcia, 3 February 2025.
5.     See: The ties that bind, J.T. Richelson and D. Ball, (Sydney, 1985), The UKUSA SIGINT network, Appendix One.

6.     See: The Falcon and the Snowman, Robert Lindsay, (London, 1981).
7.     The Ties that Bind, op.cit., Appendix One.
8.     See: Project Dark gene and Project Ibex, www.spyflight.co.uk/darkgene.htm.; and,  www.acig.org
9.     Ibid.
10.   Document 72, Transactions 1-6, The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History, Edited Peter Kornblub and Malcolm Byrne, (New York, 1993), pp. 264-69.
11.   See: Peters Projection, World Map, Actual Size.
12.   Australian, op.cit., 16 May 2025.
13.   Echelon, Espionage Spies and Secrets, Richard M. Bennett,  (London, 2003), pp. 89-93.
14.   Ibid.
15.   Australian, op.cit., 16 May 2025.  
16.   Secrets spill as Israel's spy agency is engulfed by Netanyahu row with its boss, Australian, 13 May 2025.
17.   The New Red Scare, Introduction, Covert Action – The Roots of Terrorism, (Victoria, 2003), pp. 49-52.
18.   Disinformation, ibid., pp. 162-68.
19.   Sacking of Israeli spy chief 'tainted', The Weekend Australian, 22-23 March 2025.
20.   Australian, op.cit., 16 May 2025.

 

Labor Sweeps to Power: Now It’s Time to Deliver for Workers

Written by: G. Sand on 16 May 2025

 

Boorloo — In a historic political shift, the Australian Labor Party has stormed back into government with an unprecedented majority of over 90 seats in the House of Representatives, cementing its mandate to enact bold reforms. This landslide victory is more than just a repudiation of the Coalition — it’s a call to action. It’s time for Labor to stop being afraid of the Liberals and deliver long-lasting, transformative change for Australian workers.

At the heart of this agenda must be workplace reform — and specifically, the restoration of union-led collective bargaining.

For decades, union density in Australia has been in freefall, a trend that began during the Howard era when changes to the Workplace Relations Act allowed workers to nominate anyone — not just unions — to represent them in Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) negotiations. This shift undermined the power and legitimacy of unions at the bargaining table, enabling employers to bypass collective negotiations in favour of individual or token representative deals.

When Labor returned to power previously, there were signals of a crackdown on these practices. But employer associations, led by right-wing extremists like the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Minerals Council of Australia, acted swiftly and ruthlessly. In a legal grey zone, they orchestrated a rush of so-called “baseline agreements” — minimalist EBAs that tied wages to the award, locking workers into stagnant pay and conditions.

These baseline agreements, often signed with minimal consultation, left union organisers arriving on-site to find the door already closed. Workers, trapped in subpar deals for years, saw their bargaining power gutted before negotiations even began.

This time, Labor must not flinch.

It is fundamentally a party of capitalism, but its electoral base largely resides in the working class. Its electoral campaigning depends very much on the support given to it by unions and their ability to organise mass doorknocking to persuade people to vote for it.

The huge majority it has won in parliament almost assures it of success in the next election as well. It can take either one of two paths: feel obliged to reward its electoral base with the repeal of anti-union frameworks embedded by the Coalition and re-empower unions as the exclusive representatives in enterprise bargaining. Unions were built to defend wages, protect safety, and push back against corporate exploitation. Preventing companies from gaming the system through dodgy EBAs isn’t just good policy — it’s a moral imperative.

Or it can feel so secure in office that it feels no need to take on the big end of town in order to extend the rights of workers at work and in the community.

Nothing should be taken for granted.

With a majority this strong, Labor has no excuse for timidity. The electorate has granted them the numbers, the authority, and the moment. Now they must use it — to put more money in the pockets of working Australians, to lift standards across industries, and to restore collective power to where it belongs: with the workers and their unions.

Dare to struggle, Dare to Win

Dystopia and the Sacrosanct Elephant

Written by: (Contributed) on 15 May 2025

 

(Image by chatGPT)

Dystopian: Definition Oxford Lnguages:

Relating to or denoting an imagined state of society where there is great suffering or injustice “the dystopian future is a society bereft of reason”

“Example: environmental disaster is the backdrop to this modern dystopia”

There is a great deal written about the current lack of understanding in the general population regarding what is taking place nationally and within Australia. It is a case of an overload of misinformation that is driven by political and ideological persuasions in support of powerful economic interests.

We are in a dystopian situation that provides a basis for truly destructive social impacts, many of which are already in play. The following quote from Hannah Arendt, (14 October 1906 – 14 December 1975: German historian and philosopher) is pertinent:

 

A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subject to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want.

Science and Truth

 

There has been an increase in the questioning of truth and more specifically science. This process has placed science in the same category as other belief systems giving the impression it has no greater claim to an objective understanding of our world.

 

A defining characteristic of the scientific method is that it does not require a belief in preordained truths. It is based on the premise that truth is both objective and conditional (fallible). Objective because it is the outcome of the social application of the scientific method and conditional on the understanding that further application will either reinforce, qualify or disprove the current understanding.

 

The ongoing undermining of scientific evidence occurred during the initial stages of the Covid crisis. The leader of “the free world”, Trump, was a significant contributor to the false information around the disease and its potential impact and he had significant accomplices in the Australian political and media environments. 

 

The major issue here is that if this scepticism is promoted at the highest formal level in society it does have an impact on the way citizens in general view what is happening and what constitutes informed decisions.

 

As has been pointed out by others, this constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.

 

The following are a few examples that show quite clearly how far this process of the discrediting of science and truth coupled with misinformation and lies has progressed, the negative impact this is having and the complicity of people in positions of power.

 

The State and Leadership

 

The US has recently voted a person to represent their country for a second time at the highest level who is a convicted felon, promotes false information and lies, has threatened the annexation of independent countries, has been defined as a misogynist, and has clearly aligned himself with the economic elite. At his inauguration ceremony there were three people on the dais, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos who have an estimated combined wealth in excess of the wealth of the bottom 50% of the US population.

 

In his inauguration ceremony there was hardly if any reference to the cost of living crisis, the existing and growing disparity in wealth, the housing crisis, the health system. All are major concerns for the general population.

 

He was voted into power by over 50% of those who voted. As has been pointed out in numerous articles, people did not believe they had a viable alternative.

 

And that is not surprising. During the election campaign there were more billionaires supporting the Democrats than the Republicans.

 

The current leaders of government in this country and the opposition are complicit in the lack of objective analysis while providing an abundance of misinformation to the public. More on this shortly.

 

The Environment

 

Misinformation has been a feature of the politicalisation of climate change and the denial of the role that non-renewable energy sources have played. The vast majority of scientists have acknowledged the impact of human induced climate change. Yet we still have established media services deliberately encouraging doubt about this development.

 

We have a situation where the president of the US is advocating increasing the use of non-renewable resources: “dig baby dig”. The same person is suggesting the annexation of other countries, Canada and Greenland. Some facts that relate to such a suggestion regarding Greenland:

 

• Greenland has the second largest known deposit of rare earth mineral oxides in the world.

• For over a decade, the US establishment and others have been discussing the break up of the Artic ice and the opening up of lucrative trade routes.

• China and Russia are in competition with the US to take advantage of these opportunities.

 

Trump is fully aware or the impact of climate change but is willing, together with his small group of super rich supporters, to encourage scepticism.

 

With regard to our current leaders, they are equally responsible for failing to engage the public in transparent, informed discussion. We can argue that the general population is not willing to contemplate fundamental change and readjustments to their lifestyle in order to counter the impending catastrophic impact of unchecked climate change. It is a nonsense argument and disguises the fact that the discussion, based on the available scientific information is not being promoted because our leaders are captivated and serve the interests of the financial deniers who are focussed on their own personal gains.

 

They will not engage the public in understanding the situation, what needs to be done and effecting mass mobilisation. For those who argued their hands were tied and that they would fail to return to government if they pursued such policies, the simple question is: now you have a massive majority following the election, what excuses will you employ to continue to do nothing on these issues? 

 

Wars and Genocide

 

The Age, 28-Jan-2025

 

The activities by the Israeli Zionist regime in GAZA have been assessed within the UN and the International Court of Justice has stipulated that the evidence provides a compelling case for genocide having been committed. It has issued a request for the arrest of Netanyahu and others to be tried for this and other crimes.

 

We had the leader of the “free world” advocating the removal of the Palestinians from Gaza and its redevelopment as a US owned playground for the rich. The ceasefire was broken by Israel supported by the US and the genocide of the Palestinian people is continuing based on an extended process of ethnic cleansing. Netanyahu and the Zionists are now planning the complete annexation of Gaza.

 

We have this conflation of antisemitism and opposing the genocide perpetrated by Zionism, led by Netanyahu. He could not achieve this without the previous backing of the Democrats led by people such as Obama, Biden and now the Republicans, led by Trump.

 

The lack of critical analysis and discussion from the media, including the ABC and our politicians demonstrates clearly whose interests they are willingly or forced to serve. In the case of our leading politicians, it is deliberate and they need to be held to account. To clearly understand what it means to re-elect the Labor government one only has to look at the ministerial changes and in particular the sacking of Ed Husic. Husic was clearly opposed to the complicit stance in support of the genocide in Gaza taken by the government.

 

A study of the development of the Nazis and fascism in Germany provides a clear parallel with current developments.

 

For our Prime Minister to be unwilling to comment on Trump’s recent proposal regarding Gaza behind the statement that he is not willing to comment on other countries’ propositions beggars belief. Imagine if China was proposing such a development.

 

There are any number of issues that could be addressed in relation to the dystopian topic, one of the most obvious being the AUKUS agreement, entered into without public debate and with ongoing formal developments and commitments to which the general public are denied access.

 

The current situation is dystopian in that people do not have ready access to information that would enable an assessment of the truth, the history of what is happening and what has caused these outcomes and the impact that the adoption of certain positions will have on the future. 

 

We are not in situation that engenders despair. It is essential that every effort is made to inform the public and ensure this dystopian environment cannot continue to develop. This is not just through progressive publications but engagement at all levels of society. Community engagement is essential as is involvement with social structures such as the unions, local government, etc. The important point with such engagement is not to institutionalise the problems through providing make-shift or temporary relief but to ensure people become aware of the need for fundamental change.

 

In discussing and working with others it is misleading to only focus on the individuals such as Trump and the role that media empires such as Murdochs play in the creation of distrust in truth and the ensuing dystopia. There are very definite short-term beneficiaries of a dystopian environment.

 

The developments within the US need to be analysed and understood in terms of the ongoing evolution of imperialism based on the intentions and outcomes of the meeting of some 44 countries in 1944 at Breton Woods and the subsequent development of the Marshal plan.

 

A recent address by the French senator, Claude Malhurst provides a very clear and accurate understanding of what these developments represent in terms of the geopolitical order engendered in effective US domination of the world economy and the nascent means of enforcing such domination. As he points out, the US has played the principal role in the development of this world Its implementation and management has required significant military involvement. For example, a conservative estimate of 20 million deaths associated with US direct and complicit involvement in conflicts, coups and wars in numerous countries is testament to the fundamental nature of this “program”.

 

Malhurst is critical of America’s abdication of its primary role and seeks significant increase in European military expenditure to ensure the “necessary security” is maintained. In other words, the imperialist capitalist world economy dominated by the US cannot enable other sub-imperialist countries access to and control of trade with other countries without the necessary military backup. This military capability has become a principal industry in the US (and other countries) and is itself predicated on the principles of profit and expansion while enabling the necessary coercive means of ensuring compliance with imperialist capitalism.

 

And here we have the sacrosanct elephant.

 

A very British coup? “They have spies, we have agents”

Written by: (Contributed) on 15 May 2025

 

Moves to find a suitable replacement for the outgoing MI6 chief in London have revealed serious considerations at the very centre of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), which also has implications for the elite Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network.

The fact the controversy has already spilled over into the public domain remains evidence, in itself, of the depth of the problem; MI6 would appear to be experiencing problems adapting to modern trends of intelligence-gathering, with implications for subsequent accurate analytical assessments from the world's trouble-spots and areas of interest.

Sir Richard Moore, MI6 chief, has planned for his retirement in a few months’ time and the search has already begun to find a suitable successor. Britain's overseas intelligence services
have a long history reaching back to imperial yesteryear; shadowy figures with fingers remain in pies all over the world. Controversy, nevertheless, has arisen about modern intelligence-gathering techniques which have tended to supersede 'penetration agents'. (1)

Previously the British State relied upon agents, often portrayed in works of fiction to avoid unnecessary finger-pointing and fears of prosecution under the draconian Official Secrets Act. British writer Graham Greene was but one; he wrote about 'Greenland'.  His various works, for example, portrayed a well-placed British spy in pre-revolutionary Batista's Cuba in the 1950s operating undercover selling vacuum cleaners. (2) He was never identified.

One of Greene's later works revealed quite accurately the problem confronting Whitehall when dealing with Apartheid South Africa. The country was regarded as strategic for western defence and security provision although Apartheid was not considered acceptable. (3) The book also provided a glimpse of the faceless bureaucrats who were employed in the almost unaccountable layers of bureaucracy filled from elite patronage systems which rested upon Gentlemen's Clubs and elite dining facilities where counterparts could meet for confidential and discreet 'talk' about mutual areas of interest, without fear of detection.

MI6, historically, has operated as overseas intelligence, under the head of state, and linked into the Commonwealth and elsewhere through the Foreign Office. In practice, the head of state, has relied upon the Privy Council, an executive of the House of Lords, to usually act on their behalf. MI6 was then linked into domestic intelligence, MI5, through the joint-intelligence committee usually headed by the Home Secretary, operating on behalf of the prime minister of the day. Their joint pre-occupation and obsession was/is identifying and assessing threats to the class and state power of the realm. They are, moreover, inherently right-wing and racist, which has continually interfered with their focus, judgements and opinions on numerous occasions. They are clearly not the font of all wisdom.

The two intelligence services frequently operate through other government departments and corporate entities; the Post Office in the UK was a good example. While ostensibly providing telecommunications and postal services, it provided a convenient cover for clandestine operations. It also provided technical training for foreign nations within the British Commonwealth. Its internal security system, the Special Investigation Branch (SIB), was well-known for links with the intelligence services and the preoccupation and obsession with spying on the entire workforce under the guise of 'security vetting'. (4) The telecommunications systems in military facilities used by NATO's secret armies had to be protected at all costs; the fascists they deployed operated within a culture of impunity. (5)

Secrecy, however, has shielded non-reliable sources of intelligence and their questionable assessments; Hanslope Manor estate, for example, is owned by the UK, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. It is also home to the British Government Communications Centre and within easy reach of Whitehall in the City of Milton Keynes. Housing extensive archives from its imperial past, the institution has been described as 'the fortress-like warehouse for top-secret government files'. (6) Most of the estimated 1.2 million documents will never be declassified; they are generally recognised as containing incriminating evidence about Britain's imperial past. Silence remains the order of the day.

Sir Richard Moore would appear to have followed the old tradition, serving undercover in Vietnam, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia before becoming British Ambassador in Turkey. (7)
The country remains one of vital interest; its former imperial past has continued to provide links into the modern-day Islamic World. Recent references in the public domain to the sensitive British-based GCHQ listening station, linked into the elite Five Eyes of the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, however, show how intelligence-gathering has tended to move away from strategically placed individual agents quietly collecting information, toward massive downloads of intercepted data from telecommunications facilities.

It has led to concerns that 'MI6 is losing its cutting edge in a world where the vast bulk of actionable intelligence is gathered by GCHQ'. (8)

Moves which began with the Echelon system in the Five Eyes decades ago which had the facilities to provide 'an awesome spying capacity for the USA, allowing it to monitor continuously most of the world's communications targeting civilian as well as military traffic', have now been upgraded to include the internet. (9)

The Echelon system relied upon computer systems in various strategically placed stations around the world which were programmed with chosen key-words, allowing 'each station to collect all the telephone calls, faxes, telexes, internet messages and other electronic communications that its computers have been programmed to select for all its allies and automatically sends this intelligence to them'. (10)

In recent years, however, the 'National Security Agency's attention has shifted to finding ways to exploit the global reach of Google, Microsoft, Venizon and other US technological powers'. (11) The NSA, at the centre of the Five Eyes, is now faced with huge troves of intelligence gathered from on-line facilities.

It has not made the work of intelligence services easier; in fact, to the contrary, it has led to the problems recently publicised by MI6. More intelligence gathered has required more analysts to provide assessments. It has not proved cost effective.

When dealing with the large-scale troves on intelligence, a former intelligence officer was recently quoted as stating 'they have lost their way … they seem to have forgotten that their job is agent handling and running and recruiting'. (12) Another former MI6 officer who applied for the top job 'called for a return to classic recruitment of penetration agents … your organisation needs a complete reset'; they did not make the short-list. (13)

Published sources have revealed front-runner for the top MI6 job is Dame Barbara Woodward, Britain's Ambassador to the United Nations, who is also the most senior woman employed in the Foreign office. A China specialist, Woodward was Ambassador to Beijing during 2015-20. (14)

The appointment takes place at a time when 'the security services have alleged that Chinese spies have penetrated the inner circle of the Duke of York, infiltrated political circles, hacked businesses and attacked Hong Kong dissidents in the UK. Intelligence officials say Chinese spying activity is on an industrial scale'. (15)

In conclusion, whether we will see a return to the days of yonder and Colonel Daintry, however, who 'had a two-roomed flat in St. James's Street which he found through the agency of another member of the firm. During the war it had been used by MI6 as a rendezvous for interviewing possible recruits … few people who walked down St. James's Street knew of the court's existence. It was a very discreet flat', remains, as yet, to be established. (16)  

The secret contribution made by Colonel Daintry and his associates to the maintenance of the British State and all which that entailed, nevertheless, has remained neatly filed away at Hanslope Manor, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. The elite patronage systems of which the intelligence agents formed part, have remained intact for centuries and appear even stronger now than yesteryear. Labour governments may have challenged them, but reform was never on the horizon or even an agenda item.

In fact, Labour governments appear to have been accommodated and assimilated within the morass. Governments may come and go with the following of established constitutional procedures, the bureaucracy on which they rest and depend upon, however, has not experienced serious discord since the heady days of the English Civil War, 1642-49.

When Peter Wright wrote Spycatcher and spilled the beans on one of the oldest professions in the world, perhaps he wrote it on behalf of all of them!

1.     'Beijing Barbara' leads race to be first female MI6 chief, Australian, 12 May 2025.
2.     See: Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene, (1958)
3.     See: The Human Factor, Graham Greene, (London, 1978).
4.     Spycatcher, Peter Wright, (Victoria, 1988), pages: 7, 18, 45, 46, 83, 131, 172.
5.     See: NATO's Secret Armies, Daniele Ganser, (2005); and, Late 1940s-1990s, Europe: Building Right-Wing Terror Groups; and, EU Resolution (1990) on Operation Gladio (ie., sword); and, 1950-now, Germany: 'Stay Behind” Forces and Neo-Nazism, Psywar Terror Tactics, A People's History of the CIA., December 2000, (Ottawa), Issue 43, pp. 11-12.
6.     'King Charles, Caroline Elkins, 29 October 2023.
7.     Australian, op.cit., 12 May 2025.
8.     Ibid.
9.     See: Echelon, Espionage, Spies and Secrets, Richard M. Bennett, (London, 2003), pp. 89-93.
10.   Ibid.
11.   The intelligence coup of the century, The Washington Post, 11 February 2020.
12.   Australian, op.cit., 12 May 2025.
13.   Ibid.
14.   Ibid.
15.   Ibid.
16.   The Human Factor, op.cit., page 104

Workers Strike at PepsiCo's Snack Foods Factory - An Example of The Leading Class In Action

Written by: Ned K. on 11 May 2925

 

About 150 Workers at PepsiCo's Snack Foods factory in Adelaide have commenced a series of strikes involving production workers, store persons and trades workers. Members of three Unions - United Workers Union, AMWU and CEPU - have united to win a better deal in a new Enterprise Agreement. 

The workers’ spirits on the picket lines are high and so is the unity of the workers. Many of the workers are from migrant backgrounds from Asian countries.

They know that the standard of living is higher than in their home countries such as the Philippines, but they are workers in Australia now, so why shouldn't they have enough income like their bosses to be able to pay the mortgage or pay the rent?

Enough income to buy a car to drive to and from work and put food on the table for their families. Not to mention the education needs of their children. They are standing together to have enough income for the necessities of living in this country.

They know that PepsiCo and multinationals like them exploit workers for profit, whether their factories are in the USA, Australia or any other country. 

Workers are demanding a 12% wage increase to equal what PepsiCo workers are paid performing the same work at PepsiCo's Brisbane Snack Foods factory.
PepsiCo told striking workers that they did not deserve wage parity with PepsiCo workers in Brisbane because the cost of living was lower in Adelaide than Brisbane! 

On the picket line, workers laughed when a supporter asked if due to the lower wages in the Adelaide factory, are the supermarket prices of potato chips produced at the Adelaide factory cheaper than those from the Brisbane factory?

Workers said "No way"! They said that they were organized for a long struggle if necessary.

 

Celebrate the 80th anniversary of the defeat of fascism

 Written by: Nick G. on 9 May 2025

 

Eighty years ago, victory was achieved in the War Against Fascism.

The day is celebrated on either May 8 or 9 depending on which side of the international date line a country was situated at the time of signing.

The most significant contributor to the defeat of Nazi Germany was the Soviet Union led by Stalin.

The Battle for Stalingrad was the war’s turning point. Soviet losses were enormous. Twenty million Soviet people were killed by the invading Nazis, villages burnt to the ground and infrastructure destroyed.

Australia stood proudly by the side of the Soviet Union and its Allies. The prestige of Stalin and the Red Army was high. Lady Jessie Street was president (from 1939) of the Sydney branch of the Society for Cultural Relations with the U.S.S.R. Following Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, she mobilized and chaired the high-powered Russian Medical Aid and Comforts Committee; when war with Japan shifted priorities for medicines, she organized the 'Sheepskins for Russia' Appeal. 

Despite an initial ban on its existence, the Communist Party of Australia saw an unprecedented expansion. 

With the war’s end, imperialism regrouped and began the Cold War. It was assisted after Stalin’s death in 1953 by his revisionist successor Khrushchev who perfected the art of disinformation in his secret speech to the 20th Congress which was full of lies about Stalin. Khrushchev’s authority as head of the CPSU allowed these lies, leaked to the capitalist press, to be passed off as truths which led to a demonising of Stalin and a loss of members in Communist Parties around the globe, including here in Australia.

Today, the danger of a Third World War has intensified. There are increasing threats to use nuclear weapons, and the arms race is even reaching into Outer Space.

Accompanying the threat of war is a resurgence of fascism. It takes two forms: parliamentary legislation depriving unions and progressive peoples of their rights to take action in their workplaces and communities, and the growth of fascist street thugs who foment national and racial tensions through actions designed to intimidate and threaten opponents.

The April 25 Incident when Nazis booed the First Peoples Welcome to Country at an ANZAC Day ceremony was bad enough, but for the then Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, to effectively second their motion by adding to calls to get rid of the First People’s Welcomes, was a sign of just how closely both forms of fascism can feed off each other.

Zionism has besmirched the ancient religion of Judaism. In 1931, Stalin, alone among world leaders at that time, had denounced anti-Semitism as “the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism”, and had made its expression illegal in the USSR. The Hitlerites carried out the Holocaust, killing 6 million Jews. Now Israel, as a Zionist-created state on the occupied lands of the Palestinians, is imposing its own genocidal war on the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

The causes of the genocide in Gaza, Sudan, and Congo, and the destruction in Ukraine, no matter what are the particulars of each of these conflicts, all have the same root: intensified competition between imperialist powers for market shares and raw materials. 

If we are to remember and celebrate the victory of the War Against Fascism, we must dedicate ourselves to the contemporary fight against war and fascism.
In Italy, dockworkers supporting the Palestinians, blocked the ports under the slogan: “Let's lower the weapons, let's raise the wages! Let's block the logistics of war!”

Here we must defend our rights, not let the parliamentary fascists or the street thugs pass, and break the US stranglehold on our country.

No to AUKUS, no to the US war preparations!
For the rights of all peoples to self-determination!
For an anti-imperialist independent, peaceful and socialist Australia! 

Farm ownership in Australia

 Written by: Duncan B. on 5 May 2025

 

The farm newspaper Weekly Times has just released the results of its annual survey of farm ownership in Australia. As always, these results make interesting reading.

Top of the list and clear leader is the Canadian Pension fund PSP Investments, which now has Australian agricultural holdings valued at $8.5 billion. They continued to spend up big in the last year and have investments in a wide variety of farming including cropping, livestock, horticulture, vineyards, cotton and nuts across many different areas of Australia.

Second is the Australian-owned Macquarie Agriculture Fund, with $4 billion in assets also spread across Australia in a wide variety of types of farming.

A US-based pension fund, TIAA & Nuveen Natural Capital is third with $2.5 billion of well-spread assets in Australia. This company’s global portfolio includes 600-plus assets valued at US $13.7 billion in 10 countries.

Fourth is the Trump-loving Gina Rinehart. Her Hancock Agriculture and S Kidman & Co has $2 billion invested mainly in cattle raising in the Northern Territory, Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

Behind Gina come a number of companies with investments in the $1-2 billion range. They are a mixture of local investment funds, Canadian pension funds plus one US and one Hong Kong-based company.

One to watch is Farmland Reserve, which is an investment arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons). Acting through a local subsidiary Alkira Farms Inc., this company has been busy in the last year, spending nearly $500 million on acquisitions of Australian farms. Farmland Reserve has a world-wide investment portfolio valued at over A$300 billion. We will watch with interest at what this crowd is up to!

The wide-spread ownership of our agriculture by foreign interests puts at risk our food security and their hold over water rights will make it harder for Australian farmers to gain access to precious irrigation water.

Oppose the foreign take-over of Australian agriculture!

 

Quadrant: Keith Windschuttle and Australian culture wars

Written by: (Contributed) on 5 May 2025

 

The passing of a former senior member of the Quadrant publication has provided a glimpse of how a section of the far-right managed to hide their political associations and masquerade under a mantle of respectability in order to influence public opinion. The group aimed primarily at influencing decision-makers inside the corridors of power, academia and other related bodies. A closer study of the group, however, would tend to portray them as relatively naive people manipulated by powerful political forces acting as paymasters and puppet-masters from behind the scenes.

The Quadrant publication was established during the early days of the previous Cold War by the CIA-funded Committee for Cultural Freedom (CCF); it has continued throughout the period to the present day as a right-wing magazine, attracting a long list of contributors and associates in influential positions driving right-wing political agendas and issues. (1) It has been said that 'Quadrant was on the American payroll in the service of American foreign policy'. (2)

Not all those involved with Quadrant knew about the role of the CIA as both paymaster and puppet-master. In fact, while CIA involvement was direct through the CCF, where it was noted they were responsible for 'large contributions', their support for Quadrant was deemed indirect and conducted along the lines of 'covert support of a large number of activities which it judged to be valuable'. (3) Intelligence-gathering was but one.

The CCF role in intelligence-gathering was not confined to right-wing and business organisation; in fact, the CCF launched the Encounter publication in London in 1953, which became 'one of the most influential journals of liberal opinion in the West'. (4) It was noted that those associated with the CCF network 'embraced many prominent figures in the British Labour Party' during the previous Cold War. (5)

The role of Quadrant should be studied in the context of US intelligence interference in Australian society; it has a long history. While the link between the CCF and the CIA was exposed in 1966, the Australian branch had been established in 1954 through the Paris headquarters of the organisation. (6) Quadrant was subsequently launched in 1956, heavily supported by the CCF and their CIA funding; estimates as large as $100,000 of financial assistance to 1967 have been used in serious and credible publications. (7)  

The mindset of those knowingly on the payroll have been noted to adhere to the following political position: that the maintenance of Australia's defence and security was best served by the US alliance, and therefore, there was nothing intrinsically wrong or unethical in accepting financial support for a good political cause and its maintenance. (8)

Studies of the Nugan Hand Bank in the 1970s, likewise, leave little to the imagination. Those associated with the bank were caught attempting to blackmail an Australian state minister while transferring $2.4 million to the Liberal Party. (9) The bank collapsed in 1980 with huge debts; its intelligence links are still subject to official denial by Washington and the Pentagon. As they do.

The role of the US intelligence services in Australia has been marked by a huge involvement in intelligence-gathering. Declassified documents reveal planning and methods of operation. A Clandestine Operation, for example, is established in secrecy with 'plausible denial by the sponsor'. (10) A Cover is designed to conceal the 'true nature of its acts and its existence'. (11) An Agent is 'any individual who, on a controlled basis, is engaged in the clandestine collection of intelligence or counter-intelligence, information or in support thereof, either wittingly or unwittingly'. (12)

Quadrant provided a convenient cover and mantle of respectability for those associated with the publication. The magazine pushed right-wing political agendas; its other roles and agendas were not so apparent and hidden.

The recent passing of long-time editor of the publication and chairman of the Quadrant board, Keith Windschuttle (1945-2025), has enabled those contributors and associates the opportunity of praising his role in the culture wars waged by the Quadrant against progressive and left-wing activists and movements.

It is interesting to note, therefore, that Windschuttle began a career as part of the academic left; he eventually broke with his colleagues to assume a right-wing political position. (13) Can it, perhaps, be explained by the paymasters and puppet-masters wanting him employed in another, more useful, capacity?   
 
The Australian newspaper, long a right-wing mouthpiece of Canberra, used its editorial column to label Windschuttle as 'a poster person for what this newspaper stands for'. (14) He was a leading figure and thinker of the Conservative right. A quick read of the letters page of the newspaper reveals, quite adequately, the limited and appalling mindset of the bulk of its readership.     

Others praising Windschuttle have drawn attention to his role as a historian and 'principled, fearless and absolutely dedicated to getting the facts right'. (15)

None of the commentary, however, drew any attention to the philosophical consideration that 'history means interpretation'. (16) Facts may be one aspect for consideration, how they are interpreted by analysis is what a historian does when studying the past through the eyes of later generations. Every age produces its own history, as interpretations change with the times. The context in which facts occur remains crucial for our understanding of the past.

One only has to consider the ongoing controversy surrounding Ned Kelly. To some, he was nothing more than a common criminal. To others, there were other factors worthy of consideration; his ethnicity and the dominant British class and state power of the period in Ireland and elsewhere. To be a supporter of Irish republicanism, was to challenge the class and state power of the British elsewhere, including Australia. Kelly, for some, was a hero.

Windschuttle was best known for his studies of early settlement in Australia and the Aboriginal issue. He was a well-known figure of controversy surrounding the white colonial treatment of the Indigenous Aboriginal people. Windschuttle's constant nit-picking approach to his historical account of the period did not take into account the fact that Aboriginal history is largely oral, and that Dreamtime was, and remains, a real concept. A historian? At no time was Windschuttle challenged for his white supremacist approach; to study the period accurately, however, a historian would have to take into account the colonialism of Britain during the period which was thoroughly racist.

The words of Land of Hope and Glory epitomise dominant thinking of the period: Wider still, and wider, shall thy bounds be set, God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet! The period was marked by imperialist thinking, swashbuckling bravado and theft of artefacts and land by those seeking to extend the role of Britain into the wider world. Their apologists continue, to the present day, to depict Britain's invasion of Australia in 1788 as nothing other than justifiable.  

When assessing the role of Quadrant, it is important to place it into a context of association of members with other, like-minded, right-wing organisations. There are overlapping areas of influence amongst conspicuous personnel; Slow Horses, (British slang for MI5 service rejects who have seriously failed a task but not badly enough to get sacked) however, remain behind the scenes, maintaining a low profile while representing elite patronage systems for the well initiated, their families and siblings.

Windschuttle was close to John Howard, who in turn, held the chair of the International Democrat Union (IDU) for over a decade leading to the ending of his tenure in 2014. (17)

A newcomer to the IDU board has been Scott Morrison. (18) IDU treasurer is Mike Roman, a former employee of the Koch Brothers, a far-right organisation which spent $900 million getting Donald Trump elected in 2016. (19)

John Howard is also well-known inside the shadowy World League for Freedom and Democracy (WLFD), formerly the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). (20) The origins of the organisation are particularly significant when viewed in the context of the previous Cold War and its present functions in the new Cold War. It was created in 1954 by South Korean intelligence agents together with their Taiwanese counterparts. (21) It quickly grew into a global organisation and central body of far-right associates, including Australia.

The WACL Australian section was noted as being 'represented largely by conservative members of parliament, interspersed with neo-Nazis, racists, and Eastern European immigrants whose roots lay in the fascist collaborationist armies of World War 2'. (22)

John Howard and his right-wing cronies were to prove a comfortable fit into such bodies.

Another figure associated with Quadrant, Tony Abbott, likewise, is no stranger to the far-right. As a board member of Quadrant, Abbott 'praised Windschuttle as one of Australia's best and bravest historians. His greatest and most unique achievement was the intellectual rigour he brought to the history of Aboriginal people and their interaction with settler society'. (23) The context in which the interaction took place, however, was not elaborated on by Abbott. The reasons, nevertheless, remain quite apparent, particularly when viewed in the context of his statement that Quadrant was 'one of Australia's premier intellectual magazines'. (24)

Both Howard and Abbott remain close and their involvement with the new right Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) was noted during their London conference in 2023. (25) Official agenda items discussed at the conference included: foundational freedoms, the importance of the family, the scientific method, market-based economics, the free exchange of ideas and a realist geo-strategy. (26) Their unofficial agenda was not publicised openly although existed all the way from the conference floor to the corridors of power in Westminster and beyond, and into the darkest corners of Washington and the Pentagon.  

In conclusion, it is not difficult to establish the right-wing credentials of such people and their Quadrant associates. Some of their agendas remain quite apparent; it is, however, the other agendas which they continue to pursue which remain worthy of greater scrutiny! Serious studies of the US intelligence services, for example, have invariably concluded with the note that 'the CIA is perfectly ready to reward it friends'. (27) And it has, and does.

                                          We need an independent foreign policy!

1.     About Us, Quadrant, 13 September 2009; and, The CIA as Culture Vultures, Jacket 12, Cassandra Pybus, July 2000.
2.     CIA as culture vultures, ibid.
3.     Evatt – Politics and Justice, Kylie Tennant, (Australia, 1970), Appendix E, pp. 380-82; and, The CIA's Australian Connection. Denis Freney, (Sydney, 1977).
4.     Who were they travelling with? The CIA and the British Labour Movement, CIA Infiltration of the Labour Movement, (London, 1982), pp. 50-62.
5.     Ibid.
6.     The Secret State, Richard Hall, (NSW, 1978), page 197.
7.     Ibid.
8.     Ibid., page 192.
9.     The Nugan-Hand Bank, 1975, Australia: Overthrowing Whitlam's Labour Party,   A People's History of the CIA., (Ottawa, 2000), Issue 43, pp. 29-30; and, The CIA's Australian Connection, Denis Freney, (Sydney, 1977).
10.   Instructions for the coordination and control of Navy's clandestine intelligence  collection program, Top Secret, 7 December 1965, Declassified: 13 July 1990.
11.   Ibid.
12.   Ibid.
13.   The final chapter for courageous historian, Obituary, Australian, 10 April 2025.
14.   Windschuttle a fierce intellect, Editorial, Australian, 11 April 2025.
15.  Windschuttle shunned political agenda for evidence, Australian, 11 April 2025.
16.   The historian and his facts, What is History? E.H. Carr, (London, 1961), pp. 7-30.
17.   Scott Morrison signs on with global political network, The New Daily, 14 September 2022.
18.   Ibid.
19.   Ibid.
20.   Website: WACL., 9 January 1990.
21.   Inside the League, Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson, (New York, 1986), page 47; and, The WACL: Origins, Structure and Activities, Pierre Abramovici, (2014).
22.   Inside the League, ibid., page 59.
23.   Culture wars warrior Windschuttle gone at 83, but intellectual impact lives on, Australian, 10 April 2025.
24.   Ibid.
25.   Howard, Abbott at global summit, Australian, 9 March 2023.
26.   Ibid.
27.   The CIA and the cult of intelligence, Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks, (London, 1976), page 396.