With all the talk about leaks of classified and secret information here in the US, and exposure of the double standard that the Bush Administration is employing in investigating and prosecuting them, I'm reminded of another security leak that had far reaching implications for Australian History and Politics.
Of course I am referring to the leaking of classified material to the Soviet Union by Christopher John Boyce which was depicted in the film "The Falcon and the Snowman". But it isn't the material Boyce leaked to the Soviet Union that interests me. Instead, it is his reasons for deciding to become a spy. As Boyce himself stated in a rare interview he gave to 60 Minutes' Ray Martin on May 23rd, 1982:
RAY MARTIN: Only the Russians know exactly what secrets Christopher Boyce gave them. But the CIA calls what he did the most damaging act of espionage in decades. Boyce says that what finally turned him into a spy was America's deception of Australia.
CHRISTOPHER BOYCE: My Government was deceiving an ally, perhaps had been an ally for two world wars, English speaking parliamentary democracy. I thought it was indicative of to what my country had sunk to.
In the interview Boyce goes on to provide some details of how the the CIA destabilized the Whitlam Labor Government and infiltrated and manipulated the Australian Trade Union movement. Boyce makes several reference to then
Governor General Sir John Kerr including this one:
CHRISTOPHER BOYCE: There was references to your Governor-General by the Central Intelligence [Agency] residents there at TRW in the Rylite project. They called Mr Kerr "Our man Kerr."
RAY MARTIN: Just two days before a Federal Parliamentary debate was due on the American satellite bases, a CIA telex arrived in Canberra. It warned that Prime Minister Whitlam was in danger of blowing the lid off Pine Gap. The next day, the Whitlam Labor Government was dismissed.
There is also and excellent radio documentary called
"The CIA in Australia" produced for "Watching Brief" by Public Radio News Services in October and November 1986. If you want a grounding in CIA activities in Australia I recommend the transcripts of this series as a fascinating read. In one of the episodes, former CIA agent Ralph McGehee gives his view on whether the CIA were involved in the fall of the Whitlam Government:
Tony Douglas: Over the years there have been many reports linking CIA activities with the downfall of the Whitlam government. Does Ralph McGehee think they were involved?
Ralph McGehee: Well, my views are as though what's the problem? I mean, we had a whole series of agency spokesmen said, 'oh, yes, there was an agency role in the overthrow of the Whitlam government'. I just don't know why Australians can't accept that.
I did just a little bit of research before I came out and you had Ray Cline, a former Deputy Director of the CIA, saying 'when Whitlam came to power there was a period of turbulence and the CIA will go so far as to provide information to people who will bring it to the surface in Australia, say a Whitlam error which they were willing to pump into the system so it may be to his damage and we may provide a particular piece of information to the Australian intelligence services so that they make use of it'.
And then the CIA National Intelligence Daily said, 'some of the most incriminating evidence in that period against the ministers in the Whitlam government may have been fabricated.' This is but as strong as you get to say so. It is quite obvious that information was being leaked about ministers Rex O'Connor and Jim Cairns and some of it was being forged which is a standard CIA process.
Jim Flynn, who was associated with elements who were involved with the Nugan-Hand bank, he said that he was involved in manufacturing the cables and leaking them to the press. Now he would not be a very credible source except that he worked for Nugan-Hand. Admiral Bobby Inman, former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency and Deputy Director of the CIA, said on two occasions that he expressed deep concern that investigations of Nugan-Hand would lead to disclosure of a range of dirty tricks played against the Whitlam government.
You have the statements by Christopher Boyce who was in a relay point for information from the CIA and in his trial he said that 'if you think what the agency did in Chile was bad, in which they did spent 80 million dollars overturning the government of Chile there, the Allende government, you should see what they are doing in Australia'.
On the Shackley Cable, which was a virtual ultimatum to the head of ASIO to do something about the Whitlam government, it is sort of prima facie evidence of CIA interference in the Whitlam government. This was on November 10. On November 11, Governor-General John Kerr dismissed the Whitlam government on a parliamentary technicality. John Kerr earlier had been the founder of Law Asia, a CIA-front organisation.
Any questions?
History tells us that a country can tell a lot about how they are regarded, how important they are, and what is in store for them by looking carefully at their Ambassador from the United States.
Tony Douglas: In early 1973 the United States appointed Marshall Green as ambassador to Australia. His appointment was a sign of US uneasiness over the election of the Labor government. By the time of Green's departure, in September 1975, many in the Labor party felt similarly unease over the role played by the master diplomat in destabilising the Whitlam government. One who saw the early signs was Joan Coxsedge, now a Victorian Labor MP, who in 1973 formed the Committee for the Abolition of Political Police.
Joan Coxsedge: Well, I think it's important for people to understand that Green wasn't just any old ambassador. First of all, he was the first career diplomat that we had in this country unlike the sort of calibre person we normally get who are rewarded for kicking in money to the Republican or Democratic parties. He was a very very senior man indeed. In fact, he was mentioned in the Pentagon papers as being a high-level policy maker for America in Southeast Asia and he had known CIA connections. So, quite obviously, the alarm bells rang back in Washington with the election of a Labor government. They were worried about policies that we had to close down the bases to exert more independence generally on our economy and they wanted somebody to not only monitor, I suggest, to lead a destabilisation of the elected government. God knows he had plenty of experience, he had been involved in quite a few coups in Southeast Asia including the very bloody one in Indonesia.
It makes you see
the otherwise insulting appointment of Yet Another Bush Crony as the US Ambassador to Australia in a more thoughtful light, doesn't it?
Reviewing history and recalling the 13 month absence of a US Ambassador in Australia brings up some very unpleasant thoughts. Australia either wasn't important enough or unpredictable enough to require an ambassador.
That raises the question of whether it is because Australia is "such a good ally" or whether the Australian intelligence services, whose allegiance has historically been to their US counterparts, and the Virginia Farmboys have finally got the manipulation of Australian internal affairs down to an invisible science.
History will tell.
Then on April 27th when Microsoft announced their quarterly financial results they also announced significant investment in new business areas to remain competitive in key markets. After the announcement, Microsoft shares tumbled 10%, their largest drop since 2000. It's so hard to take credit for illegally depressing the Microsoft stock price when it's already falling well before the date you set for your conspiracy, and even harder when the date you set for your cunning plan is the single rally in the stock's long price slide.
