Editorial:

Lies and illegal wars

There is much concern and frustration within Australia's 
intelligence organisations surrounding the policies being 
followed by the Australian Government, especially the illegal war 
waged against Iraq. There is a rejection of the barrage of lies 
that are being used by Prime Minister Howard, his Foreign Affairs 
Minister Downer and others to justify their actions.

The first to step forward publicly with his concerns was Alan 
Wilkie from the Office of National Assessments. He is now 
followed by Lt-Col Lance Collins (Defence Intelligence 
Organisation) who claims there have been wide-ranging failures in 
defence intelligence. The charges made by Lt-Col Collins are not 
limited to the obvious lies that were foisted on the people of 
the world about Iraq's weapons. Of crucial interest is his charge 
that there is a pro-Jakarta lobby operating in Australia's 
intelligence organisations.

In Britain and the US, as well as in Australia, intelligence 
operatives, frustrated by government manipulation of information, 
are speaking out. White House counter-terrorism chief Richard 
Clarke has damned the Bush administration before the US 
Congressional inquiry in Washington into events leading to the 
Iraq war. Intelligence expert Dr David Kelly — who was harassed 
and threatened by the Blair Government and who allegedly 
committed suicide — spoke out in Britain.

The stand taken by these principled individuals is welcome as 
they help to expose the rottenness, immorality and neo-fascist 
agendas of government leaders.

The fact that the top leaders of both Liberal and Labor Party 
Governments were pro-Jakarta has been obvious ever since the 
seizure of power by the military-fascist Suharto regime in 1965.

The leaders of the two main Australian parties are fearful of any 
revolutionary or even progressive governments emerging anywhere 
in the world. They were fearful of the Indonesian national 
liberation movement led by President Sukarno and welcomed his 
overthrow and the mass murder that followed — including hundreds 
of thousands of communists — by the Indonesian military.

After Suharto took power, both Labor and Liberal Governments were 
generous in giving military aid to his regime and helping to 
train the Kopassus elements of the Indonesian armed forces which 
were Suharto's storm-troopers. The Government turned a blind eye 
when Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and implemented a reign 
of terror in which tens of thousands of East Timorese were 
murdered.

Closer historically is the intelligence assessment made by Lt-Col 
Collins that a vote for independence by the East Timorese in the 
referendum held in 1999 would result in military retribution by 
Indonesian armed forces. Knowing this the Howard Government sat 
on its blood-stained hands and watched the carnage unfold. It 
then sent troops as part of a UN force.

The Australian Government fears the emergence of a progressive 
government in East Timor and will attempt to strangle one led by 
Fretilin, the liberation organisation that led the struggle 
against Indonesian occupation.

There is no sign that the Australian troops still in East Timor 
are going to be withdrawn soon. To its earlier betrayal of the 
East Timorese people the Australian Government has added grand 
theft, seizing control of the major portion of the oil resources 
of the Timor Gap, an action that will help to keep East Timor 
impoverished for decades into the future.

It is the monstrous and despicable policies of the present 
government that some in Australia's intelligence services are 
seeing from the inside and are beginning to question and expose.

It is to be hoped that they will refuse to be intimidated and 
silenced and will be joined by others in these services who must 
be sickened by what they know and see. They will get the support 
and backing of many in the Australian community who are equally 
opposed to what is being done by government leaders in their 
name.