Australia: WikiLeaks cables reveal secret ties between Rudd coup plotters and US embassy

[Joanne98]

The latest batch of the several hundred leaked US diplomatic cables concerning Australia, provided by WikiLeaks to the Fairfax company’s Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age, provide further extraordinary evidence of Washington’s direct involvement in the anti-democratic coup against former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last June.


Key coup plotters in the Labor Party and trade unions—including senators Mark Arbib and David Feeney, and Australian Workers Union chief Paul Howes—secretly provided the US embassy with regular updates on internal government discussions and divisions within the leadership. As early as June 2008, the American ambassador identified Julia Gillard as the “front-runner” to replace Rudd. In October 2009, i.e., eight months before Gillard was installed in unprecedented circumstances, Mark Arbib informed American officials of emerging leadership tensions. The Australian people, on the other hand, were kept entirely in the dark about any differences between the prime minister and his colleagues until after Rudd was ousted.


Gillard was described, some two years before the coup, by US diplomatic officials as the “rising star” within the Labor government. They made various enquiries into Gillard’s foreign policy sympathies, receiving assurances from government sources that her origins in the party’s “left” faction had no policy significance whatsoever. Arbib told the embassy that Gillard was “one of the most pragmatic politicians in the ALP”; Victorian senator David Feeney added that “there is no longer any intellectual integrity in the factions” and that “there is no major policy issue on which he, a Right factional leader, differs from Gillard”. When embassy officials checked on Gillard with Paul Howes, Australian Workers Union boss and subsequent anti-Rudd coup plotter, observing that “ALP politicians from the Left, no matter how capable, do not become party leader,” he responded immediately: “but she votes with the Right’.”


The Sydney Morning Herald and Age have published parts of the latest material in excerpted form, ahead of their full public release expected in coming weeks. They focus today on Mark Arbib’s role as a “secret US source”. One of the key apparatchiks in Labor’s powerful New South Wales right-wing faction, Arbib reportedly made several requests to US officials that his identity as a “protected” informant be guarded.


The cables refer to Arbib as early as mid-2006, when he served as NSW Labor Party state secretary. After being elected to the senate in the November 2007 federal election, the factional leader deepened his relationship with Washington. A US embassy profile, authored in July 2009, noted that Arbib “understands the importance of supporting a vibrant relationship with the US” and that officials “have found him personable, confident and articulate”. The profile also recorded that he “has met with us repeatedly throughout his political rise”. Other cables referred to the senator as a “right-wing powerbroker and political rising star” and noted his influence within both Labor’s factions and “Rudd’s inner circle”.


The cables make clear that Arbib and the other identified MPs function not simply as mere US “sources”, as characterised in the media today—but rather as agents. Within the Labor and trade unions apparatuses, these party members serve as conduits for Washington’s agenda. The embassy communications reveal the extent to which the US government determines Australian foreign policy and dictates who will hold senior government posts, including the office of prime minister.


A precise chronology of Washington’s sordid, behind-the-scenes manipulation of Australian political affairs, between the Labor Party’s election victory in November 2007 and Rudd’s axing in June 2010, is likely to emerge once WikiLeaks releases the full cache of relevant cables.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/aust-d09.shtml

[SpiralHawk]

1. The plot thickens (and stinkens)

[xchrom]

2. jesus fuckin christ -- australia -- we stick our fuckin noses in australia's business?

if i have any regrets re: wikileaks -- it's that somebody didn't do this sooner.

[starroute]

6. There was also an alleged CIA coup there in 1975

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46193

November 21, 2010

November 11 marked the 35th anniversary of the constitutional coup — the dismissal of the elected government of Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam by another governor general, John Kerr. . . .

Former Australian prime ministers Robert Menzies, Howard Holt, John Gorton, Bob Hawke and John Howard all compliantly sent Australian troops to fight US wars. But in the early 1970s, Whitlam’s government had the courage to bring Australian soldiers home from the US war in Vietnam. For this audacious action, Labor would never be forgiven by then-US president Richard Nixon, the CIA, Rupert Murdoch, the CIA, and corrupt conservative premiers Bob Askin (NSW) and Joe Bjelke-Petersen (Queensland) — who all hated Whitlam as though he were Che Guevara.

Whitlam’s election in 1972 began a short-lived era in which the stated aims of the new Labor government were to promote equality and involve the people in decision-making processes. Within two weeks of Whitlam’s election, conscription was abolished and draft resisters released from jail. Voting rights were extended to all Australians over 18, and university fees abolished. Whitlam’s youth constituency also gained community radio stations, and the Whitlam government intended to decriminalise marijuana. Aborigines were granted land rights in the Northern Territory.

Whitlam was less subservient than his Liberal predecessors to Washington’s foreign policy directions. . . . Nixon and the CIA found such independence intolerable. After Whitlam was re-elected in 1974, and Jim Cairns became his deputy, Nixon ordered the CIA to review US policy towards Australia. Although the CIA’s response to Nixon has never been released, it seems it began a covert operation to destabilise the Whitlam government began then.


(See also http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/resources/history/whitlam_coup.html for more details of the evidence for CIA involvement.)

[starroute]

7. And a little more on Rupert Murdoch's role

http://www.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1975

Australia's British-appointed governor general dismisses Prime Minister Gough Whitlam November 11, ousts the Labor Party that has held power since 1972, and installs a caretaker government headed by Liberal Party leader (John) Malcolm Fraser, 45, whose appointment wins electoral approval in December and who will hold office until 1983. The Whitlam government has been marked by administrative blunders, unemployment, and rising inflation, it has lost the parliamentary support needed to pass spending bills, and jurist Sir Garfield (Edward John) Barwick, 72, has advised the governor general to take the action, the first time in 200 years that the British crown has exercised its right to remove an elected prime minister. Publisher Rupert Murdoch and his newspaper Australian have discarded any pretense of objectivity in their support of Fraser, whose views are more right-wing than those of Whitlam. (Fraser will have laws on television-station ownership changed at Murdoch's request, permitting Murdoch to maintain residence abroad.)

[xchrom]

8. that i remember -- i had some oz friends back then and they

would relate some of the goings on.

[madrchsod]

3. over throwing friendly countries?

i guess the us president`s job is now making sure the world is safe for multi national corporations. got to get rid of those pesky left wingers...

[sabrina 1]

4. Omg, no wonder the U.S. is freaking out!

Now I understand why the Gillard has come out so strongly against Assange. She is nothing but a U.S. puppet. Excellent timing by Wikileaks. She may have to step down. This is what the U.S. used to do in third world countries, but Australia?

Explosive stuff.

It also explains Rudd's sudden change of heart towards Assange. At first he brushed off the original cables which revealed U.S. 'diplomats' criticizing him. But this? This is a crime, it has to be against Australia's National Security Laws. A foreign government working against their elected officials?

Gillard HAS to go.

Wow, I bet Assange directed the release of those documents for after he was arrested. He attacked Gillard, called her a lackey of the U.S. but it wasn't just hyperbole. HE KNEW that is exactly what she was!

And now Rudd, who originally slammed Assange is supporting him. He had to be forced last week to grudgingly say he would provide protection for him as an Australian Citizen. This must be a real rude awakening for him, a real demonstration of how right Assange was and how wrong he was.

I think the tables are slowly turning. The U.S. will be a pariah, and this is only the beginning. They need to be stopped! They are installing puppets all over the world.

[BobbyBoring]

5. Let's see

Where's Ruppert Murdoch from again? Our chickens are coming home to roost~

[bemildred]

9. Well, now we know why she emitted her foolish comments about Assange. nt

[Uncle Joe]

10. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Joanne.

[katty]

11. U.S.: we're everywhere you don't want us to be...

[Demeter]

12. The US Has NO Friends, Nor Does She Deserve Any

And if the regime of Corporations were called upon to help the nation, you can bet your LIFE that the Corporations will not answer the call for help, either.

Talk about selling your birthright for a mess of pottage.