Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, is a liar.
To be specific, his statement at the weekend that Julian Assange’s actions in publishing US cables and defence material “risk[ed] very serious harm to our national security” is a clear, indeed blatant, lie.
Let’s cite the authorities who over the years have confirmed that WikiLeaks’ publication of the Chelsea Manning material, including the Iraq and Afghan war logs, did little or no harm to national security:
- Barack Obama’s defence secretary at the time of the releases, Robert M Gates: “I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. I think — I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets … Other nations will continue to deal with us. They will continue to work with us. We will continue to share sensitive information with one another. Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for US foreign policy? I think fairly modest”;
- The US Department of Defense in a secret report obtained by Buzzfeed in 2017: no “significant impact”; “disclosure of the Iraq data set will have no direct personal impact on current and former US leadership in Iraq”;
- Officials of Blinken’s department briefing Congress in 2010: “We were told [the impact of WikiLeaks revelations] was embarrassing but not damaging”;
- US military officials at the trial of Chelsea Manning: “I don’t have a specific example,” when asked to confirm the much-vaunted claim that the releases had placed the lives of US sources in danger.
Blinken knows all this. He worked as an adviser to Joe Biden when the latter was vice president under Obama. Yet he continues to peddle the lie that the Manning material damaged national security. Instead, it exposed war crimes by US military forces — crimes that have never been prosecuted — and exposed the extent to which the US State Department is devoted to advancing US corporate interests.
As a senior member of the Obama administration, Blinken undoubtedly still feels the deep embarrassment that came from the exposure of US foreign policy by WikiLeaks — and the Obama administration’s ferocious war on whistleblowers continues to this day under Biden.
Standing on the other side of Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong from Blinken at the weekend was Defence Minister Richard Marles. Marles would know about the embarrassment of the WikiLeaks material. He was humiliated when he was outed as a US source by a cable from 2009 that showed him to be an overwhelmed and underinformed parliamentary secretary. (Highlight: Marles says he wants Australia to depend less on commodity exports; when asked what other areas he’d like to see exports grow, he can’t think of any.) Marles has hated WikiLeaks ever since, and peddled the lie that the material placed lives at risk.
As Defence Minister, Marles has been Labor’s Peter Dutton, driving the case for big increases in defence spending to counter the alleged threat of China and overseeing Australia’s biggest defence folly since the Iraq War, the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, which amounts to the outsourcing of a key component of Australian naval defence to the United States.
In this ever-closer integration with the US military, Marles is a happy warrior. Yesterday he revealed another step in the integration of Australia’s defence systems into that of Washington’s: US intelligence officials will be inserted into the Defence Intelligence Organisation to vet our intelligence.
Australia’s signals-gathering systems are already deeply enmeshed in those of the US via the Five Eyes intelligence architecture. The Edward Snowden revelations showed what this actually means in practice: the ASD spying on behalf of US corporations against the trade interests of Australia’s neighbours.
However, the integration of US intelligence officers into our own Defence Intelligence Organisation is a step well beyond spying on behalf of the Americans. Like AUKUS, it’s an example of the outsourcing of Australian defence and foreign policy to Washington in a way that hasn’t been seen since the Iraq War disaster.
It’s clear now why the Albanese government, which insists it has been pressing the Assange case with the Americans, is unable to extract even the slightest concession for an Australian who is guilty only of being a publisher who has done what publishers should do — hold the powerful to account.
From the American point of view, Australia is a vassal state that is eager to hand as much sovereignty as possible to the US. There’s no need for its imperial overlord to give Australia the slightest concession when we hand the US everything it wants. Especially not over a man who deeply embarrassed Washington.
Just ask Richard Marles.
Should Australia just accept the Americans’ response over Assange? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Thanks Bernard. After Paul Keating’s National Press Club address on Aukus, I forthwith phoned my local member, Matt Keogh, and asked his office to pass on a message. As a 67 year old Labor voter, the gist was “now who do you think I believe – Paul Keating or Marles. I am horrified over Aukus as are many other Labor voters.
If that sort of stupid sell-out horrifies you, why the hell are you a Labor voter? It’s their raison d’etre.
The other mob simply sucks harder.
Australia has rank choice voting.
The biggest embarrassment here is Richard Marles.
So are Albanese and Wong. Time to move Australia Day to 4 July and be done with it.
hear, hear! – let’s stop pretending
gutless and witless is this fellow Albanese – Marles on the other hand might well be an LNP ‘plant’
Trump’s mate Morrison had already achieved that.
Interesting that Blinken said he understood there were Australian sensitivities about Assange but we needed to understand there were US sensitivities too.
Translation – US sensitivities trump Australian sensitivities. Lesson: US interests come first.
That’s old news from the Coral Sea battle era.
We have always been their puppy ever since …….Vietnam, Iraq, submarines, China policy…….
That has never been in doubt.
The biggest embarrassment here is the Australian electorate, which has been sucked in by right wing wank forever. There’s no way Labor could pull these shenanigans if the voters held them to account – which is to say, not swinging into the arms of the other half of the duopoly.
Shows Marles is on the wrong side when Greg Sheridan is in approval.
what a dweb that odd fellow is- he is so small minded it is oathetic the ego of em both
And what staggers me is that Marles is part of the right faction of the ALP and Albo from the left. The need to ‘balance’ left and right factions in the ALP seems more important than the wellbeing and future of this country and its people. As a rusted on ALP voter, I feel betrayed by this government mob.
Nitya,
Feel betrayed? You were betrayed and will continue to be so. Join the Rally for Peace not War at South Brisbane at 8:00 am on Friday 18 August. Tell Marles he is not welcome in Qld and to stick it up his AUKUS.
Why is there a right faction in the ALP in the first place! That would equate to the left faction in the LNP … which is still f**kn rwnj territory!
As mentioned above “old fella” from an “old gal” rusted on Labor voter, hopefully the maestro, Paul Keating, will take care of Marles. As mentioned above, the fact that Morrison came up with the Aukus idea should have been enough for Labor to carefully reconsider this proposal. That they did in less than 24 hours is a disgrace. As for Penny, lovely person, but time to move on. Give another generation a chance. PS. Apart from Aukus, they’ve done a pretty good job so far.
Oh my FG, *why oh why* are people looking to Labor for leadership? Their only purpose should be to keep the LNP out, while Parliament gets taken over by Greens and independents. Parties are the problem. The Greens are the least worst, but they’d still be much better as an affiliated group of independents, like the Teals.
Once again – parties are the problem. They are a vehicle for corruption and a shield for individual members to hide behind.
Forget Labor. They’ve been a hollow shell since ’75, for crying out loud.
Last time I checked, the Greens were a party. The same party that knocked over some form of legislation on climate change years ago. Like to know where we’d be now without floating the dollar or superannuation. I have on occasion voted Greens in the upper house here in WA over my voting years.
This is another example of why we’re stuffed. The propaganda machine is simply too strong.
Higher taxes like Norway would make us independent…….but we want the good life now. Investing for the long term is boring.
All of this is beyond disgraceful. Our loss of sovereign integrity is beyond comprehension. Moreover, Marles is damaging our national interests in a way never seen since Billy Hughes. The campaign against him should be relentless.
Marles is an intellectual match for Billy McMahon. The US officials must be delighted to be dealing with such a mental lightweight …and such a compliant Australian government.
Pay attention Australians, this is an example of how valuable you are according to our federal governments (both ALP & Coalition). Your human rights and freedom mean nothing when pitted against the unrelenting efforts to ingratiate ourselves to the USA.
Does this mean that should an Oz journo (based here in Oz) dare not publish anything to embarrass the USA if it’s a massive scandal which impacts internationally? Will the USA demand the aforementioned journo be extradited to cool their heels in Gitmo or some other hellhole before being sentenced to a couple hundred years in a maximum security Yank gaol? It appears that our government will help the hypothetical journo pack their case for the trip.
Similar thing is already happening to Dan Duggan – now held in solitary confinement for 9 months awaiting extradition to the US for doing something in South Africa. Seems US laws can apply on an extraterritorial basis according to their whims.
Apparently what he did was not illegal at the time.
I understand he was training Chinese pilots for civilian flights, not military. No worse than teaching English in China.
Not illegal then nor is it now but when have legal, ethical or moral principles ever applied to the USofAholes?
When a country deems itself to be the “Exceptional, the one essential Nation” nothing is beyond its remit, real or imagined.
US law is extraterritorial and retrospective to boot, while international law cuts no ice with The Leaders Of The Free World…
Ever get the feeling that nothing is what it pretends to be?