In September last year, nearly 22 months after the case was referred to the federal government for action, the Australian Federal Police began its continuing war crimes inquiry into the killing of the journalists.
Shirley Shackleton, the wife of one of the murdered reporters, Greg Shackleton, said Australia should not have engaged in backroom diplomacy with Indonesia in connection to the murders.
''The cable makes us realise that Australia is not interested in justice, they are interested in smoothing relations with Indonesians,'' Ms Shackleton said.
''There is a constant pattern of deception from the Australian government. Kevin Rudd has vowed that the Indonesian military should be held to account, but privately the Australian government doesn't do anything. This hasn't just gone on since the coroner's report, it has gone on since the murders.''
A SECRET Australian intelligence assessment has declared the al-Qaeda terrorist network a failure and claims its regional offshoot, Jemaah Islamiyah, has been broken in Indonesia.
The head of Australia's top intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments, told American diplomats in October 2008 that al-Qaeda “ultimately has failed to achieve the strategic leadership role it sought within the Islamic world".
The assessment undercuts a key argument of the Gillard government to justify Australia's continued commitment to the war in Afghanistan — that al-Qaeda could return to use the country as a terrorist training ground.
Foreign Affairs Department deputy secretary David Richie warned that Australia faced a ''troubled neighbourhood … including an increase in illegal immigration from Indonesia … continuing political instability in Thailand; the 'basket case' of the Philippines; the continuing 'burden' of providing security and development assistance to East Timor; problems of bad governance in many of the Pacific Island states''.
THE resignation of defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon last year was ‘‘a blessing in disguise’’ for the federal government, according to US embassy cables that savage his performance.
Leaked diplomatic cables reveal American diplomats in Canberra sharply critiqued Mr Fitzgibbon’s stint as defence minister, including his inattention to detail, ‘‘weak parliamentary performance’’ and ‘‘inability to obtain information’’ from the Defence Department.
The cables describe Mr Fitzgibbon, who is now chief government whip, as a poor choice as defence minister.
Throughout 2009, the US embassy sent several warnings to Washington about Mr Fitzgibbon’s increasingly fragile grasp on his portfolio.
Obama caved in on Kopassus
INDONESIA threatened to derail a visit to Jakarta by President Barack Obama earlier this year unless he overturned the US ban on training the controversial Kopassus army special forces.
Leaked US State Department cables reveal that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono privately told the US that continuing the ban - introduced in 1999 because of Kopassus's appalling human rights record, including killings in East Timor and West Papua - was the ''litmus test of the bilateral relationship'' between the US and Indonesia.
Six months later, the US agreed to resume ties with Kopassus, despite fierce criticism from some human rights groups and American politicians about Jakarta's failure to hold officers to account for their role in atrocities.
The cables, released by WikiLeaks, detail US concerns about Indonesia's failure to prosecute the military personnel responsible for murder and torture during the conflicts in East Timor and Aceh.
But they also reveal that US diplomats in Jakarta believed that Mr Yudhoyono's demands should be met to ensure that Indonesia's military and security services would protect American interests in the region, including co-operation in the war on terror. It was also argued that closer military ties would encourage further reform of Indonesia's military.
The Indonesian leader's call to lift the Kopassus training ban is described in a January cable from the US embassy in Jakarta.
''President Yudhoyono (SBY) and other senior Indonesian officials have made it clear to us that SBY views the issue of Army Special Forces (KOPASSUS) training as a litmus test of the bilateral relationship and that he believes the … visit of President Obama will not be successful unless this issue is resolved in advance of the visit,'' the cable says.
Isn't it?
)
Quote:Isn't it?
Gad, I think it is ... or was.
It's now the day after. (22nd)
(I'm tired. I think I should go to bed!
Tuesday for another 3 minutes here.
That is where SA is a doofus.
