Showing posts with label Spy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spy. Show all posts

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Warmonger Peter Garrett: 100 per cent support for US military base in WA

February 17, 2006: Labor puppet and US military supporter, Peter Garrett has defended US military bases in Australia, saying he accepted the ALP's policy when he capitulated to the party almost three years ago.

Garrett says he fully supports his party's endorsement of a new US military communications base planned for Western Australia. In his previous life as a rock star, Mr Garrett and Midnight Oil railed against US military might with songs such as US Forces, Hercules and When the Generals Talk.

From the moment the ALP bought Peter Garrett for the seat of Kingsford Smith, activists around the country and the planet have been discussing whether the now corporate-suited politician has sold out on his ideals...
He said this week that his position on the US military had certainly changed from when he protested outside the Pine Gap base near Alice Springs in the 1980s - developed by the Hawke Labor government. In the past, the former Midnight Oil singer has called for the US military to be evicted from Australia. But today, it seems, he fully supports US control on Australian soil. This week though he dodged questions about a secret US military base for Geraldton in Western Australia.

"You know, 25 and 30 years ago, like a lot of other Australians, I was involved in making music, in actions and in activities around the country," Mr Garrett said. "Of course you change your mind about some things over time. Many people's views had evolved over time, he said. "Mine have. When I joined the Labor Party I accepted the position that the Labor Party has in terms of supporting those facilities, and that maintains up to this very point in time today."

Garret, the opposition spokesman for Climate Change, environment and the arts was hammered by Libs after refusing to answer journalists' questions about the new unmanned US base, approved after three years of secret negotiations between the US and Australian governments. Garrett said Labor had not received a briefing on the proposal at the time he was questioned by journalists.

"Subsequently, the defence spokesman has made it clear that the Labor Party supports the joint facilities," Mr Garrett told reporters in Sydney. "I 100 per cent support the defence minister on that issue. I want to make it perfectly clear that when I joined the Labor Party I accepted and understood what the policy was for Australian joint facilities... that is a policy I unreservedly accept."

"Twenty-five and thirty years ago, like a lot of other Australians I was involved in actions and activities across this country, of course you change your mind about some things over time, no one listening to this interview would expect otherwise, "Mr Garrett said. "There would be members on both frontbenchers of the parliament, many people sitting in their bedrooms, in their lounge rooms, in the pub today who have views... which have evolved over time, mine have."

In 1986, Garret, on behalf of peace activists launched a national campaign to close the joint defence facility of Pine Gap: "It is our intention to give 12 months notice of termination of the above agreement on the 19th day of October 1986."

Now in 2007, Garret has fully caved to his political masters: "I don’t believe that Pine Gap should be closed. I'm fully prepared to accept the position that Labor has taken. There is no doubt about it, that it is the threat of terrorism and the intelligence that we can gather from terrorism that is now one of the primary and most important things that Australia, in terms of our national security, needs to consider," he said this week.

"Peter Garrett was always going to find it difficult dealing with the compromises of being in the Labor Party. Well, that had been the traditional analysis of his move from environment activist to mainstream politician," said Ben Oquist for Crikey in November 2006. "Reality has played out somewhat differently. It actually looks like Garrett is very comfortable in the grubbiest aspects of party politics..."

Sad days...

--- Midnight Oil was an Australian rock band active from the early 1970s until 2003. Their notable hits include "Beds are Burning" and "Blue Sky Mine". The band was known for its driving hard rock sound, intense live performances, and its overt left-wing political activism, particularly in aid of environmentalist causes... --- Wikipedia


SOURCES:
SMHPeter Garrett back flips on Pine Gap - ABC
The Age
Wikipedia: Midnight_Oil
How Peter Garrett trashed his moral authority - Crikey

Thursday, February 15, 2007

US military base to be built in Geraldton, WA

Thursday, February 15, 2007: The United States military will build a new communications base at Geraldton in Western Australia. Defence Minister Brendan Nelson says he has agreed to host a ground station for a new US military satellite communications system. The plans for the base come after three years of covert negotiations between Washington and Canberra. The new US base will be built at the existing Australian defence facility at Geraldton and will be used by the Americans to monitor regions like the Middle East. It would be similar to the Pine Gap joint military facility in the Northern Territory...

Let Nelson know what YOU think: http://www.brendannelson.com.au/contact_def.asp

Dr Nelson says the details of the agreement will be finalised soon. The Government says it will have full knowledge of the functions and purpose of the base. He said negotiations began in 2003 and were continuing. Details would be made public once the details were finalised. More ground stations might be built at other locations in Australia, Dr Nelson said.

The new US communications base will be the first since the Pine Gap spy base began operating in the Northern Territory more than 20 years ago. Firm plans for the base come after three years of secret negotiations between Washington and Canberra. The base will be a key component of a system carrying orders and intelligence to US and allied troops in the field in some of the world's major trouble spots.

Labor frontbencher Peter Garrett has long campaigned against such facilities but today he is not commenting. "My views are clear and they've been clear since I've come into Parliament," he said. Western Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert says establishing the new base is a dangerous move. "It puts a threat on Perth's doorstep and certainly on Geraldton's doorstep," she said. Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja is also wary. "I'm sure it suits the Government's purposes, I'm not sure how the Australian population will think though," she said.

The deal further entrenches Australia's military relationship with the United States. Visiting fellow at the Australian Defence Force Academy Philip Dorling said that once the base was operating, it would be almost impossible for Australia to be fully neutral or stand back from any war in which the US was involved.

Dr Dorling said the base would have direct military significance and would be a military target, similar to the submarine communications base at North West Cape and the joint facility at Pine Gap with its missile early warning system.

"You knock out the ground station and you knock out the system," Dr Dorling said. "Once again the Howard Government is extremely eager to add another strand to Australia's alliance with the US. If the Americans are involved in conflict anywhere in the Indian and Pacific oceans, basically our half of the hemisphere, Australia will be directly involved by providing vital intelligence and communications links."

He said the Geraldton base would be the link through which the United States would control the satellites. "Geraldton is as far west as you can get on the Australian land mass. That means they can put the satellite as far west as possible so that the Middle East, particularly the Persian Gulf, and south Asia will fall within its footprint," Dr Dorling said.

Construction could reportedly begin within six months. It is the first big US military installation to be built in Australia since the controversy surrounding the joint spy base at Pine Gap more than two decades ago.

The base, about 370 kilometres north of Perth, will control two of five geostationary satellites — those with the highest priority parked over the Indian Ocean to monitor the unstable Middle East. The network will be the military equivalent of the new generation 3G mobile phone system and will provide front-line military units instantly with high quality intelligence information, graphics and maps.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson confirmed that talks were continuing with the US Defence Department which wanted to build a ground station for its Mobile User Objective System, an array of satellites being developed to provide new generation communications for US and allied forces.

Dr Nelson provided the information in response to a written question from Labor backbencher Daryl Melham.

Mr Melham said it was remarkable that the negotiations for the base had been going in secret for more than three years without the Government being prepared to make any public announcement. "This is deplorable," he said.

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Contact the Defence Minister:

The Hon. Dr Brendan Nelson MP: Minister for Defence
Suite MF149, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600
Tel: 02 6277 7800
Fax: 02 6273 4118
E-mail: ministerfordefence@defence.gov.au (Please note: e-mail correspondence should include your full name and postal address. Responses will not be made by e-mail.)

SOURCES:
US military base to be built in WA - ABC News
US communications base for WA - News Ltd
US base for WA - Sky News
US gets military base in Western Australia - The Age
Contact Dr Nelson, Minister for Defence