Secrets, Spies and Trials: National security vs the public's right to know | Four Corners
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- Four Corners investigates the extraordinary steps the Australian government has taken to prosecute and silence a former spy and his lawyer who are accused of exposing a secret bugging operation carried out by Australian agents in the former East Timor.
The former intelligence operative, known only as Witness K, and his lawyer, the former ACT Attorney-General Bernard Collaery, have been charged with conspiring to reveal secret information relating to an Australian intelligence operation aimed at a friendly foreign government.
The case is highly sensitive, with key evidence central to the allegations unlikely to ever be heard by the public.
Witness K and Collaery are accused of disclosing a bugging operation carried out in the government offices of Timor Leste in 2004. It was only years after the revelations became public that the two men were charged.
The intelligence community argues that prosecuting those that leak is an essential part of our national security.
But former judges and senior lawyers who have worked closely with the intelligence agencies say they are deeply worried about the prosecution and the use of the national security laws created in the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The program examines the tension between those who say national security is paramount and those who fear the steady encroachment of state security on the public’s right to know.
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400 km from Australia and 150 km from Timor-Leste
.
Greed to the extent of taking the little that the poor have.
victor nderu I am sorry our government are so twisted and sick. God Bless to you and your family. They are out of control in a greed fed frenzy.
victor nderu perhaps we can give them Downer and Gillard as a a downer payment
Under the current deal of Timor getting 15% of the revenue from the Gas drilling, its enough to make every citizen of East Timor a multi millionaire. So I guess we will wait and watch now whilst the communist supported Fretlin party squander the money and make themselves rich and keep the poorest country in the world, poorer. That will be the true test to see if Horta and other frauds actually do believe in the ideologies they push.
Jasbad Sirron cheers.. I was not aware of this. It seems the Marxist rev is certainly getting about.. I’m sure we are getting ripped off, and the Constitutional monarchy known as a ‘commonwealth ‘ we live in constrains the wealth to the ‘not so common’👍
@@offgridjohn871
Gillard .....? Do you really think the liberals would want the opposition to know about these criminal dealings ... when the liberals commit these crimes. why do people always throw labour into that mix.?
thumbs up before viewing 👍🏼
true journalism deserves recognition in Australia.
thanx ABC
The program explained, correctly, that Timor-Leste was just emerging from a 24-year genocidal Indonesian operation, was extremely poor and had very few resources at the time of the operation. Just months before Timor-Leste gained independence in 2002, the Australian government withdrew from the maritime boundary jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea. This withdrawal prevented Timor-Leste from asserting its rights under international law to a maritime boundary halfway between it and Australia.
Timor-Leste needed immediate access to an oil and gas filed 135 nautical miles off its south coast. But the Australian government was denying it access in order to force it to surrender the much larger Sunrise and Troubadour gas fields (together called Greater Sunrise).
The government turned to ASIS, its intelligence espionage agency tasked with collecting intelligence outside Australia. ASIS used the cover of an aid project to install listening devices in Timor-Leste’s ministerial offices. The operation gave Australia secret access to Timor-Leste’s internal deliberations and negotiating positions.
Four Corners covered this aspect of the story - how the espionage operation targeted a poor, defenceless country.
But it left out a crucial element: the operation drew precious intelligence resources away from the war on terror, just as the Australian government was assuring parliament and the public that it was doing everything possible to keep Australians safe. On September 9, 2004, a car bomb targeted the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. Just under a dozen people were killed, including an embassy security guard, four Indonesian policemen, the gardener, a visa applicant and some others. The group known as Jemaah Islamiyah claimed responsibility.
A few months before, the Australian government had released its white paper on terrorism. It identified “extremist Muslim” terrorism as a focus more than 50 times, and Indonesia was said to be central to Australia’s counter-terror strategy, receiving a hundred mentions in the space of 110 pages. ASIS was to be a vital pillar of the counter-terror strategy. It would have an obvious role in gaining intelligence about “extremist” terror groups.
And yet, despite all the anti-terror rhetoric, valuable ASIS resources were being deployed away from it's mission.
Four Corners left out another important aspect: the use of ASIS for commercial purposes was just one element of a much larger use of state assets for corporate wealth.
From 1970 onwards, what is now the government agency Geoscience Australia conducted scientific surveys of Australia’s undersea geology, and then handed over this publicly-funded information to petroleum companies for almost nothing. In 1988, Treasury, with the support of the Department of Finance, objected to such valuable information being given away to private interests, urging “a much more substantial level of cost recovery”. But the Department of Foreign Affairs insisted the “national interest” required taxpayers fund the costs and - crucially, the risks - of investment in fundamental research, while the corporate sector benefited from the energy riches in the continental shelf.
On September 4, 1984, West Australian premier Brian Burke formally opened the $27 billion North West Shelf Gas Project, which was operated by a then little-known company called Woodside Petroleum. It began exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 1989. The project has today become one of the largest LNG producers in the world and Woodside has become Australia’s largest standalone oil and gas company, and one of the top 20 stocks in the ASX by market capitalisation.
The Australian government has seemingly deployed the full weight of its diplomatic, legal and scientific assets over decades to secure massive benefits for Woodside’s shareholders. In return, according to Woodside’s own calculations in February 2017, governments have received approximately $26 billion in royalties, excise and taxes from the North West Shelf Project since it began in 1984.
Australia’s shame: Witness K punished for his service, while the guilty go free
Other governments have taken a different approach: the Norwegian government is the largest shareholder in Statoil, its state oil company. Statoil’s workers elect several of the company directors, and its shareholder meetings are open to the public, as are its financial statements. The Norwegian government created the “Oljefondet” or "Oil Fund" in 1990 to invest Norway’s oil revenue. The fund had US$1 trillion (more than A$1.2 trillion) in December 2017.
In Australia, the “national interest” has instead amounted to the socialisation of costs and risks, and the privatisation of profits, with taxpayers getting a trickle of revenue in return.
Dursun Sahin true journalism deserves thumbs up no matter where it’s found
Sovereign nations of the world spy ..bullying.. ripping off each other all the time.. get used to it.. because we as a species of humanity choose to live as patriotism flags and sovereignty ideology.. hmmmm... Some greeny politician should catch a fixed wing helicopter flight to see that Timor sea... It is polluted by oil exploration, extractions in a bad way..😑
Well done 4 corners,so very impotant that real journalism still exists . You haven't sold out
"Pre-Police State". Get worried, its really time for the public to stand up and demand civil rights protections
good luck. no passion in australians to protest anything
Absolutely
@@ThePhreshdogMore interested in complaining about the Chinese in HK and Australia than they are in their own back yard. Fools. Whipped up by fear and misinformation only Australians have no idea of what's going on.
stop voting fucking morons then you wouldn't get this
no wonder Australia gets on so well with Communist-red-china
GREAT DOCUMENTARY. Well done ABC, please keep up the work of educating the Australian public about issues that will inevitably affect all of us.
What sort of gestapo have we got running this place?
It's beyond most people's imagination
Starzi police are on the loose.
the one you voted for
@@robert23456789 personally I've never voted, not once
Dutton's Army
Bernards intense and fierce statement at the end there about the boomerang in the air that's coming back gave me goosebumps. Legend
me too... that was excellent wordage...
Hope he survives.
This case is the exact opposite of justice.
Questions.. 1. Which companies have laid claim to that oil field? I smell US ownership... 2. If Julian Assange is going away, do people like this ever stand a chance?
Callum Gillman , You might want to check with Shell Oil company. If you didn’t know how America got involved with Vietnam War, it started with Shell Petrochemical Company which is owned by an Australian company. Australians found the weakness in American Oil companies and they sold this idea to Americans that’s how US got into Vietnam. It wasn’t to stop the communist or help the South Vietnamese.
@@SirFoodie1904 What absolute bullshit. Shell is owned by Royal Dutch Shell, based out of the Netherlands, which is itself of British and Dutch origins.
In the US, Thomas Jefferson in his old age, 1830's, said, "To protect the fundamentals of freedom, it appears that a Bloody revolution is requireded every 20 years". He said this after watching, (I think) from about 1810, onward an increasing corruption develope.
PUT SIMPLY: You have to simply Kill corrupt officials. They have made the law, Lawless, everywhere. You need to figure how to do it so as not to be seen and caght, unless the entire society goes after these Bastards.
If you want freedonm, kill them.
The US revolution was based on 1 verse in Romans: Obey they government, AS LONG AS IT DOES WELL. (KJV) After constant abuses, you have the moral, God allowed, right to rebel. DO IT.
@@SirFoodie1904 no the war wasn't about shell. it is bigger then that!.
National Security my arse. Journalists and whistleblowers should be protected not prosecuted
Annette Sleeping-Bear right but they expose the corrupt Governments- which the people in power don’t like. They like to be able to do their illegal activities undetected
Samantha Puntis US CITIZEN we had our own Gov fly planes ✈️ into twin towers there’s just six filthy rat families that run the globe welcome to the great awakening
Annette Sleeping-Bear
They are quite dangerous and can act as a double edge sword. Sometimes I can agree with you within limits. The worse betrayal is one from the inside
@ 10:43 "We sold them out in 1975." We didn't do anything in 1963 when Indonesia annexed West Papua either. The U.S. sold out West Papua because of the Freeport mine and we were the obedient lapdog again. Our foreign policy in this area is appalling.
We don't have a choice, Indonesia controls the sealanes to important trading partners to our north. If we anger them, and they decide to mess with trade going to and from our continent, we'd be on the verge of collapse.
@@rakatumu Your argument is shown to be false by the fact that we were the leaders of INTERFET in Timor Leste in 1999. Indonesia was dragged to conciliation kicking and screaming about our involvement. There was no long term effect to the bi-lateral relationship.
@@rakatumu That's a good excuse. I wonder if the Chinese government will say the same thing about there military base in the South China Sea. We Australian can do better.
Speaking about West papua? Truth is, maybe Indonesia need to help Aborigins, Indonesia's and Timor Leste's REAL neighbour!
@@rpesik You're correct about the treatment of Australian Aboriginals. How is that an excuse for Indonesia to do worse in the 21st Century to a people it has colonized?
Our gov seem to be serving huge corps and not doing the job to serve and the people of our country!
enjoy what you keep on voting for
robert23456789 you say that like there's an alternative on the ballot. Look at the state of the media today and tell me how you can have a democracy with such an uninformed populace.
@@ConstableRinkels prepare your head cause am going to blow it with a idea i bet you have never heard of before TRY FUKCING TELLING THEM like you have all these people saying people don't know ok get together and go in teams of 200 per area work 24/7 to inform people even if you those 200 can talk with lets say 40 people in a day ........ oh wait the people who complain about this don't want to tell people so they can carry on complaining about it
Governments no longer serve anyone but their friends with the money. oh, hang on, all sitting officials have lots of money
@@phillipkennedy3444 hey dumbass if people put their money together to change things that a lot of money as well but let's all amit people dont really what change and will attack all those who do
Downer and Howard should have been prosecuted. Look at them now.
I heard about the Timor-Leste case. Never had I imagined that it actually was about Australia comitting something infamous like this.
Thanks for doing this. Great work.
Reflects rather badly on Christian Porter now that these 2 men have been charged under his watch as AG.
And note please that he has reserved the right to decide whether people like Anneka Smethurst should be charged or not. This is outright bullying. He has no intention of fast tracking any investigation. He wants a sword of Damocles hanging over her head in the hope that he can frighten the media into submission. The events of this week and the television campaign they're running may not turn the ship around but it shows that the battle lines have been drawn.
Fantastic piece of journalism - brave, conciece and deeply thought provoking. May a rebalance of fair play and rule of law draw upon us very soon. This creeping menace and ever deepening deviation from rule of law and our rights is frightening and could have long lasting detrimental to our way of life.
As stated brilliantly, the boomerang will come back and when it does some who have instigated this legal barbarism I hope will be exposed and have to answer in court.
Hi abc fellows if you happen to stumble across a democracy please let know
I would like live in one before I die
RF monkey -Well, that depends on how fearful and disconnected from politics your are. Try Canada, New Zealand, UK, Swiss; all very good in their own way.
@@antonysmyth2464 Not New Zealand...do you not know how their government deceived their citizens with their unconscionable signing of the UN Migration Pact?
New Zealand Canada (same insanity ) and the UK are done and were not looking good with our mass immigration hurting our young Australian born citizens. We need someone like President Trump to save our country.
Antony Smyth UK a democracy? Lol they're worse than us. You have UK intelliegice running psyop campaigns against the opposition party... Hijacking an Iranian oil taker in international waters... Rampant privatisation and wealth concentration in the hands of the elite while the working class falls into poverty... 1 in 4 children are in poverty... illegally imprisoned Julian Assange for 7 years... There are thousands of examples I can list for the UK before I even get into those others you listed. To give you a start CANADA - the worst concentration of media ownership in the world... Genocides it's indigenous population and continues to steal and destroy their land with oil sands and pipelines while we look into the face of extinction.... NEW ZEALAND - the
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in which 90 percent of the population was against and serves only to harm the working class an enrich transnational corporations, hardly a progressive policy, Jacinda.
marie cameron - Hmmm, can’t agree with that. Lies, cheats, insults, to name but a few features, can’t keep good people. Not the type of person I would like as a political leader in Australia.
Democracy itself is a farce. It is being ruled over by unknown powers rather than actually having someone accountable .
Any of you here know why Indonesia got to Timor Leste/East Timor, really? Any of you know that Australia (and US) backed and asked Indonesia to get into Timor Leste/East Timor, 1976? Any of you know what is the relation between what happened in Cuba many years ago with East Timor/Timor Leste? Any of you know why Australia then wanted to make East Timor independent and get out of Indonesia? Was it for humanity, really?
Truly shameful of Australia, Where is the Australia I came to??? The Government of John Howard was not an honourable government...…. Makes you disgusted.
Australia has been taking advise from America. They have no right to criticise what China does.
We are not our greedy soulless inhumane politicians.Australia you are not free , your children are going to suffer if you don't stand up for our freedoms and rights and privacy and take back our country.TIMES RUNNING OUT..
Too many people absorbed by the Kardashians and iPhone apps. And you've seen what happens when people protest on the streets these days...?
I'm speechless....... Wow!
It's becoming a worldwide problem. We are in a transition where Criminality is rife in the public service. Wealth and power over the people, turning them into slaves to serve them is the ultimate goal and is well on it's way to becoming a reality in every so-called "free" country in the world, and no one is safe anymore.
Stealing from the poor I love Australia but what about a fair go.
Albert Xavier
True, however,
Take note, America,
Nothing can compete with
ultra-rich who practice Surveillance
Upon on their customers and pays no taxes.
This kind of thing infuriates me, what kind of country are we living in, what kind of people are we to tolerate our government behaves that way, what kind of citizens are we to re-elect them time after time?...
selves as having no moral conscience, They need to be exposed, and brought to account, whenever they get found out for their crimes they always cry national security , take it to the international court of human rights
Aust only have a conscience when it suits them or suits their purpose
Why can't this story come out before the election ?
*sigh* we're stuck federally and in NSW
Because the welfare gravy train at the ABC is dependant on shilling for the lnp
Because the corporate media run the liberal government.. it's quid pro quo arrangement.
They fan the positives and cover the negatives for the government and they
fan the negatives and cover the positives with labour.
No excuse really...this current government had been caught out over many scandals before the election, the mismanagement of water, favouritism from Dutton in handing out visas, the robo-debt fiasco, etc, etc. This is just another one of those scandals but voters turn a blind eye to this sort of thing, franking credits and a couple of hundred jobs at a dodgy coal mine take priority, not a poor country battling to stand on its own.
I hope you're not expecting anything better from Labor. They went along for the ride because Howard wedged them in the early 2000s. They either fell into line with LNP policy or stood accused of being "soft on terrorists".
Who was the Australian Minister who decided to withdraw from the International Court of Justice's Jurisdiction resolving Maritime Boundaries. We need to investigate any bribes or blackmail against this Australian Minister.
Would have been John Howard
Unfortunately this is what I am expecting.
This is only the surface, other thing that I am anticipating that will go wrong is Soloman Island deal, which is the longest undersea cable signed last year.
Although I am too keen on politics, I knew, how telecommunication deals and construction works going on in Syndey for the past and it is not at all pleasent.
I find it hard to believe a government which could not finish building city underground railway for 4 years and did not get the NBN upgraded on time has the capability to find Australian company that can finish this type of work.
I am expecting major delays and additional cost to be thrown in this project. If it can finish at all.
As this is international affair, and Soloman Island is not a big or rich country and it would ruin the Australian’s reputation as a trust worthy partner in the region.
And I don’t want to go to Solomon Island for holiday and to find out Australians are doing messy jobs there.
They said be nice to your neighbours you know.....
But, well, who cares for it now days....
The global economy is going on a decline and I don’t see the Australian government has any plans for Australia.
Let’s just all get ready to rock.
Australian Contractors are guaranteed to do a shit arse job, they are paid up front and simply dont give a fuck because nobody is going to take them to task for the services provided. In all of Australia's history nobody has ever been taken to task for wasting Tax Payers money, when the Tax Payer is forking out the Contractors see it as Free Money
Government covering up its mess, plain and simple, certainly not whistle blowing
Oh wow, this sort of behaviour is true of dictatorships not democracies.Excellent journalism and my thoughts and hopes are with Mr K and MrCollaery.
The pure righteous look Bernard gives at the end is beautiful. Bing the boomerang!
We ALL are in Trouble, when the Truth tellers, are being punished and the Real Criminals are yet Free, to work another day in the office.
Yep .... we burnt $45,000 in diesel a day Hidden valley Power station Alice Springs from Timor ............. after we started to pay for it at 7c a liter
Hi MrLunithy, can you please explain what you mean here? It's sounds interesting, but I'm also slightly confused, lol
Useful Revolution I got no idea what he’s saying as well lol
@@UsefulRevolution As you should be..... they didn't advertise the fact it came from Timor oil reserve.
@@darthwookiee77 Power stations dont run on air mate.
MrLunithy yes they do. Solar and wind is the conversion model for the generating stations that still exist. Most of the coal fired plants have been shut down. They are only used for truly unsustainable cities who have no infrastructure for self reliance and must gorge from the planet and disrupt its inhabitants so you can watch tv porn and violent movies in the comfort of climate control. You couldn’t survive on your own.
Thank-you Four Corners.
The downside is just wonder what else goes on with our money funded for the government
Moral failings of Aussi Govt.
What national security?
Seriously?
How can we have national security when a major port is leased to a foreign power?
How can we have national security when our food production and farms are being sold to a foreign power?
How can we have National security when our energy providers are sold to foreign powers?
Please add to this
There is no national security when the New World Order runs everything behind the scenes. ~( ,m,)~
Don't forget our universities, and may as well throw politics in there too considering all the "donations" from suspect origins.
It's sickening how corrupt this world is.
A BILL OF RIGHTS, WITH NO MORAL MEN IS WORTHLESS, LOOK AT THE US. National security at the expense of those they claim to "protect" is NO Security. Truth should always be given latitude.
In the US, Thomas Jefferson in his old age, 1830's, said, "To protect the fundamentals of freedom, it appears that a Bloody revolution is required every 20 years". He must have been profoundly discouraged. He said this after watching, (I think) from about 1810 onward, an increasing corruption develop.
PUT SIMPLY: You have to simply Kill corrupt officials. They have made the law, Lawless, everywhere. You need to figure how to do it so as not to be seen and caught (defending people, killing evil politicians/bureaucrats & against corrupt gov.'s is not illegal in Common Law), untill the entire society goes after these EVIL Bastards.
If you want freedom, kill them.
The US revolution was based on 1 verse in Romans:
Obey the government, AS LONG AS IT DOES WELL. (KJV) [TEAR IT DOWN WITH GOD'S BLESSING, OTHERWISE.]
After constant abuses, you have the moral, God allowed, right to rebel. DO IT.
I thought Australia is a free loving country holding so strongly to democracy and freedom in everything especially related to human rights and humanity. Now after hearing this Australia is just the same as many other countries that claimed to be a democracy but infact otherwise.
4 corners is one of my most respected journalism program. They will only get 10 out 10 from me the day they give full air time to the nominated Wayne Glew of the newly formed Great Australian Party (GAP). This story is just a tiny chip from the tip of the iceberg of the corruption that’s been going on since Gough Whitlam years. I challenge 4 corners if they are courageous enough to allow Wayne Glew to inform Australians of what is really going on in our Parliament.
after watching this i feel ashamed to be AUSTRALIAN .......Downers name just sums up the bloke .....
Thanks
How could lawmakers in Australia possibly use 9/11 (which had nothing to do with Australia) as an excuse to pass new state secrecy laws?
Also, what kind of a justice system prosecutes the lawyer of a whistleblower? I mean seriously, what is going on down there?!
The public is on a need to know basis & the public does not need to know
They shouldn’t have dropped the case reading the stealing of the documents that is so corrupt. Imagine what else they’ve done if they’ve done this.
Greed and filth. Start again and apply international standards, so Australians can stand tall and poor people can get their share.
That's for those who claim Australia, Canada and others are on the good side, unlike bad bad US. Dig deep enough and you see them all having skin in the game, they all play ugly one way or another.
Support Wikileaks. Free Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning.
The political directorate of the Australian govt at the time who approved this despicable spying escapade has not been held criminally accountable, hence this can be done again.
After donations to political campaigns & parties, Australian oil and gas interests then lobbied the Australian Gov. for the bugging so they could get a seat at the table in talks regarding mining rights to Timor's natural resources. You just have to follow the money. 💵 💵 💵.
Bullies will always be bullies, but they always fall on their swords eventually.7:23 Alexander Downer passing the buck.Shame on him.
What a load of total crap. A senior head of ASIS gets overlooked for promotion and downgraded, then suddenly this story comes out and he's identified as "witness K". Total scumbag, and in breach of national security laws. Jail, jail, jail.
Kudos to this journalist.
Its abject discrimination 77% are single women living alone being watched 24/7 in there homes, bathrooms. You have to be brave to change in your Own home.
RIP freedom: Now umpires in your local football/netball teams will be jailed and the government will determine the outcome of every child's game of sport :P
The entire cabinet should be impaled on cricket stumps in the Outback and left for the ravens to pick their bones clean! BE ASHAMED Australia!
It's not enough to know the mind of your enemies but you also need to know the mind of your allies . Just because they are your allies doesn't mean they need to be independent .
UA-cam and ABC cracking down on comments....your're a joke ABC.
Maybe they're concerned about the recent NSW supreme court ruling that media outlets are responsible for comments made on their youtube channel, facebook page etc.. ie. they could be liable for any defamatory comments. Maybe it was done in error. You should ask the ABC why they deleted the comments before rushing to call them a joke and trotting out the usual tired news corp talking points.
Australia's national security is of the utmost importance, and persons working for our national security agency must not be allowed to breach that trust.
Correct.
This is a shameful act by Australia that stuns me.'
We already betrayed East Timor in 1975.
Those are not opinions but experience.
2 Tier Justice system same rules apply to all Australians but not to our leaders... Disgrace
Going to spy on the people that people can spy on you can't go one way without the other.
In USA we call them Targeted Individuals.
This was the 'real' illegal invasion/occupation. The True face of Australia.
To my young brothers and sistersall I can say is get educated and learn all you can as the figh is on.
Thank goodness we eventually made the right decision 3 years later, also making the right choice to banish the coalition in the glorious time since turfing them from the helm back in may 2022. Free Assange already
Thanks,
I’ve been looking for this for a long time.
Plugged into the aether
We don’t need children informing on their
Parents, any more.
The new surveillance state (One World)
Is prophetically spoken of in many
Societies.
Moreover, the guy running the show
👉🏽 Pays absolutely no taxes 👈🏾
Now in America,
They are pushing 100 mile border drones
As supplement to
❌☠️❌tumps private army, ICE❌🤡❌
Alan Dupont puts a bit of logic that would not have been accepted in the Nuremberg Trials.
He says if you join an organization and you find it doing something immoral you have to accept it because you joined the organization on your own free will.
Very British behaviour on Australia's behalf. Toxic.
I wander how do Australian politicians keep their families in the dark about how disgusting i
their character , morality and ethics are?
I know where that boomerang is coming from, and it is going to be GREATNESS!
What goes around will come around
This is how politics work . Sometimes this manoeuvrings are necessary. Why do ppl think politics must be fair and honest
What happened to the other witnesses A-J???
Do we live in a free country ? Obviously not .
Why the Australia government had spies like that ? It's really hurt for our Timor people? Should the Australia government really understood how we were sacrify during Indonesia colonised. We are really thankful for Mr. Bernard and Australia people's good people to doing right things... East Timor people never forgot Australia people's and government help our country to get the Independence..
Australia going the same way as the USA...
China.
There is also no way off the list. You have what you have unless you want to have it robbed.
Showing British roots.
A psychopath is not satisfied by doing bad thing but by doing bad thing to the weak and helpless.
Exactly what is national security?
The real freedom fighter (Julian Assange and Witness K) who else? next time if an Australian ask to clean your toilet Don't!!!! he is gon spies you in Toilet.
DANMM THIS IS LIKE A MOVIE.....
Thats exactly what has happened. Anyone can take out someone by watchlisting them with no crime, no charges, no iffy contacts and secretly rob all you have bug homes, cars, without ever speaking to a Soul that knows you. Harrassment, following,24/7.
@ABC news, what happened to all the comments?
CENSORSHIP!
@MrAubery Generally the ABC UA-cam channel let's any comments go. This is the only one ever I've seen have comments disappear. And it appears that's just because they've split one UA-cam channel into two
I wonder if we have any of these kind of Attys left in USA.
There's a boomerang out there...
Exactly its being perpetrated here in America. They are doing this to regular folks .
It was not for Witness K to disclose that information - much when it helped a foreign government at the expense of his own. He ought to have been charged with treason, as well. But, that is just me.
Correct.
Greed is a very ugly thing universal in all humanity.
Sister Susan Connelly, Peter Galbraith, Jose Ramos Horta [ recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize ], Every word spoken was nothing but the Truth about my people, our sufferings during Indonesian occupation and SADLY, now in 2019 we are still suffering with Australia! I wonder, what might have happened had we helped the Japanese Armed Forces invade Australia, instead of helping Australia fight the Japanese ? If, only we could time travel?
WTF has this to do with Terrorism?
Well what would one expect from a convict mentality?
This what happened to Kennedy I wish someone would do it to Morrison
you need perhaps proves of the bugging devises that took place!
GO Bernard!!!
What a disgrace successive governments have made of our once great country. Retribution is coming!
We need a bill of rights.
Doesn't Downer now work for Wood side Petroleum????