Australian spy and police chiefs say raids on journalists must continue

By Mike Head 

8 August 2019

Despite public outrage over recent federal police raids on journalists, the Australian government and the country’s intelligence and police commanders have declared that such raids and criminal prosecutions are essential.

Submissions to a parliamentary committee by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), three spy agencies and the Home Affairs Department, which oversees these agencies, have insisted that journalists, as well as whistleblowers, must be targeted, to stop leaks exposing official secrets.

In a blunt intervention, Director-General of National Intelligence Nick Warner used the language of war. He warned parliament’s joint intelligence and security committee that the publication of leaks could threaten “the nation’s warfighters,” as well as Australia’s “network of international intelligence partnerships.”

Making a rare public pronouncement as the country’s spy chief, Warner effectively underscored the connection between the global assault on journalism—spearheaded by the persecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning—and the preparations by the US and its closest allies for war.

While paying lip service to “the important role” of “a free and open press,” Warner said this “public interest” was not the only issue. The intelligence agencies had to operate with “high levels of secrecy” to prevent “serious or exceptionally grave damage to Australia’s national interest.”

The joint Liberal-National and Labor Party committee’s inquiry into “the freedom of the press” is an attempt to deflect the widespread opposition to the police raids. One was on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Sydney headquarters, over its reports on Australian military war crimes in Afghanistan. The other was on the home of a senior News Corp journalist, Annika Smethurst, over her report of plans to legalise internal surveillance by the electronic spy agency, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD).

Australia's Federal Police, top, enter the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster, during a raid on their offices in Sydney, Australia. (Credit: Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Warner’s remarks further demonstrate why the entire Australian political establishment has supported the arrest of Assange and the application by the Trump administration for his extradition to the US to face multiple charges under the US Espionage Act punishable by 175 years’ imprisonment. This has set a global precedent for the jailing of journalists and anyone else who exposes the crimes, abuses, regime-change operations and mass surveillance committed anywhere in the world by the US-led military-intelligence machine and its partners.

First and foremost, Warner declared that intelligence is “vitally important to supporting the Australian Defence Force [ADF].” All the spy agencies had “a long history of supporting military operations” and enabling the “ADF and Coalition partners to conduct highly targeted operations.”

While not naming China, Warner painted a picture of Australia under “unprecedented” threat from “foreign interference” and “foreign intelligence activity,” in addition to “espionage” and “terrorism.” This is under conditions in which Washington is ramping up its pressure on Canberra to boost its commitment to war plans against China and Iran, including the possible deployment of US missile batteries to Australia.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/08/poli-a08.html