Letter to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard
By Dear Prime Minister,
From the Sydney Morning Herald I note you made a comment of “illegal” on the matter of Mr Assange in relation to the ongoing leaks of US diplomatic cables.
Previously your colleague and Attorney General the Honourable McClelland announced an investigation of possible criminality by Mr Assange.
As a lawyer and citizen I find this most disturbing, particularly so when a brief perusal of the Commonwealth Criminal Code shows that liability arises under the Espionage provisions, for example, only when it is the Commonwealth’s “secrets” that are disclosed and that there must be intent to damage the Commonwealth.
Likewise under Treason law, there must be an intent to assist an enemy. Clearly, and reinforced by publicly available material such as Professor Saul’s excellent article:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/dont-cry-over-wikil…
…Julian Assange has almost certainly committed no crime under Australian law in relation to his involvement in Wikileaks.
I join with Professor Saul also in asking you Prime Minister why has there been no public complaint to the US about both Secretaries of State Condaleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton being in major breach of International law ie UN Covenants, by making orders to spy on UN personnel, including the Secretary General, to include theft of their credit card details and communication passwords. Perhaps the Attorney General should investigate this clear prima facie evidence of crime (likely against Australian diplomats as well), rather than he attempts to prosecute the messenger of those crimes.
It is also disturbing that no Australian official has castigated Sweden for the shameful treatment Mr Assange has received ie his human rights abused, in that he has not been charged and served with papers in the English language regarding the evidence against him of alleged sexual offences. This is contrary to Article 6 of the European Covenant on Human Rights to which Sweden is a signatory nation.
Those offences remain unclear and the Swedish prosecutor Ms Ny appears to be making up the law as she wants. It appears now, by Ms Ny’s interpretation that when consensual sex occurs but if a condom breaks, the male party is liable to 2 years imprisonment for sexual assault. All this information is publicly available.
An Australian citizen is apparently being singled out for “special treatment” Prime Minister. There are legitimate concerns among citizens here that his treatment by the Swedes is connected to US interests which are against the activities of Wikileaks, and you will note the strident, outrageous (and illegal) calls inciting violence against him in the US in demands for his assassination, by senior influential US politicians.
Granted that in western political circles, Mr Assange is not flavour of the month, but what he is doing in my opinion, and in the opinion of many here and abroad, is vitally necessary to expose American foreign policy failures and potential war crimes and crimes against humanity–not for the purpose of damaging US interests but to make them accountable.
While we have close and a good relationship with the US, there is no doubt that US influence and power is declining. That we appear to be still posturing, (given that declining power and a new paradigm of privately enforced accountability) to the US on the issue of Wikileaks is, Prime Minister, deeply disappointing.
Yours Faithfully,
Peter Kemp.
(Readers are encouraged contact the Australian Prime Minister here: http://www.pm.gov.au/PM_Connect/Email_your_PM)
Update: Darren Bailey, Solicitor of the Supreme Court of South Australia, has written a letter to the Australian Prime Minister in support of Peter Kemp’s argument.
Source/URL: http://wlcentral.org/node/480
The World Today:
Bob Brown: WikiLeaks highlights limited honesty in politics
SHANE MCLEOD: The Greens Leader Bob Brown says the latest WikiLeaks documents show there’s a “limit to honesty in politics” because the Government has continued to maintain support for Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan – and argued gains are being made – while privately harbouring serious misgivings about the mission.
The latest leaked US embassy cables have revealed Kevin Rudd when he was prime minister said the outlook scared the hell out of him, part of a deeply pessimistic assessment from the top echelons of the Government and officialdom about progress in Afghanistan.
From Canberra, Alexandra Kirk reports.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: The Prime Minister’s on holidays though she’ll make an appearance with Oprah Winfrey in Melbourne this afternoon. And Kevin Rudd’s on a plane to Cairo. So it’s been left to others to deal with the fallout from the latest bunch of until now secret US embassy cables sent to Washington.
They reveal a federal government deeply pessimistic about Australia’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan.
The WikiLeaks cables published in Fairfax newspapers quote Kevin Rudd in late 2008 when he was prime minister saying he supported the Afghan war “from day one” but confided the outlook for Afghanistan “scared the hell out of him”.
He delivered a scathing criticism of Australia’s European allies, accusing them of having “no common strategy for winning the war in Afghanistan or winning the peace”.
Mr Rudd reportedly said Australia along with the US, Canada, the British and Dutch were doing quote “the hard stuff” but derided the contribution of the Germans and French in the relatively peaceful north-east as quote “organising folk dancing festivals”.
All the while the Government publicly maintained gains were being made and success was possible.
While both major parties are critical of massive leaks the Greens Leader Bob Brown is enjoying them. For him it’s a case of the more the better.
BOB BROWN: The WikiLeaks revelations continue. I think they are a marvellous source of information for people. I even get a run myself and I am very pleased about that.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Senator Brown says the cable about him is accurate so he doesn’t doubt the veracity of all the others.
BOB BROWN: My frustration is not seeing the ones from the Chinese embassy. And I’d like to see the cables from some other countries as well.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Bob Brown agrees with Kevin Rudd on one thing – that the war in Afghanistan frightens the hell out of him as well.
BOB BROWN: And if it frightens the hell out of, the future there frightens the hell out of our former prime minister and now Minister for Foreign Affairs that’s simply another comment on the failure of governments to bring our troops home safely to Australia in a war which is nasty, brutish and which has no end point in sight.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Beyond that Senator Brown says the latest leaks are revealing on another level.
BOB BROWN: Well it says that there is a limit to the honesty in politics, that once governments or oppositions take a position they’ll always foster that position at the expense of the complexity of issues like Afghanistan.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: The acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan says the Government has been honest with the public because it stressed all along the challenges in Afghanistan.
WAYNE SWAN: What you’ve seen in terms of our policy on Afghanistan over the last few months has been a detailed discussion with the Australian community about the challenges involved in our commitment to Afghanistan. I mean that’s why we had a full parliamentary debate.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Public supporters of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange are becoming more vocal.
While the Opposition continues to give strong bipartisan support on Australia’s deployment the shadow attorney-general George Brandis stresses Mr Assange appears not to have committed any offence against Australian law. He regards the comments about Mr Assange by Julia Gillard and the Attorney-General Robert McClelland as “injudicious”.
GEORGE BRANDIS: Mr Assange is an Australian national. The only thing that he has been charged with at the moment is a sexual offence in Sweden.
But we know that American authorities are considering whether he can be charged under their law with a national security offence.
And we now know from Mr O’Connor that the Australian Federal Police have been tasked to consider whether he may have committed any offence against Australian law.
In those circumstances it is very inappropriate for the Prime Minister to be preordaining that he has acted illegally against Australian law and it’s very inappropriate for the Attorney-General to be wondering aloud whether or not he has committed a breach of Australian law.
Let the matter be investigated by all means but while that investigation is underway certainly no senior minister, certainly not the Prime Minister or the Attorney-General should be jumping to conclusions.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: This is the Attorney-General’s latest response to such criticism.
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: Can I ask people to take a reality check? How long did the investigation into Godwin Grech take before the federal police cleared or indicated or the Director of Public Prosecutions indicated that was the end of the matter?
I am not making, I am not commenting on the, it is not my job to comment on and specifically not my job to comment on or to allege any person has been involved in criminal conduct.
That is clearly a matter for the Australian Federal Police and ultimately for the discretion of the Director of Public Prosecutions in respect to any prosecution.
SHANE MCLEOD: The Attorney-General Robert McClelland. That report from Alexandra Kirk.
Tuesday: Govt’s reaction to WikiLeaks ‘troubling’
December 14, 2010 – 7:19AM
AAP
Australia’s main media players say the federal government’s reaction to the release of diplomatic correspondence by the WikiLeaks website is “deeply troubling”.
The country’s newspaper editors, along with television and radio directors, have written an open letter to Prime Minister Julia Gillard in support of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.
“The volume of the leaks is unprecedented, yet the leaking and publication of diplomatic correspondence is not new,” the letter, initiated by the Walkley Foundation, states.
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“We … believe the reaction of the US and Australian governments to date has been deeply troubling.
“We will strongly resist any attempts to make the publication of these or similar documents illegal.”
The editors and directors say any attempt to shut down WikiLeaks, prosecute those who publish official leaks, or pressure companies to cease working with the whistle-blower website “is a serious threat to democracy which relies on a free and fearless press”.
Ms Gillard has declared the actions of WikiLeaks and Mr Assange “illegal”.
First published: 2010-12-10 12:01 PM
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