Warren, yoo hoo.

I'm still waiting for a long line of exposed criminal politicians to be prosecuted for a similar long list of crimes which they have evaded the consequences of themselves.

The law very reluctantly caught up with Obeid and McDonald in NSW, but what a conveluted and expensively drawn out process at great cost to taxpayers that one was.
When actually it was a very straight forward case of "caught with your pants down" crime.

Most likely Warren, the reason for lack of action on the part of Politicians, is their backhanded involvement with criminals.
I knew one of those. Richardson. A drug runner, using his union connections on the Sydney wharves.

Dan.

I can recall rumours that inferred, we once had more KGB operatives in ASIO than Australians. And allegedly sourced from long-standing cells. Implanted with the flood of European mass migration post-WW11, and assisted by the White Australia policy?

One still cannot trust the Authenticity of our so-called intelligence agencies, given the quality and motivations of those in charge or the creators of new agencies, as a grab for power and influence?

And assisted in that regard by a perceived reluctance to deploy UNBEATABLE space age lie detection, integrity testing and a Federal ICAC and the protection of whistleblowers. The genuine article, not patent traitors like I believe Assange and Snowden to be.

Further assisted in negative connotations, by the perceived limitations on the freedom of the independent press!?

Which is regularly attacked by problematic players for perceived self-interest reasons? We need totally independent heads and operatives, whose own integrity is not only trusted but has that integrity regularly tested with new space age and unbeatable lie detection technology. Those doing he testing regularly rotated and tested themselves.

And some of the more interesting decision by this or that pollie need to be looked at as do the motivations of those who sell or lease land or facilities to foreign powers with hostile/highly autocratic attitudes and quite massive military expansion and land/territory grabs!
Alan B.

Persona non grata-ing ("PNGing") [1] hostile "spies" (ie. Case Officers) and sacking/early retiring their several Agents (of a foreign power) is the most common and efficient practice of every country be it Canada, Germany or the US etc.

Why? Because publicity, or a spy trial, usually becomes a blowback circus, exploited by:

A. politicians who wish to protect other politicians who may be receiving funding (one way or another) from that foreign power

OR

B. journalists with an unremarkable (or very old, personal...) AXE TO GRIND against their own country's security and intelligence agencies

Basically, in the circus route, it is one's own country's security agencies who are put on trial because they cannot reveal all of their evidence (SOURCES and METHODS) to the satisfaction of media outlets, who need to profit.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_non_grata

Don't worry Warren, you will be pleased to know that Australia is adopting the same severe penalty for treason as that handed out by the British to Sir Anthony Blunt.

You get a knighthood.

It is a bit like the Australian of the year Award. All you have to be is foreign born from an approved oppressed minority and you are a shoo in. Being an Australian of the Year now means you probably got charged for fraud or tax evasion and the award recognises your initiative.

Onya LEGO

You can always be counted on to take The Obscure and Racist Angle to run comments off the rails...

So was this unrelated British git Blunt a Muslim Jew?

Cheers

The following is interesting:

"BREAKING NEWS: An ex-spy known as Witness K will plead guilty to breaching the Intelligence Services Act while his lawyer has been committed to stand trial."

see Australia's ABC, August 6, 2019 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-06/witness-k-to-plead-guilty-lawyer-bernard-collaery-face-trial/11387046

Title: "Witness K to plead guilty to breaching intelligence act as lawyer Bernard Collaery committed to trial" (Updated 10 minutes ago)

Body: "An ex-spy known as "Witness K" has indicated he will plead guilty to breaching the Intelligence Services Act, but his lawyer Bernard Collaery will continue to fight the charge in a case that was today committed to trial in the ACT Supreme Court.

Both men were charged last year with conspiring to reveal secret information, relating to allegations Australian Government agents bugged the cabinet room of East Timor during sensitive negotiations between the countries on oil and gas.

Witness K and Mr Collaery were each charged with a single count of conspiring to share information covered by section 39 of the Intelligence Services Act, which covers secrecy and the unauthorised communication of information.

Today lawyers for Witness K, a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service spy, said their client would plead guilty.

But his lawyer, former ACT attorney-general Bernard Collaery, will fight the conspiracy charge against him in the ACT Supreme Court.

The dramatic developments have headed off a closed hearing that was to run this week where issues of national security likely to be included in the case were to be discussed.

Much of the case so far has been shrouded in secrecy, and it is illegal to reveal details of the spying operation or reveal Witness K's identity.

Lawyers for Witness K said they only finalised his agreement to plead guilty this morning, but were still negotiating with the prosecution over the full details of the case.

Both cases will be back in court later this month.

More to come."

ABC (by 1.50pm August 6, 2019) revised

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-06/witness-k-to-plead-guilty-lawyer-bernard-collaery-face-trial/11387046

making it much longer and more interesting.

More on Witness K, Collaery Cases

The Canberra Times, August 7, 2019 reports http://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6314356/witness-k-and-collaerys-influence-to-be-felt-in-timor-leste/?cs=14350

"Witness K and Collaery's influence to be felt in Timor Leste

When Witness K's case is next due in the ACT Magistrates Court on August 29, Scott Morrison will be on his way to mark 20 years since the referendum that secured Timor Leste's independence from Indonesia, and to ratify the maritime boundary treaty between the two nations.

While Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery wont be mentioned publicly by our representatives, their influence will be felt at the proceedings.

On Tuesday Witness K indicated he intended to plead guilty to breaching secrecy laws, an understandable position after years of legal wrangling.

The prosecution and defence lawyers are yet to agree to a statement of facts in the case, and what ends up in that statement could have implications for Witness K's former lawyer Mr Collaery, who will fight on in the Supreme Court.

Clinton Fernandes, professor in international and political studies at UNSW Canberra, said many in Timorese civil society will be aware of the significance of the two men in their country getting a better deal in the negotiations over valuable oil fields.

"It's very instructive that the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition are going to Timor Leste to celebrate a renewal of bilateral relations and the two people most responsible for the renegotiation of the treaty are in fact Witness K and Collaery, who are facing legal sanction," Professor Fernandes said.

...T-shirts in solidarity with the pair have also been seen in Timor Leste and could be appear again when Australian attention returns to the country. The group MKOTT, or Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea, has campaigned in support of the pair.

The men have been offered appreciation by Timor-Leste's president as well as former presidents Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta. Many in one of the world's poorest countries remember that it is because of the two men that an attempt by one of the world's richest countries to gain the negotiating upper hand was revealed...”

Respected US academic JOSEPH FITSANAKIS has written an article on the IntelNews website – see http://intelnews.org/2019/08/07/01-2603/ which is:

“Australian ex-intelligence officer pleads guilty to disclosing spy operation” of AUGUST 7, 2019

“An Australian former intelligence officer will plead guilty to revealing an Australian spy operation against the impoverished nation of East Timor, which prompted international outcry and damaged Canberra’s reputation. IntelNews has covered the case [at http://intelnews.org/2013/12/05/01-1382/ ] of the former intelligence officer, known only as “Witness K.”since 2013, when it was first revealed.

[Sentence deleted due to OLO's 350 word per comment limit]. In 2013, he publicly objected to an intelligence-collection operation that targeted the impoverished Pacific island nation of Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor.

According to Witness K., a group of ASIS officers disguised themselves as members of a renovation crew and planted several electronic surveillance devices in an East Timorese government complex. The inside information gathered from those devices allegedly allowed the Australian government to gain the upper hand in a series of complex negotiations that led to the 2004 Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS) treaty. The treaty awards Australia a share from profits from oil exploration in the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field, which is claimed by both Australia and East Timor.

But in 2013, the East Timorese government took Australia to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, claiming that the CMATS treaty should be scrapped. The East Timorese argued that during the sensitive negotiations that preceded the CMATS treaty, the Australian government was in possession of intelligence acquired through illegal bugging.

The claim of the East Timorese government was supported by Witness K., who argued that ASIS’ espionage operation was both “immoral and wrong” because it was designed to benefit the interests of large energy conglomerates and had nothing to do with Australian national security. It is worth noting that Witness K. said he decided to reveal the ASIS bugging operation in 2012, after he learned that Australia’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, had been hired as an adviser to Woodside Petroleum, an energy

MORE BELOW

company that was directly benefiting from the CMATS treaty.

However, as soon as the East Timorese told the Permanent Court of Arbitration that they would be questioning a witness from ASIS, officers from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the country’s domestic intelligence agency, raided the Canberra law offices of Bernard Collaery, East Timor’s lawyer in the case.

The raiders took away documents that revealed the identity of Witness K., and then proceeded to detain him for questioning. They also confiscated his passport, which prevented him from traveling to the Netherlands to testify in the case. In the following months, an embarrassed Australian government quietly conceded to East Timor’s claims and agreed to renegotiate the CMATS treaty. A new treaty was officially ratified by the Australian government last week. In the meantime, however, the Australian government has refused to allow the whistleblower to leave the country and continues to describe him as a security threat.

Witness K. and Mr. Collaery have each been charged with a single count of conspiring to share information that is protected by Section 39 of Australia’s Intelligence Services Act, which forbids the unauthorized release of classified information. [Witness K’s?] hearing was supposed to start this week behind closed doors, because it involves topics that relate to Australian national security.

On Tuesday morning, however, Mr. Collaery announced his client’s decision to plead guilty to the charges of revealing the spy operation against East Timor. [Collaery?] added, however, that [Collaery?] would continue to contest the charge leveled against [Collaery?]. The lawyer’s announcement was the first time that the case of the East Timor bugging and the detention of Witness K. have been officially connected in public.

Witness K’s lawyers said on Tuesday that they were still negotiating with the prosecution about the full ramifications of their client’s guilty plea. Witness K. and Mr Collaery are expected to return to court in late August. Meanwhile, the judge has accepted the prosecution’s argument that it is illegal to discuss in public any information relating to the East Timor bugging case, or reveal the identity of Witness K.”

More on ALREADY PUBLISHED IN AUSTRALIA records on the "Witness K" and Bernard Collaery Cases.

Australia's Government owned ABC TV Four Corners screened, on Monday August 26, 2019, an episode entitled "Secrets, Spies and Trials" republished by ABC at http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/secrets,-spies-and-trials/11451004 site.

The beginning of the ABC Intro-BLURB for "Secrets, Spies and Trials" at http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/secrets,-spies-and-trials/11451004 is:

"National security vs the public's right to know.

"I feel we're living in very dangerous times here in Australia...one day we'll wake up and wonder how on earth we got here." MP

In a Canberra court room one of the most controversial trials ever to be held in Australia will soon get under way. The case is highly sensitive, with key evidence central to the allegations unlikely to ever be heard by the public.

"This could be...one of the most secretive trials in Australian history." Former judge

A former spy and his lawyer have been charged with conspiring to reveal secret information relating to an Australian intelligence operation aimed at a friendly foreign government.

"There is a legitimate public interest in knowing what is being tried...That's difficult to do if a trial, at the pointy end, will be held secretly." Lawyer

The two men involved are a former intelligence operative known only as Witness K and his lawyer, the former ACT Attorney-General Bernard Collaery.

"Traditionally, it's simply not in the public interest to prosecute this kind of thing." Lawyer

Witness K and Collaery are accused of disclosing an Australian bugging operation carried out in the government offices of Timor Leste in 2004. It was years after the revelations became public that they were charged.

"There is that I think overall perception that this sort of litigation is a payback, firstly. Secondly, that the secrecy provisions are perceived to be a coverup." Former judge

On Monday Four Corners investigates the extraordinary steps the Australian government has taken to prosecute these men and to keep them silent."