Thought a thread would be in place about this issue.
Many heads to this one, we must consider why Australian Spy activity's got in to the American system.
For that has to be the place the contractor? now releasing his stash got it from.
Russia a country with nearly as many faces and heads, shelters the fool and in doing so sponsors his activity's.
After saying he could stay only if he stopped dumping on America.
Why Australia needed to monitor phones is debatable.
Given Americas massive monitoring in part carried out in Australian based establishment are we guilty only of doing that country,s bidding?
And surely if we are to talk about this we must include the truth, every country does these things and Russia, now benefiting from the load mouthed fools work has far from a clean record?
China is after America the worlds biggest spying nation, or is it Russia?

Yes government thugs have destroyed security for internet users world wide, way to go dipshits! Now no transaction can be trusted, no website, no nothing. Soon as those evil terrrrrorist bad guys find all those back doors and they will! Nothing you see on your computer, phone screen can be trusted! They'll have a ball injecting middle of the man crap to infinity and beyond.

Oh wait! That was the plan all along!

Dear Belly,

All nations in the modern world spy and they do it
for reasons of national security. As far as Indonesia
is concerned I find that their protestations about
spying not being cricket are a little overblown.

As one commentator stated, "Indonesia has amassive
military and a history of violent colonialism - our
defence force spies on them for a reason."

We shouldn't need reminding "that Indonesia had used
armed force on 3 occassions at least to change, or seek
to change, International borders".

"Indonesia seized West Papua by a combination of military
pressure and diplomatic threats in the 1960s. That same
decade Indonesian troops launched a series of cross
border raids into Malaysian territory in order to
destabilize the newly formed Malaysian federation."

The commentator also points out that "Australian forces
were deployed against Indonesian troops in order to protect
Malaysia. Twenty three Australians died during this episode
known as "Confrontation."

Then let's not forget that "in 1975 Indonesia illegally
invaded East Timor, a non-self-governing territory as
defined by the UN Charter. According to Article 73 of the
UN Charter - there was a "sacred Trust" to uphold "the
well-being of the inhabitants of those territories."
However, Indonesia's invasion and 24 year occupation of East
Timor caused the largest loss of life relative to total
population since the Holocaust."

Let our Prime Minister use diplomatic means to appease the
Indonesians but I am proud that our PM is standing strong
on this issue by not brown-nosing them. As Mr Downer
stated sometime ago, we have to think of Australian
sovereignty.

Hi Belly,

Great post--spot on!

Everyone spies ! stop feigning indignation.

Foxy;

"Let our Prime Minister use diplomatic means to appease the
Indonesians but I am proud that our PM is standing strong
on this issue by not brown-nosing them. As Mr Downer
stated sometime ago, we have to think of Australian
sovereignty."

I'm curious as what you think Abbott's recalcitrant "tough guy" attitude to Indonesia is going to achieve?

After all, he had no problem toadying to them on a recent trip on live exports, etc.

He was only too happy to apologise to the Malaysian PM for his remarks while in Opposition.

As I remarked earlier, it was the lack of overt contrition that has upset relations between our two countries - not any notion that spying is a major surprise.

It's not as if these things don't happen. The usual charade is for the perpetrator to apologise and for relations to continue after a speed bump.

Abbott has gone about building a concrete wall which will now have to be chipped away before relations can improve.

If you think Abbott can rhetorically slap SBY in the face on the floor of the Australian Parliament, and that somehow "diplomatic means" are going to wave a magic wand and make it go away...I think you're dreaming.

The diplomatic means to appease the Indonesians were at Mr Abbott's disposal when he got up on the floor today.

They weren't employed.