2008-11-14 - 08CANBERRA1157 - : CORRECTED COPY: 2008 ANNUAL INR-ONA INTELLIGENCE EXCHANGE. Australian cables released by The Age. Classified By: Ambassador Robert McCallum, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 1. (C/NF) Opposition Leader Kim Beazley told the Ambassador during his September 6 introductory call that the alliance continued to enjoy broad bipartisan support in Australia. The Labor Party, for its part, could be counted on to continue to support the alliance’s core elements of ship visits, the joint facilities, and joint exercises. If elected to replace Prime Minister John Howard, Beazley would maintain Australian forces in Afghanistan, since they represented a key part of the GOA,s response to the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
While he would also leave Australian troops in Baghdad to protect Australian diplomats and Australian naval forces in the Gulf, Beazley would make good on his longstanding pledge to withdraw Australian troops from southern Iraq. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Classified By: Political Counselor James F. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. . : A) CANBERRA 1925 B) CANBERRA 1393 Classified By: Michael P. WikiLeaks: Facebook for mandarins. A future Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs? So far, the reporting on WikiLeaks' cables has, naturally, focused on what world leaders have said behind closed doors. But what about all those senior bureaucrats who diplomats also speak to? When I joined the Australian foreign ministry, then Foreign Minister Alexander Downer impressed/freaked out new grads by repeating slightly embarrassing things we had said/written/done, stuff that he (or more probably his staff) had discovered via Google.
And at a conference I attended, one of Australia's leading intelligence chiefs worried aloud that his children might one day regret documenting their youthful follies on Facebook for future employers to judge them by. Which brings me to Wikileaks. So far it is only Philip Dorling at the SMH who has the hundreds of cables sent from US missions in Australia, and up to now, he has detailed comments from only the odd public official. WikiLeaks Kevin Rudd. The meeting they did have ... George Bush welcomes Kevin Rudd to the G20 summit in Washington in November 2008. THE US regards the Foreign Affairs Minister, Kevin Rudd, as an abrasive, impulsive ''control freak'' who presided over a series of foreign policy blunders during his time as prime minister, according to a series of secret diplomatic cables.
The scathing assessment, detailed in messages sent by the US embassy in Canberra to the secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton over several years, are among hundreds of US State Department cables relating to Australia obtained by WikiLeaks and made available exclusively to the Herald. ''Rudd … undoubtedly believes that with his intellect, his six years as a diplomat in the 1980s and his five years as shadow foreign minister, he has the background and the ability to direct Australia's foreign policy.
Advertisement Mr Rudd may no longer be prime minister but he is very much in charge of Australia's diplomacy. WikiLeaks & Australia: Full Coverage. 2009-03-28 - Secretary Clintons March 24, 2009Conversation with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. SUBJECT: (U) Secretary Clinton’s March 24, 2009 Conversation with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd 1. Classified by Acting EAP A/S Alexander A. Arvizu. Reason: 1.4 (d) 2. (U) March 24; 1:00 p.m.; Washington, DC. 3. U.S. AUSTRALIA Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Ambassador Dennis Richardson Duncan Lewis, National Security Advisor Alister Jordan, Chief of Staff Philip Green, Senior Foreign Policy Advisor Andrew Charlton, Senior Economic Policy Advisor David Stuart, Deputy Chief of Mission Patrick Suckling, Assistant Secretary Mark Pierce, Political Minister Counsellor Scott Dewar, Senior Advisor 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Asia Pacific Community 12.