Wikileaks, the organization some contend helped change the direction of US elections and leaked information regarding US foreign operations, dropped a bombshell yesterday regarding United States and Australian relations: the two countries, it seems, are allies.
The revelation caught the world by surprise, that the Australian government would share intelligence with the United States through official channels. It must have been a complete shock to global leaders, who probably assumed information trusted to Australia could never, ever be relayed to their arch nemesis at the time, the United States.
Australia’s willingness to share intelligence information with the United States in 2009 comes prior to the United States and Australia committing to an agreement regarding their “special relationship” in 2013!
www.aph.gov.au/...
Australia and the US have made recent progress in finding new collaborative efficiencies, evident in the Defence Trade Cooperation Treaty ratified on 16 May 2013. Only the United Kingdom has a similar arrangement with the US, and its benefits are substantial—reducing red tape, minimising procurement delays and improving data sharing. Such arrangements also make it easier for Australia to gain access to advanced defence technologies, which it would be unable to develop domestically.
Wikileaks is putting special attention on the US-Australia relationship, in light of recent revelations that it was an Australian Ambassador who revealed information regarding Trump campaign operatives that led to the Trump campaign became a target of the FBI. This reveal, of course, harms the case the Trump administration and Wikileaks have been making, that it was the Obama administration or Hillary Clinton, not credible data, that led to the investigation.
www.nytimes.com/…
WASHINGTON — During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.
About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her campaign.
Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said that night at the Kensington Wine Rooms with the Australian, Alexander Downer, is unclear. But two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role.
But what was it, exactly, that encouraged Australia to turn over such information to the US Government? Could their secret alliance be the shocking bombshell that changes the discussion?
Well, now, Wikileaks is releasing the truth — Australia has apparently been providing the US information since at least 2009, on a lot of matters that went through their embassies.
This reveal…
Oh. Wait.
Ok. Well, I guess we’ve been allies for a hundred years or so.
Damn. I guess this isn’t news after all.
Carry on.