US told to 'butt out' of Aussie politics

[Blackaxe]

CANBERRA - The United States has been told to 'butt out' of Australian politics by two former prime ministers who accused US officials of trying to sway Australian voters in a knife-edge general election due within months.

Top US officials, including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, have been pressuring Australia's opposition Labor Party to drop a promise to withdraw troops from Iraq if it wins polls tipped for October.

Conservative Prime Minister John Howard, a close US ally, wants the troops to stay until the 'job is done'. A poll shows he has the backing of two-thirds of Australians, but the row has created a sharp political divide.

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage stepped up criticism earlier this week, telling Australian reporters in Washington that he believed centre-left Labor was split on its policy to withdraw Australia's 850 troops in and around Iraq by Christmas.

http://www.straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,260764,00.html?

[amber dog democrat]

1. This will backfire if they keep it up.

Lets get Australia mad at us too. I never thought we 'd aim at being hated round the world.

[DivinBreuvage]

2. We don't have to take this from sheep-effers and kangaroo jockeys

Don't mess with Texas, you Ozholes. Now let's go down there and kick some ass! PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.

Um, how much oil do they have?

[2Design]

3. sleep

[DivinBreuvage]

6. Huh?

It was sarcasm, my friend.

[foreigncorrespondent]

4. Australia...

...porduces 95% of its yearly use of oil.

[DivinBreuvage]

7. Very interesting to know, thanks for the statistic.

The US will do the same one day... after we own the entire Middle East.

And Venezuela.

[Massacure]

5. Any chance the Labour Party will endores Kerry if Bush continues?

[Violet_Crumble]

18. I don't think they'd do that...

If they did that, they'd be guilty of the very thing that the Bush administration is doing - involving itself in another countries elections and siding with one party or the other...

Anyway, it's pretty obvious that the ALP would have major problems dealing with the Bush administration if Bush got in again, and that things would be much easier for them if Kerry wins. I posted an article in the FA forum about what would likely happen after both elections, but because it didn't appear in the online version of the Canberra Times, you'll have to go to my blog to read the entire article

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=116x6540

Violet....

[starroute]

8. We already went through this 30 years ago

I've just been reading up on the precursors of BCCI, which included the notorious Nugan Hand bank in Australia in the 1970's. Though we Americans may not remember the events which led to its formation, I'm sure the Australians do:

"The Whitlam Labour government came to power in Australia in December 1972. They unilaterally withdrew their troops from Vietnam, bluntly criticized the Nixon administration as 'corrupt,' 'maniacs,' and 'mass murderers,' called for a careful reexamination of the Australia-US intelligence partnership, which centered around a critically important electronic intelligence and satellite tracking post in Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, and even sent the Attorney General to raid the offices of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) in March 1973.

"As you can imagine, this didn't sit very well with the CIA, who began orchestrating a campaign to overthrow the elected leader of a close ally with the close assistance of the ASIO. This ended with the dismissal of Prime Minister Whitlam by a CIA asset, Governor General John Kerr, during a constitutional crisis in November 1975.

"After the legalistic coup d'etat in Australia (not unlike the one America suffered in 2000) and with the ASIO in an extremely fawning and subservient position, the country was seen as a wide open field of operations for American intelligence. ... Nugan Hand ... was chartered in Australia 1973 by CIA asset Frank Nugan and Colonel Michael Hand. Nugan was the son of a fruit and vegetable farmer from Griffith, Australia and Hand was a Bronx-born, highly decorated Green Beret from Vietnam, who helped establish the Shah of Iran's notorious SAVAK secret police, worked as an Air America employee in Golden Triangle drug trafficking, and trained armee clandestine commandos in Laos with Jerry Daniels."

http://www.missouri.edu/~quinnl/news/octopus.html

[harpo]

9. Those who can't do....teach...

those who can do neither are referred to as politicians.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[hatrack]

16. A personal aside to the Goddess of Guinness:

Ant-EATER!! Ant-EATER!! Ant-EATER!!

Where'd he GO?!?!?!? ;-(

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. He took a little vacation...

But don't worry...Word has it he'll be back soon! ;-)

[newyawker99]

15. Hi harpo!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[dArKeR]

11. `US interference' in Australian politics called unforgivable

AP , CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA
Saturday, Jul 10, 2004,Page 1

Ex-prime ministers from both sides of Australian politics have slammed a senior US official for wading into Australia's partisan debate over withdrawing troops from Iraq -- calling the move counterproductive, unforgivable and "dumb."

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Australian reporters in Washington earlier this week that opposition leader Mark Latham had split his party with his controversial pledge to pull Australian troops out of Iraq if he wins an election due later this year.

The comments were the Bush administration's latest criticism of Labor's stance on the issue. Analysts and lawmakers have branded them interference in Australian domestic politics ahead of the federal election.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2004/07/10/2003178385

[struggle4progress]

13. Nobody's safe if they win a second term. eom

[acmavm]

12. Well, it's nice to know that the bush* administration feels it has the

right, if not an obligation, to meddle in the affairs of EVERY sovereign foreign government on the planet now. bush* not only thinks he's a dictator here in the Western Hemisphere, but he seems to be branching out.

[Violet_Crumble]

14. I wondered who the second ex-PM was...

I knew Paul Keating had his say the other day, but I was half expecting the other ex-PM to be Hawke or Whitlam. It's a weird world where I admire an ex- Liberal PM a hell of a lot more than I admire some ALP ex-PMs, and I've got to admit, I admire Malcolm Fraser a lot nowadays...

Violet...

[anakie]

19. its a funny old world isn't it

n/t

[Matilda]

20. Once Malcolm Fraser was the man the Left loved to hate.

Now he's a reasonable, caring, thoughtful human being.

Maybe that just shows how far to the Right the Libs have gone under
Howard.