Is the 'Bali Two' execution Indonesian payback for Australian silence on the Bali bombing threat? Contributing editor-at-large Tess Lawrence offers an intriguing exposé.
IF AUSTRALIANS Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are executed, it will be because of the collusion of certain individuals within the Howard and successive governments, the Australian Defence Force, the Australian Federal Police, intelligence agencies and others.
To their own homegrown duplicitous government and the above cabal of cowards, both men are little more than political roadkill.
Their bullet-ridden lifeless bodies might as well be unceremoniously dumped upon the Denpasar steps of Australia's hardworking Consul-General in Bali, Ms Majell Hind, whose previous posting to war scarred Kabul surely stands her in good stead.
Make no mistake, the underbelly to this squalid tragedy is a war of sorts. And one largely of Australia's own making.
Independent Australia can confirm that behind the fog of warring parties intent on protecting their collective butt from legal recrimination and ignominy, there is a direct link between the 'payback' pending executions of Chan and Sukumaran and the horrendous 2002 Bali terrorist bombings that arguably could have been averted had Australia shared with Indonesia CIA warnings about such an attack.
BALI TWO 'PAYBACK' EXECUTIONS LINKED TO BALI BOMBINGS FAIL
Such has become of our country that the truth in all its dialects and perspectives has become an unwelcome stranger in the doings between government and the people. We are denied its possession to make of it what we will, as is our right. And to seek remedy and justice from any government sanctioned wrong doing, as is our right.
Here is the nub of the matter. To appease Indonesia's fury and loss of face over the Bali bombings scandal, the Australian Federal Police sacificed the lives of the Bali Nine in an attempt to rehabilitate the damaged intelligence channels and relationship with Indonesia by allowing the notorious Kepolisian Negara Republik Indonesia (Indonesian National Police) to bask in the kudos of the heroin smuggling bust.
The INP supposedly is no longer is part of the military. Sure.
INDONESIAN POLICE TWO-FINGER VIRGIN TEST FOR RECRUITS
Just so you know who our friends are, the INP's agents regularly stick two fingers up the vaginae of unmarried women to ascertain their status as virgins and thus suitable police recruits. Married women need not apply. Only virgins are allowed to be policewomen in Indonesia.
I have it on good authority that if one's hymen was indeed intact in the first instance, this particular form of state sanctioned sexual assault is so brutal and invasive that the hymen is invariably ruptured in the process.
But that doesn't trouble our lads in the AFP back here. Nothing for them to see up there.
Thumbs up to the two-fingered salute then.
AFP TRADES BALI NINE FOR DEAD MEAT
In an outrageous violation of protocol, that may well be illegal and invalid, the AFP sent several documents to Indonesia, surrendering entirely the fate of the Bali Nine to a notoriously corrupt entity.
Bali Nine's Chan and Sukumaran: Tragic pawns in a political game, writes Lyn Bender. @lynestel http://t.co/pHE7Kxc2Jc
— IndependentAustralia (@independentaus) February 6, 2015
In utter contempt of its responsibilities and duties of care to protect its citizens from harm, death and injury, the AFP, led at the time by the needy, ambitious and unapologetic Commissioner Mick Keelty, seemingly acted outside of its jurisdiction and without proper legal or ethical consideration, sooling the Indonesian police onto Australian nationals, at a time when no crime had been committed but at a time when crimes could have been prevented and arrests could have been made on Australian soil.
Keelty's excuses, like so many others, is nothing more than obfuscation.
Even with the kindest heart, there is the toxic stench of something long buried in all of this.
There is little doubt that the Bali Nine were designated mules; some more experienced than others. But given these admissions, are we not entitled to question if the Indonesian police "enhanced" the sting, and to ask if they were protecting any "Mr Bigs" on Indonesian – or even Australian – soil ?
The issue of entrapment is a cornerstone of this awful mess.
Peculiar, isn't it, that whilst both the AFP and the INP claim to have had the Bali Nine under constant surveillance, we see little evidence, as far as I know, of this.
Sure, we have the celebrated 'sting' footage, but I want to see evidence of all the other 'pedestrian' hackwork, daily surveillance, phone taps and meta data. All contact with Mr Big and his minions whilst the kids were still in Australia. Where's all that footage and intel Mick ? This all happened on your watch.
JOURNALISTS UNEARTH MORE THAN THE AFP
Why doesn't the AFP just admit defeat and engage the likes of Nick Mckenzie, Richard Baker, Michael Bachelard and Lindsay Murdoch to put a case together ? They've already tracked down Mr Big.
Of course, he's innocent until proven guilty. Not like some others.
MR BIG IS GETTING BIGGER
But it seems to me that Mr Big is just getting bigger. How does that work?
Bali Nine ‘mastermind’ reportedly living high-life after multi-million Lottery win. http://t.co/4DI8sfa6ol pic.twitter.com/rFMJUGEnPr
— 7News Yahoo!7 (@Y7News) February 11, 2015
Fairfax journalists are not the only ones to unearth vital intelligence. Contacts within the AFP and elsewhere have confided to me that they are professionally embarassed by such revelations and that they were ignorant of many of the aspects unearthed by electronic and print journalists.
How many arrests have been made outside of the Bali Nine? One? Two? Twenty? None?
And another question, does anyone know where Andrew Colvin, the current Commissioner of the AFP, stands in all of this ?
Maybe things will change now that Victoria's former Deputy Commissioner of Police, Graham Ashton, has returned to the AFP as a Deputy Commissioner.
Maybe a clue to the lacklustre performance of the AFP is to be found in their uninspiring motto. Mind you, not one of my contacts know what the motto is; at least I think it is the motto.
Tria iuncta in uno — three joined in one. Is it a reference to the The Musketeers? More likely a reference to Great Britain.
Just as Australia so often defers to foreign shores and meaningless mottos, we offered up the Bali Nine to Indonesian police, rejecting all rights to any involvement thereafter with the Bali Nine. They were now dead meat. We put them all on the death row assembly line and two of them are still on it. A pound of flesh for a pound of flesh. Chan and Sukumaran were pushed into harms way by the very police who are supposed to be our guardians.
No matter, that a concerned and honourable parent of one of the Bali Nine in Australia did the right thing and phoned his lawyer for help, after finding out his son was leaving for Bali and was suspicious about his activities.
Or that the lawyer phoned a contact in the Federal Police, who made certain assurances. Or that the Federal Police then betrayed that trust and did not prevent the young man from leaving Australia as promised but instead allowed him to leave, thus setting in train a turgid chain of events that now has two men facing the firing squad.
By any definition, the AFP is guilty of a blatant set-up, engineering a situation in which the AFP became proud participants, accomplices and facilitators in criminal acts.
Bali 9: Australia must widen death penalty opposition Philip Ruddock (just signal all aid to Indonesia will be cut) http://t.co/8eSnHVdjfB
— Tony Thomas (@GreeGreece) February 12, 2015
WAS RUDDOCK SACKED TO SHUT HIM UP ABOUT AFP BALI BUNGLE?
In 2005, the then Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, who knows a thing or two about payback and betrayal given his recent sacking as Government Whip by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, could not have been more explicit about the reprehensible conduct of the AFP.
Said Ruddock in September 2005:
"We will not provide co-operation in relation to criminal matters unless there is an assurance that a death penalty will not be sought. If there was further information that had to be obtained from here through the Australian Federal Police, we would seek an assurance that Indonesia would not be wanting a death penalty in each of those cases."
And yet, three days ago, in an interview with the Guardian's Gay Alcorn, the man who was disowned by Amnesty International and asked not to wear its badge on official duties because of the Howard Government's treatment of refugees, seemed to have done an about face.
“Where it is clear that the death penalty might be sought – that is, where you are seeking to extradite somebody – you would seek an assurance that they would not apply to use the death penalty before you deliver them up,” Ruddock told Guardian Australia. “But that has never been the case in relation to the sharing of information with police abroad.”
He said it would be wrong for police only to share information with an assurance that the death penalty would not be sought before knowing what the offence might be.
“An issue that might involve a terrorist act in Indonesia in which a large number of Australians might possibly lose their lives – would it be seriously argued we should not provide the Indonesians with information we have received which may have enabled the prevention of that on the basis that if they carried it out and they later arrested them … it might carry the death penalty?”
Reliable sources have confirmed that Prime Minister Abbott was seething about Ruddock's comments. Within hours of the Guardian reporting he was stripped of his whip.
Abbott has allegedly been concerned that Ruddock's 2005 statement and more recent contradiction will resurface and hang yet another carcass in the Abbottoir.
PM makes eleventh hour appeal to Indonesia over the imminent executions of Australian duo. http://t.co/VEpmgBuoZw
— smh.com.au (@smh) February 15, 2015
Yesterday in the Sydney Morning Herald, Jewel Topsfield was clear that a meeting with Australia's embassy officials in Jakarta meant that:
'... execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran is imminent...'
Whilst there is life, there is hope. Where there is hope, there is life.
We should send Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin to Jakarta for the Monday meeting, to lead the mission with Ms Hind. We need to be upfront and honest about the misconduct of the AFP and we need to apologise for our failure to forward the CIA intelligence warnings. Minister Bishop should respectfully request an urgent meeting with President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to plead the case for Australia.
More on this story will be posted tomorrow (16/2/15).
DISCLOSURE: The writer was responsible for placing within the public domain informations and documentary evidence that the Australian government improperly sought to keep secret. Independent Australia revealed disturbing facts in an article relating to compensation for victims of the Bali bombings. These matters include placing at risk the lives of Australian and other citizens, egregious abuse of power, statutorial violations, breaches of Memoranda of Understanding and treaties between countries, including treaties/MOUs with the policing and intelligence/counter-terrorism organisations of other countries.
The Bali Bombing horror could have been prevented. Little Johnny Howard & @rupertmurdoch implicated: http://t.co/qiBKumKdDL #IndieOz
— Luke pps (@PPSmythe) October 11, 2013
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@BanKimoon_amdg joins calls for Indonesia to halt imminent executions of 9 people @jokowi_do2 http://t.co/NFS1X9oW9E
— Hannah Gissane (@hannahgissane) February 14, 2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
