Australia’s Security Risks and the Indo-Pacific Command

“If you live long enough, you’ll see that every victory turns into a defeat.” – Simone de Beauvoir

“What an odd thing a diary is: the things you omit are more important than those you put in.”

– Ibid.

Danger Down Under as China’s Influence Grows in Australia: A former head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) is set to lead the most significant review of the country’s intelligence laws in 40 years. The report comes at a time when concerns are growing over “unprecedented” interference by foreign agents in the country’s affairs. Influence by the Chinese government is particularly troubling. Speaking to a Senate committee May 24, the current ASIO director said, “This is not a theoretical proposition; the reality is that acts of espionage and foreign interference are occurring against Australian interests both in Australia and overseas.” On Wednesday Australia’s attorney general said: “The Prime Minister considered that now is the time to have a top to tail review of all of the national intelligence community agencies.”

The big three security risks facing Australia are terrorism, cyberwarfare, and foreign influence, according to one national security expert. Tough, new anti-foreign influence laws are currently being debated by the Australian government, including a ban on all political donations from overseas. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the proposed new laws were not intended to target any one country, but the Chinese government has reacted coldly to the legislation. Chinese officials said remarks about Chinese influence in Australia were “irresponsible.” However, a former US government analyst believes the US should reconsider its intelligence-sharing arrangement with Australia and New Zealand due to issues over foreign interference. “Both… face substantial problems with interference by the Chinese Communist Party… the CCP has gotten very close to or inside the political core, if you will, of both countries,” he said.

– Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has dealt the US a hard hand. In an interview Thursday with Russia Today, Assad said the US has “lost its cards” in Syria, and must leave the table, um, country. “The Americans should leave. Somehow, they’re going to leave. They came to Iraq with no legal basis, and look what happened to them. They have to learn their lesson. Iraq is no exception. Syria is no exception. People will not accept foreigners in this region anymore,” he said. Assad then upped the ante and threatened to expel US troops from northeastern Syria by force if negotiations fail to bring the area back under government control. (CNN)

– What’s in a name? Would that which we call a command by any other name be more or less commanding? Only time will tell if the Pentagon’s decision to change the name of the Pacific Command to the US Indo-Pacific Command will stand the test of time. (NPR)

– Devil child, political data firm Cambridge Analytica, has an evil parent. Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), founded in 1993 by British businessman Nigel Oakes, was known for its clandestine work, including using seduction and bribery to entrap politicians and influence foreign elections. A few years ago Saudi Arabia hired the group to perform psychological research to help plot out reforms that were later implemented by the kingdom’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Oakes once said: “We use the same techniques as Aristotle and Hitler. We appeal to people on an emotional level to get them to agree on a functional level.” Except Aristotle and Hitler didn’t have Facebook to aid them in their techniques. (NYT)

America Against its Allies: US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Thursday that, effective at midnight, a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum would be imposed on imports from the EU, Canada, and Mexico. Together these countries supply nearly half of America’s imported metals. A handful of US companies commended the imposition of stiffer tariffs, but the president of the Aluminum Association said the tariffs would do little to address the larger issue of overcapacity in China “while potentially alienating allies and disrupting supply chains that more than 97 percent of US aluminum industry jobs rely upon.”

Thursday’s announcement prompted angry responses from US allies who say the measures violate international trading agreements. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “These tariffs will harm industry and workers on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, disrupting linked supply chains that have made North American steel and aluminum more competitive around the world.” Mexico immediately announced retaliatory tariffs on US imports including flat steel, lamps, pork products and prepared meat products, apples, grapes, cranberries, and cheeses. Mexico’s move was designed to mainly impact some areas of the country that have supported President Trump. France and Germany are preparing retaliatory levies for later in June on an estimated $3 billion of imported American products. Likewise, China, Russia, and Turkey are preparing similar measures. Overall, the impact on American goods is expected to be severe.

Politicizing Presidential Pardons: James Comey was US attorney in Manhattan when he built the case against Martha Stewart on securities fraud and obstruction of justice. Found guilty in 2004, she spent five months in jail. Thursday President Trump said Stewart had been “harshly and unfairly treated” and he was considering pardoning her. Rod Blagojevich was governor of Illinois in 2008 when he was charged with corruption under the direction of US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.(Fitzgerald is now a member of Comey’s legal team.) Blagojevich, found guilty and sentenced to 14 years, has been in prison since 2012. Days ago Blagojevich published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal arguing that “the rule of law is under assault in America” and is being “perverted and abused” by some FBI and Justice Department officials. Trump is considering commuting Blagojevich’s sentence. This week celebrity Kim Kardashian West met with Trump to discuss a potential pardon for a 63-year-old grandmother serving life in prison for a first time drug offense. The grandmother has been behind bars for over 20 years. No word on whether Trump is considering pardoning her or commuting her sentence. (CNN and BBC)

The President vs. The FBI: Contents of a previously undisclosed, confidential memo, written last spring by former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, wasreported by the NYT Wednesday. The memo recounts a conversation McCabe had at the Justice Department with the deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein. According to McCabe, Rosenstein said the president had initially asked him to write a memo referencing Russia that would justify the president’s firing of then-director James Comey. Rosenstein’s 2017 memo only said firing Comey was justified because of how he’d handled the Hillary Clinton investigation. Trump then stated in a televised interview on NBC News in May 2017 that regardless of Rosenstein’s memo he’d decided to fire Comey because “of this Russia thing.” Thursday Trump tweeted “Not that it matters but I never fired James Comey because of Russia! The Corrupt Mainstream Media loves to keep pushing that narrative, but they know it is not true!” (NYT)

LAST MORSELS

“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” – Simone de Beauvoir

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