Christopher Pyne backs Australia joining Asia's 'Our Eyes' intelligence group

Sourced from QRes#7006

October 11, 2018

Jakarta: Australia stands ready to join the "Our Eyes" ASEAN intelligence group and provide counter-terrorism information and training to the group, Defence Minister Christopher Pyne says.

The Our Eyes initiative was founded in January and is made up of six ASEAN nations – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei.

It focuses on combating the rise of militant groups and violent extremism in the region, with a particular concentration on regional hot spots in places such as the Philippines' city of Marawi, which was last year attacked by a group aligned with Islamic State. The Our Eyes nations have vowed to cooperate and share information between both national militaries and police forces.

Its name evokes the long-established "Five Eyes" intelligence group, which is made up of Australia, the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Canada.

Mr Pyne told Fairfax Media on Thursday, ahead of his first meeting with Indonesian Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu in Bali, that Australia and Indonesia already enjoyed a deep level of defence and intelligence cooperation but joining Our Eyes could take this to the next level.

"We will talk about the Our Eyes proposal Mr Ryamizard is sponsoring. We are yet to be formally invited to Our Eyes but we are open to joining and providing information and also training," he said.

"Our role would be to engage in the training of their people, their personnel, in the gathering of information and in the analysis of that information, which we have significant capabilities in, as do they."

"If we receive an invitation we will consider what it means in terms of our commitments and how it fits with our national security priorities. It might well be that it's not a significant commitment beyond what we already share with Indonesia."

My Pyne added that Australia and Indonesia already shared a significant amount of information about foreign fighters returning from the Middle East, for example, as well as radical Islamists based in Indonesia.

Although Australia and the Philippines already share intelligence information in the fight against Islamic State and extremism in the region, any move to deepen that intelligence relationship may potentially be controversial given President Rodrigo Duterte’s hardline approach to law and order, which has included extra-judicial killings.

Mr Pyne and Mr Ryamizard will discuss a range of other matters, including the response to earthquake in Palu – to which Australia sent humanitarian aid – maritime security and cooperation and the recently signed comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between Australia and Indonesia.

Australian National University south-east Asia security expert Greg Raymond said Australia could play the role of "honest broker" if it were to join the grouping, and encourage greater cooperation between nations that have traditionally been reluctant to share information with each other.

"There are issues of sovereignty and turf protection. But the problems in Marawi for example are far from solved, it's very much a live issue," he said.

"Australia needs to continue to keep pushing for higher degrees of cooperation between the ASEAN countries than they have been used to."

""Dr Raymond said that if Australia joined the grouping, it was possible that high level intelligence from the western Five Eyes grouping could be shared"" – but it would have to be carefully screened first.

"That wouldn’t be unprecedented. There are formal, deliberate processes on how you provide information that can be helpful, but which protects Australia’s sources."

But the bulk of the intelligence information Australia could share would likely not come from Five Eyes group.

"Australia has the Australian Federal Police working closely with its Indonesian counterparts already. There has long been sharing of sensitive information on criminal and potential terror suspects."

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/christopher-pyne-backs-australia-joining-asia-s-our-eyes-intelligence-group-20181011-p5092t.html

Anons Dig on Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and who really controls NK

Sourced from QRes#7010

These are excerpts from MIT with info on what REEs are, what they are sought after for, and who controls the market.

Something that must also be taken into account when considering REEs is the strategic value of having mineable quantities of these elements. For instance, China's deposits provided it with leverage of global markets of these elements. Before 2010, China controlled 95% of the production market of REEs (Chakhmouradian, 2012). Now that new deposits are being discovered around the globe, and new refineries are opening up (for HREEs in particular, of which China previously provided 100%), this monopoly may cease.

Since the 1980s, China has produced roughly 90% of the world's supply of REEs (Chakhmouradian, 2012). It currently produces 97% of the world REE supply, giving China immense bargaining power. They have recently slowed exportation to Europe and the Americas, and they have stopped exporting to Japan (Tiesman, 2010). With these exportation decreases, world prices skyrocketed up to 1500% over the course of just a few months (Hatch, 2012). Countries that manufacture REE-containing products were therefore dependent on China's willingness to continue to export to them.

However, recent geological surveys from Britain and the U.S. indicate that reserves of REEs may be found in many diverse locations around the world, and some REE-dependent manufacturers are financially backing further exploration of potential reserves outside of China (Chakhmouradian, 2012). Demand is still increasing, but supply now exists outside of China (Mt. Weld in Australia and Mountain Pass in California) and more mines should open around the globe as time goes on, particularly in Brazil, Australia and Russia.

http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2016/finalwebsite/elements/ree.html

This is info Northern Minerals (CEO George Bauk) officially opened Browns Range Pilot Plant, July 2018, becoming the first heavy rare earth producing mine outside of China. Here is a video that I did not have time to watch with CEO and why they are contenders in the EV revolution…

http://northernminerals.com.au/investor-centre/company-information/

Moar on Northern Minerals

New assay results from RC drilling at the Dazzler and Iceman prospects turned up exceptional grades and thicknesses of rare earth mineralisation, including highly elevated contents of the sought-after rare earth element, dysprosium.

The company is now the first significant world producer of dysprosium outside of China.

This largely unexplored and geologically neglected corner of Australia is quickly firming up as the only region outside of China that is capable of going toe to toe with the Chinese in the global supply of heavy rare earths.

https://thewest.com.au/business/public-companies/northern-minerals-makes-new-rare-earths-discovery-ng-b88957346z

Anons post on 5 Eyes, following latest Q Drop

Sourced from QRes#7013

Former Trump foreign relations aide George Papadopoulos alleges the Australian and UK governments do not want Russia probe documents declassified.

US President Donald Trump says "key allies" have asked him not to release classified FBI documents related to the probe into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election, raising speculation the Australian government could be exposed.

Former Australian high commissioner to the UK Alexander Downer has become a reluctant player in the controversy for his London drinks session with former Trump foreign relations aide George Papadopoulos.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/key-allies-want-fbi-docs-blocked-trump

…..

Spy Games: Britain's MI6 Horrified at Trump's Plan to Declassify Details of FBI's Carter Page Wiretap

British intelligence chiefs are reportedly desperate to convince the White House not to declassify more of the FBI wiretap application on former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, because it would expose intelligence-gathering sources and methods.

According to a piece published late Wednesday in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph, U.S. intelligence officials are also against the idea, as are those in Australia, another member of the intelligence-gathering club known as the Five Eyes (the group also includes Canada and New Zealand.)

http://fortune.com/2018/11/22/mi6-trump-carter-page-fbi/

…..

MI6 battling to stop Donald Trump releasing classified Russia probe documents

MI6 chiefs are secretly battling Donald Trump to stop him publishing classified information linked to the Russian election meddling investigation.

The UK is warning that the US president would undermine intelligence gathering if he releases pages of an FBI application to wiretap one of his former campaign advisers.

However Trump allies are fighting back, demanding transparency and asking why Britain would oppose the move unless it had something to hide.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/21/exc-mi6-battling-donald-trump-release-classified-russia-probe/

CIA, FBI directors heading to secret spy alliance meeting in New Zealand

Sourced from QRes#7013

Top U.S. intelligence officials, including CIA Director Mike Pompeo and FBI Director James Comey are reportedly heading to New Zealand this weekend for a secret gathering of the Five Eyes spying alliance, according to a report.

The New Zealand Herald reported that it has learned that 15 intelligence-related agencies, including the heads of the CIA and FBI, will be in attendance.

A spokesman for New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English confirmed that senior officials are convening in Queenland for a conference, but did not confirm whether it was a meeting of the intelligence alliance that comprises the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

"Due to specific security requirements we cannot comment further at this time. However, as police have pointed out they are not aware of a visit to Queenstown by a current or former head of state," the spokesman said.

Spokespeople for the CIA and FBI would not comment on their directors' upcoming schedules.

It was reported Wednesday that the CIA and the FBI are launching a joint probe into a federal employee possible behind the theft of documents on the CIA hacking program that have been published by WikiLeaks in recent weeks. During a speech last week, Pompeo assailed WikiLeaks as a "non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia."

Though details on the meeting are sparse, it isn't all that out of the ordinary for the Five Eyes alliance to meet. Former Prime Minister John Key let slip last year that then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper passed through Australia on his way to a Five Eyes meeting.

Rumors about the conference have been swirling for some time, including speculation that former President Obama could be attending, according to local reports.

The conference in New Zealand comes just after President Trump announced his nominee for U.S. ambassador to the island nation, former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/cia-fbi-directors-heading-to-secret-spy-alliance-meeting-in-new-zealand-report/article/2620837

Resignations in the news

Sourced from QRes#7029

Young Parents Program founder Peter Innes is retiring

https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5923558/peter-innes-a-career-spent-making-a-big-difference/

>>5498267

Hey Anon,

I just go through all the the QRes boards each day and post anything that looks vaguely relevant to us in Aus, so that people here can feel the pulse of whats going on as it were. - so cannot speak to the accuracy of the posts or sources.

But thanks for the heads up.

Comey and Australia

Sourced from QRes#7030

"Donald Trump doesn't have time to 'screw up' US-Australia relationship", James Comey says

By Michael Vincent

Updated 19 Apr 2018

Australia's relationship with the US will not be damaged by the Trump presidency because "no one president has enough time to screw it up", former FBI director James Comey has told 7.30.

Despite describing Mr Trump as "morally unfit for the role", Mr Comey said he believes the US will remain a reliable and trustworthy partner for Australia during Mr Trump's time in office.

"I know the extent and culture of the relationship between the two countries," Mr Comey said.

"It'd be hard to screw up the relationship between the United States and Australia.

"No one president has enough time to screw it up, because it's so longstanding and so beneficial to both sides."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-19/james-comey-says-trump-hasnt-time-to-ruin-relationship/9672612

Anons post on Julian Assange

Sourced from QRes#7032

John Pilger: From Room 101 the Prisoner Says No to Big Brother

Julian Assange will never obey Big Brother.

His resilience and courage are astonishing, even though his physical health struggles to keep up.

by John Pilger

Whenever I visit Julian Assange, we meet in a room he knows too well. There is a bare table and pictures of Ecuador on the walls. There is a bookcase where the books never change. The curtains are always drawn and there is no natural light. The air is still and fetid.

This is Room 101.

Before I enter Room 101, I must surrender my passport and phone. My pockets and possessions are examined. The food I bring is inspected.

The man who guards Room 101 sits in what looks like an old-fashioned telephone box. He watches a screen, watching Julian. There are others unseen, agents of the state, watching and listening.

Cameras are everywhere in Room 101. To avoid them, Julian maneuvers us both into a corner, side by side, flat up against the wall. This is how we catch up: whispering and writing to each other on a notepad, which he shields from the cameras. Sometimes we laugh.

I have my designated time slot. When that expires, the door in Room 101 bursts open and the guard says, “Time is up!” On New Year’s Eve, I was allowed an extra 30 minutes and the man in the phone box wished me a happy new year, but not Julian.

Of course, Room 101 is the room in George Orwell’s prophetic novel, 1984, where the thought police watched and tormented their prisoners, and worse until people surrendered their humanity and principles and obeyed Big Brother.

Julian Assange will never obey Big Brother. His resilience and courage are astonishing, even though his physical health struggles to keep up.

Julian is a distinguished Australian, who has changed the way many people think about duplicitous governments. For this, he is a political refugee subjected to what the United Nations calls “arbitrary detention”.

The UN says he has the right of free passage to freedom, but this is denied. He has the right to medical treatment without fear of arrest, but this is denied. He has the right to compensation, but this is denied.

As founder and editor of WikiLeaks, his crime has been to make sense of dark times. WikiLeaks has an impeccable record of accuracy and authenticity which no newspaper, no TV channel, no radio station, no BBC, no New York Times, no Washington Post, no Guardian can equal. Indeed, it shames them.

That explains why he is being punished.

For example:

Last week, the International Court of Justice ruled that the British Government had no legal powers over the Chagos Islanders, who in the 1960s and 70s, were expelled in secret from their homeland on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and sent into exile and poverty. Countless children died, many of them, from sadness. It was an epic crime few knew about.

For almost 50 years, the British have denied the islanders’ the right to return to their homeland, which they had given to the Americans for a major military base.

Anons post on Julian Assange (cont.)

Sourced from QRes#7032

Perhaps she was merely “acting on instructions” when she flew to London and Washington last year with her ministerial chief of staff, who had indicated that the Australian Foreign Minister would raise Julian’s case and hopefully begin the diplomatic process of bringing him home.

Julian’s father had written a moving letter to the then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, asking the government to intervene diplomatically to free his son. He told Turnbull that he was worried Julian might not leave the embassy alive.

Julie Bishop had every opportunity in the UK and the US to present a diplomatic solution that would bring Julian home. But this required the courage of one proud to represent a sovereign, independent state, not a vassal.

Instead, she made no attempt to contradict the British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, when he said outrageously that Julian “faced serious charges”. What charges? There were no charges.

Australia’s Foreign Minister abandoned her duty to speak up for an Australian citizen, prosecuted with nothing, charged with nothing, guilty of nothing.

Will those feminists who fawn over this false icon at the Opera House next Sunday be reminded of her role in colluding with foreign forces to punish an Australian journalist, one whose work has revealed that rapacious militarism has smashed the lives of millions of ordinary women in many countries: in Iraq alone, the US-led invasion of that country, in which Australia participated, left 700,000 widows.

So what can be done? An Australian government that was prepared to act in response to a public campaign to rescue the refugee football player, Hakeem al-Araibi, from torture and persecution in Bahrain, is capable of bringing Julian Assange home.

The refusal by the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra to honor the United Nations’ declaration that Julian is the victim of “arbitrary detention” and has a fundamental right to his freedom, is a shameful breach of the letter and spirit of international law.

Why has the Australian government made no serious attempt to free Assange? Why did Julie Bishop bow to the wishes of two foreign powers? Why is this democracy traduced by its servile relationships, and integrated with lawless foreign power?

The persecution of Julian Assange is the conquest of us all: of our independence, our self-respect, our intellect, our compassion, our politics, our culture.

So stop scrolling. Organize. Occupy. Insist. Persist. Make a noise. Take direct action. Be brave and stay brave. Defy the thought police.

War is not peace, freedom is not slavery, ignorance is not strength. If Julian can stand up, so can you: so can all of us.

John Pilger gave this speech at a rally for Julian Assange in Sydney on 3 March.

John Pilger is an award-winning journalist. His articles appear worldwide in newspapers such as the Guardian, the Independent, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Mail & Guardian (South Africa), Aftonbladet (Sweden), Il Manifesto (Italy).

Anons post on Julian Assange (cont.)

Sourced from QRes#7032

In 2009, the British Foreign Office concocted a “marine reserve” around the Chagos archipelago.

This touching concern for the environment was exposed as a fraud when WikiLeaks published a secret cable from the British Government reassuring the Americans that “the former inhabitants would find it difficult, if not possible, to pursue their claim for resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagos Archipelago were a marine reserve.”

The truth of the conspiracy clearly influenced the momentous decision of the International Court of Justice.

WikiLeaks has also revealed how the United States spies on its allies; how the CIA can watch you through your I-phone; how Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took vast sums of money from Wall Street for secret speeches that reassured the bankers that if she was elected, she would be their friend.

In 2016, WikiLeaks revealed a direct connection between Clinton and organized jihadism in the Middle East: terrorists, in other words. One email disclosed that when Clinton was US Secretary of State, she knew that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were funding Islamic State, yet she accepted huge donations for her foundation from both governments.

She then approved the world’s biggest ever arms sale to her Saudi benefactors: arms that are currently being used against the stricken people of Yemen.

That explains why he is being punished.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves after greeting supporters outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, May 19, 2017 (AP/Frank Augstein)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves after greeting supporters outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, May 19, 2017 Frank Augstein | AP

WikiLeaks has also published more than 800,000 secret files from Russia, including the Kremlin, telling us more about the machinations of power in that country than the specious hysterics of the Russiagate pantomime in Washington.

This is real journalism — journalism of a kind now considered exotic: the antithesis of Vichy journalism, which speaks for the enemy of the people and takes its sobriquet from the Vichy government that occupied France on behalf of the Nazis.

Vichy journalism is censorship by omission, such as the untold scandal of the collusion between Australian governments and the United States to deny Julian Assange his rights as an Australian citizen and to silence him.

In 2010, Prime Minister Julia Gillard went as far as ordering the Australian Federal Police to investigate and hopefully prosecute Assange and WikiLeaks — until she was informed by the AFP that no crime had been committed.

Last weekend, the Sydney Morning Herald published a lavish supplement promoting a celebration of “Me Too” at the Sydney Opera House on 10 March. Among the leading participants is the recently retired Minister of Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop.

Bishop has been on show in the local media lately, lauded as a loss to politics: an “icon”, someone called her, to be admired.

The elevation to celebrity feminism of one so politically primitive as Bishop tells us how much so-called identity politics have subverted an essential, objective truth: that what matters, above all, is not your gender but the class you serve.

Before she entered politics, Julie Bishop was a lawyer who served the notorious asbestos miner James Hardie which fought claims by men and their families dying horribly with asbestos.

Lawyer Peter Gordon recalls Bishop “rhetorically asking the court why workers should be entitled to jump court queues just because they were dying.”

Bishop says she “acted on instructions … professionally and ethically”.

Sorry fkd up the order of Assange bun.

Part 1. >>5515301

Part 2. >>5515334

Part 3. >>5515312

More on Assange

Sourced from QRes#7033

This is actually a pretty good read on the inner workings of the system re: Assange / Passport / Truth

A shit load of fuckery. Free Assange

https://www.mintpressnews.com/whats-behind-australia-decision-suddenly-grant-julian-assange-passport/255809/