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Australia as the 'most-secretive democracy'

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"Whitlam was “uneasy” about Australia’s involvement because if it were to “receive any publicity as a result of these matters, then he would find it extremely difficult to justify our presence there,” "

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“he would find himself in an extremely difficult political situation as, quite clearly, it would be impossible for him to present the MO9 presence in Santiago as being in the direct Australian national interest.”

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Whitlam wanted to withdraw but not offend the US or the CIA

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The Prime Minister “was most concerned that CIA should not interpret this decision as being an unfriendly gesture towards the U.S. in general or towards CIA in particular

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in spite of personal reservations Whitlam was insistent that he still supported the US and scared of coming across 'anti-american'

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The majority of the cables, memos and reports focus on the banal nuts-and-bolts of establishing, staffing, supplying, and administering an intelligence station: among other issues, they record monthly expense reports, housing arrangements, communications methods, security inspections, and numerous authorization requests to acquire equipment such as safes, cameras, stationery, and vehicles for the ASIS agents to use in Santiago.

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“The primary beneficiary of this secrecy is the Australian government, which enjoys security from democratic accountability, and security from robust, evidence-based debate as to how the intelligence services should be used. But,” he concludes, “this is not national security in any meaningful sense.”

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To refute the government’s position that secrecy is needed to protect Australia’s national security, the Fernandes brief provides a lengthy review of the declassification of intelligence records in the United States and England on the covert operations in Chile. He points out that transparency and freedom of information in those countries do not appear to have damaged their ability to conduct foreign relations and advance their national security interests.

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No other developed democracy holds as tight to its secrets

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‘The documents turned over to Fernandes contain few revelations of actual covert operations‘

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‘the Tribunal is currently deliberating whether to compel the government to re-release those heavily censored historical records on Chile – with fewer redactions.’

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Reservations about how justified the station was -- the situation has 'not deteriorated to the extent that was feared .... is talking of deferring the opening of the station until there are indications that there will be a deterioration if at all'

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but the Australian government subjected the book to pre-publication censorship and managed to keep most of the details on ASIS’s CIA-Chile operations secret.

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Several episodes relating to Australia’s spying operations have been cause for embarrassment, the head of the station reports. “Apart from embarrassment, such incidents do little for our Service reputation.”

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Discussions between Prime Minister Whitlam and ASIS director, where Whitlam doubts Australia’s presence in Chile. Heavily censored.

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The dichotomy is an important one. The applicant does not wish to know the names of particular agents or their sources.

It accepts that they should be protected even presumably in death. Nevertheless, the second point is more difficult to follow. Lowe does not explain why it is necessary to minimise the damage to Australia’s international reputation if it was discovered to be conducting operational activities. There is no doubt that ASIS conducted operational activities in Chile. He

does not make clear why It is necessary to prevent the discovery of this already public information.

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“Many Australians would be entitled to express legitimate concern if ASIS … were exposed as having cooperated with the CIA in toppling the democratically elected government of Chile led by President Salvador Allende,” 

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“Many Australians would be entitled to express legitimate concern if ASIS … were exposed as having cooperated with the CIA in toppling the democratically elected government of Chile led by President Salvador Allende,” 

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Doc 11