THE POLITICAL CONTEXT & PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS The source of this request is important. The CDPP is a domestic facing department. The request must therefore have stemmed from domestic issues, rather than from foreign policy concerns (which would have been sourced from DFAT). In terms of the Schapelle Corby case, this limits the issue significantly: by and large, to the events surrounding the corruption and criminality at Sydney and Brisbane airports. The picture painted by the previous revelations of The Expendable Project, with respect to Schapelle Corby, is already very clear. An acquitted or exonerated Schapelle Corby would have created a number of extremely difficult issues for the Australians... It would have caused significant problems for the newly privatized Sydney Airport Corporation Limited, who failed to provide her with CCTV footage or baggage scanning records. It would have created substantial fall-out for the AFP, whose officers were involved in drug syndication. It would have damaged the reputation of the national carrier, Qantas, whose baggage handlers were engaged in systemic drug trafficking. It would have created a diplomatic minefield for the government itself, with respect to its strategic relationship with Indonesia. It would also have created intense pressure upon individual ministers, including the Prime Minister, John Howard. But why the involvement of the United States of America? Timing, as is often the case in politics, was everything. This was just three years post 9/11, and the United States was heavily engaged in pressing the aviation security revolution across the world. Yet, Australian airports were an absolute shambles, with criminal gangs running amok (ref: Allan Kessing, Kim Beazley, and others). Even the heavily constrained Australian media were beginning to scratch the surface. expendable.tv/2011/10/exhibit-mutual-assistance-request.html
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 11:07:37 +0000
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