APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, July 28, 2010

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APSNet 28 July 2010

  1. And then there’s their battle back home
  2. Wiki point to Australian cover-up
  3. Aussie Julian Assange behind invulnerable site for whistleblowers
  4. Electrics chink in armoured vehicles
  5. More finesse needed in Abbott’s foreign policy
  6. Kopassus reinstatement stirs outrage

1. And then there’s their battle back home, James Brown, SMH, 2010-07-28

Our soldiers suspect much of what they do is either misunderstood or ignored at home. Many are starting to ask why there isn’t more public debate on Australia’s Afghan strategy. The best way we can pay tribute to those who are serving in Afghanistan is by understanding what they are doing and why.

2. Wiki point to Australian cover-up, Dan Oakes, SMH, 2010-07-28

Classified US Defence Department documents leaked to the WikiLeaks website this week suggest the Australian Defence Force covered up the killing of an Afghan policeman by Australian troops. Buried among the 90,000 intelligence documents is a log entry about the killing of an Afghan man by an Australian mentoring and reconstruction taskforce (MRTF) patrol in the southern province of Oruzgan in December 2008.

3. Aussie Julian Assange behind invulnerable site for whistleblowers, Will Pavia and Tom Coghlan, Australian, 2010-07-28

WikiLeaks, the website Julian Assange designed in 2007, is hosted primarily on a Swedish internet server, routed through another server in Belgium and then another until its contents exist on 20 servers around the world. It is almost invulnerable to legal threats, cyber-terrorists and attempts by governments to block or dismantle it. Assange claims it is more secure than any banking network. The system allows him to push leaked documents almost in their entirety and almost immediately.

4. Electrics chink in armoured vehicles, Dan Oakes, SMH, 2010-07-28

The electrical systems in armoured vehicles used by Australian troops in Afghanistan can be knocked out by shock waves caused by roadside bombs, potentially leaving the troops stranded. Documents show Defence only became aware of the problem in 2008 after two soldiers, one badly injured, were trapped in their vehicle when a bomb tripped the circuit breaker in their Australian Light Armoured Vehicle (ASLAV).

5. More finesse needed in Abbott’s foreign policy, Michael Fullilove, AFR, 2010-07-27

You don’t have to be a foreign policy wonk to be an effective foreign policy prime minister. But there is a question whether Abbott is well prepared to meet the international demands of the prime ministership: to advance Australia’s interests by working through the full range of relationships and institutions; to make sustained, measured arguments to multiple and diverse audiences; and to balance ends and means.

6. Kopassus reinstatement stirs outrage, Asia Sentinel, 2010-07-23

Human rights organizations across Asia and the world are reacting with disappointment and anger over the July 22 decision, announced in Jakarta by US Secretary of Defense Robert M Gates, to lift his agency’s decade-old ban on cooperation with the Army’s elite Kopassus special forces unit, which has been accused of widespread terrorism against foes of the Indonesian government.

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