Richard Tanter writes “Courtesy of Edward Snowden, the Australian government is discovering that an asymmetry in electronic surveillance capacity does not trump the fundamental asymmetry of power between Australia and Indonesia. NSA documents that the premier Australian intelligence agency monitored and intercepted phone calls by the Indonesian president, his wife, and inner circle of advisors has generated an extraordinarily rapid collapse in relations between the two governments, possibly with longterm effects. The Indonesian government has called for a new intelligence accord, which will prove difficult for the Abbott government, not least because of the role of the NSA in Australian signals intelligence. A review of supervision and oversight of Australian intelligence agencies is urgently required.”
Richard Tanter is Senior Research Associate at the Nautilus Institute and teaches in the School of Poiltics and Social Science at the University of Melbourne.