Playing the 'Plame' Blame Game Aus Style

G'day
Most of you will be aware of the Wilson/Plame scandal, which I might add, never got a mention in Australia.

A brief summery:
In an article in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, Wilson denounced the Bush administration, saying that "some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

the ensuing fallout:
Valerie Plame the wife of Wilson is an American Central Intelligence Agency employee whose identification as a CIA "operative" by pundit-columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003 resulted in a Justice Department investigation into possible violation of U.S. criminal law regarding exposure of covert government agents. yadda yadda yadda

Well it was with some amusment that I watched this story unfold over the last week here in Aus....

Cate Molloy, a state Labor Party legislator in the state of Queensland, said in a television interview she held the Federal ruling liberal Party's sitting lawmakers "accountable" for the Bali bombing and for this month's bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

"There is no walking away from that shocking track record," she said.

Of coarse this bought a round of denunciations from the Ruling opposition Party, by which time Cate Molloy was forced to retract her statemnets, but none the less her Husband stood beside her, Cate Molloy's husband, Ivan, who is a federal Labor candidate for a seat in the state of Queensland in the Oct. 9 Federal election, had backed his wife's comments, saying he "supported her sentiments."

What's the big deal you ask?
Well as Cate Malloy is a State MP, her seat in government is not in contention in a Federal Election, but her Husband 'Ivan' you'll remember is Running as a Candidate for the Federal seat in the same state!
So, they can't attack Cate anymore because she retracted her comments but thay can sure as hell knock her Husband out of the race!
First Prime minister Howard dipped a 'toe in the water' with this statement:Howard called Cate Molloy's remarks "outrageous" and said Federal Labor leader Mark Latham should dump her husband as a candidate for endorsing them.
As the week rolled on it became obvious that the "liberal" Government were on this like a tick on a dog & weren't letting go.
Ivan Molloy actually holds a Doctorate in "Political Science" & had done extensive studies of regional conflicts involving guerilla forces, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer called a press conference to denounce Dr Molloy after Brisbane's The Courier-Mail claimed he was associated with a Philippines group linked to al-Qaeda.

The newspaper ran a 1983 photograph of Dr Molloy in the Philippines posing with an M-16 rifle it said was provided by a group called the Moro Liberation Front.
The report said this group had been linked by Washington with Osama bin Laden's AL-CIA-DUH terrorist organisation.
But terrorism experts said there was no such group as the Moro Liberation Front.
Dr Molloy, an academic from the University of the Sunshine Coast, insisted that the newspaper got the wrong group and he said he had never associated with terrorists.
In a letter to the ALP, he said he had never had dealings with the Moro Liberation Front, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) or any other terrorist group.
Dr Molloy said he had published many articles about a group called the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which had forged a peace agreement with the government of president Ferdinand Marcos and was not a terrorist group.

Mr Downer referred several times throughout his press conference to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and said Dr Molloy had "some of the most appalling views imaginable on the issue of terrorism".

The co-ordinator of Monash University's Global Terrorism Project, David Wright-Neville, said the MNLF was a regional insurgency group that had not been a threat in a long time. "To group them with AL-CIA-DUH is ridiculous."

The group was a "legitimate, recognised legal entity", ruling an autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao.

In summery it has nothing to do with Terrorism & everything to do with gaining political advantage......
SilentRunner

[edit on 1/10/04 by SilentRunner]