When it comes to Indonesian co-operation, the
cards are stacked against Australia
In life, you play the cards you're dealt. It helps, of
course, to secretly know the hand of the person sitting opposite - and never
let on.
''It takes so much of the excitement out of the game,''
admits Mark Lowenthal, former assistant director at the CIA. ''On the other
hand, the results tend to be better. Seriously, that's all this is.''
Economic espionage is a surprising side of the usually
hidden craft of intelligence gathering, but it's as much a part of the spying
game as monitoring terrorist threats or evading foreign honeytraps.
But the recent spotlight on Australia's spies targeting
trade talks has jarred with the Abbott government's insistence - repeated again
last week - that intelligence gathering is to ''save Australian lives''.
The latest leaks from former National Security Agency
contractor Edward Snowden exposed Australia's eavesdropping in Indonesia during
negotiations last year with the US about the sale of clove cigarettes and
shrimp, with the reports shared with Washington.
Indonesia claimed the revelation was ''mind-boggling'',
which added to Australia's regional embarrassment, with East Timor still
smarting about being spied on as the two nations sought to divvy undersea
fossil fuel resources.
Mr Snowden mocked Prime Minister Tony Abbott in a recorded
message to Oxford University students on Thursday, saying the
over-classification of information on national security grounds was a ''serious
problem'' and damaged democracy.
Mr Abbott had earlier claimed in response to the leak that
Australia did not spy for commercial purposes. ''We collect intelligence to
save Australian lives, to save the lives of other people, to promote Australian
values, to promote the universal decencies of humanity, and to help our friends
and neighbours, including Indonesia.''
Dr Lowenthal, who now teaches analytic skills in Washington,
DC, said intelligence collection had broader aims. ''It doesn't save lives, but
it gives you an advantage,'' he told Fairfax Media.
He tells of a plaque in the top US intelligence official's
waiting room that's inscribed with the words ''decision advantage'' to sum up
the goal of intelligence collection.
''Our job is to give our policymakers - our customers - an
advantage when they are dealing with important national issues,'' Dr Lowenthal
said. ''They don't have to be national security, per se, they could be trade.
If you know what the other guy's bottom line is, if you know what the other
guy's negotiating position is, you'll have a more successful negotiation.''
That's where a poker face comes in. ''It's much more fun to
play cards if you can read the other guy's hand,'' he said.
Curiously enough, former BHP chief Marius Kloppers also
alluded to the problem of playing cards with an open hand in 2009 when
complaining to a US official about commercial espionage in Melbourne - comments
revealed by earlier leaks of diplomatic cables.
A speech by ASIO boss David Irvine in 2012 warned that
espionage targets now went ''well beyond'' usual foreign affairs, defence and
trade to sensitive commercial information, such as patents.
South-east Asian politics specialist Andrew MacIntyre, from
the Australian National University, said there was no question that the
disclosure of Australia's spying activity was a ''substantial setback'' for
government ties with Indonesia.
People working in or around the intelligence sector would
not be surprised by the disclosures, Professor MacIntyre said. But he said the
leaks came as a shock to the public and it would be very difficult for
Australia to win significant new official co-operation out of Indonesia before
the April presidential elections - and perhaps beyond.
Indonesia recalled ambassador Nadjib Kesoema from Canberra
in November in protest over the spying. He is yet to return.
Professor MacIntyre said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono was widely seen as an internationalist who was well disposed to
Australia. ''It's a pity he should end up, in effect, being poked in the eye
with a blunt stick - albeit unintentionally,'' he said.
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