The role of Bob Carr, Australia’s Foreign Minister, in NOT helping Julian Assange

Mr Assange is the lead WikiLeaks Party candidate for a Senate seat in Victoria. Since June, 2012, he has resided at Ecuador’s London embassy where he was granted political asylum on the grounds that he is at risk of extradition to the US.

Carr accused of meddling in Assange case http://www.watoday.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/carr-accused-of-meddling-in-assange-case-20130905-2t847.html#ixzz2e8ycDLrt September 6, 2013 Philip Dorling Australian diplomats in Washington immediately stopped reporting to Canberra on the trial of WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, after Foreign Minister Bob Carr declared he would not allow ”over-servicing” of Julian Assange’s consular case.

Australian diplomatic cables released under freedom of information law reveal that the Australian embassy in Washington reported on the first two days of US Army Private Manning’s two-month trial, which began on June 3, and highlighted numerous references to Mr Assange, who has been targeted by US law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a long-running espionage investigation.

However, a response by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to a freedom of information application by Fairfax Media shows that the Washington embassy stopped reporting on the Manning trial after Senator Carr told a Senate estimates hearing on June 6 that the WikiLeaks publisher’s case ”doesn’t affect Australian interests”.

WikiLeaks Party campaign director Greg Barns said: ”One can only assume that Foreign Minister Carr directly interfered in the Washington embassy’s handling on a major consular case after the publication of DFAT cables under freedom of information confirmed the US government’s intense interest of Julian Assange.”

Senator Carr, in Russia to attend the G20 world leaders summit, did not respond to a request for comment about Australian diplomatic reporting on Mr Assange and Private Manning’s trial.

The Foreign Minister has previously dismissed Mr Assange’s claims that he is at risk of extradition to the US, describing such concerns as ”sheer fantasy”.

Australian embassy officers attended most of the pre-trial hearings for Private Manning’s court martial at Fort Meade, Maryland. Private Manning was convicted of espionage and other offences last month and jailed for 35 years.

September 5, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, civil liberties

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1.This month.

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