Richard

In a time of increasing regional tension, Australian media need to be on high alert to lies from 'intelligence sources' -- recalling how we were fed lies about WMD to join an illegal war against Iraq. In 2021 when the ASIO chief told journalists the scary tale of a "nest of spies" at work against Australia, he declined to say who -- but he knew he'd set the hare running. 👁️This is how it's done, in the best 'House of Cards' tradition: Accuse spies of treachery, then hold off publicly saying the details, knowing that others would do so -- all the while maintaining your own dignified silence -- "But I could not possibly comment." youtube.com/watch?v=Oz8RjPAD… On cue, up pop several 'inside intelligence sources' to brief senior journalists to accuse 'Russia' as the evil spies: 👉Nine Network: "The most likely candidate would be Russia." 👉Seven Network: We don’t know for sure, but almost certainly Russia." 👉SkyNews: "He’s actually talking about Russia." 👉ABC News: "Security sources are privately pointing at Russia." 👉The Australian: “Senior operatives in the intelligence community strongly speculated that Russia was the nation state in question." 👉The Guardian: "There is a very high degree of certainty Mike Burgess is talking about Russia," according to ASPI Executive Director, old war horse Peter Jennings. But we now learn from journalists -- in the US, not Australia -- that the spying country was actually India. washingtonpost.com/world/202… So, before 'senior intelligence sources" start whispering again -- and we join another illegal bloody war -- is it time for a Royal Commission into the intelligence community? (Congrats for highlighting @ABCMediaWatch - abc.net.au/mediawatch/episod…)