Smoke and mirrors

Prior to the expulsion of the Israeli diplomat, the head of ASIO, David Irvine, went to Israel. Why? Was it to keep the intelligence relationship intact? Explain and smooth ruffled feathers? We have an Ambassador to do that. What was Irvine up to?

After the existence of the passports was revealed several AFP officers were dispatched to Israel to find out what they could about the use of Australian passports in the assassination. Surprisingly they found nothing, but disgraced themselves, and us, by getting involved in a hit and run accident in Tel Aviv.

There were suggestions around the time of the Haneef fiasco that a document linking Haneef to al Qaeda had been manufactured in Australia. SBS ran the original story, but the document contained inconsistencies relating to time and place and was of poor quality, not sufficient however to prevent the AFP trying to get some mileage out of it.

Julie Bishop made a fool of herself. Her naivety and flippancy do not auger well. Who will keep a watch over the activities of Australian and foreign agencies if the Coalition should be handed power by Kevin Rudd?