KARMEIN CHAN COLD CASE

KARMEIN CHAN COLD CASE

by Sasha Uzunov

Australians, and humans in general and the media by extension, have had a morbid interest in controversial crimes such as the murder case of Azaria Chamberlain, the baby taken and killed by a dingo more than 30 years ago. So much so that the simple facts can easily be overlooked by focusing on elaborate conspiracy theories or allowing prejudices to rule our emotions. Another murder that has captured the public imagination is the still unsolved Karmein Chan case from 1991.

Patrick Carlyon, a Herald Sun newspaper reporter and the son of legendary newspaperman and Anzac yarn teller Les Carlyon, summed it up pretty well:

www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/will-the-public-now-clear-lindy/story-fncw91kq-1226393565152

"Azaria haunts all of us, largely, because we wanted her to. She wasn't just a little girl lost. She never lived a life, but her name will continue to blaze longer than almost all celebrities or politicians.

"She has come to be a byword for suspicion, book deals, media deals, autobiographies, prison terms, weirdo religions, wacky scientists and more conspiracy theories than Craig Thomson, Roswell and the Bermuda Triangle bundled together."

Lindy Chamberlain, the mother of Azaria, was found guilty of her daughter's murder in 1982 and served time before having her conviction overturned and recently a Northern Territory Coroner's Inquest finally ruled that the baby's death was caused by a dingo taking he child from the family's tent near Uluru (Ayers Rock) in 1980. As Carlyon has pointed out:

"To accept that the Chamberlains did not kill their baby demands more than a simple acknowledgement. It means the "lucky country" be condemned, in this at least, as the "bastard country". It requires that the Chamberlains be recognised as victims of ignorance and incompetence."

So now we turn our attention to the 1991 Karmein Chan case. Thirteen year old Chinese Australian girl Karmein was taken from her home in the north-eastern Melbourne suburb of Templetowe by a masked man, later believed to be a serial child attacker dubbed Mr Cruel also involved in a spate of other attacks on young girls. Karmein was babysitting her two younger sisters as her parents ran a busy restaurant in nearby Eltham when the kidnapping (or abduction) occurred.

A year later Karmein's decomposed body, with three bullet wounds to the back of the skull, was found in Thomastown, 15 kilometres directly north of Melbourne's city centre. Anyone who has ever watched the television news and seen the enormous grief shown by the Chan family has been deeply moved by it.

The Karmein Chan case still remains a mystery; the alleged Mr Cruel has never been found. A number of theories have been floated but Victoria Police has discounted most of them and stuck with the Mr Cruel angle. I will touch upon this particular point further down in this story.

The interesting link from a media perspective between Karmein Chan and Azaria Chamberlain and for that matter any story relating to crime is the amount of anonymous information or tips that gets passed onto journalists in the hope of “breaking” the case.

This is where it can get tricky. A free for all could jeopardise the investigation or unnecessarily hurt relatives by raising false expectations or pervert the course of justice with conspiracy theories as in the Azaria murder.

But there are times when police investigations stall and help from the media is needed. But who can judge that accurately? Moreover, how hard is it to know the veracity of an informant's tip?

In the space of three months in 2004, Frank Cole, a pensioner living in Melbourne, stepped forward to claim he could solve both the Azaria case and the then unsolved murder of Mersina Halvagis, the Greek Melbourne women whose body was found at Fawkner cemetery, in Melbourne's north, in 1997.

Cole, who was interviewed by legendary TV reporter Ray Martin on the A Current Affair program, said he was a shooter in the Northern Territory in 1980 who had shot a dingo near Uluru with baby Azaria in its mouth. Cole undertook a lie detector test but Lindy Chamberlain was not convinced, namely over Cole's description of the baby's clothing.

In some media circles Cole was looked upon with doubt when he claimed that jailed killer Peter Dupas, free at the time, was the murderer of Mersina Halgavis.

See links on Frank Cole:

www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/06/1094322711909.html?

www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/04/1091557909627.html

But in 2006 Victoria Police charged Dupas with her murder--and later found guilty--after a 2002 jail house confession given by Dupas to fellow inmate and disgraced lawyer Andrew Fraser.

Where does that place Cole's tip? No one at the time was publicly aware of Dupas's jail house confession. Was Cole's tip simply true? A lucky guess? Deduction from reading newspaper stories? Psychic intuition?

As newspapers go into decline because of the changing technology, more and more members of the public with information to give, are turning to independent or citizen journalists or bloggers online.

In Australia we are undertaking a semi sort of serious investigation into the role of the media, especially the obligations of bloggers. However, the mainstream media's traditional role of news breakers have been eroded by technology.

My interest in police and crime reporting began purely by accident in 1989 when I was simultaneously undertaking a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and an old fashioned newspaper cadetship with the Australian Macedonian Weekly newspaper. Out of the blue I received a phone call at work from a Detective Senior Constable Geoff Gardiner, a Victorian Police officer with an interest in ethnic related crime and counter terrorism.

We developed a good working relationship which revolved around the trading of information. When I was at the RMIT city campus I would pop in for a coffee and a chat in the old Russell Street Police HQ. Geoff wanted to know if there were any trouble-makers within the Melbourne Macedonian community and I wanted to know who were the Macedonians with links to foreign intelligence organisations.

I still remember his threatening words that he “would chopper me” if I ever revealed his identity whilst he was alive. I kept my end of the bargain for over 20 years. In 2010 he sadly died after a long illness.

More on Geoff Gardiner at this link: www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13223

In 1995, taking time out from journalism I became an Australian soldier for seven years and made some great friendships and experienced incredible adventures. Over the years I have received some incredible tip offs from ex-service personal and “civilians” alike.

One of my favourites tips was a raging battle that took place in 2006 between Australian infantry soldiers from the Townsville based unit 2RAR and Iraqi insurgents, I received a frame by frame account of the ferocious shoot out hours after it had happened whilst sitting back in the comfy armchair in my Melbourne home. The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper was quick to pick upon it:

www.smh.com.au/news/national/australian-troops-close-shave-in-iraq-firefight/2006/09/28/1159337280510.html

Australian troops' close shave in Iraq firefight

by Gerard Noonan, Craig Skehan, and Desmond O'Grady in Rome

September 29, 2006

AUSTRALIAN soldiers in southern Iraq were pinned down for at least an hour in a fierce firefight with insurgents two days ago, the Department of Defence has confirmed.

A report from a former Australian soldier and now freelance journalist, Sasha Uzunov, first raised the alert about the incident.

Mr Uzunov said soldiers from the Townsville unit 2RAR had contacted him to tell their story "in case it was ignored and to highlight inadequate equipment".

Air Chief Marshall Houston said Defence was concerned that emails purporting to be from soldiers involved in the incident were being mailed to the media.

-----------

But there are times when you have to take a bullet for your sources, if you pardon the pun. In 2008 two angry Vietnam War veterans contacted me with a story about well known The Age newspaper writer and anti-Vietnam War activist Garrie Hutchinson being in charge of government funded student trips to Gallipoli. When I broke the story all hell broke loose, so much so that soon to be defunct The Age newspaper interrupted its front page coverage of Russia's invasion of neighbouring Georgia and the Beijing Olympics to do a takedown. But you know you have arrived when you hit page 1.

see link: http://www.theage.com.au/national/truth-still-a-casualty-long-after-vietnam-20080816-3wrr.html

One lesson learnt is the mainstream media are very protective of their own, in this case Garrie Hutchinson. But as independent or civilian journalists or bloggers we learn to take a punch and develop a thick hide to do our job.

The Age however did not let that stop it from picking up another story of mine in 2009, this time by Suzanne Carbone:

“But [Tim Holding then Victorian Water minister] moment to shine may have arrived. Former Australian soldier Sasha Uzunov, now a photo-journalist, writes in his blog that Holding (below) could be destined for Afghanistan as Kevin Rudd's "eyes and ears" on the ground. You see, Holding is well credentialled as a former member of the Army Reserve in the 1st Commando Regiment - and he's Tourism Minister. A "prominent Canberra strategic analyst" told Uzunov: "Mr Holding is an intelligent young politician with links to special forces. The Australian media underestimate his ability, which is why he would be ideal for the mission: he would slip under the media radar."

This now brings me to two bits of information I have received from sources which still stick in my mind. Both have never been published before. One I have discounted simply because it is not true and the other I do not know what to make of it. I have inclduded them to give you the reader an idea of what is sent unfiltered to me. People's motive in giving information might be genuine, well intentioned or has a ring of truth to it. But that does not make it necessarily true.

The first was a tip from a woman who claimed that Victoria Police had used a psychic, a Turkish woman, to locate the body of dead toddler Jaidyn Leski from a country dam in 1998. I know that Victoria Police does not use psychics or clairvoyants. So we can discount this one.

In 2011, I bumped into someone who I had met before and spoken to about on a wide variety of issues. As we sat down to lunch the person, the source, mentioned to me that he had been to a barbecue sometime ago in a suburb close to Templestowe. As the barbecue progressed the source had been involved in a marathon drinking session with two unnamed “nasty looking blokes” belonging to a, let's just say, recreational/ alleged crime association. These two, unprompted, boasted of being hired to kill Karmein Chan. But no reason was given. The informant said he believed every word that these two had said by their menacing body language. But is that enough to go on?

We know that this recreational/alleged crime association has a code of conduct, an honour amongst thieves so to speak, where children are not to be harmed in any criminal activity. Was it a freelance job, unbeknownst to the recreational/alleged crime association's hierarchy?

Are these two simply making up a story and mischief making? Police will tell you of many who falsely claim responsibility for acts of crime they never committed.

If you don't believe the Mr Cruel angle, perhaps this would make an excellent conspiracy theory!

The girls previously taken by Mr Cruel were assaulted but returned alive, whilst Karmein was murdered, execution style with three bullets in the back of the head. Was it the same person? We still wait for answers, as does the long suffering family of Karmein Chan.

When also fails then psychics are seen as the last resort. Australian/New Zealand paranormal franchise television show Sensing Murder ran an episode on Karmein Chan but without finding the killer or killers.

Youtube clip of Sensing Murder - Mr Cruel case / Karmein Chan

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Wq_wl0SDk 

(end)

TIME TO STAY COOL

The "Coming Balkan Caliphate" or a stage managed event?
by Sasha Uzunov

The time is for people to stay cool and not allow passions to rule them. For those not aware, last month during Orthodox Easter, five ethnic Macedonians in The Republic of Macedonia were murdered. News has come that suspected 'Islamic terrorists' were arrested in connection with the slayings. Before we jump to conclusions, we need to allow all the facts to emerge.

A perceptive American writer Chris Deliso has warned in his book "The Coming Balkan Caliphate" of Islamic terrorists gaining a foothold in the Balkans region of Europe and using it as a base for operations against the West.

However, Deliso has also quite correctly observed that nothing happens by chance or coincidence in the Balkans region of Europe.


www.balkanalysis.com/editors-and-contributors/chris-deliso/

There may be an obvious Islamic connection, Macedonia's soldiers fighting in Afghanistan alongside its American allies. There may not be. Or it may have been a stage managed event with the intention of creating instability by groups unknown or neighbouring hostile states who may not be connected to worldwide Islamic Jihad but with their own political agenda. Some might say it may have been the work of Greater Albanian separatists and extremists, who do pose a serious threat; some might counter claim by saying it was the Macedonian security forces. The never ending list of conspiracy theories in this neck of woods goes on.

However, at this stage we have to temporarily give the benefit of the doubt to the Macedonian Interior Ministry (MVR) which controls the police and security forces. Likewise, we should not be pointing fingers at particular ethnic groups.

As The Republic of Macedonia is desperately trying to join the European Union and NATO, the whole world is watching and scrutinising.

We can only hope that calm, wise heads can get all the facts before passing judgment or condemnation. The rule of law must prevail. MVR must prove the case for the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt.

www.wboc.com/story/18000396/islamists-arrested-in-macedonia-fishermen-deaths

Islamists arrested in Macedonia fishermen deaths

By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES
Associated Press

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Police arrested 20 radical Islamists for the murder of five ethnic Macedonian fishermen in an early morning raid Tuesday, authorities said. The killing last month fueled tension in the tiny Balkan country between majority Macedonians and the mostly Muslim Albanian minority.

The suspects have been charged with terrorism, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska said. She did not specify whether they all belonged to the same ethnic group, saying simply that they were all Macedonian citizens.

The victims were not directly connected with the suspects, Jankuloska told reporters.

"The intention of this crime was to create a sense of insecurity and fear among the general population," she said.

Tensions between ethnic Macedonians and Albanians have simmered since the end of an armed rebellion in 2001, when ethnic Albanian rebels fought Macedonian government forces for about eight months, seeking greater rights for their community. The conflict left 80 people dead, and ended with the intervention of NATO troops.

Ethnic Albanians make up a quarter of Macedonia's population of 2.1 million. Most Macedonians are Christian Orthodox.

About 800 police were involved in Tuesday's operation, called "Monster," raiding 26 houses around the Macedonian capital of Skopje and seizing weapons, bullet proof vests and Islamic literature, Jankuloska said.

All of the suspects had fought in Afghanistan and Pakistan, she said.

The suspects were followers "of radical Islam, which is generally a danger for Christianity," she said. "They all have the capacity to commit such a horrible act."

She did not offer more details, saying the investigation is not yet complete.

Police posted a video of armed policemen raiding a house, arresting at least two suspects, one of them sprawled on the floor, and displaying a number of cellphones and SIM cards.

The title of the video describes the arrested as "Wahhabis," a fundamentalist branch of Islam.

The five fishermen, all but one in their 20s, were found dead, shot with at least three different firearms, north of Skopje on April 13.

Rumors spread quickly that the killings were ethnic-related, forcing authorities to appeal for calm.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Bureaucracy: ASIO DELAYS OVER SPY FILE

ASIO DELAYS OVER SPY FILE

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the nation’s counter-intelligence agency, has inexplicably delayed responding to a request for a file on a former communist Yugoslav diplomat who might be linked to the Croatian Six case.

Sasha Uzunov, an Australian independent film maker and journalist, has tried to obtain under Australia’s National Archive Act access to the ASIO file of the late Dr Georgi Trajkovski, the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne during 1978-79.

Any federal government documents over 30 years become open to the public. Exemptions can apply on the grounds of national security. However, ASIO has 90 days to respond to any request.

So far Uzunov’s request, made on 4 November 2011, has taken almost double that time.

“I’ve made other requests for files and ASIO has responded within a matter of weeks,” He said. “I don’t know why this has taken over 150 days, almost double the time, just for a simple answer of yes or no.”

Uzunov, who is producing a documentary film about Yugoslav spying on Australia soil, titled UDBa down under, believes there is strong circumstantial evidence to link Trajkovski to the Croatian Six Case.

One of Australia’s worst miscarriages of justice, the Croatian Six terrorism case in 1979-80, may have been perpetrated by Trajkovski, a master spy posing as a diplomat and who, would you believe it, not once but twice managed to outsmart Australia’s domestic spy catchers, ASIO, and even shook hands with an unsuspecting Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser.

Intelligence sources in Washington and in the Republic of Macedonia, one of the successor states of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), have confirmed that Dr Georgi Trajkovski, the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne, Australia during 1978-79 was “hardcore UDBa (Yugoslav intelligence) and a key player in the Croatian Six set up.”

In 1988, Trajkovski with the same modus operandi, the use of agent provocateurs and exaggerated claims of anti-Yugoslav subversion, had a fellow Yugoslav diplomat removed from his post in Melbourne right under the nose of ASIO.

In 1991 legendary ABC TV investigative reporter Chris Masters dropped a bombshell on the Four Corners program about The Croatian Six case.

An agent provocateur set up members of Australia's Croatian community in 1979. Six Croats were imprisoned on false charges of wanting to plant bombs in Sydney.

Masters tracked down the agent provocateur, Vitomir Visimovic, who was an ethnic Serb living in Bosnia but had passed himself off as a Croat.

In fact, ASIO, the Australian Federal Police (successor of the Commonwealth Police) and the infamous and corrupt New South Wales Police Special Branch were all aware that Visimovic was an UDBa operative but suppressed the information during the trial of the Croatian Six. Moreover, the alarming thing was the Australian authorities let the man depart the country. This was during Malcolm Fraser’s tenure as Prime Minister (1975-83).

An UDBa hitman Vinko Sindicic was arrested in Scotland in 1988 after a failed assassination attempt on Croat dissident Nikola Stedul. At Sindicic's trial it was revealed he “had been in Australia in 1978, working with another Yugoslav agent on a plan to link Croatian political activists with terrorism.”

Hamish McDonald, an award winning Australian journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, has been following the Croatian Six case. He had this write on the subject: 

“In a new video, the Macedonian-Australian documentary journalist Sasha Uzunov says he has evidence Sindicic set up the Croatian six conspiracy with the main UDBa official in Australia, Georgi Trajkovski, who operated under diplomatic cover as Yugoslav consul-general in Melbourne."

Links:

www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1107/S00270/who-was-the-croatian-six-mastermind.htm

Previews of UDBa down under

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuMIDTPyGe0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMA0QTTayxE

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EMAILS – Request for ASIO FILE on Dr Georgi Trajkovski (reference number 11/21566 - National Archive of Australia)

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: RE: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:59:41 +1000

From: ######@naa.gov.au

To: sashauzunov@hotmail.com

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Uzunov,

Unfortunately we have not yet received a response from ASIO, however please be assured that we will continue to process your application and will notify you as soon as we receive a response. 

As it has gone over the 90 days you do have rights of appeal which are outlined in the following link:

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/fact-sheets/fs12.aspx

Sincerely, ######

	t  02 6212 3924 f  02 6212 3999 e        @naa.gov.au
	Queen Victoria Terrace,Parkes ACT 2600 PO Box 7425, Canberra Business Centre ACT 2610

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Sasha Uzunov [mailto:sashauzunov@hotmail.com] 


Sent: Tuesday, 10 April 2012 10:31 AM


To: ######

Subject: RE: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hi ####,

Its been over 4 months (120 days) and no response on this request?

cheers

sasha

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: RE: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]


Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 09:36:38 +1100


From: ######@naa.gov.au


To: sashauzunov@hotmail.com

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Uzunov,

I refer to your request for an update on your request for ASIO files relating to Dr Georgi Trajkovski.

Unfortunately I have not yet received a response from ASIO, however please be assured that we will continue to process your application and will notify you as soon as we receive a response.

Sincerely,

 ###########

Reference Officer

Reference and Information Services 
Access and Communication

National Archives of Australia


Queen Victoria Terrace, Parkes ACT 2600 
PO Box 7425, Canberra Business Centre ACT 2610  t 02 6212 3924 f  02 6212 3999
e   ####@naa.gov.au


naa.gov.au

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Sasha Uzunov [mailto:sashauzunov@hotmail.com]

Sent: Thursday, 2 February 2012 7:14 PM


To: ########

Subject: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Dear #####

Just wanting to know any progress on my request?

cheers

Mr Sasha Uzunov

mob 0419 635 808

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Sasha Uzunov <sashauzunov@hotmail.com>


Date: 4 November 2011 1:42:12 PM AEDT


To: ########>


Subject: RE: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Thanks ##### for the quick response.

Georgi Trajkovski was under ASIO surveillance between 1977, 78, 79. He was Yugoslavia's consul general in Melbourne. He may have been a Yugoslav intelligence (UDBa / SDB) officer under diplomatic cover.

Cheers Sasha.  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]


Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2011 13:06:41 +1100
From:

########@naa.gov.au


To: sashauzunov@hotmail.com

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Ms Uzunov,

Thank you for your request for an ASIO file relating to Dr Georgi Trajkovski.

ASIO records are eligible for release under the Archives Act 1983 after 30 years, subject to exemption of any material of continuing sensitivity as prescribed by section 33 of the ACT.  They are generally only transferred to the Archives in response to applications for access under the Archives act.

In order to submit an application to ASIO I need you to provide the following information about Dr Georgi Trajovski:

Date of Birth
Period you believe he was under surveillance (eg. 19XX-19XX)
State he was living in a time of suspected surveillance
Reason you believe he was under surveillance (eg. Membership of organisations, participation in events, etc)

Once I receive this information I will submit the application to ASIO, and I will contact you as soon as we receive a response. Please note this process can take up to 90 days.

Sincerely,

#########

Reference Officer

National Archives of Australia - Canberra Office 


Telephone: (02) 6212 3924
Fax: (02) 6212 3999
Email: ######@naa.gov.au

SAS SOLDIER SPIES

(Top left): In 2006 the then Governor General of Australia Major General Michael Jeffrey decorates an SASR trooper with the Medal for Gallantry in the Afghanistan War. SASR soldiers are praised for being unconventional warriors. But not according to a recent article by journalist Rafael Epstein (bottom) who has used some "unconventional methods" to get a story. Photo sources: Defence Department and ABC.

SECRET SOLDIER SPIES, SO WHAT?

By Sasha Uzunov

The revelation that elite Australian Special Forces soldiers are being used in an unconventional role as spies in parts of Africa should be applauded not criticised.

A report in Melbourne newspaper The Age by Rafael “Roadblock” Epstein and Dylan Welch, titled “Secret SAS squadron sent to spy in Africa, March 13, 2012,

www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/secret-sas-squadron-sent-to-spy-in-africa-20120312-1uwjs.html#ixzz1ox8IKUa0

creates an atmosphere of scaremongering with the usual suspects, self-appointed expert and ex-The Age journalist Hugh White, throwing his two cents worth about how bad the idea is.

The Age's in-house media tough guy Tim Lester of Timor Leste fame has also jumped on the bandwagon:

www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/sas-is-involved-in--foreign-intelligence-work-smith-20120313-1uxds.html

The unit known as 4 Squadron SASR has deployed plain clothed soldiers in parts of Africa on intelligence gathering missions, namely focusing on possible kidnapping of Australian citizens or Islamic fundamentalist activity.

This is in stark contrast to the Australian Federal ALP government's passivity that saw Australian backpacker David Wilson kidnapped and murdered by Khmer Rouge guerillas in Cambodia in 1994. No doubt if 4 Squadron was around then, Wilson may have had a fighting chance. In fact, both of Australia's spy agencies ASIO and ASIS are a running joke. It is probably a good idea that we have 4 Squardon.

But for some of us The Age article sounds more of a cynical exercise in carving up the lucrative SASR book industry. Surprisingly, News Limited's Defence reporter Ian McPhedran was beaten to the punch by Epstein and Welch on this story. McPhedran is seen as an unofficial member of the SASR. There was a running joke in Canberra that a high ranking Australian Army officer wanted to send McPhedran an SASR sand coloured beret in the mail as a sarcastic joke but was talked out of it by wiser and calmer subordinates.

The Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) or SAS is one of the Australian Army elite units and a major part of Special Operations Command. Together with 1st and 2nd Commando Regiments forms the backbone of counter-terrorism in Australia and front-line combat missions in Afghanistan.

Over the past 20 years a number of best-selling books about the SASR and its British parent SAS have been written and a genre of its own has developed.

Heaven forbid should Epstein, Welch or for that matter Lester ever be kidnapped overseas by the bad guys and there are no SASR soldiers to rescue them. Perhaps that would be hubris.

Let us take Rafael “Roadblock” Epstein, who as a journalist has employed “unconventional methods” to get the story but the SASR are not allowed to be used outside the box:

In an earlier article for www.scoop.co.nz , I detailed a scandal that never was involving Australian Commandos in Afghanistan, which was pursued by Epstein:

www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1107/S00091/australian-experts-with-egg-on-their-faces.htm

There is a public perception that journalists have become a law onto themselves that is they have a special media sheriff’s badge they can flash, whilst the rest of us cannot even ask a question.

Rafael Epstein, former ABC TV reporter and now with Fairfax. In 2010, the taxpayer funded journalist got up to some shenanigans and tied up valuable court time:

“Victoria Police will not prosecute a former ABC journalist accused of breaching police roadblocks after the Black Saturday bushfires.

“Rafael Epstein and a cameraman were stopped by officers in the main street of Kinglake on February 24 last year.

“Mr Epstein, who now works at The Age, admitted to deliberately entering an area restricted by the coroner. Mr Epstein's lawyers and the Office of Public Prosecutions agreed charges would not proceed, no conviction be recorded and that the matter would be dealt with through the Magistrates Court diversion program.

“Under diversion, Mr Epstein donated $2000 to Strathewen Primary School and admitted wrongdoing. He said: ''I apologise to local residents and police. I do wish to stress that my intention was to provide constructive and responsible coverage.''

You can bet your bottom dollar that if a teenage citizen journalist shooting a news clip about the bushfires for you-tube would have had the book thrown at them.

Now for Hugh White, a “Defence expert” who has never served in uniform but spent some time as a desk bound spook for the Office of National Assessments, the Australian Prime Minister's own spy agency.

Again, drawing on scoop.co.nz article

www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1107/S00091/australian-experts-with-egg-on-their-faces.htm

White, a former Fairfax newspaper journalist turned defence expert, came up with the “brilliant idea” of cutting back our front-line combat troops, such as infantry, in the mid 1990s. When the East Timor crisis erupted in late 1999 the Australian Army did not have enough infantry “gunslingers” and was forced to cannibalise reserve units for soldiers.

In 1998 the then Chief of Australia's Army Lieutenant General Frank Hickling was so concerned that our army was run down at the hands of Dibb-White that he issued his famous back to basics directive ordering all soldiers sharpen up their war fighting skills. A year later his move had potentially saved the lives of many young Australian soldiers engaged in a conflict with pro-Indonesian militia in East Timor. General Hickling had to fight off opposition from some of Canberra's desk warriors and self-appointed experts who "knew better."

Now all of a sudden White expresses concerns for SASR soldiers in spy missions:

''Such an operation deprives the soldier of a whole lot of protections, including their legal status and, in a sense, their identity as a soldier. I think governments should think extremely carefully before they ask soldiers to do that.''

Yet, back in 1990-91 and even to this day White has never expressed any concern for the Australian Navy sailors suffering from Gulf War Syndrome from the first Iraq War which he had a hand in sending, as I revealed in my article for the Herald Sun newspaper in 2007:

www.heraldsun.com.au/news/labor-must-help-stricken-soldiers/story-e6frfimf-1111112976611

In fact, The Age newspaper for reasons that remain a mystery have refused to scrutinise White's record as a “defence expert.”

Once again from the scoop.co.nz archives we hear about Tim Lester's exploits:

www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1007/S00246/aus-fed-election-journo-takes-down-senator.htm

In 2008 Lester, as a reporter with the commercial network Nine, complained the ADF would not be his taxpayer funded cab service in Iraq to observe Australian troops pulling out. He moaned:

“I am one of the reporters who wanted the necessary transport and protection to cover our 550 combat troops as they leave Tallil Air Base in Southern Iraq.”

But surely the great Tim Lester of Timor Leste fame would not need ADF transport and protection to navigate through a warzone in Iraq?

Britain’s top war reporter Sir Max Hastings, in his autobiographical account of his career, Going to The Wars, tells of taking a private taxi to the Golan Heights during the 1973 Yom Kippur War that pitted Israel against its Arab neighbours and of driving with a colleague into the Sinai desert, after not receiving any assistance from the Israeli government.

The Australian media have a moral obligation to keep tabs on the military, the intelligence agencies as well governments. But we can only have an informed defence debate when we allow many voices, not just an elite few who have hijacked the debate for their own purposes.

We need to remind our information gatekeepers that Australia's defence debate belongs to the Australian taxpayer and is not the personal property of a handful to make money out of books, or push their own political agendas.