Published in The Canberra Declaration 5 Nov. 2024
The well-researched Daily Declaration article “They are Scrubbing the Internet Right Now”, written by Jeffrey A Tucker and Debbie Lerman, hit very close to home.
So I’ve decided to share my experience.
Between 2009 and 2013, I led the team of whistleblowers who exposed what was then the greatest intelligence scandal in Australia’s history. It’s still a scandal!
In light of the proposed Communications Legislation Amendment (Combating Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 (MAD Bill), my testimony of government-enforced ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ is, it seems, a message that our government does not want anyone to remember.
Scrubbed!
Last year, my Defence whistleblowing experience was listed on Wikipedia. Anyone could look me up and follow the links to my proofs. This year, I have been removed from that list.
Last year, everyone/anyone could find the public IGIS report titled, “Inquiry into allegations of inappropriate vetting practices by the Defence Security Authority and related matters”.
This year I can’t find it. The link has been removed.
Last year, I could still find references to, “The Three Defence Whistleblowers” on Google. This year, I can’t find any references.
Politically Incorrect
Fighting (and winning) a battle against enforced and entrenched misinformation took around three years because Defence, their department heads, lawyers, ministers and the media were involved in a massive cover-up. They didn’t want the information we three whistleblowers leaked ‘out there’.
They didn’t want anyone to know they had been routinely enforcing the entry of false data into people’s files to facilitate approval for secret and top-secret clearances.
Their ‘misinformation’ shredded ASIO’s ability to know which clearances were legitimate and which were bogus. The investigation was handed over to the Investigator General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS).
The IGIS is the highest judicial authority in Australia, higher than the High Court. As such, it has no appeal system. Every decision is final. Every recommendation is an order.
The IGIS sits directly under the Governor General, and each investigation has the power of a Royal Commission. Information from these proceedings can only be released to the Senate and public at the direction of the Prime Minister.
After a six-month investigation, the IGIS report revealed that our national security was savaged to such a degree that they deemed the problem ‘unfixable’!
Now that’s serious in anyone’s language. But now, it has been covered up again. Scrubbed!
My Documented Experience
It’s a good thing I wrote my experience in a book.
It’s also a good thing that I have kept hard copy evidence of the IGIS report, the letter of apology from the Secretary of Defence that the IGIS ordered him to write, files of newspaper articles, and other assorted hard evidence.
I have put the outline of this important historical event in a short video, called “National Scandal”. This story is not going to be scrubbed! It has already been picked up by people in New Zealand, Canada, the US and Russia.
This historical event is the most damning argument we have against the dangerous notion of allowing government bodies to decide what is ‘misinformation or disinformation’.
They ordered staff to put false information into people’s personal files!
Does it get any worse than that?
Lockdowns, rubber bullets, and callous brutality showed us how far our government was prepared to go to force their will onto ordinary Australians. Yes, it can get worse.
Unless we stop it.
Understanding the 70/30
My experience with the Defence Intelligence and Security Authority (DSA) between 2009 and 2012 revealed some interesting social data:
With strong coercion, 70% of staff were willing to submit to a communist-style totalitarian regime. And worse, some of those were more than willing to become vicious enforcers of extreme authoritarianism.
Meanwhile, 30% of staff objected to the brutally enforced corruption. Of those, 25% quietly and covertly supported a bold and outspoken 5%.
Despite the odds, the 5% WON!
During COVID, governments knew that around 70% of the population would buckle under, give up their freedom and accept their new totalitarian rule. Some would even join forces with the bullies against those who dared object to having their freedoms stolen. Their biggest challenge would be shutting down the other 30% – and especially the 5%. Hence, the bullying, intimidation and terror tactics!
They knew the 5% had the power to stop them. We did! We still do! So, now they are rolling out the MAD Bill.
The MAD Bill is not yet in force but seems to be a ‘given’ since information is already being quickly erased, removed, buried and controlled.
What Can We Do?
In the midst of all this, it helps to remember that everything political bullies do ultimately fails. History tells us that people power is always stronger than political power. Always!
Right now, I suggest two points of action.
First, keep hard copies of everything because the information they are deleting now will eventually need to be re-entered. Yes! They will fail!
Second, keep those political objections going. Remember, there are only 700 politicians in Australia and they are not the source of all wisdom.
Ordinary people can and always do make a huge difference!
Monica Bennett-Ryan is an Australian Defence Whistleblower who with two friends successfully exposed entrenched corruption running rampant inside Australia's Defence Intelligence. Her book A PRE-COVID SOCIAL EXPERIMENT: The Dark Side Of Australia's Defence Intelligence compares her experiences within Defence with the strategies used during the COVID lockdowns. The similarities are chilling!
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