Oil, Spies and Audiotape in East Timor

The Australian Capital Territory's Magistrates Court, as the country's tribunal for "less serious criminal matters" is known, begins an unusual hearing July 25. The government is prosecuting two men with no prior record: lawyer Bernard Collaery and his client, an Australian Secret Intelligence Services (ASIS) operative named in the indictment only as "Witness K." The charge is that they conspired to violate Section 39 of the Intelligence Services Act by disclosing information about ASIS. The government wants the trial held behind closed doors, citing national security reasons. But a secret trial would do less for public safety than for the reputation of the politicians involved. The case has all the elements of a John Grisham blockbuster: spies, intrigue against a foreign government, a victimized lawyer, public servants on oil company payrolls, witch hunts, harassment of journalists, suspected bribery, betrayal and duplicity on a grand scale. No wonder the politicians don't want...