A Secret Australia

Sad but true: Eisenhower in his retirement address, Curtis LeMay’s reaction to Cuban missiles and the disclosures in WikiLeaks teach us, as citizens, the need for greater transparency in relation to our dangerous governments.

Exceptional, illuminating, and deeply disturbing. With commanding breadth this superb collection highlights the dangers to democracy of proliferating information control and official secrecy, exploring the powerful transformative work of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in exposing dark secrets as an exemplar of Australian investigative journalism. His persecution is our shame.

Peter Cronau (Editor) is an investigative journalist, and producer for ABC TV’s investigative documentary program Four Corners, and has won numerous journalism awards including the Gold Walkley on the political violence in East Timor in 2006. He has reported for ABC Radio’s Background Briefing, most recently with the groundbreaking report ‘Pine Gap’s Role in US Warfighting’. His forthcoming book is titled The Base: Australia’s Secret Role in America’s Global Wars.

Felicity Ruby is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney undertaking research on surveillance and democracy. She was advisor to Scott Ludlam for his first six years in the Australian Senate. Prior to this she headed the UN Office for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and was a policy advisor at the UN Development Fund for Women and at Greenpeace International.