slackbastard

Downer joins Eddington at ‘spy’ company
Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie
The Age
October 14, 2008

FORMER Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has joined Kevin Rudd’s infrastructure chief, businessman Sir Rod Eddington, in advising a secretive British firm that sells intelligence on government policy intentions – including those in Australia – to big business.

The firm, Hakluyt & Co, was founded by former officers of British spy agency M16. Hakluyt has been embroiled in several corporate spying scandals and was caught in 2001 paying a former German intelligence agent to infiltrate green groups in Europe on behalf of the oil companies Shell and BP.

Maurice Chittenden and Nicholas Rufford, MI6 ‘Firm’ Spied on Green Groups, Sunday Times, June 17, 2001

Hakluyt employs many former British intelligence officers and provides companies with high-level business and political intelligence on investment opportunities.

Mr Downer, the UN special envoy to Cyprus, was appointed to Hakluyt’s advisory board in May. As foreign minister, he oversaw the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and had top-level access to information from Australia’s spy agencies.

Sir Rod has served on Hakluyt’s advisory board since 2005, but is not paid for his services.

In February, he was appointed chairman of Infrastructure Australia, a Rudd Government body charged with modernising the nation’s water, transport, communications and energy assets through the $20billion Building Australia fund.

The former British Airways chief now faces conflict of interest allegations due to his roles with Hakluyt and Infrastructure Australia.

Greens leader Senator Bob Brown last night said Sir Rod should cut ties with Hakluyt because it was a “direct conflict of interest” with his Infrastructure Australia role. “We will move to amend the Building Australia legislation when it comes through Parliament in a few weeks to ensure there are no conflicts of interest on the Infrastructure Australia board,” Senator Brown said.

A former high level Australian security official told The Age that Hakluyt was one of the more “aggressive and invasive” corporate intelligence firms and that it was a clear conflict of interest for Sir Rod to be advising both the company and the Australian Government.

The company has ties with Liberal Party polling firm Crosby Textor. Hakluyt founder and former MI6 officer Christopher James was appointed a senior adviser to Crosby Textor in 2006.

Sir Rod, who is also advising the Victorian Government on transport policy, last night denied any real or perceived conflict of interest, saying he had not advised anyone at Hakluyt on Australian Government policy. “There is no conflict of interest,” Sir Rod said.

“Like many people in corporate life, you manage your life in a way that they (conflicts) do not occur. I sit around the (Hakluyt) table with guys who are extremely experienced businessmen with great integrity. Hakluyt is a way for me to keep my international network up.”

He said he had not seen any evidence to suggest Hakluyt had ever acted unethically. “Do you think Alexander Downer would be on the advisory board of a company that acted unethically?” Sir Rod asked.

Prominent figures to have served on the Hakluyt advisory board include former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, former Shell chairman Peter Holmes, former BP deputy chairman Peter Cazalet and former US ambassador to India [also Egypt, the Phillippines and Zambia] Frank Wisner Jnr.

In 2004, Hakluyt advisory board member Lord Inge resigned over a perceived conflict of interest due to his membership of the Butler review commissioned by then British prime minister Tony Blair to examine intelligence failures in Iraq.

A spokesman for Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese said last night there were legislative safeguards to prevent real or perceived conflicts of interest between Infrastructure Australia board members and their respective business dealings.

Speaking from London last night, Hakluyt deputy managing director Rupert Huxter said he did not believe the company had “done anything on infrastructure in Australia”. Mr Huxter said Mr Downer was sought after because he was an experienced minister who would help Hakluyt’s advisory board “open doors to clients” .

“We exist to provide people with information they would not get anywhere else,” he said.

The company no longer infiltrated activist groups, he said. “What (scandal) there is is 10 years old. The company has grown up a lot since then.”

Mr Downer could not be contacted last night.

Although its Australian client base remains secret, Hakluyt is active in Australia. Its Australian director is Sydney-based former British diplomat Philip Morrice.

In August, Hakluyt approached a freelance Australian health journalist to join its network of “discreet” agents to provide information on Australian Government health policy.

An email from a Hakluyt employee to the journalist outlines the company’s intelligence gathering methods: “We have a proprietary network of well-placed individuals around the world who are able to provide us, very discreetly, with intelligence on specific commercial or political issues that may arise.”

Although it goes to great lengths to keep its clients secret, Hakluyt has worked for European defence and aerospace company EADS and offered its services to disgraced US energy company Enron executives by saying it provided “an unparalleled private intelligence network at the personal disposal of senior commercial figures”.

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In the nearly three months since he retired from Federal Parliament — “It has been a great honour to have served the people of Mayo for nearly 24 years and I am deeply grateful to them for the support” — Alexander Downer has kept himself very busy. First — in fact, on the same day (July 13, 2008) he announced his retirement — Alexander was appointed as Vewy Special Envoy to Cyprus. What this means is that Alexander “sits in on the meetings [of Greek and Turkish Cypriot heads of state] and helps the leaders by making suggestions” (Downer to urge leaders to pull their socks up, Jean Christou, Cyprus Mail, October 8, 2008).

What kind of suggestions, I wonder?

Does he in fact regale them with tales of his adventures with other world leaders?

For example, did you know that:

Alexander has met Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condi Rice?
Upon arrival at the Elysee Palace — in Paris — he was greeted — on the front steps — by President Chirac?
His putter is Korean, and was given to him by Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations after Alexander cleaned him up on a splendid course in Seoul?

All these tall tales and true were once available on Alexander’s blog, but — alas! — for some reason he has decided to cease recollecting his exciting career as a diplomat on teh Interwebs.

In any event, as the Londra Gazete reports (Worry over slow pace of Cypriot negotiations, October 9, 2008): “Mr Downer was officially appointed special envoy in July and this is his third visit to Cyprus since then. At the UN General Assembly in New York last week, Mr Downer agreed the process of direct negotiations was moving slowly and the two sides were yet to shift from their opening standpoints. He briefed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe on the status of the talks.”

I wonder if Ban and Alexander found time for a spot of golf?

Finally, this is not to suggest that Alexander has not impressed anyone with his diplomatic skills. Jason Koutsoukis, Middle East correspondent for The Age, is impressed. And so are Alexander’s critics. According to Jason ‘Downer impresses his critics in bid for peace’ (October 11, 2008; note that Jason replaced Ed O’Loughlin earlier this year). I confess to being unsure precisely which critics Jason is referring to; nor, for that matter, how exactly they’ve been impressed by Alexander the Great Diplomat. Perhaps the following is an example? “An Australian to direct the negotiations here? Yes, we were suspicious,” says Mr Guclu. “We have never had one like this before; Americans, British, Europeans, more Americans.”

But not an Australian.

Impressive.

Split into two in 1974, a divided Cyprus is a major sticking point for Turkey’s integration into the EU. If Alexander manages not to say or do something particularly stupid or offensive, it may be that Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot authorities will arrive at some kind of mutual accord. In which case, it was probably a good thing that, as far as Jason was concerned, “Mr Downer… was not available for an interview in Cyprus”.

Of course, that’s not all Alexander’s been up to: in May, he became a spy.

FitzGerald turns to spookery
Emiliya Mychasuk and Emiko Terazono
Financial Times
September 23, 2008

Tentacles of the spy group Hakluyt have spread as Thomson Reuters co-deputy chairman Niall FitzGerald takes over as chairman from Sir William “Willie” Purves, the former HSBC chairman who steps aside after nine years… Other non-executive directors on the small main board are Mark Getty, of the US oil family fame, golf-playing Robert Webb QC, the British Airways general counsel who also sits on the board of the London Stock Exchange, as well as former UN under-secretary general Sir Kieran Prendergast.

Under Mr FitzGerald, the group… will try to expand its international reach. It has recently added some foreign affairs experts to its sprawling advisory board chaired by Sir Ralph Robins, former chairman of Rolls-Royce. The newer members include former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer… and Sir David Manning, a former foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair and ambassador to Washington. They join former British Airways boss [and current chair of Infrastructure Australia] Sir Rod Eddington, former Hochtief chief Hans-Peter Keitel, and one-time presidential candidate Bill Bradley. Previous advisory board members have included retired bigwigs such as former BP chairman Peter Cazalet and and Vodafone chief Sir Christopher Gent.

Yes Virginia, there is such a thing as the transnational ruling class.

“Last month Australia’s richest man, Andrew Forrest, chief executive of the Fortescue Metals Group, announced a plan to create 50,000 indigenous jobs over the next two years. Mr Mundine, along with fellow indigenous leader Noel Pearson and businessman Sir Rod Eddington, will run the Australian Employment Covenant and he said it would be vital that the meeting strengthen the project.”