5-17-07, 9:34 am

Alexander Downer cannot stop grinning and jumping for joy. His puppet Ramos Horta has won the presidential election in East Timor and the oil companies can heave a sigh of relief in the knowledge that Horta will play along with them. Australia wants to build a refinery in Darwin to process East Timorese oil. Australian 'entrepreneurs' now know that their private rip-off businesses will be secure.

Ramos Horta easily defeated the Fretilin candidate with the official vote running at 73 to 27 percent. The vote was overseen by a heavy UN and Australia police and military presence. The commander of the Australian contingent Brigadier Rerdon claimed that his troops did not interfere in the election in any way. The reality on the ground is that heavy-booted and menacingly-armed soldiers standing outside polling booths would, in itself, send a message telling voters who is in command. It would be well-known across East Timor that the Australian Government strongly favoured Ramos Horta.

It was also a telling point made by Horta that he would spend the oil money just beginning to flow to East Timor as a means to help lift the widespread poverty in this new nation. The Fretilin Government had followed a policy of retaining the first oil monies as capital and to limit, but to substantially increase budget expenditure from the interest on this capital.

Fretilin had also refused to have dealings with the IMF and the World Bank – something that would also have irked the Australian and American Governments.

What has also been revealed by accident is the presence in East Timor of unmanned drones. One crashed into the home of a resident of Dili. The Australian commander confirmed that the ADF's fleet of spy planes were operating in East Timor.

This revelation raises a number of questions. Why is a fleet of drones being used in East Timor and for what purpose? Are they used only to spy on the East Timorese people during the elections? Why was the crash of the drone kept quiet for days after the event? Why did it need the attention of 'many' Australian soldiers at the sight of the crash? Why would Australia need a 'fleet of drones' in East Timor? Neither East Timor nor any other Asian country offer any threat to Australia's 'security'.

Brigadier Rerdon, who commands the ADF in East Timor, said that the drones were 'in use across all aspects of our [Australia's] security operations' and that there was 'nothing unusual' about their use. By this statement, Brigadier Rerdon reveals that the drones are operating over a far more extensive territory. Does this territory include Indonesia, India, Singapore, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam and even southern China? It is known that drones have a long distance capability.

This incident underlines the correctness of the assertion made by The Guardian for some time: that East Timor will be turned into a military and naval base for Australian and US forces as an advance base directed against Asian countries. The operation of their military forces is advanced by 500 or more kilometres into Asia.

This event also slots into the militarist statements of Brendan Nelson, Minister of Defence, who declared last week that the Howard Government would never allow a return to the 'hollow' defence forces of earlier times. The Howard Government is already committed to the expenditure of over $50 billion on new equipment for the Australian armed forces.

This is not only $50 billion out of the pockets of the Australian taxpayers and less for health, education, housing, and the environment. It also signals that Australia, in implementing its alliance with the United States, is preparing for a big war in the not distant future in Asia with a main target being the People's Republic of China.

At the same time, in Eastern Europe and in the Caucuses region, the United States is steadily advancing NATO forces not just for a new Cold War but aimed to bring under control the huge coal, oil, natural gas and mineral resources of the Russian Federation.

This is the march of the new aspirants to world domination. They should ponder the consequences of these same ambitions pursued by Nazi Germany.

From The Guardian