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March 28th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
AS the first lot of US marines prepare to be deployed in Australia under a deal agreed with US President Barack Obama last year, the federal government has not ruled out eventually allowing access for American spy drones.
The first of some 2500 marines to be rotated through a training hub in the Top End are due to begin arriving early in April, under a plan to boost the US Pacific presence announced last November, and which caused some consternation in China.
The Darwin arrangement will run alongside other plans for increased US ship and submarine visits to HMAS Stirling Western Australia and US access to airfields in the Northern Territory and elsewhere in northern Australia.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith said talk of Australia allowing the US military to use the Cocos Islands territory in the Indian Ocean as a base for manned and unmanned surveillance drones, such as the Global Hawk long-range vehicles, was premature.
However, the government did not rule it out altogether, although it agreed there were obstacles.
The drones idea was raised last year when Mr Smith was asked about the US global posture force review.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is adamant little progress has been made since, although the issue continues to be the subject of discussions at official levels.
“Our focus has been on implementing the arrangement that we struck about the deployment of marines,” she told reporters at the press conference in Seoul, South Korea, head of her departure on Wednesday.
Mr Smith said the Cocos territory – which is made up of 27 low-lying coral atolls, has a total population of about 600 people and is within strategic reach of one of the world’s busiest shipping routes and the South China Sea – did not have an ideal airfield.
“One of the first things that we would have to do – and this has been agreed between me and my counterparts – is a substantial infrastructure upgrade, particularly so far as the air field is concerned,” he told ABC radio on Wednesday.
“And that’s one of the reasons why this is very much a long term prospect.”
Mr Smith said upgrades could cost between $75 million and $100 million.
“But no-one is proposing or suggesting that that occur in the first instance or in the near future,” he said.
Australian Greens defence spokesperson and Western Australian senator Scott Ludlam said the Cocos should not be a replacement for the over-crowded US base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, where the lease expires in 2016.
“It (the Cocos) may be long term, but it’s still very much a prospect – and that’s not acceptable,” Senator Ludlam said.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the coalition strongly supported the US alliance.
“That said, there are no specific proposals. If there are specific proposals, we’ll have to consider them and obviously we’ll consider them in terms of what is best for Australia,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Bairnsdale,
Victoria.
A leading defence analyst said Australia is being viewed as a “strategic asset” by the US, as it watches the rise of China as a global power.
“I think what we are seeing here is fundamentally a very significant shift in US strategy,” said Professor Hugh White, from the Strategic Studies Institute at the Australian National University.
Mr Smith said Australia’s neighbours had nothing to fear from its relationship with the US.
“We have been transparent about these matters,” he told reporters in Sydney.
Meanwhile, the Greens again called a public and parliamentary debate on Australia’s relations with both China and the US.
“There is a lot of disquiet about the idea of drones being used in war, and I believe many people would be very uncomfortable knowing they were based on Australian soil,” Greens senator Christine Milne said in a statement.
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