Chapter 20

Nineteen years old and now playing a subversive role in a defence operation. It was a bit much to take in. Colonel Atkinson hadn’t spelt out the dangers as such, but I cottoned on pretty quickly. If the powers that be found out that they weren’t getting the full information they required, we would be court-martialled. If the civilian authorities found that we were monitoring them, we would be put in prison and the defence force would disown us. However, the alternative wasn’t great either. These army generals and brigadiers, navy admirals and commodores, air marshals and air commodores, whoever they were, would be able to manipulate the government to do their bidding. I didn’t know who they were and what they wanted to achieve. The fact that they had the capacity and gall to do it went against the grain. However, any ignorance on my part was bliss. I’d give them a piece of my mind if I knew who they were. That would only exacerbate the situation and in reality, I didn’t have much mind to spare.

One questioned dawned on me which I put to Colonel Atkinson. I was concerned how readily ASIO had found out that we had their tape and that I definitely something to do with it. His chain of command because of the sensitivity of the task, I pointed out had to be very narrow. I was pretty confident the techies in the sound lounge were pretty much not part of the leak. We all worked on different things and definitely kept to ourselves. They reported to him only. I assumed that he reported to the fruit salad group upstairs. Did they have much knowledge of me? His answer to the latter was they didn’t know nor want to know who the information came from as long as they got it. I had an initial aversion to, and an ongoing growing dislike for Captain Jenkins but he seemed to be firming in my suspicions. He was the only one I spoke to and the colonel spoke to on a regular basis. He had cause to view us with distaste as he may have felt he had been slighted. He also appeared to be the petty sort of character who would try to get even.

The tapes on Jim Cairns we didn’t really need. Newspaper and other media articles contained as much if not more information. Colonel Atkinson bundled them up in a bag and decided to send them back across to ASIO headquarters with an apology saying that they had accidentally found their way to the JIO. They had been listened to merely to verify what was on them, but no copies had been made. Captain Jenkins was given the task to courier them back over. The colonel decided to have someone accompany Jenkins as the tapes were pretty secret and had already found their way to the wrong hands. Needless to say, Jenkins said he knew someone who would be able to accompany him but his choice was over-ruled and one of the other techies was chosen. That techie however after having had a visit from the colonel carried a listening and recording device over to ASIO. Being pretty anal as well, meant that the techie would be able to give a very good report on who Captain Jenkins spoke to, saw or was recognised by. The colonel would continue to keep Jenkins as his secretary even if he proved to be the leak. As he put it, ‘better the devil you know than the one you don’t’. This way he would be able to feed false information through Jenkins to ASIO who thought they had a pipeline into JIO information.

In the end ASIO got their tapes back and we learnt nothing more about Jenkins so suspicions whether falsely attributed or not remained. We became more circumspect about things in the office and the only thing passed on by phone between each of us was appointment times. If we were capable of listening in on other people’s conversations, we had to assume others could be listening in to us. This type of mentality at a national level was probably how the Cold War started and why it continued for so long.

Colonel Atkinson became almost paranoid about the storage of information as well. Tapes that I received were kept under lock and key and dummy ones often used if I left the sound lounge. I soon became quite adept at palming a cassette for another. The dummy was left in place at my work station but careful examination showed that when I returned it had not been touched at all. Having three of us working there meant that it would have been difficult for an individual to examine each other’s’ equipment. However, the fact that the two other techies were from the navy and airforce one would have thought went against the grain of the ‘joint’ part in the JIO. The transcribing of tapes, ‘special tapes’ that is now became part of my job. I would no longer receive typed copies just the tapes. I pointed out that I was pretty poor at typing but the colonel seemed unworried. He said he only wanted the salient points and the manner in which each person spoke. He would then make a concise report and forward it on in some cases. In other cases, the report was edited or not forwarded on at all.

One Saturday he called me in to the office and he asked if I would like to meet some of the people that we had been listening to. I was very unsure about this. The politicians I could pick and had already catalogued them in my mind. I had sat in the public gallery in both the House of Reps and the Senate a few weeks before playing a mental game of voice match. Apparently, a large number of politicians and their advisors and the big wigs in the public service were all heading for Capital Hill for the opening of the new inner ring road above the current Parliament House in the centre of which is to be the new Parliament House. The colonel went on to explain that the new Parliament House was the one thing that all Canberra public servants, members of parliament and all their hanger-onners agreed upon. They all had a vested interest in it and it cemented the notion of Canberra being the most important place in Australia, if not the world. He said that it was an exclusive get together but the army wanted someone to represent them there. I queried why someone more senior was not selected. He laughed and said something about generals not wanting to mix with wankers, besides we were representing the JIO which ostensibly was not army only.

The colonel was crafty indeed. I knew that he already knew many of the identities of the voices on the tapes but I was pretty sure that he wanted me to attend merely to confirm his thoughts. I assumed that he knew where every phone intercept or planted microphone recording came from but that gave him location only. I surmised however that perhaps he was even more cunning and hoping to use my finally tuned ear to point out ones he didn’t already know. I was beginning to wonder just how much I could trust the colonel. Perhaps what he had divulged was all a lie and he wanted to manipulate things. All the conspiracy and counter conspiracy belonged in thriller novels not in the delicate brain of a young lieutenant. Perhaps I was being sucked into this nether world of spy culture. I would play voice match for him but give him the indication that I was not perfect or the tapes weren’t of that higher quality.

In the end the food was good. Catering for these ‘pat on the back’ ceremonies I discovered was first class. After all it was tax payers not the people who attended who paid for it. there was definitely a pecking order in place and people congregated an apartheid-like gathering. The politicians, some of whom had not been there at the first turning of the sod were there to be seen. Public servants, far less flamboyant stayed within their own little colony. What was interesting were the group I saw as flitters. The flitters were the ones who moved between the disparate groups unphased by protocol. For them this was a working day and they were busy conveying messages and ideas between groups and individuals. These were the deal makers and peace brokers and they were like bees buzzing around flower beds and hives.

The colonel was dressed in full uniform but had suggested I forego that pleasure. I think “gladly” was my response. This allowed me to blend in and not be part of the J ten as the Prime Minister was constantly being lampooned over. It may seem difficult to believe that someone well over six foot could easily blend in, but to the politicians I was a nobody. I didn’t display the demeanour of a public servant, a casual blend between haughty superiority and meek acceptance of obligation. Nor was I a known flitter or one of the few military openly in attendance or have that pushiness of someone working in the media. There were a few of the latter there, some well-known from their regular appearance on television. In essence I was a nobody and as such I was ignored completely. I was able to move through the invisible barriers between groups and casually eavesdrop on a myriad of conversations. I might as well have been invisible to all and sundry. It was eye opening and the things that were being freely discussed would fill many a juicy gossip column. People unashamedly talked about others just out of earshot in the most salacious of terms. I thought that Canberra was extremely dull. I was obviously living in the wrong part. I suppose most of the advisors and politicians were away from home and families and needed something to do on the lonely nights in Canberra. I just didn’t think that they would be doing each other. If the military, ASIO, ASIS or any overseas government wanted some blackmail material then all they needed to do was throw a shindig like the one I was at. However, I think that embassy dinners and ones thrown by so called secret organisations may cause politicians and others to be a bit more prudent about what they said, well at least I hoped they’d be.

By the end of the whole ceremony and feast I had worked out just who some of the people were and though I couldn’t put names to the voices I could put faces to the voices. The names would come later along with their roles. As the people began to disperse and the caterers packed up all the wasted excess of a public paid binge, I walked back over to the colonel. He gave me an enquiring look. I merely said, “If you’ve got some names to go with the faces then we can play ‘Guess Who’ with what I learnt today.”