A diplomatic cable sent on 5th April 2007, published by Wikileaks this week, has revealed that the Australian government tried to cover-up its troop increase in Afghanistan in 2007.

The troop increase was to occur 2 weeks after the cable was sent.

The classified cable states that:

The GOA [Government of Australia] does not plan to announce the new deployment until Aptil 2010, and Foster ask that we [US government] not publicly mention the decision.

Stephanie Foster was the First International Secretary for International Policy in the Australian government.

The cable was sent to Washington DC by the US embassy in Canberra.

But Prime Minister John Howard’s plans were thwarted at the time when news of the military deployments were leaked to the public anyway. He had to admit to them soon after.

Despite the public announcement by John Howard, the cable highlights how the Australian government considered concealing international deployments from its own citizens.

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10. This Week in the Press: 1-7 September, 2011

    [...] Australia tried to cover up Afghanistan troop increase:Trying to keep an imminent troop increase in Afghanistan unknown to the public, the Australian government asked U.S. government not to make any public reference to it. [...]