Some years ago I was over in Japan just as a really strange scandal was taking place. The opposition Democratic Party bovver boy in the Diet, Hisayasu Nagata was in full flight with the 'Livedoor scandal'. His big claim was the senior LDP members took bribes from Takafumi Horie, and that he had the e-mail to prove it.
As you can imagine, this allegation created a media storm in March 2006, and as the event unfolded, it became clear the email was a fake. It was incredible because it brought the Democrats to their knees in popular standings. The electorate could not believe that Nagata and company would go public with the allegations without actually verifying the damn thing first. It was quite amusing watching the accused LDP guys on TV as they joked and said that there might be other skeletons in the closet but taking bribes from Livedoor wasn't going to be one of them.
I mean, how weird is that as a response from a politician. That's just how outrageously wrong the faked e-mail turned out to be. The LDP didn't even have to sweat it, live on National TV. They knew.
The subsequent events from the faked email incident essentially claimed Nagata's career as a politician. He committed suicide this year, on the 3rd of January. The point is, you've got to be pretty gung-ho and the opposite of circumspect if, as a politician of any standing, you're going to throw wild accusations on the basis of an e-mail that may or may not be verified.
Anyway, I bring all this up in light of the recent faked email incident in Australia.
The Australian Federal Police revealed this afternoon that the email that sparked the so-called Utegate controversy was faked.
The email was alleged to have been sent from prime ministerial adviser Andrew Charlton to Treasury official Godwin Grech, raising the plight of Queensland car dealer John Grant and his possible access to the taxpayer-funded OzCar scheme.
Mr Grant gave Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a free ute.
The AFP statement came following a raid this morning on the home of Mr Grech and Treasury offices.
Mr Grech has been questioned by the federal police about the fake email.
"Preliminary results of those forensic examinations indicate that the e-mail referred to at the centre of this investigation has been created by a person or persons other than the purported author of the e-mail,'' the Australian Federal Police said in a statement.
The interview with Mr Grech was consistent with these findings, police said. The investigation is continuing.
Senior sources believe that Mr Grech's role in the affair is more complicated than previously thought.
The controversy has dominated proceedings in Parliament today.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull moved to censure Treasurer Wayne Swan over his involvement in the OzCar affair but the motion failed along party lines.
Now, it is true that if the allegations raised by the Opposition were indeed true, then it would amount to the scalp of the treasurer Wayne Swan. But if the e-mail was fake, then whoever stood up in parliament and lobbed it going to take the maximum heat for the slander. The really amazing thing is that it in this case, it is the latter scenario, with Malcolm Turnbull himself lobbing the accusations.
Something tells me that this is not going to go well for Mr. Turnbull, no matter which way they spin this. I'm not saying that Mr. Turnbull is going to commit suicide, mind you; I'm saying this thing might end up taking his political career away from him.
I sort of can't believe anything so stupid is going on in Australia, but there you have it. Our very own faked e-mail scandal. Then again, I can see how politicians might have fallen right into this whammy. The Opposition should be moving to damage control within the week. This is ridiculous that they've run this up their flagpole without having done their verification and due diligence. It's Amateur Hour with a good dose of incompetence there.
I'm more appalled by the low standard of rigor and the intellectual laziness of these polticians. It's exasperating.
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