Another chapter in the long running saga of Australia's kowtowing to US imperial and military interests.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that:
A secret document that the government said did not exist and which outlines the rights, role and responsibilities of US forces in Australia is being kept from the public, due to concerns it would affect the relationship with America.
The document, classified ''Secret'' and signed in 2010 by the then US defence secretary, Robert Gates, and Australia's Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, is the only document created since 1963 that provides some official guidance for US troops in Australia.
That includes the permanent rotational placement of what will be, by 2016, 2500 US marines in the Northern Territory.
Their presence in Australia is also to be at the centre of discussions in Perth next week between senior US and Australian politicians.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, will spend three days discussing the alliance with Foreign Affairs Minster Bob Carr, and Mr Smith. The US wants to rotate more soldiers, planes and possibly warships through Australia as a result of their highly public ''pivot'' to the Asia-Pacific, which comes at the end of a decade of costly land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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