Investigative stories

The story on Joe Gersten's purge from office in the US, and pursuit to Australia, tells us more about the Australian-American relationship than any text on international relations These are stories on the attempt by the FBI to frame former the Florida Senator for crimes he did not commit, and the willing help they received from Australia's Federal Police. The stories appeared chiefly in the Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

I spent a couple of months in Miami on the Gersten case - interviewing "crack whores", bent cops and scared witnesses. A police car would pull up in my driveway at night, and the cops sit there and watch the house. Florida is quite like Burma in that regard.

I got Australia's investigative journalism award for these stories, but the guy who broke the case open was Andrew McNaughtan - a towering figure in Australian activism. Andrew died in 2003 (see Obituaries, left), and I and many others still miss him keenly.