Secret mission to Jakarta to end phone tap rift Professor Peter Leahy, former Chief of Army and now Director of Canberra University's National Security Institute. RETIRED army chief Lieutenant-General Peter Leahy led a covert operation trying to bring a swift end to the Indonesian spying scandal by delivering a personal letter from Tony Abbott to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - as further leaks threatened to escalate the crisis. Highly respected General Leahy was hand-picked by the Prime Minister to play peacemaker as relations between the two countries hit rock bottom. "The tactics were to get the message to the President as unobtrusively as possible," a government source said. The allegations Australia spied on the President emerged from leaked intelligence released by US whistleblower Edward Snowden. Sources say the tone of the letter was "respectful and constructive." It was a secret meeting outside a Canberra shop between the Prime Minister's Office and former military brass that set the wheels in motion for the high-level operation to deliver the letter. General Leahy was waiting at the mall area of Manuka known as The Lawns on Friday morning. Lieutenant Peter Leahy as Chief of Army in 2003. He was handed a two-page letter bundled with a personal note from Mr Abbott and embossed with the Commonwealth gold crest. Senior government sources have revealed the secret plan to get a personal letter from Canberra to the Indonesian leader in Bali - a letter that will be critical to whether the diplomatic crisis that has erupted over the spy scandal can be resolved soon. Mr Abbott's letter not only addressed the immediate crisis but went further into how the two countries might deal with further leaks about Australia's intelligence operations from the fugitive US contractor Edward Snowden. Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono speaks to journalists during a press conference at the presidential palace in Jakarta last week. The PM's office, and critically his national security advisers Andrew Shearer and Mark Higgie, spent two days considering how to respond to Dr Yudhoyono's demand for an explanation as to why he and his wife's phones were tapped in 2009. The letter is believed to have been drafted with a high level of personal involvement from the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Tony Abbott's personal letter was delivered through a high-level operation. Sources confirmed the PM personally called General Leahy last Thursday night and asked if he would undertake a mission to hand-deliver his message to the Indonesian government. General Leahy, a military leader highly respected in Indonesia, with long historical links to the Indonesian military, was deemed the right man to serve as the PM's special envoy. He would convey the seriousness with which the Australian government was taking Indonesian concerns. However, the PM's office feared leaks and did not want to risk the communiqué being intercepted. Not a word was spoken of the plan outside his office. Prime Minister Tony Abbott is welcomed by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to the APEC Summit last month. Picture: AFP Source: News Corp Australia Sources revealed an expert translator from the Australian embassy in Jakarta was commissioned to provide the translation to ensure there could be no ambiguity in what the PM was saying. When the letter was ready on Friday morning, the PM's advisers told Leahy he should not come to Parliament House. His presence would have been too obvious. They asked him to wait at a shopping village five minute drive from Capital Hill, where he would be met by a staff member from the PMO. Leahy had been told he would have to fly commercially, as the PM's own plane, or a military aircraft would have drawn too much attention. The key to the plan was to have the letter delivered unobtrusively, but with maximum effect. When General Leahy arrived in Jakarta on Friday night Dr Yudhoyono had already left the capital for Bali. An official from the Foreign Ministry flew the letter to him. All the arrangements were done inside the PMO to ensure it wasn't leaked. The letter did not contain the apology that some Indonesians have been calling for, but which the President himself had not. According to sources the tone was "respectful and constructive."