No charges laid yet over AWB. How convenient! 

Alex Mitchell writes: 

This Saturday, federal election day, marks the first anniversary of the completion of Commissioner Terence Cole QC's report into the AWB kickbacks scandal which saw $300 million in bribes passed to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime.  

Look out - here they come again!  

Bush & Buckshot are riding their little stick horses, waving the bloody flag of 9/11, demonizing another Muslim nation, shouting warnings about weapons of mass destruction, bellowing for regime change, and generally trying to whoop up a new war.  

The most senior British intelligence official, appointed yesterday to oversee MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, has a website revealing his home address, phone numbers and private photographs of himself, family and friends. 

Alex Allan, 56, is the new head of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) with access to sensitive documents and information regarding anti-terrorist operations. 

On Remembrance Day 2007 – Veterans Day in America – the great and the good bowed their heads at the Cenotaph. Generals, politicians, newsreaders, football managers and stock-market traders wore their poppies. Hypocrisy was a presence. 

No one mentioned Iraq.  

from Crikey ….. 

A world class exhibition of weaselling 

Mungo MacCallum writes: 

A high profile terror case was abandoned before it got to trial today after a judge found that two ASIO officers had kidnapped and falsely imprisoned a young medical student, Izhar ul-Haque. 

Mr ul-Haque's lawyer, Adam Houda, later accused authorities of launching a politically motivated and "moronic prosecution" against his client. 

It’s never easy to be a Christian, but lately it’s been tough for the wrong reasons. 

Confessing Jesus Christ as the Son of God has earned folks censure, exile, dispossession, torture, and death in most times and places.  

from Crikey ….. 

So often there is one moment in an election that becomes emblematic of that campaign.  

The neo-conservative project is crashing.  

Is it possible that Gordon Brown's United Kingdom has joined George W. Bush's United States in the questionable practice of locking up its own citizens for things that the government believes they might do sometime in the future as opposed to things they have actually done? It certainly seems like it.  

The ABC's Faine hosts a morning radio talk program in Melbourne, and on Wednesday, after the Reserve Bank grievously upset Howard and Costello by yet again increasing the official interest rate just 2½ weeks before polling day, Faine told his listeners a very jolly story. 

It’s no secret that the dollar is on a downward spiral. Its value is dropping, and the Fed isn’t doing a whole lot to change that. As a result, a number of countries are considering a shift away from the dollar to preserve their assets.  

These are seven of the countries currently considering a move from the dollar, and how they’ll have an effect on its value and the US economy. 

Former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser gave an interesting speech last week entitled “Finding Security in Terrorism’s Shadow: The importance of the rule of law”. It is an interesting and thought provoking speech. It is appropriately scathing of the neo-conservatives and their malign influence not just in the USA but on the globe. 

Police fired tear gas and clubbed lawyers protesting Monday against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule. The U.S. and other nations called for elections to be held on schedule and said they were reviewing aid to Pakistan. 

George W. Bush is having a hard time adjusting to the fact that he no longer has an automatic rubber-stamp Congress at his beck and call. And, while the Republican minority in Congress has still been winning some unfortunate battles, and the Democrats haven't done enough to fight back, it's not quite as easy for Bush as it was before this past January.