‘"Dictatorships, and there are plenty to choose from,
are referred to as rogue states and threatened vociferously with military
strikes, including the deployment of nuclear weapons. But it only further
stabilizes the fundamentalist power systems in those countries.

"Whether the term `axis of evil' is used
to refer to Iran or North Korea or Syria, politics could not be more stupid and
hence more dangerous. Yet the entire world is watching and pretending to be
powerless."  

‘Internal
Pentagon documents on the prison at Guantanamo that were made public
yesterday by the main American organization for the defense of individual
liberties, the ACLU, confirm, according to the ACLU, the prisoners'
despair.

These documents obtained by the
ACLU thanks to the Freedom of Information Act "are the latest evidence of
the desperate and immoral conditions that exist at Guantanamo Bay," the
organization's director, Anthony Romero, declared yesterday in a communiqué. 

‘Last week's grim milestone of 2,500 American military
deaths in Iraq will look even grimmer after tonight's "Frontline"
documentary, "The Dark Side." 

The damning 90-minute exposé (10
p.m. PBS) stops short of laying those bodies at Vice President Dick Cheney's
feet. But it does finger Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — through
more than 40 interviews with CIA veterans, journalists, politicians and others
— as the ones who ignored, suppressed and manipulated intelligence after the
9/11 attacks to lead us into war with a country that had nothing to do with our
attackers. 

‘Americans paying $3 per gallon at the pump have it
relatively cheap when compared with prices globally, say oil and gas company
executives, who defend their record profits as essential to maintaining
supplies.

In
parts of Europe and elsewhere in the West, gasoline prices are more like $5 per
gallon to $7 per gallon, said the chairman of ConocoPhillips Co., James J.
Mulva. 

"This
is a global business, and it's not only that we need to add to supply, but we
need to reduce demand," Mulva said. "In the United States alone, we
have about 2 percent of world oil reserves, 5 percent of the population and yet
we use about 25 percent of the world's consumption of oil."

Dear ABCTV ….. 

Just a quick note to let you know
that, after tonight, we will no longer be watching ABCTV News.

We’re no longer sure where you
“source” your News Reports, but the absence of journalistic content &
balance has become all too evident for our liking. 

For example, tonight we were
treated to a hysterical piece, reporting action by the United States in warning
North Korea against conducting a scheduled test firing of a long-range
ballistic missile: claiming that the United States would view the test as a
“provocative act”.

‘The United States has failed to
comply with its obligations under the Convention Against Torture at home and
abroad. To justify torture and abuse in the "global war on
terrorism," the government narrowly defined torture and argued that the
prohibition against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment does not apply
outside the United States. Its selective interpretation of the Convention
justified the development of interrogation techniques that violated the treaty,
created a climate of confusion among U.S. soldiers, and led to widespread
torture and abuse of detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

JOURNALIST:

A question for Mr Howard. It's not related to the helicopters but is the
Government planning to allow American military bases to be built in northern
Australia? 

PRIME MINISTER:

‘Well we made an announcement
some time ago, I think it may have been two or three years ago, after a, from
recollection, a visit to the United States by the former Defence Minister
Senator Hill to the effect that we were going to expand the capacity for
training and operational exercises, if I could put it that way, in northern
Australia for Americans. And whether you describe that as bases or not, I don't
know. But can I say very openly that the notion of that sort of thing occurring
in Australia, whether you call it a base or not, involving American forces is
not something that I would do other than very warmly welcome. And I'm sure it
would be warmly welcomed not only by the Commonwealth Government, but I know it
would be very, very warmly welcomed by the Northern Territory Government. 

‘Britain has secretly honoured a raft of senior US
military and business figures in the past three years, it emerged last night.
The recipients include General Tommy Franks, the man responsible for the
"Shock and Awe " Iraq war attack plan, and Riley Bechtel, head of the
Bechtel Corporation.  

Mr Bechtel, the billionaire head
of the US-based engineering giant, was handed a CBE for "services to
UK-American commercial relations" in 2003, according to information obtained
by The Observer. He is a likely bidder for future nuclear plants in the UK and
has made hundreds of millions of dollars in reconstruction projects in Iraq.
Others honoured include several senior US military figures, among them
Vice-Admiral Timothy Keating, the man in charge of maritime forces during the
Iraq invasion, and Rear Admiral Barry Costello, commander of the Third Fleet
and Task Force 55.’ 

‘Contrary to the “catapulted propaganda”,
Enron, Haditha, and Abu Ghraib were not isolated incidents or the work of a
“few bad apples”. American savagery and oppressive behavior pervades our
society and predates our nation’s birth. Building its patriarchal wealth on the
backs of Black slaves and cheap labor while acquiring its territory through
Native American genocide, predatory exploitation of non-Anglos, the poor,
women, and the working class emerged as a pillar of America’s socioeconomic
“success” before we even declared our independence. 

‘The US National
Security Agency has been tracking the calls of millions of Americans and
constructing the “largest database ever assembled in the world,” USA
Today revealed on May 10. The nation’s biggest telephone
companies have apparently turned over masses of personal records to the feds,
allowing Uncle Sam to build up a database of the phone numbers of incoming and
outgoing calls of Americans. The revelations blew to smithereens the Bush
administration’s story that only international calls were being tapped without
a warrant as part of its so-called “terrorist-surveillance program.”  

‘Two cases of mad cow disease in
Texas & Alabama seem to have resulted from a mysterious strain that could
appear spontaneously in cattle, researchers say.

Government officials are trying
to play down differences between the two US cases & the mad cow epidemic
that has led to the slaughter of thousands of cattle in Britain since the
1980s. 

It is precisely these differences
that are complicating efforts to understand the brain-wasting disorder, known
medically as “bovine spongiform encephalopathy”, or “BSE” for short.

‘The presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is considered a
greater threat to Mideast stability than the current government in Iran,
according to a new poll of European and Muslim countries.

The poll found that people in Britain, France, Germany,
Spain and Russia rated the presence of troops in Iraq higher than the
government in Iran as a threat, according to polling by the Pew Research Center
for the People & the Press. Views of U.S. troops in Iraq were even more
negative in countries like Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan.’  

‘The US-led "war on terror" is increasing the
risk of terrorist attacks and distracting governments from greater threats to
global security such as climate change, a think-tank warned in a report. 

The Oxford Research Group urged
countries, especially the United States and Britain, to rethink their security
policies to counter future instability. 

"The war on terror is a
dangerous diversion and prevents the international community from responding
effectively to the most likely causes of future conflict," a press
statement about the report said. 

This week, Alexander “don’t
know, didn’t see, no-one told me” Downer told Lateline’s Tony Jones that
David Hicks might have some back
ailment but otherwise he was fine – according to Australian Consular
reports. 

Last night, Alfred McCoy,
Professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, told Jones that: