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Richard Tonkin's blogAnother Alexander Downer FraudWhen Australia announces that it will lease uranium to India, the deceptiveness and misleading nature of our Foreign Minister will again be revealed Mr Downer appeared to be sticking to his principles last week when he issued a statement that Australia would not be selling uranium to India. In attempting to repudiate a story in the Australian claiming that a nuclear transaction would take place regardless of whether India signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. "Officials have told me that that's not correct" Mr Downer intoned.
Australia To Become International Nuclear Waste Dump...Now For IndiaOne of the main reasons for the Halliburton-built Adelaide to Darwin Railway now becomes apparent. If the Australian Government's mooted plans come to fruition, trains of imported nuclear waste trundling to repositories in the Australian outback will soon become a reality. Halliburton have had a dual role in Australia, creating the tracks and providing environmental impact date for nuclear waste facilities. Australian Prime Minister John Howard is expected this week to discuss "uranium leasing" with US President Bush. Under the plan, Australia's 40% of global uranium supplies would not be sold, but "hired out" to users, the waste returning to the Australian point of origin.
Beyond The "Halliburton SurvivaBall"
Whether I'm in reconstruction, energy, manufacturing, or insurance, if I'm taking a risk, I want the government's hand to be pulling me safely over the obstacles, not laying obstacles in my way. I want to be safe Insurance firms are also concerned with safety, another form of it, a special-case definition: the safety of people. Because their own safety depends so much on that special form of safety, insurance has become quite worried about some grave new dangers to people that we're seeing in the world around us. I'm talking about climate change and the "natural" disasters it brings. Indeed, the numbers could look frightening. In the 1950s insurance had to pay 4 billion dollars per year for disasters. Now it pays about 40 times that, or $150 billion each year. [*] To make things worse, there are some who believe that this is only the start. In nature, things often change very suddenly, and scientists feel that the things we've seen so far may be minor compared to what could happen. For example, Arctic melt has slowed the Gulf Stream by 30% in just the last decade; if the Gulf Stream stops, Europe will become just as cold as Alaska. Or it could go the other way - methane released from melting permafrost could cause a heating cycle making human life unliveable outside air-conditioned hotels like this one. Or, as Even if none of this happens, some scientists tell us the changes we're likely to see could greatly increase disease and migration, and could exacerbate growing tensions within our societies possibly to the point of civic unrest or even war. This sort of thinking has even influenced some insurers. Lloyd's of London has stated that climate change could easily bankrupt the entire insurance industry, and Munich Re suggests it could topple global capital markets as a consequence. [*] Given the science, these worries cannot be called unreasonable. But panicking isn't the answer. If we panic and try to stop climate change, 70% of carbon emissions will have to stop. That'll be a huge blow to our way of doing business: government intervention will become the rule, and we'll have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. To remain profitable in a macroscopic loss situation, we must integrate disaster into our global business vision, and not allow immediate dangers to interfere with our general, longer-term concept of safety. We at Halliburton, for example, assure our safety not despite, but via the Sometimes danger presents broad new opportunities. In New Orleans, for example, Katrina pruned the city, removing people from economic black holes and allowing a redevelopment process that's gratifying for all of us. While we don't suggest that everyone make climate change the core of their business plan, I can personally guarantee you that level heads will always be able to turn lemons into lemonade. Consider the Black Plague, an unspeakably rotten event in which one third of Or closer to home, how about the Great Deluge? This world-ending disaster was surely seen as a terrible catastrophe by Noah's contemporaries, and even by Noah Unfortunately, things aren't as simple for us as they were for Noah. God isn't telling us what kind of an ark we should build, nor how to deploy it - but uckily Science can fill in the blanks, and Science tells us that what we're doing in the world today will lead to much more flooding, But as Warren Buffet, the oracle of Omaha, so astutely said: you must follow “the Noah rule: predicting rain doesn't count, building arks does.
Pine Gap New Pearl Harbour?What if Al Qaeda Here's a little from a piece posted on Webdiary by Brian Law last Decemberr: [extract]
Pine Gap Guides Missiles To OsamaAustralia's Pine Gap base was used to send 32 cruise missiles at Osama Bin Laden. The missiles failed to kill the Al Qaeda leader as he had left the target site approximately twenty minutes earlier. International affairs commentator and policy advisor Mr Keith Suiter said on Adelaide radio this morning that the US surveillance installation at PIne Gap assisted in monitoring Bin Laden's satellite phone call to his mother and pinpointing his location for the missile attack. Speaking on ABC 891 Mr Suiter said that one of the problems with the plan was that many of the missiles destroyed each other while attempting to strike the same target.
Hicks Blair Citizenship Appeal RejectedHe's a step closer.. David Hicks right to British citizenship has been upheld by the UK courts. A final appeal against Hick's eligibility has been rejected, clearing all legal barriers against Hicks claim. The application for UK citizenship was made after a chance remark made by the Adelaide-resident Guantanemo inmate to his military lawyer, while discussing the Ashes cricket game in London, that his mother was British. David's father Terry said from Adelaide today that the only real barrier for his son now was that it would be difficult for him to take the citizenship oath while being held in Guantanemo.
Did You Meet Scott Parkin While He Was In Australia? You Can Help HimParkin , to refresh your memory, was the Halliburton protester deported because ASIO knew that the Pentagon had a file on him. Embarrasingly for ASIO the file was of Parkin handing out peanut butter sandwiches as a means of protest. Parkin's Australian legal team and his support group want to hear from those who met the man while he was here. Your written testimony that Parkin acted non-violently during his sojourn here wiould help to prove his innocence. Parkin was detained at a Melbourne coffee shop while on his way to help present a workshop on passive non-violent resistance techniques. The Federal Police and Immigration officers placed him in solitary confinement, then flew him to Los Angeles in the company of two Australian Immigration officers.
Australain Entertainment Venues Now Terror Targets, Say Attorney General And Intelligence ChiefI'm feeling vindicated in getting the "heebie jeebies" in the casino the other night now that I know that ASIOs worried about terrorist attacks on Australian restaurants. Why would I think that a casino atop a railway, adjacent to a Parliament House, might not be a great place to hang around? Let's look at what our attorney general and our chief of Intelligencehad to say today: [from The Age] ASIO has warned that terrorists could carry out attacks on
Australia Goes NuclearIn today's Australian, PROMINENT scientist Tim Flannery has called for an end to the
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