[Media Release] Four Christian pacifists are celebrating after being spared prison sentences in the Northern Territory Supreme Court today.

The Pine Gap Four, found guilty of breaching the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952, have been handed minor fines.

The public gallery erupted into song, applause, cheers and hugs and the feeling of victory and vindication was in the air.

Justice Sally Thomas noted their good behaviour and co-operation in the sentencing decision.

When PM Howard announces the constructors of the Air War Destroyers next week remember this: In 2005 The Federal Government chose Gibbs & Cox as the preferred designer for Navy's Air Warfare Destroyers (AWDs) - one of Australia's largest and most complex Defence projects worth up to $6 billion. This decision was given to the US State Department as a foregone conclusion.

According to the Defence Minister of the day, Robert Hill "The selection of Gibbs and Cox as platform designer now completes the team whose responsibility it is to deliver the project."

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, just in time for the announcement, has released a report recommending the US design over the Spanish one. It made particular mention of the Gibbs and Cox' Arleigh Burke's capabilities with medium and long range cruise missiles.

‘Liberal and Labor senators on the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade have combined to reject a private member's bill by Democrats leader Senator Lyn Allison that would prohibit the acquisition of cluster bombs by the Australian military.

‘The US war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo have betrayed the principles of fairness that made the Nazi war crimes trials at Nuremberg a judicial landmark, one of the US Nuremberg prosecutors said on Monday.

"I think Robert Jackson, who's the architect of Nuremberg, would turn over in his grave if he knew what was going on at Guantanamo," Nuremberg prosecutor Henry King Jr. told Reuters in a telephone interview.

 

Kirribilli function ethically kosher, says PM

The Prime Minister has denied breaching his own Ministerial Code of Conduct by hosting a Liberal Party function at Kirribilli House.

The function was held at John Howard's official Sydney residence earlier this month.

‘When asked what he thought of Western Civilization, Gandhi reportedly replied that he thought it would be a good idea.

One could very well speak in the same vein of the entity called the Central Intelligence Agency. It might be useful if the federal government (once thrown back into its constitutional cage, of course) had an agency devoted to collecting relevant intelligence, rather than what it has now – a body involved in propagating turmoil, terror, and subversion throughout most of the world.

The following Chaser extract is reminiscent of something that made me almost sh*t myself two weeks back. I'm not legally able to tell you what it reminds me of:

[Excerpt of ABC TV's Chaser's War On Everything (2006) courtesy of ABC Radio National's Media Report]

Julian Morrow: Minister, you've outlined the government's counter-terrorism strategy this morning, but can I ask you, in entertainment what is Austin Powers' middle name?

Philip Ruddock: Who is Austin Powers?

Julian Morrow: Well it does bear on your portfolio, Minister, Austin Powers is a super-spy?

Philip Ruddock: Is he; for whom?

Julian Morrow: The British government I believe.

‘By trying to argue that Americans should be prepared for generations of troop presence in Iraq - along the lines of peacekeeping in Korea - the Bush administration inadvertently has signalled the depths of its confusion.

The White House has no viable plan for encouraging Iraqis to take responsibility for themselves, for winning allies in the Middle East or for rallying support at home.

In honour of the KBR naval counterterrorism contract (previous entry) here's an April 2006 self-reprint. It may make more sense now.......

It's 2016, a decade after the 6/6/06 commencement of The Armageddon Conflict. Australia is at war. Naval vessels, able to stay at sea and away from the Antichrist's terrorists under technological stealth cloaks are occassionally forced, while trudging between the various global "fronts" to sail into ports for replenishments, refurbishment of armamentaria and some time off for the sailors. The boys and girls of Halliburton have every need in readiness to get the job done before there's time to become a missile target.:

‘As Jesuit schoolboys studying world history we learned that Copernicus and Galileo self-censored for many decades their proofs that the earth revolved around the sun and that a less restrained heliocentrist, Giordano Bruno, was burned alive in 1600 for the crime of sound science. With the encouragement of our professor, Father Joyce, we marveled at the capacity of human leaders to corrupt noble institutions. Lust for power had caused the Catholic hierarchy to subvert the church's most central purpose - the search for existential truths.

‘Fly into the American air base of Tallil outside Nasiriya in central Iraq and the flight path is over the great ziggurat of Ur, reputedly the earliest city on earth. Seen from the base in the desert haze or the sand-filled gloom of dusk, the structure is indistinguishable from the mounds of fuel dumps, stores and hangars. Ur is safe within the base compound. But its walls are pockmarked with wartime shrapnel and a blockhouse is being built over an adjacent archaeological site.

 

G-8 countries backed down yesterday from their strong global warming stance, instead embracing President Bush's proposal to move toward unspecified “substantial cuts” in carbon emissions.

The "agreement says the G-8 countries will 'seriously' consider cutting emissions in half by 2050, but it sets no mandatory goals for all."

from the Sydney morning herald

loopholes prevent action on petrol

‘The national competition watchdog will remain toothless in its attempts to tackle alleged price gouging by oil companies because of loopholes in legislation and the failure of the Federal Government to outlaw cartels, a competition and fair trading expert says.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, said the chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Graeme Samuel, "only needed to ask" for more power to pursue oil firms.

While Anglo-Australians can be proud of a long-time forgotten truth of “Fair Go” Australia for the privileged, today’s Australia is an unequal & unfair society. The myth of “Fair Go” Australia is just a shield, protecting Australia against criticism of Australia’s unfair treatments of Indigenous Australians & Australians from other minority groups.