Shining brilliantly in Rolls-Royce's online media room is the two-week-old press kit for a great story that didn't even make it to Google News, let alone into Australian print. It's how Cheney's Men and Rolls Royce have signed a A$50 million deal with the Australian Navy to service and maintain the amphibious ships HMAS Success, Tobruk, Manoora and Kanimbla (links courtesy of RR)

From the home city of The Foreign Minister of Australia the Vice President of America has been coordinating his aid business into Iraq. This makes it surprising that Downer and Cheney will not be discussing the aid scandal of AWB.

It\s understandable however, that Cheney, hiding for years from his dual positions by claiming that his Halliburton fees were "deferred payments," would not be seen dead talking to somebody up to their neck in tarnish about mis-spending public money about paying bribes to Saddam. Given all the trouble that Halliburton/KBR have been getting into for overspending from the public purse (most recently including spending $600 a day per security guard at Mid East offices) Downer probably feels the same way.

 

Administration officials say their preliminary review of the Iraq Study Group Report "has concluded that many of its key proposals are impractical or unrealistic & a small group inside the National Security Council is now racing to come up with alternatives to the panel's ideas."

Below is an extract from the prime preanster’s press conference today, where he & Andrew Robb confirmed the government’s intention to introduce a “Citizenship Test”.

The irony of this announcement sharing the “subject” line with New South Wales lotteries says it all ….. 

11 December 2006

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER

THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP

 

‘What if the world's governments came together and agreed on the fundamental rights that every human being must have in order to enjoy basic dignity, opportunity, and a meaningful life?

What if their agreement was profoundly progressive, recognizing civil and political rights like free speech, due process, and non-discrimination, as well as economic and social rights like the right to health care and housing, to organize, and to receive a living wage for a hard day's work? And what if they memorialized those rights in a seminal document, from which more specific commitments and enforcement could and did flow?

from today's sydney morning herald .....

‘New evidence claiming five young Australian journalists were executed by Indonesian troops in 1975 was hearsay and might not be accepted in court, says an Indonesia expert.

A statement from a leading lawyer, George Brownbill, contravenes the official line that the five were killed inadvertently by crossfire while reporting on Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.

Mr Brownbill said that in 1977 he was shown an Australian intelligence report of monitored Indonesian military communications in which a senior Indonesian officer said the five had been shot in accordance with instructions.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well certainly things in Iraq are going very badly.

MITCHELL:

Is it sliding towards chaos?

PRIME MINISTER:

I think things are going very badly. 

noble causes .....

 

By British standards, it was hardly an impertinent question, but the inquiry from the veteran correspondent was enough to make several members of the White House press corps gasp: Was George Bush, the president of the United States, "in denial" about the state of Iraq today?

The answer was as blunt & folksy as the president himself. "It's bad in Iraq. That help?" snapped Mr Bush before unloading on the man who flew in from London the night before, like many others scenting a potentially historic turning point in the bloody story of Iraq & the US' war on terrorism.

 

‘As Tony Blair flies out to meet George Bush, the latest admission of failure in Iraq has made the two leaders appear even more isolated.’

Iraq: One By One, They Tell The Truth

"While the precepts of natural justice would point to providing Mr Parkin with the details of the security assessment and allowing him to respond and suggest ways in which the evidence and considerations might be tested, security considerations of the kind described above would appear to reasonably preclude this. Even to attempt to allude in general terms to the elements of the security assessment would be problematic in this way.

I appreciate that Mr Parkin and others with doubts about his treatment will most likely find this vexing, but it is inevitable given the nature of the matter being examined."

 

The Iraq Study Group met with President Bush this morning to present its 79 recommendations, which include moving "most U.S. troops out of combat roles by early 2008."