It would be tempting to dismiss Neil Brown’s ranting Opinion piece as illogical puffery (‘Ruthlessness In Pursuit Of Terrorism Is No Crime’, The Australian, January 9), were it not for the fact that it acts to promote a number of deceitful & dangerous fictions, whilst being afforded prominent & unjustified exposure in our community. 

 

Essentially Brown argues that the US & its allies, including Australia, need to free of any moral & legal constraints & totally ruthless in their prosecution of the alleged “endless war on terror”. 

 ABC Radio's AM has revealed that the Department Of Defence has made a secret compensation payout over copied equipment designs.

"It seems as though it's in the order of one million dollars that's been spent either in compensation or legal fees, perhaps a bit more than that, and that is money that could have gone to properly equipping our troops, Quite frankly it's a scandal."   Opposition Defence spokesman Robert McClelland told the ABC

Mr McClelland has called on Defence Minister Hill to investigate "systematic flaws, if not corrupt practices" within the defence force's procurment arm, the Defence Materiels Organisation.

" North Korea's recent brinkmanship is nothing but a desperate reaction to the Bush administration's sudden policy shift, which has made the impoverished nation economically crippled and internationally isolated. With the prospect of an imminent war in Iraq, North Korea regards itself as the next target of US unilateralism and its agenda of "regime change".  Parmendra Jain, Professor of Asian Studies, Adelaide University, March 2003

"What no one seemed to notice was the ever widening gap between the government and the people. And it became always wider.....the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think....for people who did not want to think anyway gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about.....and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated.....by the machinations of the 'national enemies,'  without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us..... 

It's official!  In any future war, Adelaide is a prime missile target!

When you make a conjecture you're a conspiracy theorist... until the information comes out!

Four months ago I wrote a piece for Webdiary called Halliburtton's Adelaide, referring to the JORN missile systems possible uses.  Today I read in The Age of how integral JORN is to the Missile Shield.  

[extract]

‘On Christmas Eve, I dropped in on Brian Haw, whose hunched, pacing figure was just visible through the freezing fog. For four and a half years, Brian has camped in Parliament Square with a graphic display of photographs that show the terror and suffering imposed on Iraqi children by British policies.  

 

The effectiveness of his action was demonstrated last April when the Blair government banned any expression of opposition within a kilometre of Parliament. 

Last night the ABC's 7.30 report revealed how an officer gave a contract to a company then changed jobs to join the firm.  Today the ABC has revealed flagrant favouritism in contract awarding.

[extract from ABC Online]

The Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) is under fresh fire this
morning with revelations of more questionable behaviour by some of its
employees.

ABC Radio's AM
program has reported that in clear breach of Defence Department rules,
two Defence procurement officers gave money to help prop up a Defence
contractor who was struggling financially.

 

Several Adelaide-based US Defence Corporations are disguising themselves  as small businesses to "loophole" US Legislation, according to a US Survey. 

In the chase for Australian Defence contracts, some of the same companies have subsidiariaries mirroring the questionable US practices.

Defense Industry Daily reported yesterday that that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ordered the U.S. Small Business Administration (USSBA) to release to the American Small Business League (ASBL) a draft report on the awarding of government contracts.

I'm beginning to understand the race to tie up Australia and the Oceania regions Liquefied Natural Gas sources. From the looks of this article on Energy Review Net, Unless you own the initial resource you'll have nothing to work with.  You also have a considerable quantity of political clout, as Russia is currently demonstrating to Europe.

The question this piece leaves me with is: how much of a percentage of control is retained by the suppliers of the technologies used to access the LNG reserves?  The answer to this question will be of importance in our near future, and I believe the answer will have Halliburton written all over it.  Can anyone advise me where to begin looking?

It is sorely tempting to accept Professor Mirko Bagaric’s thesis that Australians would not benefit from a Bill of Rights Your Right Not To Have A Bill of Rights 

 

The good Professor’s smooth but superficial arguments in support of his thesis range from the simplistic contention that we are already the happiest people in the world (whatever that is supposed to signify), through to an argument that our politicians can’t be trusted with the task anyway. 

When I wake up each Summer's morn there's this music in my head
It means that I must go outside and get a life instead
of hearing word of something new, what 's happenning in town
Now I have to listen to some cricket loving clown..

And there's cricket on the radio.

Listening to paint dry is twice as entertaining
and I nearly have an orgasm when I find out it's been raining
But sun shines on these drongos with their silly bat and ball
and the people on the ABC can't make it fun at all

and there's cricket on the radio

In case I haven't made it clear how much I find it boring
I'd rather listen to a tape of Auntie Beryl snoring
It must be me.. five million armchair experts can't be wrong
Another piece of soul will die each time I hear that song

Greetings all,

Apologies for the unscheduled downtime of Your Democracy on December 27th. It was due to our web host moving the server we are on to a new, faster machine. Hopefully it should be smooth sailing from here on in.

Nigel

Paul Sheehan’s opinion piece, Cloud Over Politics Is Pouring Scorn, Herald, December 26, must rank as one of the most superficial pieces of journalism in 2005. 

 

Sheehan opines as his central thesis that ‘Australians receive better leadership than we deserve’. But where’s the evidence to support his claim? 

‘On 19 March 2003 President Bush Jnr commenced his criminal war against Iraq by ordering a so-called decapitation strike against the President of Iraq in violation of a 48-hour ultimatum he had given publicly to the Iraqi President and his sons to leave the country.  

 

This duplicitous behaviour violated the customary international laws of war set forth in the 1907 Hague Convention on the Opening of Hostilities to which the United States is still a contracting party, as evidenced by paragraphs 20, 21, 22, and 23 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956).