‘For 2005, my annual task of reviewing the past year has been complicated by an old adage: oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Here I sit, tangled in a web that many people began weaving way back when the Gipper was protecting us against deadly pollutants released by old-growth forests. It was a jumble out there this year — one that defies linear documentation.  

‘I'm sure there are many well-meaning Americans who agree with their president's explanation that it's all a necessary evil (and that patriotic citizens will not be spied on unless they dial up Osama bin Laden).  

But the nasty echoes of apartheid South Africa should at least give them pause. While Bush uses the rhetoric of "evildoers" and the "global war on terror," Pretoria talked of "total onslaught."  

‘Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.  

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.  

‘The debate regarding war and Militarization raises the broad issue of national sovereignty. 

I am particularly gratified as an economist to participate in this important event in the Nation’s capital, in Malaysia, a country which at a critical moment in its history, namely at the height of the 1997 Asian crisis, took the courageous stance of confronting the Washington Consensus and the international financial establishment.  

Merry Christmas to all at Your Democracy...

What are we to do with this site in the new year? My thoughts are that it should be taken off my hands. I've been inconsistent in maintaining it at best, and am only getting busier with Webdiary.

John, Richard, Gus? You are the core of the continuation here. Nigel, David? You built this site. What do you guys want to do? This thread is for that discussion.

... and a beaut new year to all.

‘This Minority Report has been produced at the request of Representative John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee. He made this request in the wake of the President's failure to respond to a letter submitted by 122 Members of Congress and more than 500,000 Americans in July of this year asking him whether the assertions set forth in the Downing Street Minutes were accurate. Mr. Conyers asked staff, by year end 2005, to review the available information concerning possible misconduct by the Bush Administration in the run up to the Iraq War and post-invasion statements and actions, and to develop legal conclusions and make legislative and other recommendations to him.  

‘If America's leaders want to hunt terrorists while transforming dictatorships into democracies, they must recognize that torture, which includes CID, has historically been an instrument of oppression - not an instrument of investigation or of intelligence gathering. 

No country needs to invent how to "legalize" torture; the problem is rather how to stop it from happening. If it isn't stopped, torture will destroy your nation's important strategy to develop democracy in the Middle East.  

If you thought the devil was behind it, you’ve confused a couple blatant liars who strut when they walk! 

Bush did it!  

After well over three years of lying, prevaricating, misleading, and confusing the American people, after killing, maiming and destroying the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Iraqis and Americans at a healthy 20-to-1 ratio, and after the unprecedented destruction of Iraq’s infrastructure, let the record show, on December 14, 2005, Dubya said "I am responsible!"  

 Extract from today's Australian::

A HIGH-security explosives factory and munitions-loading wharf is being considered by the Defence Department as it finalises plans for a joint military training facility for Australian and US troops.

In a move likely to fuel speculation the US will eventually use Australia as a military staging post, the Australian Defence Force is eyeing sites in Queensland and the Northern Territory to complement existing facilities at Twofold Bay in NSW.

The "joint combined training centre" was put on the agenda last year and became a key item of discussion at AusMin, the annual bilateral meeting between US and Australian cabinet ministers and officials, held recently in Adelaide, where a memorandum of understanding was signed.

I worry for the minds who created this concept, and hope it's not a Freudian slip.  To get the kids in, or at least the ones who aren't too fat or stoned, The ADF has prouldy launched ARMYGEDDON, a "street machine" that that does for Land Rover what Herbie the Love Bug did for Volksies.

"It's unique capabilities will attract the attention of those who really know about Street Machines," the blurb proclaims.  Aha... Senator Hill's found a job for "joyriders". !

"I believe this project will raise the profile of some of the technical trades available as
well as promoting the Army as a varied and interesting career to a key target
market - young people," 

said the Chief of Army, Major General Leahy.

SON OF STAR WARS II: NEOCONS DOWN UNDER

"It’s
not Star Wars. It’s basically the capability to defeat ballistic
missiles whilst they are in the air after launch, during cruise or as
they reenter the atmosphere and that defensive capability has developed
enormously in the last few years. A year or so ago it was thought to be
decades away. Now the United States will in fact deploy the first part
of its defence shield next year. So it’s a rapidly advancing
technology."

"The need in a very unpredictable world is to be
able to defend ourselves, whether it’s troops on the ground or whether
it’s strategic assets and what we have is the opportunity to get into
this massive project at an early stage, to be able to invest in it, to
learn what capabilities might be suitable for us in the future and
basically to have that option, the option to be able to develop that
form of defence in the future."

"We think that in the science
and technology area we will make a contribution from the start. The
Americans have been out here looking at our capabilities. They have
been most impressed with JORN, for example, and new forms of radar and
sensors that are being developed here north of Adelaide. And they will
have the opportunity to promote and invest in their science through
this project. This is a massive project, a huge public expenditure by
the United States and it gives us the opportunity to get into the
project and to play our part and to get a benefit in terms of a more
secure Australia."

"We will choose the projects within the
massive program that we want to invest in and obviously we will do that
to the background of our successes to date, in terms of radars and
sensors and the like. And we will get benefit back from that investment
in terms of better capability for Australia."

"We have said the
Air Warfare System will basically be a US design but the US designers
are interested in Australian companies contributing complementary parts
of the system. That again will be an opportunity that our companies
have never had before at that level of sophistication."

Robert Hill December 5 2003

Now let's take the Tardis to December 6 2005

[extract from the Adelaide Advertiser]

In spite of Defence Minister Hill leaking the fact that a test had occurred.  A Boeng lied, Raytheon assisted Australian missile interception test has been announced as a success by the Pentagon.

 The test involved, from what Mr Hill said previously the JORN over-horizon radar network control centre in Adelaide. 

 This announcement from the Pentagon tells all..

 [Extract from today's Advertoser]

The latest test in the Pacific was designed chiefly to evaluate the
performance of the interceptor missile's rocket motor system and
Raytheon Co-built "exoatmospheric kill vehicle", the bit designed to
smash into the target warhead and pulverise it in space, MDA said.

State Treasurer Kevin Foley is about to announce 1,200 more troops to Adelaide.

 Paratroopers from the Holsworthy base in Sydney will be shifted here to create Australia's Second Mechanised Battalion.  The First Mechanised Battalion is in Darwin, at the other end of the Halliburton railway.

The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place.. I"ll write more later in the day when the dust has settled

 I'll be writing more later in the day, when the paperwork comes out.

(Proudly reprinted from Halliburton Watch and Houston Indymedia )

Houston-based activist Scott Parkin,  deported from Australia after protesting the activities of global energy and war-industry giant Halliburton, has mounted a legal challenge against his treatment by ASIO, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation.

On September 10 this year security and immigration officials detained Parkin at a Melbourne coffee shop.  Parkin was scheduled to co-present a workshop on non-violent protest techniques that afternoon.

Parkin had previously assisted co-ordinating a street-theatre protest at Hallibuton/KBR's Sydney offices, coinciding with an international business conference at the Sydney Opera House.

Parkin had declined a request to appear at an ASIO interview.

According to The Australian, security officers were concerned that Parkin would teach Australian Halliburton protesters how to roll marbles under the hooves of police horses.. presumably the marbles that ASIO lost years ago.

Parkin is seeking to overturn the adverse security finding that caused his deportation.