Addressing our federal Parliament this week, John Howard
said:
“My job as Prime Minister of Australia is to represent
the interests of my country and to interact with the leaders of other countries
to the best of my ability. And in Tony Blair I have found a man of courage, of
moral purpose, of high intelligence, of a capacity to articulate with great
clarity the challenges of the contemporary world.”
Our little flatterer went on to
quote Blair’s great friend, the Anglican priest, Peter Thomson, who allegedly
said:
“The thing you have to understand about Tony Blair is
that he is an Australian.”
Later in the day, Tony Blair
offered the following lofty response:
“If we want to secure our way
of life, there is no alternative but to fight for it.
That means standing up for our
values not just in our own countries but the world over.
Britain & Australia were
the only two nations to send troops to fight alongside US forces in the
invasion of Iraq three years ago & both countries still have forces in the
country & in Afghanistan fighting Taliban & al Qaida insurgents.
The struggle is not just
against "those who hate us," but also against opponents who believe
Britain & its allies fight for their values selectively.
This struggle is about justice
& fairness as well as security & prosperity. And in truth today there
is no prosperity without security & no security without justice. That is
the consequence of an interconnected world."
The deceit & hypocrisy
mouthed by these two war criminals is simply breathtaking.
For Howard’s part, in praising
Blair, the little rodent cleverly sought to legitimise his own criminal deceit
over Iraq whilst, by anointing him as “an Australian”, he effectively insulted
us & our nation or made us complicit in their crimes.
Blair’s self-serving contribution
was the stuff of even grander hypocrisy.
As the world knows, Great Britain
has recklessly pursued its interests & ambitions in the middle-east for
over a century. In the lead-up to the demise of the Ottomans, the British
government conspired with the Zionists to eject the Arab peoples from their
historic homeland: a pogrom that continues even to this day.
In the 50s, Eden conspired with
Israel to create the Suez crisis, as a strategy to bring about the fall of
Egypt’s Nasser & destroy that country’s fledgling attempts to achieve real
independence from its colonial masters. The failure of this ill-conceived
adventure marked the transfer of responsibility for gunboat diplomacy from the
British to the Americans.
And the self-interested US
intervention in the region rolled on from there: from the installation of US
puppets such as the Shah of Iran & their good & loyal satrap, Saddam
Hussein in Iraq, to the obscene funding of the local cats-paw, Israel.
But the British did not sit idly
by in the face of US ascendency: quite to the contrary. With the blessing of
their masters in Washington, they illegally conspired to assist Israel with its
acquisition of nuclear weapons & ultimately, when Saddam had served his
purpose & weakened the Shah’s successors in Iran, it was “Aussie Tony” who
went to Washington & actively conspired with the “Toy Nero”, George W.
Bush, encouraging him to mount an illegal war of aggression against Iraq: all
based on a deliberate lie.
And throughout, the cesspit that
has become Palestine remains as poisoned as ever, serving only the interests of
Great Britain, the US & its local handmaiden, Israel.
And this is the same Tony Blair
who talks about “values”; the importance of the “rule of law” & the world’s
need for the involvement of Uncle Sam.
The rule of law Tony?
Maybe you should try selling that
to the Palestinians, who have watched their homes & lives being shredded by
the might of the US-funded & supplied Israel Defence Forces for half a
century?
Maybe to the Iraqi people,
200,000 of whom have been butchered by the “coalition of the willing”,
ostensibly to keep the world safe but then, in a gross insult to the
intelligence of most of the people on the planet, to promote “freedom &
democracy”?
Or perhaps to the victims of Abu
Ghraib & Guantanamo Bay Tony? Or those languishing in Egyptian &
Pakinstani prisons: anonymous, tortured & abandoned? Of course, their blood
is conveniently on the hands of your surrogates & not your own, heaven
forbid.
The rule of law Tony?
Would the family of Charles de
Menezes, brutally gunned-down by your own incompetent plod, allegedly
attempting to prevent an act of “terrorism”, buy your line Tony?
Perhaps the victims &
families of those whose lives were destroyed in the bombings of 911, London,
Madrid & yes, even Bali, where the terrorists sought to pay back our
societies for their casual indifference to your brutal games of grand colonial
imperialism, perpetrated against them for generations, will buy it Tony?
Would the families of British
soldiers & police officers, murdered by the IRA in Northern Ireland with
weapons secretly supplied by MI5, buy your government’s values Tony?
And what about the qualities of
“courage” & “moral purpose” that our own bankrupt leader alleges you
possess Tony?
How much courage does it take to
send others to fight your dirty wars?
If you, along with your fellow
travellers, little lapdog Johnnie & the deluded majesty occupying the
façade that has become the modern American Republic, had an ounce of courage,
you’d be leading from the front, rather than presiding over the sacrifice of
others.
And “moral purpose” Tony?
How can a sociopath have a moral
purpose?
How can anyone who dishonestly
conspires to bring ruin on another nation & callously destroys the lives of
hundreds of thousands of innocent people, including tens of thousands of
children, have moral purpose?
You are deluded Tony; as are your
little mates. And you deceitfully attempt to delude us & make us complicit
in your crimes.
How dare you present yourself in
my country, brimming with arrogance & conceit, given that your own
electorate & your own party would rid themselves of you tomorrow if they
had half the chance?
Your noisy hyperbole promises a noble vision but stands as
empty & lifeless as a straw man against your real criminal behaviour. You
malign & impugn without evidence; you deceive, distort & misrepresent;
you oppose openness & transparency & trade in secrecy & distrust;
you promote division, bigotry & conformity, rather than inclusion,
tolerance & freedom; you peddle fear & pessimism, rather than hope
& optimism; you blame the misfortunes of the world on the victims of your
deeds & accuse them of terrorism when they resist; you are a purveyor of
calumny.
You arrogantly stalk the lands of others, poking them in
the eye & misappropriating their resources at every opportunity, expressing
dismay that they would have the temerity to strike back. And you promote fear
of terrorism whilst deliberately creating the conditions & context in which
it must flourish.
You are correct when you say that there can be no security
without justice, But the real problem is that it is you & your future
cellmates who are responsible for denying justice to millions, including those
in Iraq, Afghanistan & Palestine, whilst delivering only oppression in its
place.
Your worldview is that of a tyrant: a black prince who
would be king.
It is you & your coalition colleagues who represent
the greatest threat to our security Tony: conspiring to usurp our sovereignty,
whilst falsely promising to “keep us safe” from dangers that you have created.
You are & will remain a war criminal, a liar, a con
artist & above all, a politician.
update on "aussie tony's" values .....
‘The pressure on Tony Blair over Labour's finances
intensified yesterday, with fresh calls for the Prime Minister to quit and a
legal warning from an electoral watchdog.
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard confirmed that the continuing
police inquiry into suggestions Labour exchanged loans for peerages could be
broadened to include allegations of corruption in the awarding of government
contracts.
A government aide yesterday
became the most senior Labour figure to call for Mr Blair to quit over the
loans, allowing "a smooth and rapid succession" to Gordon Brown, the
Chancellor.
Alex Salmond, the SNP leader,
also called for Mr Blair "to put the country out of its misery and resign
now".
Blair Facing Fresh
Blow Over Legal Status Of Party Loans
brush up on "aussie tony's" democratic values .....
‘A former head of the UK civil service has joined the
parliamentary opposition to the government's proposed identity card scheme.
Lord Armstrong, the cabinet
secretary during Tony Blair's first term, is leading a fresh Lords attempt to
reject what many see as moves to make ID cards compulsory by stealth.
The intervention comes as the
government and the Lords remain deadlocked over ministers' plans to force
anyone who renews their passport to register on the planned national identity
database at the same time. Opponents say the rule is effectively a backdoor way
to make ID cards compulsory. Ministers dispute that, arguing that passports are
voluntary documents.
The Lords have voted to strike
out the rule four times; each time the government has used its Commons majority
to reinstate the clause. Lord Armstrong has now tabled an amendment that would
leave the passport link intact, but give applicants a chance to opt out of the
ID register.’
Ex-Civil Service
Chief Moves To End Stalemate In Row Over ID Cards
"aussie tony's" human rights values .....
‘The tragedy for the United Kingdom is that its government
has been seduced by the rhetoric of the "war on terror" into giving
support to failed and inhuman US policies. In doing so it has undermined its
own professed commitment to human rights and the rule of law. The case
histories recounted in this report are appalling illustrations of brutal and
inhuman treatment. If substantiated, they demonstrate an intolerable level of
collaboration and collusion between UK and US authorities in the abuses which
have taken place at Guantanamo and elsewhere through the
"outsourcing" of torture. They also demonstrate a pathetic reluctance
on the part of the UK government to stand up for the rights of its own citizens
and permanent residents against illegal and unacceptable treatment.
It is nevertheless important to
note that there have been encouraging signs of resistance both in the USA and
in Britain to these misguided attempts to undermine the rule of law. At least
some US judges are beginning to challenge the administration's efforts to deny
access to the courts to prisoners at Guantanamo and to conceal its oppressive
conduct from the public. In Britain it is heartening that there are courageous
judges who have rejected the use of evidence obtained by torture and outlawed
the indefinite detention of immigrants without trial in places such as
Belmarsh.’
Fabricating
Terrorism
(The full report is in a pdf
file at the bottom of this article)
“aussie tony’s” fractured fairytale …..
‘In his heart of hearts, Blair
wouldn’t mind resurrecting the British Empire. He can’t get that, so next best
is an alliance with the strongman named the U.S. in which Blair controls the
action. Failing that comes a British-U.S. partnership in which the two nations
either go it alone or create a cluster of satellites that remakes the world in
the Western image. Spotted somewhere into this picture are the U.N., NATO, and
other organizations like the World Bank and the IMF, all to be utilized
whenever convenient for British ends.
Blair suggests that, "unless
we articulate a global policy based on common values, we risk chaos threatening
our stability, economic and political, through letting extremism, conflict or injustice
go unchecked." It is hard to imagine a more exaggerated set of goals
unless it is Bush’s hyperbolic aim to eliminate tyranny everywhere. Blair means
to control extremism, conflict, and injustice through a "global
policy." In practice this means a global military force under Western
control. Blair has mailed an invitation signed by himself to himself asking
himself to intervene anywhere in the world. He wants a standing international
army, even if he never comes right out and says so. Like all unbridled
neoconservatives, he wants benevolent global hegemony.’
Tony Blair’s
Internationalism
"A patriot sets himself
apart in his own country under his own flag, sneers at other nations and keeps
an army of uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other
people's countries and keep them from grabbing slices of his. In the intervals
between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for 'the
universal brotherhood of man' - with his mouth."
Mark Twain,
The Lowest Animal
more on the ‘value’ of “aussie tony” …..
‘Two grandmothers from Yorkshire
face up to a year in prison after becoming the first people to be arrested
under the Government's latest anti-terror legislation.
Helen John, 68, and Sylvia Boyes,
62, both veterans of the Greenham Common protests 25 years ago, were arrested
on Saturday after deliberately setting out to highlight a change in the law
which civil liberties groups say will criminalise free speech and further
undermine the right to peaceful demonstration.
Under the little-noticed
legislation, which came into effect last week, protesters who breach any one of
10 military bases across Britain will be treated as potential terrorists and
face up to a year in jail or £5,000 fine. The protests are curtailed under the
Home Secretary's Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.
Campaigners expressed their
outrage yesterday at Charles Clarke's new law, which they say is yet another
draconian attempt to crack down on legitimate protest under the guise of the war
on terror. In October last year a protester in Whitehall was convicted for
merely reading out the names of British soldiers killed in Iraq. And at the
Labour Party conference in September the Government suffered severe
embarrassment when Walter Wolfgang, a veteran peace activist who survived the
Nazis, was detained for heckling Jack Straw.’
Meanwhile, whilst the world’s most wanted terrorist
(allegedly), Usama bin Laden, all but disappears into quiet obscurity (until
the next election), British citizens John Catt (81), Walter Wolgang (82), Maya
Evans (25), Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith (37) & Brian Haw (56) came to
understand the real ‘value’ of freedom under the British government’s new
‘anti-terror’ laws.
Helen &
Sylva: The New Face Of Terrorism
Tea for Peace
From tthe independent
Campaigner faces jail for anti-war tea party outside Parliament
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Corresponent
Published: 07 April 2006
A peace activist who organised an anti-war tea party that took place opposite the House of Commons faces prison.
Mark Barrett, a tour guide, was convicted under recent legislation banning demonstrations near Parliament and was fined £500 including costs.
He is one of a group of activists who meet every week to drink tea and eat cake on Parliament Square in protest at "an attack on freedom of expression".
After being found guilty of unlawful protest by Bow Street magistrates, Mr Barrett insisted he would not pay the fine.
He said: "If it means I will go to prison, then I am prepared. I may be breaking the law but it is a law I don't believe in. I don't believe peaceful protesters who have a disagreement with the way the state operates should ask permission to make their views known, particularly in this location."
Read more at the Independent
“aussie tony” defending freedom …..
‘People ask: can this be happening in Britain? Surely not.
A centuries-old democratic constitution cannot be swept away. Basic human
rights cannot be made abstract. Those who once comforted themselves that a
Labour government would never commit such an epic crime in Iraq might now
abandon a last delusion, that their freedom is inviolable …… if they knew.
The dying of freedom in Britain
is not news. The pirouettes of the Prime Minister and his political twin, the Chancellor,
are news, though of minimal public interest. Looking back to the 1930s, when
social democracies were distracted and powerful cliques imposed their
totalitarian ways by stealth and silence, the warning is clear. The Legislative
and Regulatory Reform Bill has already passed its second parliamentary reading
without interest to most Labour MPs and court journalists; yet it is utterly
totalitarian in scope.
It is presented by the government
as a simple measure for streamlining deregulation, or "getting rid of red
tape", yet the only red tape it will actually remove is that of
parliamentary scrutiny of government legislation, including this remarkable
bill. It will mean that the government can secretly change the Parliament Act,
and the constitution and laws can be struck down by decree from Downing Street.
Blair has demonstrated his taste for absolute power with his abuse of the royal
prerogative, which he has used to bypass parliament in going to war and in
dismissing landmark high court judgments, such as that which declared illegal
the expulsion of the entire population of the Chagos Islands, now the site of
an American military base. The new bill marks the end of true parliamentary
democracy; in its effect, it is as significant as the US Congress last year
abandoning the Bill of Rights.’
Freedom Dies
Quietly
“aussie tony” protecting democracy …..
‘In January the commissioner of the Metropolitan police
got into enormous trouble for saying that he couldn't see why the Soham murders
had become such a big story. Like every other journalist, I marvelled at his inability
to see what makes a story run. But now, as I follow the news, I have developed
a blind spot of my own.
Piece by piece, month by month,
Tony Blair's administration is removing the safeguards that protect all of us
from the whims of a government and the intrusions of a powerful state. It is
engaged in a ferocious power-grab. Yet this story has not seized the
imagination of the media or the public. In our failure to respond, the
government must be reading a tacit acceptance that it can do what it chooses,
because we either don't notice or don't care.
The government is briskly and
fundamentally reshaping the relationship of the individual to the state, of the
Lords to the Commons, and of MPs to ministers. The ID cards bill will allow the
authorities unprecedented surveillance of our lives, and the power to curtail
our ordinary activities by withdrawing that card.
The legislative and regulatory
reform bill, now entering its final stages, will let ministers alter laws by
order, rather than having to argue their case in parliament. Then this weekend
brought another shocking government proposal to increase its own power and
weaken the restraints upon it. Lord Falconer made clear that the government
intends to drastically curtail the powers of the Lords. The current convention
is that peers cannot block any legislation contained in a party's manifesto. In
future peers will have to pass any legislation that the government deems
important, whether it was in the manifesto or not. They will effectively be neutered.’
Blair's
Inner Circle & Its Ferocious Grab For Power
Soldiering on beyond the grave
Families of soldiers killed in Iraq launch party to challenge ministers
· More than 70 candidates to contest Labour seats
· Bereaved to meet within two weeks to plan strategy
Steve Boggan
Saturday August 5, 2006
The Guardian
Whenever news of British military deaths in the Middle East flashes on to their TV screen, Reg and Sally Keys become silent and you can see anxiety wash across their faces. This week has been particularly tough; three soldiers killed in Afghanistan, one in Iraq. Each time it happens, it reminds them of their son, Thomas, one of six royal military policemen killed in Iraq in 2003.
The Keys are among 115 families whose sons have been killed in Iraq. But this week, one of the worst for British casualties, has been different for the bereaved; this week, they have [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,,1837762,00.html|been doing something about it].
Mr Keys, a 54-year-old former paramedic who stood against Tony Blair in Sedgefield at the general election, is at the centre of moves to form a new political movement aimed at bringing down ministers who failed to vote against the war in Iraq. In the next two weeks he and a small group of others will meet to lay down the foundations of Spectre, a political party that will target the people they hold culpable for the deaths of their sons in what they see as an illegal war.
Last week, four of them won an appeal court challenge against the government's refusal to hold a public inquiry into the decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein. Their lawyer, Phil Shiner, described the victory as stunning, not least because, if they are successful in November, the inquiry could see the prime minister, former foreign secretary Jack Straw and former defence secretary Geoff Hoon called to explain their actions. The parents were delighted, but regard legal proceedings as only one element of a two-pronged attack. At Spectre's inaugural meeting, expected to be held in the Midlands, they will lay plans for a launch next month at the start of Labour's annual conference in Manchester.
The families hope to field upwards of 70 candidates at the next general election, and suck enough votes away from Labour ministers to cause political ructions.
Things can only go better?
Oh God (redux)
........
You reassure yourself that, as in all cycles of history, this one will come to an end, too. Then you remember that the man in charge of [http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1837808,00.html|writing the ending] is George Bush, and you have to start again.
the attacks would stop...
.... Another U.S. officer put it more bluntly: "Nobody wants us here, so [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301711.html?nav=hcmodule|why are we here]? That's the big question," said Maj. Brent E. Lilly. Lilly leads a Marine civil affairs team that has disbursed many thousands of dollars for damage claims and projects in Hit, but is still mortared almost daily. "If we leave, all the attacks would stop, because we'd be gone."
Lesson delayed
Ministers hint at Iraq inquiry after [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,,1936308,00.html|withdrawal]
Patrick Wintour, political editor
Wednesday November 1, 2006
The Guardian
The government indicated last night that it would concede a high-level inquiry into the war in Iraq once British troops had been withdrawn.
The move came as Tony Blair narrowly survived a Commons push to force him to set up an immediate parliamentary inquiry after a fractious debate in which the government's majority was cut to 25.
During the exchanges, the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, pointedly refused to rule out an inquiry at a later stage, saying no doubt at some point lessons would have to be learned. "It is perfectly sensible and legitimate to say that there will come a time when these issues will be explored ... in full so that we can learn whatever lessons we can."
political debauchery .....
This is the country of the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the country that invented Parliamentary democracy. These have failed us. With the Iraq war we abandoned our heritage and unmistakably entered profound political corruption. Our Parliamentary democracy exists for the good of our country. Our British culture also attaches to it the notion of acting for the good of others. Let us not become bogged down in lawyers’ quibbles that anything is legal if there is no law against it. When the bodies pile up there must be an accounting.
Our government has abandoned common law, the ancient law that expresses the values of our culture with its freedom to rule in the interests of justice and the good of the country. It argues statute law whose limitations allow weasel words to countenance corruption. This is how the Iraq war occurred and how it is still justified. Those elected to represent us considered themselves our rulers who could act as they chose with our lives and country because there was no law against it.
We have seen with our own eyes a turning point into unprecedented political and moral corruption. Every Member of Parliament who voted for the Iraq war is tainted by it. That they were deceived by a duplicitous prime minister cannot be claimed when a million citizens in the streets told them from their knowledge, their hearts and their cultural heritage that it was wrong. Parliament ignored them and betrayed the foundations of our national identity. Did those who should have represented our opinions, culture and country’s interests act from sloth, corruption, hubris or in support of foreign interests? It does not matter. They abandoned their responsibilities as well as respect for human life itself.
Iraq & The Stink From Britain’s Parliament
"aussie tony" & the value of ghosts from the past .....
Fresh evidence that the Iraq weapons dossier was "sexed up" emerged as the Government finally published the secret first draft of the document.
As expected, the earliest version of the document did not include the now notorious claim that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of an order to do so.
The first draft made a series of lurid claims about the extent and danger of the Iraqi president's weapons arsenal. But those were expressed in even stronger terms by September 2002, when the official dossier on which Tony Blair based the case for war was published.
Ministers had fought a three-year battle to stop the confidential initial draft from being released, but last month lost an appeal against a ruling that it should be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act.
The paper, whose existence first emerged during the Hutton inquiry in 2003, was written by John Williams, the former director of communications at the Foreign Office. He warned that Saddam had come to power by "torture, rape and execution" and concluded that Iraq presented a "uniquely dangerous threat to the world."
The Williams paper made a series of detailed claims about the Iraqi president's stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.
But there was no reference to the 45-minute claim, although it warned that Iraq was "developing as a priority longer-range missile systems capable of targeting Nato (Greece and Turkey?)."
Revealed: The First Draft Of Dossier That Took Britain To War
the cost of a "moral purpose" .....
The bill for Australia's involvement in the war in Iraq is set to top $2bn by 2010, Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston says.
Australia is getting ready to begin withdrawing its combat troops in southern Iraq by the middle of the year but the cost of the war is still climbing.
Air Chief Marshal Houston today confirmed that Australia had spent more than $1.5bn on the war from July 2003 to July last year.
And it was expecting to spend another $600m by the middle of 2010. "The total approved expenditure for Operation Catalyst since 16 July 2003 through to financial year 2006-2007 was $1.5bn, in fact $1,560.7m," Air Chief Marshal Houston told a Senate estimates committee today.
"Current approved funding for the period 2007-2008 through to 2009-2010 is another $598m, which will bring the total approved funding for Operation Catalyst for the period staring 16 July 2003 to $2,158.7m."
The military chief confirmed today that the job of Australian troops in southern Iraq was done and they could come home mid-year, one of Labor's key pre-election commitments.
Iraq War Bill To Top $2Billion
fellow travellers .....
The British Government will admit breaching the human rights of Iraqi Baha Mousa who died while in British custody in Basra, Britains Defence Secretary Des Browne said Thursday.
The UK Ministry of Defence will also admit breaching the rights of eight other Iraqi men who have brought a civil case in the British courts, he told MPs.
In a written statement, Browne said that in relation to the claim by Mousa's family, the Government would admit "substantive breaches" of parts of the European Convention on Human Rights which protect the right to life and prohibit torture.
كونا : UK Gov''t admits breaching dead Iraqis rights
golly gosh .....
Britain can no longer believe what Americans tell us about torture, an MPs' report to be published today claims.
They also call for an immediate investigation into allegations that the UK government has itself 'outsourced' the torture of its own nationals to Pakistan.
In a damning criticism of US integrity, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said ministers should no longer take at face value statements from senior politicians, including George Bush, that America does not resort to torture in the light of the CIA admitting it used 'waterboarding'.
The interrogation technique was unreservedly condemned by Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said it amounted to torture.
US Tells Lies About Torture, Say Members Of Parliament