I've highlighted the last sentence of this extract because it seems of particular significance to activity in Australia. 

 [from the Financial Express, poste 20/5/05]

MAY 19:  Seeking to meet its rising energy demands, India may
pay suppliers, including General Electric (GE) Co, Rs 1.8 trillion ($40
billion) to build nuclear reactors over the next 14 years, a government
official said.

France’s Areva SA, Electricite de France and US-based Westinghouse
Electric Co are among the possible providers of 25 to 28 reactors by
2020, chairman Nuclear Power Corporation of India, SK Jain said.

Extract from the speech of our
providores grocer in Ottawa ..........

”And I would have for those around the world who would want to see
a reduced American role in the affairs of our globe, I have some
quiet advice and that is be careful in what you wish for because
a retreating America will leave a more vulnerable world. It will
leave a world more exposed to terrorism and it will leave a more
fragile and indeed dangerous world.”

.......

Gus is furious: No Sir. I have some not so quiet advice .... What makes a
more dangerous world is the extraordinary lies that have been concocted
by you and the US and the Poms, to go to war. A war that HAS made
the world more dangerous. A war that hopefully will see a solution but it will
be NO THANKS TO YOU and your two other little porkyists. We are not
opposed to the US having an important role in managing the affairs of the
world but w do not want them to do so like a schoolyard bully with no brains
and two fists. You and your acolytes should resign in shame for having brought
the good reputation of OUR countries (note: not "yours" as when you
claimed ownership of Australia in that other porkies about uranium) ... 

Those avid readers of this site would already know that we are on top of these figures... A few months ago, we alerted the world — this little YD world at least — on the World Prison Population List coming from the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London... These figures exposed the hypocrisy of the US on their pointing the finger at other countries human rights failures... Here Chris Floyd picks up the same pieces and elaborates.. Read more at the Moscow Times...

Global Eye
Gates of Eden

By Chris Floyd
Published: May 19, 2006

Beneath the thunder of the mighty cataclysms unleashed by the Bush administration -- the war crime in Iraq, the global torture gulag, the epic corruption, the gutting of the U.S. Constitution, the open embrace of presidential tyranny -- a quieter degradation of American society has continued apace. And this slow descent into barbarism didn't begin with President George W. Bush, although his illicit regime certainly represents the apotheosis of the dark forces driving the decay.

With the world's attention diverted by the latest scandals and shameless posturings of the Bush faction -- domestic spying, bribes and hookers at the CIA, military units roaring down to the border to scare unarmed poor people looking for work -- few noticed a small story that cast a harsh, penetrating light on the corrosion of the national character.

Earlier this month, the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London released its annual World Prison Population List. And there, standing proudly at the head of the line, towering far above all others, is that shining city on the hill, the United States of America. But strangely enough, the Bush gang and its media sycophants failed to celebrate -- or even note -- yet another instance where a triumphant America leads the world. Where are the cheering hordes shouting "U.S.A! U.S.A!" at the news that the land of the free imprisons more people than any other country in the world, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of its population?

Yes, the world's greatest democracy now has more than 2 million of its citizens locked up in iron cages, an incarceration rate of 714 per 100,000 of the national population. The only countries within shouting distance are such bastions of penological enlightenment as China (1.55 million prisoners, plus some unsorted "administrative detainees"), Russia (a wimpy 763,000) and Brazil (330,000), whose exemplary prison management has been on such prominent display this week

read more overthere...

On May 13th 2005 I introduced my first Your Democracy Blog with these words:   I am writing this blog because South Australia needs help. We are an
extremely strategically located city, for years headquarters of
Murdoch, Halliburton and BAE, and are being systematically brainwashed
into becoming defence industry drones without ever being given the
choice of taking this path.

Now I learn that the submarine project, constructed at a facility controlled by Halliburton's former Global Vice President for Infrastructure, is to begin a campaign to entice our kids into becoming defence construction workers

The body sent to Australia in the place of a fallen soldier was that of a Halliburton contractor from Bosnia.   The Kellogg, Brown and Root employee was finally buried last Friday, a month after he died.

Halliburton have indicated  that they will pay compensation to the family of Juso Sunanovic, who the company claims died of a brain hemorrage while playing table tennis in Iraq.

The revelation is the latest in a situation filled with procedural errors.  Pte Jake Kovco's body was moved from the scene of death before MP inspection on orders from the commander of Australian armed forces in Iraq despite an MP command that the location remain undisturbed for investigation purposes.  After being ceremonially escorted to a waiting plane, his body was accidentally substituted with that  of the Halliburton employee.  

from the ABC …..

Costello urges banks to lower fees. 

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello is urging banks to reduce
the fees they charge when customers open or close accounts. 

Mr Costello says he has met with the major banks to ask
them to lower entry and exit fees they charge on accounts. 

He says uncompetitive fees are hurting consumers. 

 
‘Israel is 58 years old today.

Israelis have already celebrated
with barbecues and parties. And so they should, for they've pulled off an
amazing stunt: the creation of a state for one people on the land of another -
and at their massive expense - without incurring effective sanction. Some of
those not celebrating, the Arab citizens of Israel, were also there,
demonstrating to remind the world that Israel displaced 250,000 to take their
land without compensation. 

 
‘MI5 is being accused of a cover-up for failing to
disclose to a parliamentary watchdog that it bugged the leader of the July 7
suicide bombers discussing the building of a bomb months before the London
attacks.

MI5 had secret tape recordings of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the gang leader,
talking about how to build the device and then leave the country because there
would be a lot of police activity. 

However, despite the recordings,
MI5 allowed him to escape the net. Transcripts of the tapes were never shown to
the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC), which investigated
the attacks. 

Given the totality of the apology drafted by AWB's Andrew Lindberg, what was the catalyst for assuming their apparent legal strategy of forgetfulness after having created such a self-damning document?

[From The Australian]

1. As a result of the Volcker inquiry into the OFF (oil-for-food)
Program AWB accepts that in paying money for inland transportation and
after sales service it paid money to the Iraq government in
contravention of the UN sanctions.

2. Even though there were warning signs to some employees that this may
have been occurring AWB did not challenge these payments and was not
alert to the potential consequences of making these payments. For this
we are truly sorry and deeply regret any damage this may have caused to
Australia's trading reputation, the Australian government or the United
Nations.

Halliburton's US contract to build detention centres was part of a plan that may never be completed, it was revealed today.

The suprising admission came from the successor to US Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton President and CEO Mr David Lesar.

During a question and answer session at the company's AGM a stockholder asked for details of the US$385 million contract.   The deal, said Mr Lesar, was part of a contigency plan.

"There are no plans at this point to actually physically build
anything. We don't know when or if or where this contract will be
activated," he said.

 
‘Recently, a number - one billion
- in the
New York Times stopped me in my tracks. According to a report
commissioned by the foundation charged with building Reflecting
Absence, the memorial to the dead in the attack on the World Trade
Center, its projected cost is now estimated at about a billion dollars and
still rising. According to Oliver Burkeman of the
British Guardian, "Taking inflation into account, $1bn would be
more than a quarter of the original cost of the twin towers that were destroyed
in 2001." 

INDEPTH:

CANADA'S MILITARY
Requiem for the Sea King
CBC News Online | Updated Feb. 3,
2006 

They are known as the
"ancient" Sea Kings, the "geriatric" Sea Kings, the
"venerable" Sea Kings. They have been called "flying
coffins." Purchased with considerable fanfare by the federal
government in 1963, when they turned heads with their impressive exploits,
the Sea Kings are now a sick, ageing fleet, with pieces literally falling
out of the skies. Canada bought 41 of the single-rotor Sea Kings,
technically known as the Sikorsky CH-124 Sea King. Twenty-eight of them
remain in service, and those still flying are often hit by flameouts,
engine stalls, generator failures and gearbox problems. Pilots have died
flying them, falling into oceans, crashing into muskeg – more so the older
they get. After the federal government renewed the bidding process in 1999
to replace the fleet, builders around the world jockeyed for position to
win the contract. 

Today's Houston Chronicle says it all:

Sixteen people protesting Halliburton Co.'s environmental record and
its role as a military contractor were arrested on trespassing charges
Wednesday when they surged toward a building where company shareholders
were meeting.

Another man was arrested on a charge of destroying public property for tearing up a plastic fence holding back protesters.

A masked man beat on a large empty jug and protesters chanted, "The
whole world is watching," and "Shame on you," while police made the
arrests. A designated area had been set up for the protest, and police
had told protesters not to leave that area.