Looking at South Australia's purchase of a new batch of security cameras for buses and trains, I've realised how well the Great Cash-In is coming along

"In the wake of the tragic London bombings last year, we have been reviewing security across the whole of government.

"Transport security has always been a priority for all governments, but this investment means every train, tram and bus can be monitored to help deter illegal activity, including vandalism and assaults."

Another one of your totally wanky stories about this or that in today’s SMH: this time about nimby Not In Your Backyard, Thanks 

Yes there are people who want to preserve the historical real-estate value in our society.  

‘The Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor were among the most barbaric actions of the late 20th century. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met with Indonesian President Suharto in Jakarta the day before the invasion and gave U.S. approval. The primary concern of U.S. officials seemed to be to get back to Washington before the bloodbath began. Kissinger told Suharto, “We understand your problem and the need to move quickly but I am only saying that it would be better if it were done after we returned.” Kissinger, doing his best imitation of Lady Macbeth, urged Suharto, “It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly.”  

Qinetiq, the privatised arm of the UK MInistry of Defence, currently controlled by the Bush/Bin Laden firm Carlyle, are keen to take care of us all at sporting events.

Mr Simon Stringer, director of Qinetiq's Security and Intelligence Division said recently that he"would never encourage the use of technology for technology's sake. There may be instances, for example, where the best course of action is to change the way your security personnel are trained and briefed before an event. Alternatively, a simple process change like altering the way spectators are directed into a venue may produce the required result. However, when appropriate, properly applied and deployed technology is what the military refer to as a real force multiplier."

"The military is well versed at detailed planning for massively complex operations. To ensure preparedness they exploit a variety of tools, such as planning software, 3D modelling and synthetic environments which use highly accurate immersive models against which blast modelling and vulnerability analysis can be conducted. Other technologies and capabilities such as digital mapping, multiple sensor integration and surveillance optimisation models have consistently proven their worth to the armed forces in critical operational situations and these capabilities are increasingly available to civil security operators." he said.

"Building on its defence technology research has allowed QinetiQ to develop an in-depth understanding of how this technology and science can be applied to the security market and, in this instance, best address the threats and vulnerabilities faced by sport event organisers. With a track record in counter-terrorism and associated projects aimed at protecting the UK's critical national infrastructure we are excited by the prospect of bringing this expertise to bear in the area of event security."

‘Saddam was a wicked tyrant, yet he was our wicked tyrant, and so not a word was uttered about his war crimes and crimes against humanity, and especially muted to our ears and made blind to our eyes was his use of American WMD technology against both Iranians and Kurds.  He was our evildoer, just like so many before and after him, from all corners of the globe, from Marcos to Suharto to Pinochet to Batista to Mobutu, all dictators whose hands were made bloody by the support and encouragement America’s government engendered. Saddam maintained power in large part thanks to American generosity and financing, much the same as dozens of US supported dictators have for decades.  It was only when he was no longer needed to further the interests of America that he became expendable. It was when his character exceeded his allotted power, when his ego thought itself capable of more than he could handle that he went from ally shaking hands with Donald Rumsfeld to dictator and tyrant used to manipulate the fears of bed-wetting Americans. 

The Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections has thrown the parties in the faltering peace process into a real spin. Even more so given the fact that the US illegally tried to pre-empt the election outcome in favour of Fatah (U.S. Spent $1.9 Million to Aid Fatah in Palestinian Elections). 

But the “surprise” result once again underscored the inability of the US & its allies – the phoney champions of “freedom & democracy” - to truly understand the dynamic forces at work in the region, whilst their shrill, alarmist reactions to the election outcome rudely highlighted the fact that they were caught entirely unprepared to deal with the new situation. 

‘Like Bush's America, Howard's Australia is not so much a democracy as a plutocracy, governed for and by the "big end of town," even though, as Mark Twain pointed out, this is "an entire continent peopled by the lower orders." He was not that far out; for my generation, like that of my parents, we were the poor who had got away. There was a sense that we had inherited something other than the British legacy. Long before the rest of the western world, Australians gained a minimum wage, an eight-hour working day, pensions, maternity allowance, child benefits and the vote for women. The secret ballot was invented here and became known as the "Australian ballot." The Australian Labour Party formed governments 25 years before any comparable social democracy in Europe. In the 1960s, with the exception of the Aboriginal people - who are always the exception - Australians could boast the most equitable spread of personal income in the world.

"Contractors with conflicts of interest would be prohibited from conducting oversight or writing contract requirements they could bid on, as Halliburton did for its $7 billion no-bid Iraqi oil contract awarded in 2003."

Australian aside:..... and  the warship environmental  measures, and the nuclear dump safety consultancies, and South Australia's Major Works Development 

Adding to the statement in the introductory paragraph,  US Democrats believe what is needed is  “closing the revolving door between federal contract officials and private contractors.”

If an Australian local council has "emotional problems" using Halliburton, it must accept them anyway.  That's the message being sent to the world this week by the Shire Council of Byron Bay, on the Northern coast of New South Wales.

The town, once the haven of surfers and hippies, now the "holiday home" of international stars such as Paul Hogan and Hugh Jackman,  is now home to KBR employees as they upgrade the local sewerage plant.

Councillor Tom Tabart made the situation plain when he recently told the Northern Star newspaper that " "Refusal on a political basis would have surely resulted in legal action against us,"

US television and newspapers today are dumping the story into Middle America of how, at one particular army base, Halliburton have been dumping sewerage into a river and then using it to serve U.S. troops.

While on-the-ground KBR employees emailed thunderous complaints, from deep in the bowels of Halliburton Headquarters the stamdard response was trotted out- Halliburton stood firmly behind the statement that there was no problem.
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While bottled water is used for drinking, the contaminated water, reportedly twice as dirty as the river Euphrates, is used for everything else, including making coffee.

‘The Iranian government has finally developed the ultimate "nuclear" weapon that can swiftly destroy the financial system underpinning the American Empire. That weapon is the Iranian Oil Bourse slated to open in March 2006. It will be based on a euro-oil-trading mechanism that naturally implies payment for oil in Euro.  

In economic terms, this represents a much greater threat to the hegemony of the dollar than Saddam's, because it will allow anyone willing either to buy or to sell oil for Euro to transact on the exchange, thus circumventing the U.S. dollar altogether. If so, then it is likely that almost everyone will eagerly adopt this euro oil system:’ 

‘Britain has long been replaced by the United States as the world’s civilizing Santa. But aside from the Big Stick years of Presidents McKinley and the first Roosevelt, who left no natives unturned in the Philippines and South of the Border, it should be said that American imperialism had a decidedly Wilsonian bend for most of the 20 th century. It was too busy saving the world rather than conquering it (except, again, South of the Border, where American presidents have never been able to resist the impulse to act like Teddy Roosevelt gunslinging in his wildlife preserves). When the Soviet Union fell, it looked as if America ’s job as world’s sheriff was done. Finally, the West’s trillions could be invested in something more constructive than missiles and fearmongers’ dividends. Sure enough, Pentagon budgets quit sprawling under Bill Clinton.