Cabinet ministers have launched a robust defence of Britain's role in Iraq, rebuffing American criticism that UK forces had failed in their mission.

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, took the unusual move of writing an editorial in the Washington Post yesterday, insisting that Britain was on track to hand over Basra to Iraqi authorities "within months".

The media is silent, Congress is absent, and Americans are distracted as George W. Bush openly prepares aggression against Iran.

US Navy aircraft carrier strike forces are deployed off Iran.

US Air Force jets and missile systems are deployed in bases in countries bordering or near to Iran.

US B-2 stealth bombers have been refitted to carry 30,000-pound "bunker buster" bombs.

The US government is financing terrorist and separatist groups within Iran.

Alex Mitchell writes ....

APEC: a week of Kafka, collusion and spooks

The Federal and NSW security forces have a list of banned citizens, individuals who will be arrested and detained if they go anywhere near next week's APEC summit in downtown Sydney. Who is on the list? It is a secret, replies NSW Police Minister David Campbell.

Darwin insider Henri Ivrey writes:

Brough's takeover targets: a shopping mall, a car yard, a pipeline ...

Earlier this year, Aboriginal MP Karl Hampton opened extensions to the Yeperenye shopping centre—the largest shopping complex in Alice Springs. It was a proud moment for the Territory’s youngest MP: it was a building he’d grown up with, shopped at, or just hung around with his mates in the air conditioning.

from Crikey …..

Darwin insider Henri Ivrey writes:

Aboriginal assets to be seized, then rented back for profit

In moves seemingly impossible to reconcile with the protection of Aboriginal children on remote towns and communities in the Northern Territory, a document has come into the hands of Crikey that presages a federal government takeover of millions of dollars worth of assets owned by Aboriginal organisations.

George W. Bush has once again thrown down the gauntlet. The Mideast wars of the United States, he announced to the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention on August 22, must end only with a U.S. victory. He has not wavered in this position since September 11, 2001.

Like the bloodthirsty un-dead of Transylvania, capitalism is essentially parasitic. Contrary to the inane mythology that anyone who dreams, comes up with a novel idea, follows Oprah “wisdom,” and works hard will eventually sport a net worth north of seven figures, there is very little true upward mobility in the United States. High regressive taxes, low progressive taxes, de facto monopolies, nepotism, cronyism, bribery, a legal system blind to economic crimes of the highest order, and a host of other factors ensure that the rich stay rich and that those in the working class have just enough to ensure their continued existence as hosts for their parasitic masters.

While turd blossom attempts to justify his folly in Iraq by fabricating the outcome of amerika’s earlier foreign policy disaster in Vietnam, there are still those who think it wiser to learn from history, rather than ignore it.

'"When Iraq becomes strong enough in our opinion to stand alone, we shall be in a position to state that our task has been fulfilled, and that Iraq is an independent sovereign state. But this cannot be said while we are forced year after year to spend very large sums of money on helping the Iraqi government to defend itself and maintain order.”

from mike carlton

big words from the big man of pork barrels

Twenty years ago, in the wilderness of opposition, John Howard and the Liberal Party's advertising flacks put their heads together and concocted a new buzz word to inspire the nation: incentivation.

Christian Kerr writes …..

Doctor, you’re not in trouble: Morgan Poll

A good Christian like Kevin Andrews no doubt doesn’t swear. Instead, he’ll no doubt be saying "Goodness gracious me" with the news that almost half of all Australian electors believe Dr Mohamed Haneef should be able to return from India.

In the third Terrorism Index, more than 100 of America’s most respected foreign policy experts see a world that is growing more dangerous, a national security strategy in disrepair, and a war in Iraq that is alarmingly off course.

‘In a just-published article in the New Yorker magazine entitled "The Black Sites: A Rare Look Inside the CIA's Secret Interrogation Program," Jane Mayer documents what only those in hopeless denial can avoid knowing: the United States has tortured people in the so-called CIA "black sites".

‘Reports that the Bush Administration will put Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list can be read in one of two ways: it's either more bluster or, ominously, a wind-up for a strike on Iran. Officials I talk to in Washington vote for a hit on the IRGC, maybe within the next six months. And they think that as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities. An awe and shock campaign, lite, if you will. But frankly they're guessing; after Iraq the White House trusts no one, especially the bureaucracy.

‘Sapped by nearly six years of war, the Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if the Bush administration decides to extend the Iraq build-up beyond next spring.

The Army's 38 available combat units are deployed, just returning home or already tapped to go to Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, leaving no fresh troops to replace five extra brigades that President Bush sent to Baghdad this year, according to interviews and military documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

That presents the Pentagon with several painful choices if the U.S. wants to maintain higher troop levels beyond the spring of 2008: