‘President Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals.  

But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.  

A source said: "There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it." Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency. The attack would have led to a massacre of innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation.’  

‘Among the fundamental conceits of the architects of the Bush administration's war on terrorism is that heavy-handed interrogation is useful, even necessary, to get any information that will protect the American people, and that such interrogation techniques are devoid of negative consequences in dealing with real or suspected terrorists.  

One way this notion has played out in practice is the CIA's use of "extraordinary rendition," in which terror suspects overseas are kidnapped and delivered to third-party countries for interrogation - which, not uncharacteristically, includes some measure of torture, and sometimes fatal torture. 

‘Last week's events give further proof of what the Right do best.  

They divert and distract our attention from what they are up to with wars, and rumours of wars. 

Last week should have seen an assessment of Whitlam's policies and his legacy. Free university education, a rich robust ABC, an empowered, resurgent Aboriginal minority, an empowered union movement, an artistic renaissance, a new film industry and so on should have been discussed and praised and criticised.  

‘You stood with your back to the concrete wall and had the audacity to say to the Palestinians people, "This wall is not against the Palestinians. This is against the terrorists. The Palestinian people have to help to prevent terrorism. They have to change the attitudes about terrorism."

Your words proved yet again that neither you nor anyone else in our government has any grasp of reality of what is actually happening in the ground in Palestine.  

‘The International Criminal Court divides the Americas. Mexico is the 100th country to sign the Treaty of Rome, which consecrates the International Criminal Court's creation: to Washington's great displeasure.

Mexico has once again proved wrong its reputation as a country in the shadow of the United States. By announcing last Friday that it was becoming the hundredth country to ratify the article of the statute of Rome consecrating the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mexico has given itself a symbol. It has also reiterated its refusal to sign any kind of immunity agreement with the United States.  

‘Against all scientific prudence and normal public health procedure, the world population is being whipped up into a fear frenzy by irresponsible public health officials from the US Administration to WHO to the United States Centers for Disease Control. They all warn about the imminent danger that a malicious viral strain might spread from infected birds, primarily in Vietnam and other Asian centers, to contaminate the entire human species in pandemic proportions. Often the flu pandemic of 1918 which is said to have killed 18 million worldwide, is cited as an example of what ‘might’ lie in store for us.  

When Veranda Sandstone & Darth Ruddock were almost wiped-out by the DIMIA tsunami, there would have been one member of little Johnnie Cromwell’s Ministry who probably sympathised with them more than anyone-else: the leader of the government in the Senate & Minister for Defence, the Hon Senator, Robert Hill. 

 
Unique amongst his colleagues, the good Senator presides over a portfolio that suffers little from public scrutiny.  

Speech at Brisbane Customs House, Tuesday, 18 October, for QPILCH

(Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House) 

By Chris Rau 

This final version, incorporating revised material, amended Saturday, 22^nd October, 2005 

‘At Nuremberg, in early October 1945, the four prosecuting nations - the United States, Great Britain, France and Russia - issued an indictment against 24 men & six organizations of the Nazi Germany.  

Of that 24 only 21 eventually sat down in the trial. The individual defendants were charged not only with the systematic murder of millions of people, but also with planning & carrying out the war in Europe. Twelve Nazi officials were sentenced to hang; three were sentenced to life in prison; four were given prison sentences of 10 -20 years & the rest were acquitted.  

‘However, now that I am well into my seventh decade of life & very near retirement, I have come to the conclusion that the world basically sucks, that there are few who seem to have the investigative courage to take a good hard look at things that, if discovered, would no doubt destroy one’s image of a land that can do no wrong, one that they believe has somehow received the eternal blessing of God.  

So I must ask: How is it that we have become such a mindless nation, a society populated by deadheads, folks who seem to have little desire to look beyond the thinly-veneered surface of life? 

‘On each stage of his journey, as he descended further and further into the gulags and torture chambers of the war on terror, Benyam Mohammed al-Habashi was shadowed by British intelligence.  

The British were there in Karachi when Americans interrogated him and Pakistanis tortured him; they were feeding questions to the Moroccan torturers who took a scalpel to his penis; they stood back and watched as he was dragged to an American torture chamber in Afghanistan and then to the gulag of Guantanamo, where he languishes to this day.  

‘After September 11, the mainstream media's blatant performance as the U.S Government's propaganda machine has only served to highlight the business of `managing' public opinion.  

The resultant `mistrust of the mass media' would at best be a political hunch or at worst a loose accusation, if it were not for the relentless and unswerving media analysis of one of the world's greatest minds.  

And this is only one of the ways in which Noam Chomsky has radically altered our understanding of the society in which we live. Rationally and empirically, he has unmasked the ugly, manipulative, ruthless American universe that exists behind the word `freedom', says ARUNDHATI ROY, in an essay written as an introduction for the new edition of Noam Chomsky.’ 

‘Over a year ago, the comfort of my world severely diminished as I took my journey through the looking glass and discerned the ugly truths about the nation of my birth, the United States of America. “Logic and proportion

‘With TV providing a ceaseless backdrop of the country's failings - a crippled and tone-deaf president, a negligent government, corruption, military atrocities, soaring debt, racial conflict, poverty, bloated bodies in floodwater, people dying on camera for want of food, water and medicine - it seemed things were falling apart in the land where happiness is promoted in the constitution.’ 

Is This The Death Of America?

The Howard government’s response to the gross maladministration within DIMIA stands in stark contrast to its lack of response to an older & significantly more sinister scandal involving the ADF, that now dates back 6 years. 

Whilst the government moved quickly to set-up independent inquiries into the events surrounding the appalling DIMIA scandal, its leader in the Senate, Defence Minister Robert Hill, & the ADF have sought to maintain a veil of secrecy over unspecified allegations of torture & possible execution of ADF prisoners in East Timor, way back in 1999.