The former global leader of Halliburton's infrastructure activities is now in control of shipbuilding in South Australia.

An expanded maritime site announced today is now owned by a corporation controlled by ex-Halliburton/KBR chief Andrew Fletcher, who had been recruited last November to "oversee" the warship project. Fletcher, while still in his Halliburton job, held a seat on the South Australian Economic Development Board

After this week's revelations that the Pentagon, on behalf of Halliburton, has been spying on a US protest organiser "in the national interest"  I would like to know, as an Australian Halliburton "activist",  how much the Australian Government has been spying on me.

I would also like to know how our Government can continue to rely upon, in matters of national security and international invasion, an intelligence system that can make such a stupid mistake.

Every "conspiracy theorist" looks in shadows for faces but perhaps some have greater cause for concern than others.  Looking at what's happenned to Parkin I reckon that I qualify for an extra dose of paranoia.

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. 

The Editor, 

Sydney Morning Herald.                                                             January 27, 2006.

‘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.

This will need remembering.  For some reason I find this to be quite disturbing.  No doubt an Australian  equivalent will follow.
[from Construction and Maintenance (posted today)]

 KBR awarded U.S. Department of Homeland Security project

Arlington, Virginia – KBR announced that the Department of Homeland
Security’s (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
component has awarded KBR an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity
(IDIQ) contingency contract to support ICE facilities in the event of
an emergency.

With
a maximum total value of $385 million over a five-year term, consisting
of a one-year based period and four one-year options, the competitively
awarded contract will be executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Fort Worth District. KBR held the previous ICE contract from 2000
through 2005.

ICE is one of three agencies that make up the
Border and Transportation Security (BTS) Directorate of the DHS. The
mission of the BTS Directorate is to secure the nation's air, land and
sea borders. ICE, the largest investigative arm of the DHS, is
responsible for identifying and shutting down vulnerabilities in the
nation’s border, economic, transportation and infrastructure security.

KBR
is the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton. KBR
employs more than 60, 000 people in 43 countries around the world.

Halliburton Watch continues:
:

 As he steps down as Defence Minister, Robert Hill is completing the militarisation of South Australia

MR Hill says that  said he had written to the
leaseholders and local indigenous groups indicating his approval of the
acquisition of land near the Cultana training area, near Port Augusta.

The training centre, currently used by Army units for manoeuvre and
weapons training, will triple in size, making it one of Australia's
largest military training areas.

"This project will see an expanded range ready for use by 2009 and will
increase the Army's presence in regional South Australia, providing
significant economic benefits, particularly for Port Augusta and
Whyalla," .
"An expanded all-weather training range at Cultana will provide the
Australian Defence Force with a training area that can be used during
the northern Australian wet season and support future joint training
needs."

 If this is the information that ASIO used to deport Parkin, some questions will need to be asked.

Firstly, was ASIO acting based on a current profile of Parkin, or outdated infomation it had previously received from TALON

Secondly,
is the Australian Cabinet, from Prime Minister Howard downward, guilty
of acting on inappropriate information simply because it existed ?

Thirdly:
Have ASIO's activities in Australia mirrored the intensity of Paul
Wolfowitz' US program?  If so, how many how many profiles of Australian
anti-war activists and writers now exist in ASIO's files.