He's perfect to demonstrate to American's the stoic co-operation of it's buddy Down Under.

To paraphrase what the U.S. journo on ABC-TV Lateline said, no other Australian hostage except for a U.S. resident would make the front pages of U.S. media.

The "profile" of Australians in the U.S. mas mind has been raised considerably

Will someone explain to me why current affairs media now has the same media feel to an Australian version of Wag The Dog ?.

 

Is any of this still relevant?

The Big Pong Down Under

Reuters report today.  Sounds a little too much like a permanent arrangement

Bye Bye, David Hicks.  

Part of gradual increase ?

Out of any future profit of reclaimed water, what percentage will be received by the owners of the technology and the implemented intellectual property ?

Apart from creating the Big Pong, KBR are collaborating with local councils on water catchment related activity.

Here's an interesting extract:

There

can be a conflict of interest within government with regard to water management,
with water resource managers seeking to restrain per capita consumption, and
state-owned water utilities having an obligation to maximise returns to their
principal shareholder, the state government. The dividend from SA Water to the
South Australian Treasury after tax was 119 percent in 1998-99 and 124 percent
in 1999-2000 (NCC 2001)

Then the S.A. Government, in a questionable process that allowed the winning bid to be tendered several hours after the others,  gave the water supply to a KBR-led (Kinnaird conducted) consortium)

At the other end of things... the park that my daughter and I go to after school has a KBR logo on the sign as a project partner with the City of Charles Sturt in water catchment.  I hadn't till today considered it as part of a scheme to store water for future sale.

Another extract from the last link:
Stormwater is also being adopted as an
alternative water resource to replace drinking water where the latter’s standard
is not necessary. In South Australia, the Corporation of the City of Salisbury
has been innovative in stormwater conservation, initially for its own parks and
gardens. Recently, it completed a jointly-funded venture to store and treat
stormwater on Parafield Airport to provide over 1GL/annum to GH Michell & Sons,
Australia’s largest wool processor. This water is arriving at a lower salinity
than the drinking water it replaced. A further project involves providing
harvested stormwater to Holden Ltd vehicle manufacturing operations and other
industrial users at Elizabeth.

With how many councils are KBR assisting in reclamation/storage/sale of water? in how many cities?  This could be the biggest pong of all

The Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group & the Justice for Hicks & Habib
Campaign Invite you to a forum:

 

HOSTAGES  OF  THE  WAR  ON  TERROR

WHEN:                      Sat. July 9

TIME:                         3.30pm (4pm start)

WHERE:                   University of Technology, Sydney

Room 13, Level 4, Building 2 (Broadway entrance)

SPEAKERS:            Terry Hicks, father of David Hicks

Mamdouh Habib, former Guantanamo Bay Prisoner & justice campaigner

Cameron Murphy, President of the NSWCCL

Sister Agnes Chong from AMCRAN

Sylvia Hale, Greens MLC

Justice John Dowd

 

CHAIRPERSON:     Raul Bassi from CBPG

HOSTED BY:           The Research Initiative on International Activism

ENTRY:                     By donation

 

 

Over 17,000 people, including minors, are now imprisoned by the US as a result
of the 'War on Terror'. More than 540 men and minors, including David Hicks, remain imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.

 

There are in fact three Australians - David Hicks, Ahmed Aziz Rafiq, and
Talaal Adree - who remain in a legal and political limbo.

 

Mamdouh habib released in January 2005, after more than 3 years of
imprisonment and torture, s subject to ongoing official harassment and
remains hostage to the whims of powerful political forces.

 

This forum will bring together legal representatives and victims of
counter-terror, along with justice campaigners and organisations in order to
share strategies for achieving justice for these men and the many other like
them.

ENQUIRIES:              Raul on 0403 037 376 or Marlene on 0401 758 871

 

Please pass this message on to your network.

 

Check today's Melbourne Sun Herald editorial (a story that's been printed across the world) on how Wood was identified by the name of his dog.  Awww..

It's a luvverly story, it's just a shame that the bloody Iraqi and American armies are contradicting Downer by saying that they found the hostages by accident on a "routine weapons search" .

It sounds like somebody forgot to give the Iraqi raid commander a copy of the script. 

Downer's attempted "clarifications" this evening have been a performance worthy of Sir Humphrey Appleby in "Yes Minister",,, beautiful "smudging", Minister D! 

Your work is a clever as Defence Minister Hill's on Halliburton. 

It would now be a fair guess that the hostage was found by Iraqi forces before Downer's plans took place, forcing the propaganda to be transferred to the new event.

HIl's polly-speak this morning, another attempt to bury the issue, suggests that instead of the Oz Government being portrayed as co-ordinated operatives with their finger on the pulse, they really haven't a clue how it happened.

Now that he's out, he's coming "home"  to Australia to shake hands with Howard and Downer  !  Amazing considering he's been living in the US for 16 years, and whose first public utterance on release was "God Bless America".

I've got a suggestion for the title of the move-

WAG THE DOUG 

I'd love to see the contingency script (that no doubt would have been written) for how to react if they found a body..... 

Honestly, folks, this is getting ridicuolous

Confusingly, the man who didn't mastermind the rescue is rewarded by becoming head of ASIO, making him, apparently, our leader in the War OnTerror. 

Apologies, to Harry M, the gig goes to "rock guru" Molly Meldrum's management.

With so few listings it's not hard to track down the address of Mark Klemens' Profile Talent Management.  His website will be up soon

 As Robert Burns said "the best laid plains of mice and men..."
Personally the moral of the story is.....look how much orchestration can go into five days.... what about ten years ?
 

The story keeps a-changin".. now Howard says there was a tip off in the middle of a search, whilet he mufti says that his information was
used improperly.  this seems to be settling as "the official version"

Except that the Iraqi raid commander had already said that he had not received a tip-off

It's thick, alright. There's so much of it building up around the Wood stories, we should export some to DPRK.

North Korea requests more fertilizer aid

Failed crops and starving millions are hardly good reasons to give up on destiny, but let's suppose Kim has succumbed to Greg Sheridan's smooth persuasion, and DPRK has decided to give up producing nukes. They want to trade their future nuke programs for fertiliser.

Think of the dividends. DPRK takes bullshit in exchange for nuke "programs". It's been tried before, and could become the dominant trade in politics. It's a lot cheaper than the real thing. Saddam bullshitted about his CBW, and nuke, programs, and got away with it for years. The Bushistos got right into the bullshit caper, and dragged the Coalition of the Gullible into a massive war. Australia put bugger-all into the effort, and has come out laughing, if Doug Wood is the icon. The US is pouring blood and treasure into a huge black hole, and is taking losses in credibility, and ruined lives. The formula seems to be: More Bullshit = Less Cost.

If the Koreans haven't taken out the patents, and cornered the market in exportable bullshit, already, I recommend a home-grown industry for Canberra. Instead of running up the expenses of proper Parliamentary Enquiries, let's just have bullshit. No more fake humility from the PM, let's have the bullshit, straight up and no frills. Costello could save his roaring attacks on a mute and inert Opposition, and lay out an easy patter of bullshit. Downer could cast his private school bullying manner to the winds of fortune, and lay into lesser beings with fragrant bullshit; they'd understand, and all concerned would be better off. Nelson could abandon the effort of pretending he doesn't want to privatise everything, and charm the legs off chancellors with bullshit.

It's hard to believe, but an Australian Government that gives up its domineering, profiteering, arrogant, narcissistic and warmongering ways, may actually be likable. If only they'd stop telling the truth. But they'd better get a move on, the evil DPRK has a head-start.

"We would never have stopped the flood of boats if we hadn't had offshore processing." Just heard on 7.30 Report. Up and running! Inspiring stuff.

WAG THE DOUG- An Eyewitness Bloug

 
Anything that can be put down now may be a useful recording 

There's been a bit of radio debate over Lake Alexandrina and the Coorong here today.  I've gone back to pull the relevant documents from the links on this blog, but unfortunately they now go nowhere.  

I can no longer find reference to the project on the net.

Bugger. 

I've found another reference.. not as good, as it doesn't mention company affiliations or the proposed PPP, but it will have to do for now, until the project is "announced"

I'll substitute it into the blog 

From Base closings hint at new air strategy
... But beyond the political turf squabble, Air National Guard issues now being considered by the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) also involve the future of the Air Force, including the ability - and possibly the intention - of the United States to project and use its military power worldwide. ...
... "The Future Total Force will allow us to provide combat capabilities in a way that only a global power can provide them: striking with little notice, anywhere in the world, with precision; moving our armed forces and their equipment to any location, at any time, to support our national objectives," Michael Dominguez, assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs, said at a recent seminar in Washington. "As the single global power, we can't be content with dominating local commons - the planet is our commons. And, for good or ill, the world looks to us to enforce the rules, maintain the security, and sustain the stability of the global commons." ...

... a force that makes it more flexible and easier to intervene overseas ...

Will that flexibility extend to the supply of fine wines to a cellar in the Adelaide Hills, and an open-ended donation to St.Peter's College?

Last week I was dining with an ex-Navy bloke and the conversation turned to New Orleans.  This bloke, withouth any prompting, mentioned how a mate of his had gone over there twice last year, before and after Katrina, to inspect the failed levees.  "Something to do with building something on the Murray" my dining companion proferred.

Sounds to me like the project is still a "goer"