Troops stay in Iraq until job completed: Howard
Prime Minister John Howard has rejected criticism from the Opposition that Australia's deployment of troops to Iraq is an open-ended commitment with no defined aim.
SURE...
Yesterday, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson announced during a surprise visit to Australian soldiers serving in Iraq that the deployment has been extended for another year.
WHY NOT ANOTHER TWO...?
Labor's defence spokesman Robert McClelland says he is concerned that Australians do not know the precise terms of the mission of the 470 troops serving in southern Iraq.
WE'RE IN THE DARK...
Speaking during a visit to India, Mr Howard said he has always left open the possibility the deployment could be extended.
ANOTHER TWO YEARS?
"There is defined aim. I mean could anybody predict when any particular military conflict, military requirement is going to finish," he said.
WHY DID WE GET INVOLVED IN THIS BIFFO IN THE FIRST PLACE?
"I mean this absurd idea from the Labor Party that we can nominate a day and a month and a year when precisely our forces are not going to be needed any longer is quite ridiculous.
QUITE RIDICULOUS WE'RE STILL THERE.
"The Labor Party knows what we're saying and the Australian people know what we're saying is that our forces will come out when their job has been completed. That day is getting closer, but I can't say when it is and I'm not going to make myself a hostage to a particular time or a particular date."
I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING MR GROCER BUT LET GUS SAY THIS, THE DAY IS COMING CLOSER WHEN OUR WHEAT SHIPMENT TO IRAQ WILL BE FULLY SECURE, THEN WE'LL STAY ON AS LONG AS THE US TROOPS STAY ON... THAT IS TO SAY WHEN THE IRAQI OIL RUNS OUT IN 2045... THEN THE JOB WILL HAVE BEEN DONE SO IF YOU WANT A DATE, THE 13TH OF AUGUST 2046 IS TICKED ON MY CALENDAR...

From the ABC

Iraq wheat deal a 'sham'
US Wheat Associates says an Australian Government plan to sell 350,000 tonnes of wheat to Iraq in the current tender round is a sham, which could backfire on Australian wheat growers.
Iraq is refusing to deal with monopoly wheat exporter AWB, forcing the Government to use three other companies.
The US wheat marketing body says questions will be raised over the deal because ABB Grain, GrainCorp and Cooperative Bulk Handling will buy Iraq's wheat from the national pool.
That export wheat pool is owned and managed by AWB.
The president of US Wheat Associates Alan Tracy says the deal looks like a front for AWB and warns Australian growers that Iraq may not like the details of the agreement.

Gus knew that...
That export wheat pool is owned and managed by AWB...
!!!!!

From the ABC

Uranium group to steer clear of Indian issue
A committee advising the Federal Resources Minister on uranium is meeting in Darwin today to draft its recommendations.

The Uranium Industry Streering Group includes representatives of Australia's biggest uranium companies, industry associations and various governments.

Its chairman John White says members have been consulting the community for the past six months on how to expand a sustainable, safe and competitive nuclear industry.

Mr White says it is too early to flesh out what the group will recommend to the Minister in August.

"It's a bit early and we shouldn't steal the thunder of the Minister for when he launches it, but we are looking at ways of improving sustainability and competitiveness and the understanding by the public of the industry," he said

But Mr White says the committee will not be looking at whether Australia should trade with India and China.

"What we do take a look at though are the international safeguards and treaties and requirements for absolute safety and compliance in terms of the lifecycle of the uranium that comes from Australia," he said.

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Gus glows in the dark:
"requirements for absolute safety and compliance in terms of the lifecycle of the uranium that comes from Australia" means that other uranium (not from Australia) can thus be diverted for extraneous military purposes but our conscience is "clear"... Excellent...

From the ABC

AWB furore raises eyebrows overseas
An international lawyer says Australia is shooting itself in the foot over its inquiry into kickback allegations against wheat exporter AWB.

Andrew Farren says lawyers who were meeting in London with a member of the UN's Volker committee were amazed at the political furore surrounding the hearing.

Mr Farren, also a former Australian diplomatic service staffer, says if AWB engineered kickbacks under the UN oil-for-food program, it was not doing anything out of the ordinary.

"Over 2,050 companies dealt with Iraq during this period and I'd say a good many of them must have done exactly the same thing because they would not have got business had they not played the game according to the way it was conducted in Iraq," he said.

"And why was it conducted that way? One, it has always been conducted that way. Two is that part of the compromise of the United Nations oil-for-food program gave the Saddam Hussein government the right to accept and refuse contracts."

Mr Farren says most countries accept that such payments are part of the way business is done in Iraq.

"As for the term kickbacks of bribery or whatever, people in the Middle East tell me that the notion of bribery is really unknown there, it's not in their languages," he said.

"What we might consider as a bribe, they regard as a conventional and normal way of conducting commerce."

Gus is amused:
"... conventional and normal way of conducting commerce...?
Ah is that so..., business with some country is helped with some palm grease... but in this instance it was under the umbrella of the United Nations that specifically insisted on no palm greasing... On top of that is this is the only way to get contracts to sell whatever, why not print money, burn the crops and get on with life and a smile... and we should let Halliburton do the deals for 90 per cent more.. Like this reservist who joined the troops in Iraq as an engineer to fix the trucks etc, and was posted as a foot soldier to chase terrorists while Halliburton private contractors were reaping more than US$140,000 for doing the job he was supposed to do...

Should we care? Should we moralize on business deals since we are being moralized in honesty by our lying rodents?

I'd say, if what Australia's doing with the Cole enquiry is shoot itself in the foot then do it with both barrels... And hit those responsible for porkying and then lead us to war...

‘Under these circumstances, any U.S. deliveries of nuclear
technology to India will constitute a significant breach of Article 1 of the
NPT, which prohibits participating states from transferring such technology to
another state if the transfers would assist or encourage the recipient's
nuclear weapons endeavours. "If this nuclear deal stands," Cirincione
declared, "the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty is going to fall."’ 

Ending
Non-proliferation

Depleted Uranium For Dummies