From the ABC

Seek financial advice on T3 shares, Minchin says
The federal Minister charged with the task of coordinating the sale of $8 billion worth of Telstra shares says it is not his job to convince people to invest in the T3 float.

About a third of the Government's majority stake in Telstra will be sold in October.

Finance Minister Senator Nick Minchin has told Channel Nine potential investors should seek financial advice.

"I'm prevented by law from being a spruiker, I'm not a licensed financial adviser," he said.

"The message that we will be putting out there is that potential investors need to talk to their own financial advisers about whether T3 is an attractive offer for them, depending on their particular circumstances. Obviously we will seek to make it an attractive offer."

Senator Minchin has moved to reassure existing Telstra shareholders that they will not be forgotten in the next stage of the privatisation of the company.

T3 share offering is expected to be priced at half the level of those shares in the 1999 T2 float.

About two billion shares will be sold, which can be paid for in two instalments over an 18-month period.

Senator Minchin says he is working on softening the blow for existing shareholders.

"We are contemplating some form of entitlement for existing Telstra shareholders," Senator Minchin said.

From the ABC

Govt 'driving down' Telstra shares
The Federal Opposition has accused the Finance Minister Nick Minchin of being dishonest with the public over the sale of Telstra.

Senator Minchin says he cannot spruik the shares but he has suggested that his mother should buy T3 shares.

Last year a Telstra executive said he would not recommend Telstra shares to his mother and Labor's Lindsay Tanner would also be reluctant to do so.

"I don't give my mother advice on shares, I don't give anybody advice on shares but the key point here is that Nick Minchin has refused to say that these are a reasonable buy," he said.

Mr Tanner says the Government knows the sale will drive down the value of Telstra shares.

"They know what they're doing, and that is driving the share price even further down by dumping large numbers of shares into a falling market."

He says the Government has declared war on Telstra shareholders.

However, Senator Minchin says the Government will offer an entitlement to existing Telstra shareholders, some of whom bought in at double the price seven years ago.

But he maintains the Government cannot be blamed for what has happened since.

"Those who did participate in T2 did so knowingly and willingly and under no duress."

================

Gus: the Howard government has to be blamed for what happened after the sell-off the T2 shares... The Government did not reinvest into it as ANY business should, into pay-off technology. The "Howard government" (through former Telstra management practice) paid off the investors dividend with BORROWED moneys, It did not plan for the technological future, All the Howard government wanted to do was sell Telstra off quickly and let it disappear into he sunset or sunrise of telcos... It was forced to keep an eye on the ball in the bush but really DID NOT WANT TO DO SO.

Is the share price going to go up? Well my prediction here for what it's worth and I could be wrong is that it's might go down as low as $2.50 (or lower?). wiping another 30 per cent of Telstra value... The interesting point here is that Johnnee is smart and knows that by doing a limited release of shares now, two things will happen:
a) the government will not be the majority shareholder anymore and the blame will be shifted onto someone else...
b) The limited release presented at 8 billion dollars for a "third", is FIXING THE VALUE of the remaining two thirds the government holds in "future funds"...

Thus I believe there is confidence trick here (the finger on the scale, see cartoon above) that we have to accept the value held, although it could fall massively...

On his watch, Howard's watch, Telstra has already lost many billions of dollars in value, not through competition taking a slice of the market but poor foresight on what technological gymnastic telcos have to do to stay ahead. Oh what a mess...

From the ABC

Coonan defends Telstra shares decision

Communications Minister Helen Coonan has defended the way the Government is handling its majority shareholding in Telstra.
The Federal Government is selling off $8 billion worth of its shares within months, and shifting the rest to the Future Fund.
Some analysts have been predicting a [http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1725463.htm|further drop] in the company's share price this morning.
Senator Coonan says the Government will not interfere with how the remaining shares are managed and sold by the Future Fund.
"Transferring our remaining stake to the Future Fund does, in my view, very clearly resolve the Government's conflict of interest because it is an arms-length independent fund, allowing us once again to concentrate on getting the competition part right," she said.
But Austock Securities equities analyst Michael Heffernan says the Future Fund is just government ownership by another name.
"Senator Coonan can say of course 'We can't direct the Future Fund what to do'," he said.
"But the Future Fund is an arm of Government and you don't have to hit it with a sledgehammer to tell it what to do, you can jawbone the situation, as we know happens all the time."
------------------
Gus: Did Ms Coonan say "concentrate on getting the competition part-right" OR "concentrate on getting the competition-part right"?

25 September 2006

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
HUNTER HOLDEN, RYDE 

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister, Geoff Cousins, are you likely to withdraw his nomination for the Telstra board following criticism from them?

PRIME MINISTER:

No. Mr Cousins has outstanding qualifications to be a Director of Telstra. He's a very experienced businessmen, he knows telecommunications in Australia very intimately. He will bring to the position of Telstra Director a deep understanding of the industry and that's very important. It can only be a plus. 

JOURNALIST:

Are you disappointed by the display of defiance by the Telstra Board?

PRIME MINISTER:

Oh I don't react to those things. Our position's very clear, we will be voting the Commonwealth's shares in favour of Mr Cousins because he is eminently well qualified for the job, that's the reason we're putting it up, there's no other reason. He is the right man for the job.

Yesssirreee ….. so says the great business brain …. the one that knew nothing, heard nothing, saw nothing & was told nothing about the great AWB rort …. the one who claims that he hasn’t got time to read “every bit of paper” that comes into his office …. the one whose grasp of “intelligence” resulted in Australia being involved in its 1^st illegal war of aggression ….. the one whose previous mate on the Telstra board took the opportunity of abusing his position of trust as a director ….. the one who argues that government should stay at arms length & not interfere in the running of business …. a la AWB ….. the one who is spruiking the value of Telstra (for a 2^nd time), having appointed its current MD & paid him more than $8 million dollars in the 1^st year, just to drive down the company’s share price to record low levels. Still the same arrogant one …..

and then …..

JOURNALIST:

There's a US national intelligence report in the New York Times and it says the Iraq war gave birth to a new generation of Islamic radicals and the terrorist threat has grown since September 11. Look, what's your response to this new report?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well my response is that there are many theories about the origins of terrorism and the factors that bear on terrorism. One fact is absolutely certain and that is that Australia and the United States and many other countries were terrorist targets long before the military operation in Iraq. I remind you that the 88 Australians who were killed in Bali were murdered before the invasion of Iraq, and I remind you that the first attack on the World Trade Centre took place in 1993, 10 years before the military operation in Iraq.

Yesssirreee …. same old, same old ….. never answer the question that’s been asked …. & don’t you just love the rodent’s reference to there being “many theories about the origins of terrorism” …. this, just after he & his little bushit mate have told everyone willing to listen that the “war on terra” is being waged against “Islamo-fascism” & represents a “clash of civilisations” …. some things never change, including the stupidity of journalists & the gullibility of punters …. 

from the Centre for American Progress

The Hornets Nest

‘Last April, intelligence analysts completed a report entitled, "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States," a classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that "represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government." The NIE "found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism," and the "Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse." "It paints a fairly stark picture of what we all know, and that this is a movement that is spreading and gaining momentum around the world," said one official who has seen the document. "Things like the Iraq war have given the terrorists recruiting tools and places to ply their trade and a training ground." Although it cites several factors that fuel extremism, "the reference to Iraq was the main one."

The CIA's former Director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program told Harper's recently, "Iraq has galvanized jihadists; our presence is what is attracting them. We need to get out of there." A Center for American Progress/Foreign Policy Magazine survey found 87 percent of terrorism experts from across the political spectrum believed the war in Iraq has had a negative impact on our national security. The first step toward a more successful counterterrorism strategy should be a change of course in Iraq.

"It's stating the obvious," one intelligence official said of the NIE. Back in Jan. 2005, the National Intelligence Council released a report that found Iraq had "replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of 'professionalized' terrorists." Iraq, the report found, was a "magnet for international terrorist activity" and gave terrorists "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills."

Former CIA Director Porter Goss admitted the following month that "Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-U.S. jihadists." "Our policies in the Middle East fuel Islamic resentment," the former Defense Intelligence Agency director added. Other CIA and State Department studies from 2005 confirmed that "Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the prime training ground for foreign terrorists."

In 2004, former terrorism czar Richard Clarke wrote in his book, Against All Enemies, "Nothing America could have done would have provided al Qaeda and its new generation of cloned groups a better recruitment device than our unprovoked invasion of an oil-rich Arab country."

Since April 2006, the Bush administration has ignored the NIE and has consistently argued its Iraq policies have made the American people safer from terrorism. "The world is safer," Bush argued last month, "the Iraqi people are better, the cause for liberty is more advanced because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power." "America is safer. ... We are safer because we are on the offensive against our enemies overseas." "I've heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived [in Iraq]," Bush said last month, "and kind of 'we're going to stir up the hornet's nest' theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned."

When confronted with a poll showing most Americans think our actions overseas are creating more terrorists, Dick Cheney said, "I can't buy that." (Cheney also has dismissed the suggestion "that by liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein, we simply stirred up a hornet's nest.") "We will replace violent dictatorships with peaceful democracies," Bush said in Atlanta recently. "We'll make America, the Middle East, and the world more secure."

"I like to tell people when throwing the final history is written on Iraq," Bush told CNN's Wolf Blitzer yesterday, the violence "will look like just a comma." The ongoing violence belies Bush's dismissive tone. A recent U.N. report found the "number of civilians slain in Iraq reached an unprecedented level in July and August, which saw 6,599 violent deaths." "The official start to Ramadan on Monday was punctuated with violent attacks around Iraq, including an assault on a police station and the discovery of more apparent victims of sectarian death squads in the capital." The U.S. death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan now equals the number killed in the 9/11 attacks. (2,973 as of last Friday.) More than 20,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in Iraq.

As Bush continues to spin an overly optimistic view of Iraq, it is "today a broken, war-torn country." "Violence, not growing democracy, is the dominant feature of Iraqi life," the New York Times wrote this weekend. "Every Iraqi knows this. Americans need to know it too."’

From The Independent

A journey into the 'Taliban republic' where the militias rule unchallenged

By Patrick Cockburn in Diyala, north east Iraq
Published: 25 September 2006

[http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1747149.ece|Civil war] is raging through the Iraqi countryside. Sunni insurgents have largely taken control of the province of Diyala, where local leaders believe the insurgents are close to establishing a "Taliban republic".
Officials in the strategically important province - composed of a mixture of Sunnis and Shias with a Kurdish minority - have no doubt about what is happening. Lt-Col Ahmed Ahmed Nuri Hassan, a weary-looking commander of the federal police, says: "Now there is an ethnic civil war and it is getting worse every day."
At the moment, the Sunni seem to be winning.
As the violence has escalated over the past three years, it has become too dangerous for journalists to find out what is happening in the provinces outside the capital. The UN said last week that 5,106 civilians were killed in Baghdad in July and August and 1,493 in the provinces outside it.
Insurgents have cut the roads out of the capital to the west and the north. As I travelled through the provinces of this vast, war-torn country, despite keeping to the relatively calm tongue of Kurdish territory that extends through the countryside almost to Baghdad, I was keenly aware that it is not a place to make a mistake in map reading...

Read more at The Independent