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edging closer to darkness .....

‘While al-Qaeda and its ilk are clearly terrorist organisations, even if Satan ran their operations that would not alter the fact that some people accused of terrorism offences will be innocent. But while lip service may still be paid to the presumption of innocence, it's scorned in practice.

Australia's acceptance of the detention of its citizen, David Hicks, by the US for five years in Guantanamo Bay, and his trial by a military commission almost universally rejected by legal authorities as an unjust process, is based on a view of him as a terrorist threat. For that reason alone, he is subject to a regime that would be unacceptable for any person accused of any other crime (and any US citizen, terrorist or not).

The direction in which this is taking us is illustrated by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock's false distinction between torture and sleep deprivation. He says coercion is acceptable to obtain evidence from terrorist suspects. Heaven help the wrongly accused innocent in such a system. Because the law no longer applies equally to everyone, everyone is less protected by the law.

This is a slope along which South Africa descended to legalised brutality against not only terrorists but "sympathisers" (a net that could snare almost any anti-apartheid activist). Apartheid was an abomination, rotten and corrupt at heart, and its rulers could never trust in justice as their defence. The old South Africa was in a different league of lawless law, but Australia and allied nations have edged closer to the example of those dark days than democracies ever should.’

Edging Closer To Darkness

blinding justice .....

The Bush administration is seeking to sharply restrict communication between defence lawyers & inmates at Guantanamo Bay prison. The administration is seeking approval to control the numbers of lawyer visits, the topics that can be discussed & the types of information that can be exchanged through the mail.

has anyone seen johnnee .....

Press release, 25/10/200 

Ref.: TG ASA 12/2006.001

Prime Minister the Hon. John Howard MP
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

25 October 2006

Dear Prime Minister,

An Australian citizen, David Hicks, is languishing in a legal limbo in a US-run detention camp where he has been detained for five years, without charge or trial. That detention facility is Guantánamo Bay prison camp.

Prime Minister, as a leader of the democratic world that is challenged with addressing the threat of terrorism while also upholding the rule of law and respect for human rights, you have the duty to end this travesty of justice.

Bring Hicks home. Try him here, in Australia. If the Australian justice system, based on the rule of law and international human rights principles, can find no ground or evidence on the basis of which to prosecute him, then David Hicks must be released. It is that simple.

The camp in Guantánamo Bay is a legal black hole designed to put detainees outside the rule of law and the US Administration beyond the rule of law. It must be shut down. The detainees held there should either be released or, if they are suspected of having committed a recognizably criminal offence, they should be charged immediately and tried in fair proceedings.

Amnesty International is campaigning for the closure of Guantánamo Bay and disclosure of all other secret prison camps run by the US Administration in the name of counter-terrorism. Governments and opinion leaders around the world are increasingly acknowledging that Guantánamo Bay prison camp furthers no cause other than to fuel discontent and divide communities in a way that plays into the hands of extremists.

Your government has been resoundingly silent on the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, indifferent to the plight of fellow Australian David Hicks, and too ready to concede on the absolute ban against torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Sacrificing human rights in the name of terrorism is short-sighted. History shows that true security comes through respect for the international standards of human rights.

I ask you to:

·         bring David Hicks home to either face prosecution or be released;

·       oppose the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment; and

·                     call for the closure of the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay.

I call on you further to show the leadership that will demonstrate that Australia is indeed the land of a "fair go", where no one is denied justice, whatever their alleged crime, and where Australian values are the global values of human rights and the rule of law.

On 2 November, the day on which I will have the honour to receive the Sydney Peace Prize, Amnesty International will launch a public appeal to bring David Hicks home to be tried or released. Our action will be a concrete recognition of the link between peace, justice and human rights.

I call on you to heed this appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Irene Khan
Secretary General

Note to Editors:

Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, will be in Sydney, Australia, to deliver the 2006 Sydney Peace Prize Lecture on 1 November and to receive the 2006 Sydney Peace Prize on 2 November.

Singing on empty

From Auntie ABC

[http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1776636.htm|Oils attack music industry] over ignoring political activism

Winning was not the only challenge at last night's ARIA music awards, with legendary Australian rockers Midnight Oil using their Hall of Fame induction to attack the music industry for its lack of political activism.
The band urged today's new talent to sing about issues that matter.
Bono from supergroup U2 honoured Midnight Oil with an introduction to their award.
"If Midnight Oil could mean any one idea, it would have to be that Australia could be more, for more people, and that the only obstacle to that is indifference," Bono said.
The Oils bemoaned the seemingly lack of political activism in music today, with former band member Rob Hirst saying the industry might be guilty of ignoring upcoming players. "Maybe complaint rock is still being written, but ignored by an industry hypnotised by get-famous-fast TV shows," he said.
---------------
Gus: despite my old-age, I know a few modern bands that push a "social" agenda with which they would have made a killing on the charts back in the seventies... But as this fellow Rob Hirst says, lame fame is the name of the game... And as Gus blurts again aloud here: the mosh-media is mostly interested in promoting singing tits and bums rather than serious tunes with the hard message that is truly needed. Mind you, the need for good lyrics and catchy tune wouldn't go astray in this red rag waving area. The "Oils" did it to a point but that was ten years go. Since then, most of the beautiful — some ugly ones too — tunes belong to the dishwaters of talented curvy or screaming nobodies with an empty brain and a boom box, all designed to fill a few bank accounts in Switzerland ...
So, I'm waiting eagerly for an explicit full frontal song by Kylie Minogue, about the horrors of wars, global warming and the duplicitist pollies, such as spruiking Johnneebaby. That would really shake the apple tree. I can only hope.

darker picture

From the new York Times

U.S. Is Said to Fail in Tracking Arms for Iraqis

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: October 30, 2006
The American military [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/world/middleeast/30reconstruct.html?ei=5094&en=5adc996871893525&hp=&ex=1162184400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all|has not properly tracked hundreds of thousands] of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces and has failed to provide spare parts, maintenance personnel or even repair manuals for most of the weapons given to the Iraqis, a federal report released Sunday has concluded.
The report was undertaken at the request of Senator John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and who recently expressed an assessment far darker than the Bush administration’s on the situation in Iraq.

circumventing due process ...

‘The Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce has broken ranks with the Prime Minister, John Howard, and called for David Hicks to be brought home from detention in Guantanamo Bay.

Senator Joyce issued the call after he attended an address in Brisbane by Mr Hicks's American military lawyer, Major Michael Mori. Senator Joyce said due process of law was not being followed in the case, and if proper legal processes meant Mr Hicks had to be sent home "then Mr Hicks has to be sent home".

He also said if the military commission process was not good enough for British or American citizens "it should not be good enough for Australians".’

Nationals Senator Raises Concerns With PM About Detention Of Hicks