Sunday 24th of November 2024
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when the rats are paying the piper....

As Peter Dutton, Coalition media and the security apparatus ramp up efforts to censor the internet, Michael West checks in on anti-China think tank, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. 

Self-described as “Australia’s top security research institute”, ASPI has managed to eke out one report on Gaza since the Hamas attacks of October 7 while churning out 50 reports on China. On that metric alone, ASPI’s raison d’etre is clear, but that has not stopped the think tank from parading itself as “Australia’s top security research institute”.

 

Be alarmed not alert! ASPI, a Seven ‘exclusive’ and a think tank gravy train

    by Michael West 

 

ASPI’s new chief, Justin Bassi, who replaced Peter Jennings at the helm of the hysterically anti-China think tank last year, recently dropped a line to Seven West Media’s Nightly tabloid claiming ASPI was a vital organ of Australia’s national security. 

It will be interesting to see how this claim plays now that there is an independent review into the funding of think tanks afoot. 

The inquiry has so far received barely any publicity at all. Chaired by former Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Secretary, Peter Varghese, the Independent Review of Commonwealth funding for strategic policy work has managed to jag just one mention by the Canberra Times and a Google News search reveals mainstream media has kept schtum. 

The review, announced by the Prime Minister’s Department in February, was set up to determine whether a host of think tanks bankrolled by the Commonwealth are delivering value for money, and whether their research is kosher. Varghese appears not to be a stooge, and the only think tank up in arms about his review is the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

It maintains its line of being an independent research think tank, but ASPI’s Executive Director Justin Bassi may have let the cat out of the bag, lending his voice to a tabloid media report to boast ASPI is a vital cog in Australia’s national security machinery. Which is it? Vital cog or independent think tank?

Ironically, DFAT used to be the final word on foreign affairs in Australia, but these days, you barely hear from them, while ASPI is heard wailing almost daily in the media about the threat of Chinese militarism.   

Vital organ or just organ?

On April 10, Seven West Media’s The Nightly — a free tabloid newspaper and website — ran an “exclusive” story that ASPI had been the victim of Chinese hackers. Bassi is quoted, “[ASPI is a] national security research institute [that] identifies security threats that emanate from China and have the backing of the Chinese Government”. This hardly fits APSI’s constant fiction that it is independent and non-partisan.

Further, it’s confirmation from Bassi that his taxpayer-funded raison d’etre is not to provide meaningful input into the strategic policy debate. Rather, ASPI exists to do a massive hit job on Australia’s biggest trading partner. 

Along the way, it collects nearly $5 million annually from foreign governments, mainly the US, and a host of tax-dodging multinational backers, all with a vested commercial interest in curtailing China’s rise as a technological and economic superpower. 

Waving, not drowning

The only named source in The Nightly “Exclusive” is Bassi himself, which begs the question how does any credible news outlet accept that someone is a “victim” when the only source for that claim is the alleged victim himself? In March, the same organ claimed ASIO agents and AFP officers were being surveilled as they sipped jasmine tea at a Chinese-owned café in Canberra.  

As ASPI was so easily hacked by a bunch of Chinese students, what does it say about the integrity of ASPI’s substantially government-funded Cyber, Technology & Security centre? For ASPI, the answer will be clear … more funding!

Adding to the absurdity of this story was the claim that it actually had the name of one the hacking ringleaders but would not publish it in order to protect his identity. The three screenshots of Chinese documents it provides are entirely nondescript and bear no semblance to the supposedly translated quotes in the story. 

Bassi doesn’t cite any actual compromised data, and if ASPI were really a think tank, would it not publish all of its reports anyway? 

On a perusal of ASPI’s financials, it would seem the only real secret ASPI keeps is how, as a Commonwealth company, it doles out $1.5 million to consultants without disclosing who these people are and what they were paid.

ASPI’s greatest ally in parliament is Senator James Paterson, the LNP’s “dial-a-quote” for national security alarmism. He told The Australian any move to temper taxpayer subsidies for Sinophobia “would be interpreted as punishment of ASPI for its criticism of the Chinese government.” 

ASPI’s China commentary bears no hallmarks of constructive criticism, rather obsession. According to its website, in total it has published some 355 China reports and articles – almost one a week since the Covid-19 outbreak – a strike rate which hardly tells a story of rigorous peer-reviewed research.   

The Canberra Times they are a-changin’

With its credibility on the line, and Bassi’s faux pas admission that ASPI is getting paid to do the government’s national security bidding, last week he took to the Canberra Times to set the record straight, that ASPI had indeed been hacked by the Chinese. And where was his proof? 

He cited The Nightly tabloid report for which he was the only source.

The glaring omission in his Canberra Times piece was his failure to repeat his previous claim that his organisation was working hand in glove with Australia’s national security apparatus.  

In an oped he doubled down on the ASPI line that it’s independent from government and presented a laundry list of the evils of China, every one of which was sourced directly from an ASPI report.

So blurred in ASPI minds is the line between fact and propaganda that Bassi claimed a 2022 ASPI report “was used by the Australian government in the development of foreign interference laws”. Those laws were enacted five years before that report was produced. 

The report was “peer-reviewed” by five people; four of them work for ASPI and only one is an academic, with substantial links to US government funded China research. Little wonder they’re concerned about the current Varghese Review.   

Kosher research or porky pies?

The view of some sponsors – the Israeli government, its missile maker Rafael Systems and Israeli lobby group the Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), which has partnered with ASPI events – is no doubt that its research is completely kosher. 

The utterly disingenuous IDF inquiry into the tracking and murder of seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, was headed up by Yoav Har-Even; he’s the CEO of ASPI sponsor Rafael Systems. Not a peep from ASPI on those needless deaths and many others. 

Since the October 7 Hamas attacks and Israel obliterating 34,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, ASPI has published one solitary report on Gaza. Unsurprisingly, it lays the blame for the conflict squarely at the feet of Hamas (ergo, all Palestinians are aggressors) and says it’s the Israelis who “live in perpetual fear… [of] being attacked and wiped off the earth”.

Its sponsor, the Israel weapons contractor Raphael, can hardly be displeased with this level of forensic deep-dive analysis.

In the timeless tradition of, “Look, over there!” the ASPI propaganda machine has spewed out almost 50 anti-China reports since October. This doesn’t include the numerous media appearances by ASPI apparatchiks, particularly in the Murdoch-owned The Australian that’s dialled into ASPI nearly 40 times since in the past five months. 

ASPI is hardly likely to be wiped off the earth by the Varghese Review, but it can’t escape Bassi’s clumsy admission that it effectively exists only to prop up the anti-China hawks in our government, that of other nations and of its commercial benefactors, all determined to thwart the rise of China, even at the cost of a major war. 

https://michaelwest.com.au/aspi-be-alarmed-not-alert/

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

futile trousers....

Audits, allegations of copying, an emotional press conference, confused fans - the latest controversy shaking the K-pop world has it all.

At the centre of it all - popular group NewJeans, the woman who is their creative director, and one of South Korea’s biggest, most influential record labels.

The infighting between Hybe, the entertainment giant behind the success of BTS, and the head of its subsidiary label Ador has gripped the country for days now. 

The tension peaked on Thursday when Min Hee-jin, CEO of Ador, gave a two-hour press conference where she sobbed several times and used expletive language.

"It's not me who betrayed Hybe, it's Hybe that betrayed me," the K-pop veteran said in the live-streamed event.

"I don't know what you think, but I wanted to focus on NewJeans."

Who are NewJeans?

Formed by Ador in 2022, NewJeans is a five-member girl group - Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein - whose ages range from 16 to 20.

Their music, which has been described by critics as fusing the old-school R&B sounds of bands like TLC with playful and hooky melodies, grabbed the attention of the K-pop world and beyond. 

Their first single Attention topped Korean charts right after their debut in July. And their hit song SuperShy made multiple "best of the year" lists at the end of 2023, including those compiled by Rolling Stone, NME and Billboard Magazine.

The group has cultivated a big following - its official Instagram account has nearly 12 million followers. They are also becoming a new favourite of investors. The group and its members have been appointed ambassadors of several global fashion brands. 

In April, they even replaced K-pop sensation Blackpink as the face of the tourism board advertisements at Incheon airport - Korea's biggest. 

How did the controversy start?

It all started on Monday, when Hybe announced that it was launching an audit on its subsidiary label Ador and its executives including Ms Min. Hybe also called on her to step down.

Hybe, which represents massive K-pop groups such as BTS and Seventeen, is South Korea's largest music firm. Ador was founded in 2021 as an independent label under the company and NewJeans is the only group it manages.

According to local media, Hybe accused Ms Min and others of plotting to go independent and take over control of the label, as well as leaking confidential information to attract investors.

Ms Min owns an 18% stake in Ador and Hybe owns an 80% stake. The other 2% is owned by other top executives in Ador.

Ms Min denied the allegations and had accused Hybe of launching another girl group Illit that was copying NewJeans' music and appearance.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98zyq3g8xyo

 

MEANWHILE IN THE REAL WORLD:

 

Not in my name    By Roger Chao

 

In this quiet hour, I summon words, a humble man amidst shadows long,
To speak of wounds not my own, to voice a plea so loud and strong.
For streets that haunt with harried silence, for whispers in the dark,
For the women who carry nightmares in the hollows of their hearts,
I say, not in my name, shall this darkness be just fate.

Not in my name, will the long night prowl with fears that speak untold,
Where sisters, mothers, daughters, wives, brave the icy streets so cold.
Each step a story of caution, each shadow a stifling cage,
In their eyes, an unshackled resilience, a silent but building rage.
Not in my name, shall safety be a treasure locked by sun’s last light.

A father’s heart, a brother’s vow, to guard and cherish life so dear,
Yet, lurking in the darkness’ shroud, a haunting, pervasive arc of fear.
For every woman who dares to dream, of simple walks in moon’s embrace,
Finds not the peace of starlit streams, but wary steps she must retrace.
Not in my name, shall fear strip their freedoms bare.

From park to bus stop, from alley to the open market’s sprawl,
There’s a vast trembling unspoken, a siege without a single wall.
Why should freedom wear curfews, tied down by heavy cords of threat?
Why must half the world’s hearts beat loud and their foreheads bead with sweat?
Not in my name, shall freedom’s price be paid with fear.

Hear the voices rising now, a chorus grown too loud to mute,
Of those refused their evening walks, a jog, a simple forest route.
See the power in their marching, in their signs, and in their tears,
Resisting the violent silences that have spanned through many years.
Not in my name, shall the violent claim their gruesome deeds are just.

Oh, how can it be in age so bold, where justice claims its ever reach,
That women young and women old, must cautiously move and freedom beseech?
It is not just, it is not right, this burden heavy they must bear,
To shrink beneath the veil of night, feeling eyes that linger, stare.
Not in my name, shall this blight persist its dawn.

From my own steps, unburdened, free, I wander paths both far and near,
Yet ponder deep this irony, that half the world moves gripped with fear.
What creed or colour matters not, when shadows threaten, chilled to the bone,
For we are kin, this truth forgot: a woman’s fight for safety – our own.
Not in my name shall this imbalance further propagate.

Let not the blame rest upon the shoulders of those who merely live,
Who seek only the liberty that the light of day can give.
The burden is on us as men, men to stand, and men to hear,
To hold our brothers accountable, to lend our voice clear.
Not in my name, shall passivity be our spirit’s stance.

I call upon my brothers, to break the chains we see and don’t see,
To challenge each cruel whisper, each injustice, with fervent plea.
For in our silence, we speak volumes; in inaction, we consent,
To the perpetuation of fear, of loss, the freedoms rent.
Not in my name, shall I walk this path in silence, nor in blame.

This is our moment, forged in the glowing courage of those who dare
To reclaim their nights, their rights, to breathe free the sweet evening air.
Together, let us rewrite the longstanding rules of night and day,
Where every soul can wander free, where strident fear dissolves away.
Not in my name, not in my name, shall this world remain the same.

To walk in peace, to jog alone, should not be acts of courage told,
But everyday by sunlight shown, in stories both bright and bold.
So here I stand, a man, a shield, against the dark that preys unchecked,
Until the streets at night are healed, with dignity and respect.
Not in my name, shall women grip their keys between braced knuckles.

Thus, I stand before you, a man amidst the now turning tide,
To declare, through poetic lines, where my convictions do abide.
For every single woman’s right, for every life restrained by dread,
I’ll raise my voice, I’ll fight their fight and not leave a word unsaid.
Not in my name, shall the shadows rule; we demand the dawn.

So I will stand, and I will call, and raise my voice in this grim tide,
To challenge night, to build a wall of solidarity -wide.
For every time a woman shrinks within herself to hide her fear,
A piece of our humanity sinks, lost within this frontier.
Not in my name, shall women glance in fear o’er their track.

I stand beside, not in front, my voice a quiet but growing hum,
For this is not my story to tell, but I will not be numb.
The dark history of battles, scored deep in silent welling tears,
Calls me to a solemn duty that transcends all gendered fears.
Not in my name, shall women carry the weight of blame.

For too long, the lingering night has claimed them, a shadowy domain,
Where whispered threats and clutching fears form an oft recurring chain.
Each news cycle spins its stories, the headlines all too stark and clear:
Another one assaulted, raped, more violence for women to fear.
Not in my name, shall these grievous events stir.

We talk of change, we talk of rights, in buildings both large and small,
But talk must move to action now, to change this once and for all.
It’s not just about the alleys, or the dangers lurking late,
It’s about the homes, the offices, where power seals their fate.
Not in my name, shall this abomination pursue its prey.

No more, they say, and no more, I echo, standing by their side,
No more using strength to smother, or secrets to further divide.
No more culture that dismisses, no more brushing off the pain,
No more turning blind eyes, allowing these horrors to remain.
Not in my name, not in my name, not in my name.

Let this refrain, not in my name, echo through the streets and time,
A call to change, from every man, and in every single clime.
May it carry the weight of justice, may it break the chains of fear,
May it be heard, may it be lived, until no one must adhere.
Not in my name, no, not in my name, shall we permit this night to last.

With every single line penned, with every chorus that we recite,
Let us mend the fabric torn, of humanity’s vast, vibrant site.
For all the world’s daughters and sisters, for justice, bright and bold,
Not in my name, shall the story of fear ever be retold.
Not in my name, not in my name, with these words, I stake my claim.

Not in my name, not in my name, not in my name.

https://johnmenadue.com/not-in-my-name/

 

it's time for being earnest.....

THALES.....

Police in three countries searched the offices of French defencecompany Thales this week over suspected corruption involving arms sales abroad, notably to Brazil, a judicial source said Saturday.

Officers in France, the Netherlands and Spain carried out the searches between Wednesday and Friday, the source told AFP, confirming a report from French broadcaster BFMTV.

The police searches were triggered by two separate investigations, said the source.

The first, opened at the end of 2016, into suspected corruption of a foreign official, criminal association and money laundering involved the sale of submarines and the construction of naval base in Brazil.

The second, opened in June 2023, concerned similar offences linked to the sale of military and civilian equipment abroad, the source added.

Thales and its lawyer, contacted for comment, have so far not responded.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240629-thales-offices-in-three-countries-searched-in-corruption-investigation

 

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elbit systems.....

 

Elbit: how Australia helped finance the IDF killing of Zomi Frankcom and the slaughter in Gaza

 

by Michael West

 

The weapons company whose drones killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom in Gaza has been washing taxpayers’ money into Israel with cheap loans and large dividend payments, on top of its related party payments for weapons contractors. Michael West reports.

Australia is effectively financing the genocide of Palestinians and the slaughter of foreign aid workers with public money.

MWM has analysed the past four years of financial statements for Elbit Systems of Australia Pty Ltd. This company is directly owned by Elbit Systems Ltd in Israel; it is the country’s largest weapons maker. Its drones were deployed in the precision missile strikes on the World Kitchen Central aid convoy in Gaza, which killed seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.

Among the findings: 

  • Elbit’s Australian company board is stacked with Israeli Elbit executives
  • Elbit Australia has paid almost $17 million in dividends to its Israel parent company over the past two years ($6.9m in 2023 and $10m in 2022).
  • $1.5m was given to Elbit Australia last year in government grants ($1.3m in the year before)
  • Last year, Elbit Australia made a loan of $3.5m to its parent company or a company controlled by its parent at interest rates of 4.77%. Home loan mortgages average more than 6% and business loans at least twice that.

These revelations come at a time when the ‘Binskin Inquiry’ report into the death of Zomi Frankcom is about to be made partially public. As the 100-day mark since the killing of Frankcom by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) passed last week, a story was leaked to Guardian Australia which indicated that only part of the Binskin findings about “the incident” would be made public.

In another leak today to Rupert Murdoch’s pro-Israel The Australian, it was made clear that no fault would be laid at the feet of Israel for what was a ‘mistake’ in the fog of war.

This despite clear evidence of three separate missile attacks on a convoy of World Kitchen Central aid vehicles, which were clearly marked.

The financial picture of Australia’s military and financial support for the regime of Benjamin Netanyahu is even bleaker when you consider that the government gave Elbit a $917m weapons contract earlier this year; and our sovereign wealth fund under Peter Costello, the Future Fund has become an investor in Elbit Systems.

 

The board of Elbit Systems Australia comprises Acting Chair Kym Osley, who is ex-Air Force, Israeli Boaz Cohen, the Senior Vice President Land Systems for Elbit Systems, Haim Delmare, an Israeli 20-year veteran executive of parent group Elbit veteran, Joseph Gaspar, the chief financial officer of parent Elbit Systems, Dr Karen Stanton the chair and defence industry advocate, Jaimie Hatcher – formerly of Defence now defence industry, and company director Roger Powell.

For a multinational company with revenues of $23m last year, down from $55m (they are likely to rise sharply this year since the Gaza campaign began last October) the dividends to the parent group in Israel are high – $6.9m last year and $10m in 2022.

After “marketing, innovation and bids proposals” expenses of $3.7m last year and general admin expenses of $2.7m and staff costs, they managed to eke out a profit of just 19k. So tax paid is negligible. It was $666k the year prior. The cashflow statement shows a $1.3m tax credit last year.

 

And government grants?

What is particularly unusual however are the government grants and the related party loan. Why would Elbit Australia be lending money to its Nasdaq listed parent company in Israel? And why at an interest rate just marginally above the Reserve Bank cash rate at 4.35%?

Related party contract work is in the tens of millions of dollars each year, as is expected with these kinds of operations and the company has also been claiming the R&D tax benefit.

Revenue peaked at $93m in 2021Rp contract work 21m in 2021

In the leak to The Australian today about the Binskin Inquiry report, 

“Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said he would not be surprised if Air Chief Marshal Binskin’s report confirmed that the IDF had “a robust system of investigating itself”, and that the IDF had “learned from the mistakes made in the air strike to ensure such an incident should never happen again”.

“The IDF is professional and moral, as many high-ranking officers from other Western defence forces have found after working with the IDF,” Dr Rubenstein said. “Tragic accidents do happen in war, regardless of who is fighting, but it is important to thoroughly investigate all the circumstances and take steps to do everything possible to ensure such accidents aren’t repeated, as the IDF’s independent investigation has done.”

 

https://michaelwest.com.au/elbit-how-australia-financed-the-idf-killing-of-zomi-frankcom-and-the-gaza-slaughter/

 

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