As Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage sticks up for the
Howard Government again, I start to wonder about him. Armitage, who has
ties to the company that provided the commercial torturers working in
Abu Graibh (including the one from Adelaide)
has attempted to draw a curtain over the Howard Government's
negligences revealed in the AWB Inquiry. Armitage says that nobody in
the USA gives a damn about Australian Government corruption.

Wow, they are just like us Aussies after all

 
As our great holy men of faith
leapt about the landscape this past week, loudly protesting the cruel &
inhuman treatment visited on refugees from West Papua by our evil neighbours,
the Indonesians, the rest of the world, including Great Britain, was busy
complaining about the inhuman treatment being meted-out by our great friend
& ally, the US, on the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay (Guantanamo
Detainee List Draws Wave Of Complaints).

‘How extraordinary. Something is
happening here that has never happened in America's history. A consensus is
sweeping the nation. Not that the war in Iraq is wrong, or that oil companies
are screwing us blue, or that the climate is going to hell, or that good-paying
jobs are being replaced by low-paying jobs, or that our national health care
system is a disgrace, or that that the rich are getting a lot richer while the
middle class gets poorer. 

 
‘Last but not least, before deciding to bomb Iran's
nuclear installations the Bush administration must seriously question whether
the intelligence on which its decision is based is reliable. Those of us who
have followed reports on the development of Iran's nuclear program know that
the warnings from American and other intelligence agencies about Tehran
building a bomb in three and five years have been made again and again — for
more than 15 years. 

 
‘It’s both fascinating and
dismaying watching the manufactured `crisis’ over Iran reach new intensity each
week. 

Iran poses no real military
threat to anyone, but listening to the Bush Administration or the US media one
would think that that Tehran was about to unleash a nuclear holocaust on the
world. 

What we are seeing is a rerun of
the administration’s massive propaganda offensive that led to the invasion of
Iraq. There is also no doubt that the Bush Administration has been planning a
major air war against Iran. 

 
Richard Clarke flags
consequences of bombing Iran 

Reporter: Maxine McKew 

MAXINE McKEW: ‘While the UN
Security Council tries to grapple with Iran's open defiance of nuclear
regulators …..’ 

The protesters who broke into Pine Gap are about to be treated as "examples" This is going to be a major warning to protesters that contravention of law will not be tolerated.

Here's tomorrow's Daily Telegraph story. 

A GROUP of anti-war
protesters claim "operational secrecy" is hindering their efforts to
defend themselves against charges of breaking into a top secret
Australian spy base.

Donna Mulhearn, 37, Jim Dowling, 50, Adele Goldie, 29, and Bryan Law,
51, have faced a committal hearing in Alice Springs Magistrates Court,
charged with breaking into the Pine Gap spy base in central Australia.

‘Thirteen years ago the federal government of the United
States ended its altercation with a group of peaceful religious separatists – a
conflict the government had initiated – by driving a tank through the Branch
Davidians’ home and church, pumping the interior with poisonous gas, and
keeping the fire engines at a distance while the building and the people inside
burned. 

For many Americans, Waco
represented the nightmare their government had become. In those days, it was
the right that spoke out against unchecked government power, erosions of the
Bill of Rights, and the imperial executive. Such criticism was tempered in its
radicalism over the next decade, for a variety of reasons.

 
‘"I listen to all voices, but mine is the final
decision," he said. "And Don Rumsfeld is doing a fine job. He's not
only transforming the military, he's fighting a war on terror. He's helping us
fight a war on terror. I have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld. 

"I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I
know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And
what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."’ 

thanks
for the “flim-flam” maxine …… 

Oil Price Increase
Prompts Inflation Fears - 7:30 Report

Oil prices driven up by supply
issues, demand issues, speculation, the Iran crisis, global warming, 4 wheel
drive purchases, inclement weather, the untimely death of Kerry Packer, the UN
oil-for-food scandal, Brokeback Mountain, junior’s “war on terra”, Easter &
of course, my old Aunt Mary’s oil heater.

The Center for American
Progress reports …..  

‘In the first three months of
2006, the Bush administration has failed to achieve substantial progress on the
security and reconstruction of Iraq, even though there have been some
achievements in forming a democratic government. Thousands of U.S. soldiers and
diplomats continue to serve their country bravely but they remain tied to the
stay-the-course policies of President Bush and his top policy and political
leadership. Judging the administration’s Iraq policy as a whole, the Center for
American Progress gives the Bush administration a “D” for its performance in
the first quarter of 2006. 

Has the AWB Inquiry asked the Iraqis for an itemised list of who Saddam paid
bribes to. It would be interesting to know if any portion of the
kickbacks might have "boomeranged"

{extract from New Zealand Herald, 1/5/2004]

An
Iraqi official said today there was a list of cash bribes made by
Saddam Hussein's government to journalists, politicians and groups in
connection with the US$67 billion ($108.92 billion) UN-run oil-for-food
programme.

Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi
Governing Council, said Iraqi officials combing Saddam's files had not
decided whether to release the list as part of a burgeoning scandal
over the defunct programme.

"We have a list of cash paid to
journalists, personalities, groups and parties," Talabani told a news
conference after conferring with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan over
an Iraqi interim government.

Ms Felicity Johnston, the UN
customs officer who confesseed that if she had read AWB contracts
lodged with the UN prior to her taking of the job, has been strongly
assertive of Australia's accountabilty. Her opinion will now be recorded as testimony
to the Cole Inquiry. Could it be that Mr Agius sees in Ms Johston a
voice that will be credible to the Australian public in explaining the
Howard cabinet's negligence?

Ms Johnston also has the appropriate credentials to explain the ethical dilemma of AWB's situation:

Jonothan
Holmes:So really it’s quite clear that what AWB should have done right
from the beginning is reported these negotiations to the United Nations
and asked them for guidance?

Felicity
Johnston:J: Yes that’s correct. What they should have done as soon as a
company was picked out for them for transportation by the government
(of Iraq), as soon as the prices were suggested by the government, it
was pretty clear that Alia was a government-sponsored institution and
they should have sought advice. Now perhaps people might have got
confused, perhaps people might unintentionally have been in breach of
the sanctions but as soon as the questions started to come from the UN,
“Is there anything that you’re doing,” however the question was
couched, “is there anything that you’re doing which might involved a
payment to the government of Iraq?” I think that was the time to deal
with it candidly, because no one would have prosecuted them if they had
done something inadvertently - but did they do it inadvertently? – I
don’t believe so.

‘Tony Blair will return from his Easter
break this week to face a police investigation into the most damaging political
scandal of his premiership.  

Senior government figures are expected to be
interviewed by police officers this week over the "cash for honours"
crisis and insiders said last night the Prime Minister was being briefed by
lawyers who believe he may have to make a statement in the ongoing
investigation.