The Editor,

Sydney Morning Herald.                                                                         April 12, 2008.

Declaring that the United States had averted failure in Iraq, President Bush said on Thursday that the senior commander there could “have all the time he needs” before reducing troops further.

The country's intelligence watchdog, Ian Carnell, has called on the Federal Government to make substantial changes to anti-terrorism laws, saying some of them can hinder counter-terrorism efforts by unnecessarily antagonising Muslims.

Tribunals for six detainees at Guantanamo Bay charged with war crimes related to the September 11 attacks have "hit a snag" as military defence lawyers are "in short supply."  

China sprays Rudd over Tibet human rights claims ….. 

Senior Chinese Government officials have publicly attacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd over his comments on Tibet. 

No matter what happens in Iraq, Bushit & ‘play it again’ John McCain always have an answer - 6 more months. 

When the "surge" began a year ago, they told America things would get better by September. In September they said we'd know more by spring. And this week, General Betraeus was on Capitol Hill asking for - you guessed it - 6 more months. 

The Bushit administration’s Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act redefines what a terrorist is.  

Bushit & Nouri al-Maliki want to sign a long-term security treaty.  

Both are supposedly leaders of nations with Constitutions that require treaties to be ratified by their respective legislatures & both know that ratification doesn't stand a snow-ball's chance in hell of happening. 

President Bush urged Congress on Monday to resist efforts by Democrats to pass a second economic stimulus package, saying that while the economy is “in a rough time right now,” he is confident it will begin to rebound by the end of the year.

Iraqi Prime Minister Threatens to Block Shiite Cleric's Party. 

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will pick up the pace again as he meets British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street and the Queen at Windsor Castle. 

Half way through his 18-day global tour, Mr Rudd had a brief reprieve from his heavy schedule.

Thirty pages into a memorandum discussing the legal boundaries of military interrogations in 2003, senior Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo tackled a question not often asked by American policymakers: Could the president, if he desired, have a prisoner's eyes poked out? 

For months, a debate raged at the top levels of the Bush administration over how quickly to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. But the discussion shut down soon after President Bush flew to Camp Arifjan, a dusty Army base near the Iraqi border in Kuwait, in January for a face-to-face meeting with the man whose counsel on the war he values most: Gen. David H. Petraeus. 

They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops.  

They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees.  

A March 25 George Lekakis column in The Herald Sun summarised the case: “Data collected by Bloomberg News shows that the default risk of Australian banks has never been higher, with Macquarie Bank emerging as one of the riskiest banking players in Asia. ... ‘Macquarie is the closest link in Australia to the problems that are afflicting Bear Stearns and other US investment banks,’ said David McDonald, of Shaw Stockbroking.”