Whatever the Bush administration may have in store for Iran, it remains abundantly clear that by the government's own standard, if the weights and measures applied against Cuba may be applied according to the principle of universality (that is to say, without hypocrisy), the United States itself easily qualifies as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The dust had hardly started to settle before John Howard was opportunistically ‘dog-whistling’ the tragedy of the London bombings to justify our continuing involvement in the carnage of Iraq (‘We won’t budge on Iraq: Howard’, Herald, July 8).

In this ICH article, Geoffrey Holland, of the University of Sussex, points us to the original ‘smoking gun’ of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, destroyed after the 1^st Gulf War but used by George Bush & his criminal ‘coalition of the willing’ as the pretext for mounting his illegal war of aggression in 2003.

Today, more than 1,000 guests, including many prominent Australian politicians, diplomats, business people & celebrities, will attend the US Embassy in Canberra, to join in America’s 229^th Independence Day celebrations.

Arrangements have been made to hand each guest a copy of the following brochure, as they arrive.

In the aftermath of September 11, George Bush declared his ‘war on terror’.

The self-anointed nemesis of the world’s ‘evil-doers’ then led the crusade to bomb Afghanistan back to the stone-age & record opium production, before criminally conspiring to unleash the dogs of war on the people of Iraq.

100 years ago, on June 25, author & journalist George Orwell was born .....

Could you please confirm that your government will take the necessary steps to ensure that US servicemen charged with criminal offences under the laws of our country will, in future, be tried in our Courts under the terms of our criminal justice system, thereby reassuring the Australian people that your government’s professed respect for justice & the rule of law is genuine & not discretionary when it comes to citizens of the US breaking the laws of our country?

Strange notions of justice abound these days.

Di Fingleton, the ex Chief Magistrate of QLD, claims ‘that justice has been done’ as a consequence of her having won her High Court appeal.

Dear Mr Howard,

You have always fostered an image of care & concern for the members of our Armed Services, whether through speeches, fleeting visits to serving units overseas or by taking centre stage at Gallipolli.

Charges of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib notwithstanding, a top US Republican Senator has pride in the US prison system, calling it the best managed in the world.

’It's very difficult to run a perfect prison anywhere, but the United States does that better than any other country in the world’, Senate Republican Majority Whip Mitch McConnell said during his appearance on CNN's ‘Late Edition’ program last month.

Both Colin Powell, US Secretary of State & Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's closest adviser, made clear before September 11, 2001 that Saddam Hussein was no threat - to America, Europe or the Middle East.

'Hijacking Catastrophe describes the cost of empire in a way so comprehensive that it becomes clear that neo-conservatism, as a foreign policy guide, comes with a very real moral, political and financial garnishment of every American, and of American children yet unborn. The cost is shown not only as a current financial outlay or in lives unlived on the part of soldiers and marines, but in terms of an alarming debt burden, loss of domestic freedom, the growing and invasive state, a permanent tattering of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.’

So Bono & Bob Geldorf have welcomed the G7 decision to write-off US$40billion in debt owed by the world’s poorest nations (‘Debt deal just the beginning, says Geldorf’, Herald, June 13)?

This month, General Pervez Musharraf, the military dictator of Pakistan, will visit Australia.

The good general is apparently visiting our haven of freedom & democracy to sign a ‘memorandum of understanding’ between Australia & Pakistan.

As there has been no announcement by the Howard government as the nature of the ‘memorandum’, its likely contents remain open to speculation.

Congressman John Conyers is the first recipient of the BuzzFlash.com "Wings of Justice Award". "This guy's a Rocky for Constitutional Rights," we note in out citation.