The US/ Australia Status of Forces Agreement of 1963, in particular Article 8 of the treaty, has a couple of points in it that make you wonder how far US Forces could go with Hicks. For example, although Ruddock says that Hicks would not be given up to the US for violating his agreement to remain silent, citing this treaty would be a simple way of the US to haul him in again.

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[excerpts of Article 8]

In the amount of time it takes to create a new-born baby David Hicks will be walking the streets of Adelaide as a free man.

True, he'll have to re-emerge from the political womb of the Yatala detention centre, and when he does he can't speak about it for a while. He certainly won't be saying anything before the election.

After the flood of emotions I"ve been through since receiving a post purporting to be from Shelley Kovco, I'm having trouble believing that it was from the same person appearing in the reports coming out this morning. On the strength of the report commissioned by the NSW Homicide squad, Shelley has called for the military finding of death by skylarking to be overturned. Kovco's mother is calling for an inquest.

I have recieved on my other blog, from Shelley Kovco, this reply to my last post , and reprint it here so that everyone can see the hurt that I have caused.

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This September the US Air Force, with NASA providing back up, plans to begin testing their new HiFire jets at Woomera. Described as the "jewel in the crown" of scramjet technology, (HiFire is an acronym for Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation) their anticipated short-term application is much faster cruise missiles.

"He died in a US Army combat surgical hospital where he was surrounded by his mates, who draped his body in an Australian flag and with a paratrooper's beret on his chest as they said The Lord's Prayer." These words of Jake Kovco's death appeared on the Melbourne Herald Sun's website on the weekend following his death.

Who wrote this crap? Surely to any reader that's been following the Kovco Inquiry the wag-the-dog-style imagery written here is WRONG.

How do you feel about the idea that the new work at Spaceport Woomera isn't really about the conquest of space, but actually the control of other nations? What if South Australia is set to become a base from which the US could deploy troops to anywhere in the world? It may sound a little like the plot for Capricorn One, but for one man such an idea is far from impossible to achieve. He's tried something similar before and failed. His name is Richard Cheney.

Reading about the proposal for a South Australian-based nuclear reactor reminded me of another story.

Last May, a report stated that a professor had been hired by an unnamed consortium, which had intentions of building a reactor at Woomera.

Of all the places in a state to build a reactor, you would consider Woomera to be the most likely. Not only is it close to fuel supply but also a stone's throw from the launch pad.

 

Why were Downer and Nelson so coy about the Geraldton base in Question Time yesterday? Defence minister Nelson said that he wouldn't go into details " for reasons you'd understand." I don't understand why he says that.

It's not exactly classified information.. the contractors have long been crowing about the Multiple User Objective System (MUOS) that Downer says the base will be a part of.

Here's the General Dynamics Vice President:

Last night I had the strangest dream
The nations grouped to say
The leaders of the War Of Lies
shall not speak here today.
Put them into cells until
the world can make amends
Let those who work out what to do
be bonded as good friends

Perhaps some common goals may come
and thinking minds converge
while the gluttons of war go hungry
as they sing their evil dirge
Peace may be within our reach
within our heart and mind
But while these bastards rule the war
what hope can have mankind?

As the likelihood of a Federalised Murray-Darling river system increases,A previously abandoned water saving plan has been revived.

Rejected by the SA Rann Government for "political reasons" a $5 million feasibility study for a Twin Lakes water system now looks likely to go ahead under Federal Government stewardship.

KBR, written up in today's Advertiser as a "natural resources management group" have been conferring with Federal Water Minister Turnbull about the project.

Having absorbed the links between Halliburton and the attempted sabotage and takeover of the Romanian petroleum industry, let's celebrate the announcement of the Lord Of Halliburton, Vice President Cheney's visit to Australia with a look back..

The last time the US Vice President came to Australia was as the Leader Of Halliburton. Fresh from a stint as "Secretary of Defense" in which he'd outsourced a lot of military work to the private sector, Cheney was extending his scheming into the rest of the world. In the parlance that considers resources as something not yet turned into cash, there were many opportunities in Australia for "monetisation".

Crikey's Michael Pascoe has had a look at Firepower's substantiative documentation and found it, shall we say, lacking a little.

Instead of the stack of documents 30 centimetres thick indicated by CEO John Finnin, it was a much thinner file and most of it was irrelevant.

The promised tests by DEKRA and San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute weren’t about fuel efficiency and emissions, just showing Firepower’s additives didn’t change the fuel’s ratings, i.e. fuel with the additive still met engine specifications.