27 July 2006

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
INTERVIEW WITH LIAM BARTLETT
RADIO 6PR, PERTH

BARTLETT:

But what about the other end, what about the other end, what about any chance of any sort of regulation?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well you mean price control?

BARTLETT:

Well I mean it's biting into the back pocket of virtually every Australian.

‘Unfortunately, politics has replaced justice in the case of David Hicks.

David has been detained for four and a half years without trial, and has been in isolation for the past four months. He sits in a concrete room for 23 hours a day. He is allowed one book per week and one hour outside his cell for exercise in what best could be described as a large dog kennel, and to shower.

I will visit him shortly to see if there is any improvement in his living conditions since the recent announcement that part of the Geneva Conventions will apply to David. We have tried in the past to get David working on his high school certificate which is something that David has put his heart into. The conditions that he is kept in make this difficult to accomplish.

 

18th century: The German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn initiates a Jewish secularism, which focused on Jewish national identity.

1862: The German Jew Moses Hess publishes the book Rome and Jerusalem where he called for a return of Jews to Palestine. He also said that Jews would never succeed by assimilating into European societies.

1881: Pogroms of Russia result in heavy emigration to USA. Some few Jews even emigrate to Palestine, as they are motivated by religious ideas of Palestine as Jewish homeland.

From What Does It Mean

 

July 27, 2006

US Orders Media Blackout On Troop Movements As Syria Prepares To Attack Israeli Forces

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Russian Subscribers

Russian Military Analysts are reporting today that the United States Military Leaders have issued an order to their propaganda media outlets to immediately cease reporting on American Troop Movements, and which these reports state are ‘massive’.

This latest American move is in apparent response to the expansion of the present Middle East war, and which many are calling World War III, with Syria having issued an ‘ultimatum’ to the United States and Israel to an immediate halt to the fighting and an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, and which neither action the Americans or Israelis are likely to heed.

In response to both American and Israeli failing to heed this ultimatum "Syrian President Bashar Assad has placed the military on alert and ordered Syrian infantry commandos, armored units and anti-aircraft batteries to launch preparations for an Israeli strike" , and as reported by the Middle Eastern Online News Service today.

International talks aimed at averting a much wider war have also failed in Rome today as President Putin has likewise ordered Russia’s Military to its highest alert status in 5 years as many Kremlin Analysts predict that the Untied States and Israel are indeed intent upon the remaking of the entire Middle East through their combined war efforts.

Iranian Military Forces are likewise on their highest alert status as attacks upon them are also expected and to which the American President, fearing an expected attack upon US Forces operating in Shiite controlled areas of Iraq, has ordered them to the Sunni controlled areas around Baghdad, and which is currently embroiled in its worst violence since the outset of this war.

In an attempt by the United States to keep Russian Military forces from entering a larger Middle East War, the American backed puppet regime in Georgia has launched a sudden attack upon Abkhazia putting their US Backed Forces in direct conflict with Russian Peacekeepers.

The United States has likewise sought to neutralize Egyptian Military Forces from entering this conflict by allowing their puppet regime in Ethiopia to invade Somali in an attempt to destabilize the entire Horn of Africa region, and which has apparently succeeded in Egypt’s President-For-Life Mubarak, and another puppet regime supported by the US, announcing today his nations intent not to become involved in this present conflict.

As the World today drifts ever closer towards the abyss of Total War, the American people themselves are not being allowed to know of these serious escalation maneuvers by their Military Leaders.  But upon this wider war being started, and the shutting off to the American people of oil from the Middle East, Venezuela and Russia they will soon know the utter folly of this most dangerous path they have allowed themselves to be led upon.

US Orders Media Blackout On Troop Movements As Syria Prepares To Attack Israeli Forces

When U.S. musicians the Dixie Chicks caused a furore by apologising for coming from the same state as George Bush, the groundswell of public support for them suprised record companies and politicians alike.  To be "Dixie Chicked" became a political euphemism for not underestimating the public's support for an alternative point of view to that proposed by a regime.

Audiences rallied behind the band as a way of protesting their government's military activities, and anti-war activists world wide were given fresh faith in people's desire to live in peace.

Reading today that group is  coming to Adelaide has given me an idea.   Let's apologise to them for electing John Howard to support their warmonger of a leader.   The message would be heard loud and clear.

Sometimes music can unite people in a way that nothing else can... even Country and Western.

Rudd gifts Howard a goat .....

Prime Minister John Howard has been given a goat for his 67th birthday today.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says the goat will go to help people in Sudan as a "gift-in-kind" through an aid organisation.

He says while he was in Sudan recently he was told people needed either goats or donkeys.

 

From Human Rights Watch 

Abusive Techniques Were Authorized, Soldiers' Complaints Ignored

(New York, July 23, 2006) – Torture and other abuses against detainees in
U.S. custody in Iraq were authorized and routine, even after the 2004 Abu
Ghraib scandal, according to new accounts from soldiers in a Human
Rights Watch report released today. The new report, containing first-hand
accounts by U.S. military personnel interviewed by Human Rights Watch,
details detainee abuses at an off-limits facility at Baghdad airport and at
other detention centers throughout Iraq.

‘American officials are very good at vernacular descriptions, but lousy at history and political reality in the Middle East. As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sets off Sunday on her short trip to a Middle East that is increasingly engulfed in violent confrontations and political turmoil, she has described the massive destruction, dislocation and human suffering in Lebanon as an inevitable part of the "birth pangs of a new Middle East".

From my perspective here in Beirut, watching American-supplied Israeli jets smash this country to smithereens, what she describes as "birth pangs" look much more like a wicked hangover from a decades-old American orgy of diplomatic intoxication with the enticements of pro-Israeli politics.’

from the ABC ….

Boosting fertility rate 'vital' for Australia's economy Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has renewed his call for Australians to have more children.

Speaking at the launch of this year's Census, Mr Costello says boosting the country's fertility rate was vital for the economy.

Mr Costello says an increased fertility rate would balance the immigration program and make it easier to maintain the defence force and living standards.

The Flea can be found in the chat room from 12-2 pm WA time on most days, at at other times as my own schedual permits. Please join me.

Despite mounting calls from world leaders for a ceasefire, the Israel Army is adamant that it is not about to stop it's pounding of Lebanon for at least another week, and is obviously planning a ground assault. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said the offensive must continue until Hezbollah is pushed away from the border.

Encouraged by the support is is receiving from Washington, the army is treating southern Lebanon as it's own private shooting gallery, hitting cars and buses loaded with refugees heading for relative safety in Tyre with rockets.

As Condi sets out for the Middle East, aids have made it clear that calling for a ceasefire in not on her agenda, repeating the insistence that any ceasefire would have to be preceded by the disarming of the "Iranian backed Hezbullah". On Friday, Rice rejected international calls for an immediate ceasefire, saying the world is witnessing "the birth pangs of a new Middle East".

"A sustainable ceasefire........is sustainable only if we get to the root problem, which is Hezbullah, a terrorist organisation," according to Josh Bolten, President George W Bush's chief of staff.

Meanwhile, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, accused Israel of gross violation international humanitarian law. As he toured the devastated Haret Hreik distict of Lebanon, which has endured 11 days of bombardment, he described the scene as "horrific", going on to say, "I did not know it was block after block of houses."

Senior diplomats from Britain, Germany and France arrived in Israel to urge it towards a ceasefire or at least restraint, prompting Lt Gen Dan Halutz, Israel's chief of staff to state, "The foreign ministers do not determine our time limit. The Israeli government does that."

Washington, which supports Israel's declared aim of forcing the implementation of UN resolution 1559, brushed aside a Syrian offer of direct talks on the crisis, with senior US "Hawk" John Bolton stating, "Syria does not need dialogue to know what to do; they need to lean on Hezbullah."

With tens of thousands of foreign nationals still trying to get out, Israel continues to blast all exits out of the country.  The death toll in Lebanon is now well over 380, including three refugees who died when Israeli warplanes attacked their minibus, and Lebanese photographer Layal Nejib, 23,  who was killed when a missile hit near her taxi in southern Lebanon.

The continued attacks by Israel have displaced at least 700,000 people in Lebanon. The Lebanese town of Sidon is packed with about 35,000 refugees, with more pouring in by the hour. Essential supplies such as food, fuel and even medicines are in seriously short supply. Mayor Abdul-Rahman al-Bizri told the AP, "There are no supplies reaching us, not from other nations, nor from the Lebanese government".

 POPE Benedict XVI led an international day of prayers for peace in the Middle East yesterday, calling on the international community "to look for ways to start negotiations" between the warring parties.