‘Saddam was a wicked tyrant, yet he was our wicked tyrant, and so not a word was uttered about his war crimes and crimes against humanity, and especially muted to our ears and made blind to our eyes was his use of American WMD technology against both Iranians and Kurds.  He was our evildoer, just like so many before and after him, from all corners of the globe, from Marcos to Suharto to Pinochet to Batista to Mobutu, all dictators whose hands were made bloody by the support and encouragement America’s government engendered. Saddam maintained power in large part thanks to American generosity and financing, much the same as dozens of US supported dictators have for decades.  It was only when he was no longer needed to further the interests of America that he became expendable. It was when his character exceeded his allotted power, when his ego thought itself capable of more than he could handle that he went from ally shaking hands with Donald Rumsfeld to dictator and tyrant used to manipulate the fears of bed-wetting Americans. 

The Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections has thrown the parties in the faltering peace process into a real spin. Even more so given the fact that the US illegally tried to pre-empt the election outcome in favour of Fatah (U.S. Spent $1.9 Million to Aid Fatah in Palestinian Elections). 

But the “surprise” result once again underscored the inability of the US & its allies – the phoney champions of “freedom & democracy” - to truly understand the dynamic forces at work in the region, whilst their shrill, alarmist reactions to the election outcome rudely highlighted the fact that they were caught entirely unprepared to deal with the new situation. 

‘Like Bush's America, Howard's Australia is not so much a democracy as a plutocracy, governed for and by the "big end of town," even though, as Mark Twain pointed out, this is "an entire continent peopled by the lower orders." He was not that far out; for my generation, like that of my parents, we were the poor who had got away. There was a sense that we had inherited something other than the British legacy. Long before the rest of the western world, Australians gained a minimum wage, an eight-hour working day, pensions, maternity allowance, child benefits and the vote for women. The secret ballot was invented here and became known as the "Australian ballot." The Australian Labour Party formed governments 25 years before any comparable social democracy in Europe. In the 1960s, with the exception of the Aboriginal people - who are always the exception - Australians could boast the most equitable spread of personal income in the world.

"Contractors with conflicts of interest would be prohibited from conducting oversight or writing contract requirements they could bid on, as Halliburton did for its $7 billion no-bid Iraqi oil contract awarded in 2003."

Australian aside:..... and  the warship environmental  measures, and the nuclear dump safety consultancies, and South Australia's Major Works Development 

Adding to the statement in the introductory paragraph,  US Democrats believe what is needed is  “closing the revolving door between federal contract officials and private contractors.”

If an Australian local council has "emotional problems" using Halliburton, it must accept them anyway.  That's the message being sent to the world this week by the Shire Council of Byron Bay, on the Northern coast of New South Wales.

The town, once the haven of surfers and hippies, now the "holiday home" of international stars such as Paul Hogan and Hugh Jackman,  is now home to KBR employees as they upgrade the local sewerage plant.

Councillor Tom Tabart made the situation plain when he recently told the Northern Star newspaper that " "Refusal on a political basis would have surely resulted in legal action against us,"

US television and newspapers today are dumping the story into Middle America of how, at one particular army base, Halliburton have been dumping sewerage into a river and then using it to serve U.S. troops.

While on-the-ground KBR employees emailed thunderous complaints, from deep in the bowels of Halliburton Headquarters the stamdard response was trotted out- Halliburton stood firmly behind the statement that there was no problem.
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While bottled water is used for drinking, the contaminated water, reportedly twice as dirty as the river Euphrates, is used for everything else, including making coffee.

‘The Iranian government has finally developed the ultimate "nuclear" weapon that can swiftly destroy the financial system underpinning the American Empire. That weapon is the Iranian Oil Bourse slated to open in March 2006. It will be based on a euro-oil-trading mechanism that naturally implies payment for oil in Euro.  

In economic terms, this represents a much greater threat to the hegemony of the dollar than Saddam's, because it will allow anyone willing either to buy or to sell oil for Euro to transact on the exchange, thus circumventing the U.S. dollar altogether. If so, then it is likely that almost everyone will eagerly adopt this euro oil system:’ 

‘Britain has long been replaced by the United States as the world’s civilizing Santa. But aside from the Big Stick years of Presidents McKinley and the first Roosevelt, who left no natives unturned in the Philippines and South of the Border, it should be said that American imperialism had a decidedly Wilsonian bend for most of the 20 th century. It was too busy saving the world rather than conquering it (except, again, South of the Border, where American presidents have never been able to resist the impulse to act like Teddy Roosevelt gunslinging in his wildlife preserves). When the Soviet Union fell, it looked as if America ’s job as world’s sheriff was done. Finally, the West’s trillions could be invested in something more constructive than missiles and fearmongers’ dividends. Sure enough, Pentagon budgets quit sprawling under Bill Clinton.  

The Federal Defence Miinister, Senator for S.A Mr Robert Hill, is tipped to resign from Federal Politics today.

Mr Hill, the architect of the conversion of S.A. into the Defence State of Australia, has been offered the position of Australian Ambassador to the United Nations.

Senator Hill was Australia's longest serving Minister for the Environment where he was responsible for major programs in areas such as climate change and biodiversity. Senator Hill's major achievements in this portfolio were the passage of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the biggest overhaul of environmental laws in Australia's history and the establishment of the $2.5 billion Natural Heritage Trust, the largest environmental rescue package ever undertaken by an Australian Government.

Australia's provider of international aid funding, AusAid, has no protocol regarding the reporting of allegations of foreign bribery!

AusAid is a major provider of Halliburton's international aid contracts from the Australian Government.  In Australia the corporation has been masquerading as a "South Australian Based Company"

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) has just announced that small bribes to foreign officials to encourage more beaureaucratic haste, known as "facilitation payments" are illegal under most Australian State laws

The Australian Government has been aware of bribe payments for Iraq wheat sales for five years, it has been claimed today.

The United Nations sent official warning to the Prime Minster and the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2000, according to Opposition Foreign Affairs Spokesman Kevin Rudd.

Mr Rudd asked today:

What did [Trade Minister] Mark Vaile do in response to that cable?"

"What did [Foreign Affairs] Alexander Downer do in response to that cable given that it went to his office as well?

"What did John Howard do in response to that cable - it went to his office as well.?"

 In Australia, foreign bribes are tax-deductable

The  Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found Australia should increase fines for companies that bribe foreign officials

It's also concerned that lining the pockets of foreign officials to "grease the wheels of progress" will get you a discount at the Australian Taxation Office.  The ATO calls the bribes "facilitation payments"

The Australian-based company that the world knows best for bribery is Halliburton.  A subsidiary company, wholly owned by its U.S. parent, Halliburton organises construction projects worldwide from its offices in Adelaide, South Australia.  With many projects in many countries, many wheels could need greasing.

Australia’s Donald Rumsfeld, Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Robert Hill, offered a pious rebuttal of Kim Beazley’s call last week for the withdrawal of Australian forces from Iraq (‘No Question Of Walking Away’, Herald, January 12). 

Next to the UK, Australia was the most vocal supporter for the illegal war of aggression mounted by the US against Iraq, with Howard, Hill & Downer at times seeking to outdo each other with their hyperbole in support of the draft-dodging George Bush’s middle-east military adventure (two days before Hill’s piece was published, Lord Downer unpacked another of his shrill performances by declaring that pulling out of Iraq would be 'catastrophic').