Year: 2007

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An Upper and a Downer

Finally, David Hicks’ plight is hitting the US media with more prominence, helping to ratchet up the shame on the presidential chimp and his brownshirt zookeepers. And the ALP have petitioned Nancy Pelosi for his release – excellent move!

“As members of the Australian Parliament, we ask that members of the US Congress take steps to bring about to the return to Australia of Australian citizen David Hicks, – a detainee held at Guantanamo Bay for more than five years – for prosecution here,” the letter says.”We believe that the denial of justice in David Hicks’ case erodes values and principals shared by Australia and the US.

“We are also concerned that the ongoing absence of justice in David Hicks’ case is serving to undermine international efforts to combat terrorism.”

Mr Hicks’ lawyers claimed today that the Australian was shown a photo of Saddam Hussein hanging from a rope after his execution.

Photos of the former Iraqi leader’s trial also were shown to Mr Hicks and other inmates held at the US military’s Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Showing the photos and articles breached the Geneva Conventions designed to protect prisoners of war, his lawyers said.

Greens leader Bob Brown said the showing of the pictures was “premeditated torture”.

“The Hicks saga goes from bad to worse,” Senator Brown said.

“The Guantanamo Bay horror is based on unlawful behaviour and sadistic practice by the jailers.”

Senator Brown said US Vice-President Dick Cheney would have a lot to answer for when he visited Australia this month.

“The Howard government is not an innocent bystander, it is equally responsible,” Senator Brown said.”

Little Johnny, the chimp’s biggest fan, is now facing an electorate wherein “62 percent of Australians oppose the way the Iraq war has been handled.” I think that’s an underestimate.

The ludicrous antics of Howard lackey, Alexander Downer in response to the unfortunate Kafkesque plight of Hicks, are etched with acid by Barry Everingham:

Continue reading “An Upper and a Downer”

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Coalition of the Gobbling vs Iran IV

Posted by Dub and written by Douglas Herman, read the chilling Aftermath: Day 2 of the War With Iran.

An excerpt:

In the first fierce day of war, when coordinated air strikes on Iranian targets destroyed most of the Iranian air force and navy, the US military appeared invincible again. Wrecking a second-rate military power does that for an imperial war machine.

By the second day of the war, however, most American and Iranian citizens wished for peace. Unfortunately, wars are always easier to get into than out of. While the war planners in the Pentagon and Israel had devised a workable plan to force Iran into war, using a fake attack on US warships by Iranian gunboats (as the faked Tonkin Gulf attack initiated the Vietnam War), the US Navy fared far worse than the planners wished.

Journalistic luminary John Pilger provides a timely, superb summary of the current precarious situation.

Continue reading “Coalition of the Gobbling vs Iran IV”

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Coalition of the Gobbling vs Iran 111

A couple of weeks ago, Col. Sam Gardiner (Ret.) wrote that “one of the last steps before a strike, we’ll see USAF tankers moved to unusual places, like Bulgaria. These will be used to refuel the US-based B-2 bombers on their strike missions into Iran. When that happens, we’ll only be days away from a strike.”

Now we read that:

President Bush is preparing to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities before the end of April and the US Air Force’s new bases in Bulgaria and Romania would be used as back-up in the onslaught, according to an official report from Sofia.

“American forces could be using their two USAF bases in Bulgaria and one at Romania’s Black Sea coast to launch an attack on Iran in April,” the Bulgarian news agency Novinite said.

….

Sofia’s news of advanced war preparations along the Black Sea is backed up by some chilling details. One is the setting up of new refuelling places for US Stealth bombers, which would spearhead an attack on Iran. “The USAF’s positioning of vital refuelling facilities for its B-2 bombers in unusual places, including Bulgaria, falls within the perspective of such an attack.” Novinite named Colonel Sam Gardiner, “a US secret service officer stationed in Bulgaria”, as the source of this revelation.

Curiously, the report noted that although Tony Blair, Bush’s main ally in the global war on terror, would be leaving office, the president had opted to press on with his attack on Iran in April.

Before the end of March, 3000 US military personnel are scheduled to arrive “on a rotating basis” at America’s Bulgarian bases. Under the US-Bulgarian military co-operation accord, signed in April,2006,an airbase at Bezmer, a second airfield at Graf Ignitievo and a shooting range at Novo Selo were leased to America. Significantly, last year’s bases negotiations had at one point run into difficulties due to Sofia’s demand “for advance warning if Washington intends to use Bulgarian soil for attacks against other nations, particularly Iran”.

Not good news at all. Can the Dems stop the chimp’s cynical war frenzy in time to save the world? Unlikely, as they are equally a part of the US MIC.

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Fundoziocon abuse of biblical prophecy

Here’s an excellent article on the biblical heresies promulgated by fundoziocons and their support of Israel’s oppressive policies against the Palestinians in order to promote their colonialist beliefs. Talk about fanatical promoters of violence – yet their heresy is rampant and virtually unchallenged throughout the United Stupids with a significant grip on the public’s foetid imagination in Australia as well.

“Rossing chronicles some of the people and the industries that have hijacked these scriptural sources for political power, geopolitical violence, financial gain, and the promotion of fear.”They use the book of Revelation for their own ends,” she said. “I want to claim it back to the mainstream in hopes to bring hope and healing to the Middle East.”

Mainline Christians left the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation to the fundamentalists for interpretation. As a result, Revelation theology became the dominant, Christian interpretation – a prophetic, apocalyptic interpretation – that fuels a lucrative prophecy industry. The industry manipulates American Christians into believing and supporting U.S. right-wing, political agendas that block the road map to peace and justice for Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East.

The Prophecy Industry

How do these political agendas reach the masses?

Through T.V., radio, movies, and fiction novels, the prophecy industry has influenced 30 – 40 million Americans into believing and promoting Christian Fundamentalist Zionist policies in the Middle East.”

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Israeli Cluster Bombs

Not that anything is “likely” to be done to punish them by the United Stupids.

“US admits Israel ‘likely’ broke rules on cluster bombs

Daily Star staff
Tuesday, January 30, 2007

BEIRUT: The United States said on Monday that Israel “likely” violated an agreement with Washington in its use of US-made cluster bombs during the 2006 war against Lebanon.

“There were likely violations,” US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday as the department sent Congress a preliminary report on its investigation of Israel’s use of cluster-bombs in civilian areas of Lebanon during the summer war.

It is up the Congress to decide whether the issue will be investigated further, he said.

Under the US Arms Export Control Act, if the US government believes a foreign country violated agreements over how US-made weapons were used, the administration must draw up a report and send its findings to Congress. The State Department spokesperson declined to say how Israel had violated US rules in its use of US-made bombs, rockets or shells armed with cluster bombs in Lebanon.

A probe was opened last year, after reports emerged that three types of American cluster bombs were found in South Lebanon and were responsible for civilian deaths.

The report was handed over to Congress as two Belgian de-miners serving with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon were wounded on Monday by shrapnel in a cluster-bomb explosion during a mine-clearance operation in the vicinity of Kunin, near the town of Bint Jbeil.

“

More on the impact of Israeli cluster bombs on civilians since the cease fire in Lebanon.