News Terrorist

New Terror Laws will help Foil Terrorist Attacks?

THE AUSTRALIAN
POLICE have admitted there are potential suicide bombers living in Australia but tough new laws will help foil terror attacks.

THE AGE
“…laws that have been described as draconian, unjustified and “un-Australian” by lawyers and civil libertarians. These laws.. give police unprecedented powers to detain suspects without charge for up to 14 days. Federal police will be able to seek a 12-month control order on people as young as 16 who, they suspect, pose a risk to the community; they will be able to track people electronically – including the use of electronic shackling..”

“FEDERAL Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has left open the possibility of toughening Australia’s new anti-terrorism laws by extending the period for which suspects can be detained without charge.”

HERALD SUN (sister to “The Australian”)
CRITICS of Australia’s tough new anti-terror laws are passing judgment from a non-existent, ideal world.

UBERKIWI: How is electronic shackling going to stop a suicide bomber? Wouldn’t electronic shackling make them more angry and suicidal?

800 Terrorists in Australia?

THE AUSTRALIAN
The Australian also revealed that ASIO believed there were as many as 800 people of interest in Australia, some of whom could be inspired to carry out a terrorist attack.

THE AGE
Australians are now being asked to accept that hundreds of residents are potential terrorists. Perhaps the situation has deteriorated recently or possibly the meaning of “terrorist suspect” has been redefined.
–
But both Mr Keelty and Mr Ruddock rejected reports quoting security officials on the number of Muslim extremists in Australia.

Mr Ruddock said one report that ASIO believed there were up to 800 such extremists living here was “highly speculative” and no such figures were given to leaders at Tuesday’s terrorism summit. Mr Keelty said: “No one can ever be sure just how many people embrace the ideology or ideals of terrorism.”

UBERKIWI: The risk appears to being exaggerated to allow the states to roll over on Howard and Ruddick’s Fascist state agenda

References:

Democracy on alert

Tougher terror laws may be considered

‘Clear threat’ of homegrown terror

Why wait so long to review anti-terror laws?

Unbelievable story over the last week or so regarding the deporting of US peace activist Scott Parkin.

There is stuff all over the SMH and “The Age” so I wont go into details except to say that it is so blatantly medieval and fascist-state like that it is hard to believe.

In short:
US High School history teacher and anti-violent protest peace protestot had been talking at peace rallies about non-violent protest.

Attended an anti-Halliburton peace protest in Sydney “Colaition of the Billing”

ASIO and police swooped on him at while in a Cafe saturday last. Locked up with no explanation.

Deported with no explanation.

Parkin was given an invoice for A$11,700 for the costs of his detention, airfare for himself and the two security guards who the government insisted accompany him, as well as the cost of the guards’ acommodation in Los Angeles.

Under Australia’s punitive migration law, the Australian government bills those who are imprisoned for the costs of their imprisonment. It doesn’t matter if they fled oppressive regimes and arrived without documents.

He was in the country legally.

The government wont discuss it.

Rumour is it was at the request of Halliburton.

The deportation of Parkin is an ominous portent of how new anti-terrorism powers can and will be used by a government that, as of July 1, has a majority in both houses of the national parliament.

Illustrates how a government will invoke ‘national security’ in an attempt to justify the denial of basic legal rights and muzzle legitimate public debate.

Most Aussies more concerned about the price of Petrol than the loss of their rights.

MarkB – it’s all your fault. Latham would have told Halliburton to get f****d.

Acknowlegements/Quotes:
Bob Burton
Never Whoosh a spook
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3992

Rough Justice

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rough-justice/2005/09/16/1126750134100.html

Melbourne: Australia’s most “bombable city”

Great article in he Guardian today regarding the Katrina Hurricane. I’m posting a couple of excerpts. If you are interested in the subject I highly recommend reading the full article>

Guardian: Sorry Mr President, Katrina is not 9/11:

“No doubt the born-again president is himself sincere about invoking the Almighty. But you can hear the muttered advice in the White House: Mr President, we were in trouble after 9/11; the unfortunate episode of the schoolroom, My Little Goat and all that. But do what you did then; set yourself once more at the centre of the nation; go to the epicentre of the horror and embrace its heroes; make yourself the country’s patriotic invigorator and all may yet be well.”

…
“Katrina was the most anticipated catastrophe in modern American history. Perhaps the lowest point in Bush’s abject performance last week was when he claimed that no one could have predicted the breach in the New Orleans levees, when report after report commissioned by him, not to mention a simulation just last year, had done precisely that. But he had cut the budget appropriation for maintaining flood defences by nearly 50%, so that for the first time in 37 years Louisiana was unable to supply the protection it knew it would need in the event of catastrophe. Likewise Fema, which under Bill Clinton had been a cabinet level agency reporting directly to the president, had under his successor been turned into a hiring opportunity for political hacks and cronies and disappeared into the lumbering behemoth of Homeland Security. It was Fema that failed the Gulf; Fema which failed to secure the delivery of food, water, ice and medical supplies desperately asked for by the Mayor of New Orleans; and it was the president and his government-averse administration that had made Fema a bad joke.”

Michael Robertson, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Linspire writes about the Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! Battle For Net Supremacy in his article “Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! The Battle For Net Supremacy“.

I was pleased to see he is in complete agreement with my views on Microsoft.

The article compares how the three rivals are dealing with the competitive threat between each other, and as he says, it says a lot about their individual company culture, management and DNA.

Here’s how he describes the evil empire:

Microsoft has recently made a concerted effort to hire even-keeled, friendly liaisons within the community, giving them the authority to speak for the company and the authorization to pay off those that might speak negatively of Microsoft. Behind the scenes, however, it’s still the same team running the show – management that has been twice convicted of illegal actions against competitors, and that sports a stunning lack of ethical boundaries. Recent court documents from a fresh legal battle over an employee jumping ship to Google report Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer throwing chairs and screaming many unprintable words, capped off with, “I’m going to %$#@ kill Google!”

The only way Microsoft knows how to operate is with an enemy in their crosshairs. A few years back, Linspire (then Lindows) was the recipient of Ballmer’s profanity-laden tirades. But Microsoft’s attention has since been somewhat diverted from the ambiguous threat of Linux – which doesn’t present a singular target – to Google, whose O’s make convenient bull’s eyes.

Look for Microsoft to employ the same approach they have used historically to fight competitors. First they will use technology barriers within new versions of their operating system to dramatically favor their own products and discredit competitors. With previous competitor DR DOS, they embedded intentional incompatibilities, spurious error messages and bogus issues of compatibility. With Netscape, they deeply embedded their own products and falsely claimed they could not be removed. Expect much of the same with Vista, their newest OS.

In addition, look for exclusionary contracts that preclude computer manufacturers from pre-installing links and software from Yahoo! and Google on PCs they sell. With the same unethical management in place, a legal process that takes years to litigate, and inevitable legal penalties only representing a tiny fraction of profits, you’d be crazy not to expect Microsoft to extend the same behavior you’ve seen over the last two decades into the next.

Read the rest of the article, about Google and Yahoo here.

The Nation has published some great quotes here from before and after Katrina.

Love the one from Barbara Bush: “So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this–this is working very well for them.”

New Orleans: Voices in the Storm

This is the chronicle of an unfolding catastrophe, as told by the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the bureaucrats, the rescuers and, of course, the politicians.

“It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.” –Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, quoted in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.

“I want the folks there on our Gulf Coast to know that the federal government is prepared to help you when the storm passes.” –President Bush, Monday, August 29

“It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed.” –House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Wednesday, August 31

“Flood control has been a priority of this Administration from day one.” –White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Thursday, September 1

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” –President Bush, Thursday, September 1

“The good news is…that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast…. Out of the rubble of Trent Lott’s house–he’s lost his entire house–there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.” –President Bush, Friday, September 2

“CATASTROPHIC: Storm Surge Swamps 9th Ward, St. Bernard; Lakeview Levee Breach Threatens to Inundate City” –Banner headline, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Tuesday, August 30

“I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, ‘New Orleans Dodged the Bullet.’” –Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Sunday, September 4

“The guy who runs this building I’m in, emergency management…his mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home. And every day she called him and said, ‘Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, Mama. Somebody’s coming to get you. Somebody’s coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Friday.’ And she drowned Friday night. [Crying] And she drowned Friday night.” –Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, Sunday, September 4

“Some people chose not to obey that [mandatory evacuation] order. That was a mistake on their part.” –Michael Chertoff, Friday, September 2

“The federal government did not even know about the convention center people until today…. Now is not the time to be blaming.” –FEMA director Michael Brown, Thursday, September 1, twenty-four hours after news reports that 20,000 people were stranded at the convention center

“I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don’t have food and water.” –Michael Chertoff, Thursday, September 1

“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” –President Bush, referring to FEMA director Michael Brown, Friday, September 2

“This place is going to look like Little Somalia. We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.” –Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force, Friday, September 2

“That Americans would somehow in a color-affected way decide who to help and who not to help, I just don’t believe it.” –Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Friday, September 2

“As for the tragic piggism that is taking place on the streets of New Orleans, it is not unbelievable but it is unforgivable, and I hope the looters are shot.” –Peggy Noonan, Thursday, September 1

“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” –Rapper Kanye West, Friday, September 2

“People are now beginning to voice what we’ve all been seeing with our own eyes — the majority of people left in New Orleans are black, they are poor, they are the underbelly of society. When you look at this, what does this say about where we are as a country and where our government is in terms of how it views the people of this country?” –Lester Holt of MSNBC, to House majority leader Tom DeLay, Friday, September 2. DeLay’s response: “What it tells me is we’re doing a wonderful job and we are an incredibly compassionate people.”

“New Orleans now is abortion-free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras-free. New Orleans now is free of Southern decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion–it’s free of all of those things now. God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there–and now we’re going to start over again.” –The Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, Friday, September 2

“So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this–this is working very well for them.” –Barbara Bush, Monday, September 5

“[Bush] is a strong president…but he has never really focused on the importance of good execution.” –William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, in theWashington Post, Monday, September 5

“Perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than twenty-four hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity.” –Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, Saturday, September 3

“We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.” –Open letter to Bush from theNew Orleans Times-Picayune editorial board, Sunday, September 4

Head coverings are un-Australian – according to some bird in the Australian government. Perhaps there are some other things that should be labelled as un-Australian!

Bill Leak is The Australian’s daily editorial cartoonist.

The Microsoft chief executive has allegedly: “picked up a chair and threw it across the room, hitting a table in his office. Mr Ballmer then said: ‘F****** Eric Schmidt [Google’s chairman and chief executive] is a f****** p****. I’m going to f****** bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to f****** kill Google.’””

Sigh….

When will any body learn that Microsoft is an evil empire run by a Dark Lord.

Above cartoon from 1980 Spider-woman comic book from Marvel Comics. CNet suggests a likeness.

See Also: Expletively yours, says Ballmer to Google.

Run Openoffice and Linux. Send them under.

According to the Associated Press (AP), in the US babies are the latest target of the crackdown on terrorism.

There have been cases of babies names matching those on the no-fly lists, causing parents delays at airports and missed flights.

It appears that cotton towelling wrapped around a babies bottom could be mistaken for a terrorist upside-down?

BBC

The Two Americas
By Marjorie Cohn t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Saturday 03 September 2005

Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died.

What is Cuban President Fidel Castro’s secret? According to Dr. Nelson Valdes, a sociology professor at the University of New Mexico, and specialist in Latin America, “the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go.”

“Cuba’s leaders go on TV and take charge,” said Valdes. Contrast this with George W. Bush’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The day after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Bush was playing golf. He waited three days to make a TV appearance and five days before visiting the disaster site. In a scathing editorial on Thursday, the New York Times said, “nothing about the president’s demeanor yesterday – which seemed casual to the point of carelessness – suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.”

“Merely sticking people in a stadium is unthinkable” in Cuba, Valdes said. “Shelters all have medical personnel, from the neighborhood. They have family doctors in Cuba, who evacuate together with the neighborhood, and already know, for example, who needs insulin.”

They also evacuate animals and veterinarians, TV sets and refrigerators, “so that people aren’t reluctant to leave because people might steal their stuff,” Valdes observed.

After Hurricane Ivan, the United Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction cited Cuba as a model for hurricane preparation. ISDR director Salvano Briceno said, “The Cuban way could easily be applied to other countries with similar economic conditions and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage to protect their population as well as Cuba does.”

Our federal and local governments had more than ample warning that hurricanes, which are growing in intensity thanks to global warming, could destroy New Orleans. Yet, instead of heeding those warnings, Bush set about to prevent states from controlling global warming, weaken FEMA, and cut the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget for levee construction in New Orleans by $71.2 million, a 44 percent reduction.

Bush sent nearly half our National Guard troops and high-water Humvees to fight in an unnecessary war in Iraq. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Paris in New Orleans, noted a year ago, “It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq.”

An Editor and Publisher article Wednesday said the Army Corps of Engineers “never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security – coming at the same time as federal tax cuts – was the reason for the strain,” which caused a slowdown of work on flood control and sinking levees.

“This storm was much greater than protection we were authorized to provide,” said Alfred C. Naomi, a senior project manager in the New Orleans district of the corps.

Unlike in Cuba, where homeland security means keeping the country secure from deadly natural disasters as well as foreign invasions, Bush has failed to keep our people safe. “On a fundamental level,” Paul Krugman wrote in yesterday’s New York Times, “our current leaders just aren’t serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don’t like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on prevention measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.”

During the 2004 election campaign, vice presidential candidate John Edwards spoke of “the two Americas.” It seems unfathomable how people can shoot at rescue workers. Yet, after the beating of Rodney King aired on televisions across the country, poor, desperate, hungry people in Watts took over their neighborhoods, burning and looting. Their anger, which had seethed below the surface for so long, erupted. That’s what’s happening now in New Orleans. And we, mostly white, people of privilege, rarely catch a glimpse of this other America.

“I think a lot of it has to do with race and class,” said Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. “The people affected were largely poor people. Poor, black people.”

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reached a breaking point Thursday night. “You mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can’t figure out a way to authorize the resources we need? Come on, man!”

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had boasted earlier in the day that FEMA and other federal agencies have done a “magnificent job” under the circumstances.

But, said, Nagin, “They’re feeding the people a line of bull, and they are spinning and people are dying. Get off your asses and let’s do something!”

When asked about the looting, the mayor said that except for a few “knuckleheads,” it is the result of desperate people trying to find food and water to survive.

Nagin blamed the outbreak of violence and crime on drug addicts who have been cut off from their drug supplies, wandering the city, “looking to take the edge off their jones.”

When Hurricane Ivan hit Cuba, no curfew was imposed; yet, no looting or violence took place. Everyone was in the same boat.

Fidel Castro, who has compared his government’s preparations for Hurricane Ivan to the island’s long-standing preparations for an invasion by the United States, said, “We’ve been preparing for this for 45 years.”

On Thursday, Cuba’s National Assembly sent a message of solidarity to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It says the Cuban people have followed closely the news of the hurricane damage in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and the news has caused pain and sadness. The message notes that the hardest hit are African-Americans, Latino workers, and the poor, who still wait to be rescued and taken to secure places, and who have suffered the most fatalities and homelessness. The message concludes by saying that the entire world must feel this tragedy as its own.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090305Y.shtml