Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

|| Long wait for suspects || The PM and sedition laws || 'Suspect' flees || Snooping potentially limits innovation || Blair's defeat - BBC links selection ||

|| Police did not rely on new laws, say lawyers || Muslims seek protection from 'rednecks' || Citizenship and visa reviews || Azahari dead? || The collapse of Teflon Tony || Headline offensive? - what do you think. ||

|| The laws are adequate || Commissioner feared media tipped off suspects || Man in Australian raids allegedly seeking revenge for Iraq || Aussies schooled by al-Qa'ida || No Commonwealth Games link in terror raids || Political espionage Court hears of plot 'to leak policy' || Parliamentry Library international terrorism law links... ||

|| Raids in Sydney and Melbourne - fifteen arrested || Costello links raid to law changes || Army to have shoot-to-kill powers during Commonwealth Games ||  Blair accepts defeat over plan to hold terror suspects || US Senators question 'aggressive' FBI actions under Patriot Act ||

NB: THE SENATE INQUIRY INTO THE TERROR LAWS IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS. SUBMISSIONS CLOSE ON NOVEMBER 11. || Beware alarmist rubbish, says Beattie || Police track 'terror plotters' || Terror plotters may stay free || Sedition laws need the chop, say MPs || Sedition gag is no joke, say satirists || Five years in jail for reporting the truth || Top lawyer damns 'unfair' terror laws || Plan to fast-track troops on streets || plus photos from the weekend rallies...

Parliament releases Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 (Cth) and Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 No 2 (Cth) - links here to speeches, ammendments and Bills Digest.

|| Howard in hot water over revealing operation. || NZ PM Helen Clarke -  Australian officials have confirmed that there is no imminent threat of terrorist attacks. || Senior analyst says not conspiracy but believes Howard briefed earlier than Monday. ||

Parliament releases Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 (Cth) and Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 No 2 (Cth) - links here to speeches, amendments and Bills Digest.

|| Howard in hot water over revealing operation. || NZ PM Helen Clarke -  Australian officials have confirmed that there is no imminent threat of terrorist attacks. || Senior analyst says not conspiracy but believes Howard briefed earlier than Monday. ||

Key national anti-terrorism body 'not activated'
ABC Online November 3, 2005. 9:41am (AEDT)
ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says a key national counter-terrorism body was not informed of the latest terrorism threat. - http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1496633.htm

True test is just around the corner
The Age, November 3, 2005, By MICHELLE GRATTAN
ONE test of the need to rush a minor change to the nation's anti-terrorism laws through Parliament today will come almost immediately. This week the Government has received specific information of a terrorist threat to Australia. The PM says passage of the amendment will strengthen agencies' capacity to respond. If authorities require this instant legal finetuning, they'll presumably act at once. Logically, we should see arrests over the next few days. - http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/11/02/1130823280998.html

Late addition - Legal profession opposes Anti-Terror Bill and provides SUMMARY OF KEY MEASURES TO GIVE TO FRIENDS AND INTERESTED CITIZENS 

Stanhope excluded. ASIO warns of attack but no increase in alert and more... Change of venue for HEROC Darwin forum tomorrow with John von Doussa.

Late addition - Legal profession opposes Anti-Terror Bill and provides SUMMARY OF KEY MEASURES TO GIVE TO FRIENDS AND INTERESTED CITIZENS 

Stanhope excluded. ASIO warns of attack but no increase in alert and more... Change of venue for HEROC Darwin forum tomorrow with John von Doussa.

Updated resources from the Federal Parliamentary Library
Forty of Australia's leading artists and journalists meet to discuss sedition concerns
Doctors caution on terror laws
... and more.

More links and updates - national and interrnational.
Public forum today in Canberra - Monday, 31 October 2005, Time: 4 - 6pm, Reception Room, ACT Legislative Assembly.
Public rally - Saturday, 5 November 2005, Belmore Park, Sydney as part of a national weeeknd of protest.

Next Tuesday the Federal Opposition in the House of Reps will have only 10 minutes to digest the new Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005. Opposition and debate surrounding the Bill and its rush job is accelerating.

The introduction of the Bill has been delayed.

Today's update includes a press release from Jon Stanhope, and links to further legal opinion commissioned by the Chief Minister, plus reportage on issues that may become illegal to report in a few short days or weeks.

More links and updates - national and international.
Public meeting - National Library of Australia, tonight 6-8pm.
Call to action from the editor of New Matilda

Seditious opinion? Lock 'em up
Media Watch 24 October 2005
An expert legal opinion obtained by Media Watch on the impact of the new Anti-Terrorism Bill says that journalists and the commentators they interview might be caught out by the new laws on sedition.
In last week's show we drew your attention to the new sedition offences, as proposed in the leaked draft of the government's Anti Terrorist bill, which is still on our website.
Dictionaries define sedition as conduct or language inciting rebellion against the government. As a criminal offence it has a long and dishonourable history as a means of shutting down political dissent, back in the Cold War and before.
Our concern is how the new sedition offences might criminalise the expression, reporting and publication of the range of opinions in our society. - http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1489465.htm

How Democracies Fight Terrorism
by Malcolm Fraser
Stephen Murray-Smith Memorial Lecture
State Library of Victoria, 19 October 2005
FULL SPEECH - http://margokingston.typepad.com/harry_version_2/webdiary_community/MalcolmFraserlecture.htm

War of words over shoot-to-kill
The Australian, Brad Norington and Samantha Maiden, October 21, 2005
-POLICE can already use lethal force under the federal Government's Crimes Act to protect lives when making arrests for an offence. - http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16986978%255E2702,00.html

"Under totalitarian regimes, be it Stalinism, Hitlerism or whatever -ism, the code for blind obedience tends to rule. So when my sister Margita failed to follow the code of blind obedience and attended church services in 1979 she was sacked from her teaching post and forced to work in a railway yard. What is perplexing about the communist experience is how so many well-intentioned and apparently decent people could have participated in and defended a movement that directly led to the deaths of millions, and suffering, hardship and lack of freedom for many millions more. It is, in a sense, the key issue of our sad 20th century." Jozef Imrich

On Thursday, we began a series of links updates on anti-terrorism issues both here and abroad. Today's list has been collected with thanks again to Webdiarist and Media Dragon blogger Jozef Imrich and Webdiary contributors. Keep sending them in.

Australia

A betrayal of trust and liberty
The Age, Australia 20/10/05
- The Government and Opposition assume we cannot fight terrorism while adhering to principles of democracy and justice. Their folly is a grave threat to our freedom, writes Malcolm Fraser. - http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/a-betrayal-of-trust-and-liberty/2005/10/19/1129401313656.html

This is the first of a regular, daily if possible, summary of some of the recent media on the introduction of anti-terrorism laws both here and abroad. Included are some that date back to 2002 when these laws began surfacing in our 21stC Western world. If you find a link or an article for or against the new laws, please send it in and we will add it to the list each day. Post reviews and comments on what you read.

Historically, journalists have been charged with informing the democracy. But their future will depend not on only how well they inform but how well they encourage and enable conversations with citizens. That is the challenge. Websites like Webdiary understand the importance of Dan Gillmor’s basic premise: "My readers know more than I do - and that's an opportunity." The ability of anyone to make the news has given new voice to people who used to feel voiceless—and whose words we need to hear. According to Dan, webdiarists and citizen journalists are "showing all of us—citizen, journalist, newsmaker—new ways of talking, of learning. In the end, they may help spark a renaissance of the notion, now threatened, of a truly informed citizenry." Jozef Imrich

Those who profess to favour freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning and they want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters:

This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted.