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Preventing terrorism: Where do we begin?
Richard Tonkin is a longtime Webdiary contributor and volunteer. He specialises in the growing influence and success of US company Halliburton and other US defence companies in Australia, particularly in his home state, South Australia. Richard's last piece for Webdiary was The Man with the Dyed Beard Returns, and his blog is Richard Tonkin's snippets.
.....sometimes our methodology gets slammed, sometimes we get reprimanded for errors, faulty assumptions, inadequate literature review in our report, whatever. But we're doing the best we can - and usually, our best is pretty good. You want to know why your streets are free from perpetual motion machines and anti-gravity gangs? Because we have the power to do what it takes to stop crime. Forget about juries. We try, convict, and sentence on our own - From Jeff Lindsay's "Memoirs Of A Sci-Cop."
The Australian Federal Police and Federal government have badly botched a few terrorism deportations of late. If poor handling of the cases of Scott Parkin, Mahommed Haneef and David Hicks weren't enough, the APEC events in Sydney gave us a police force that could arrest suspects because of crimes they might commit in the future. Now AFP Mick Keelty wants greater police power to prevent crimes from happening. For reasons that may be obvious, I have a problem with this.
After witnessing the brutal tactics employed by police at APEC, I was doubly shocked to hear a familiar story being used to vilify protesters. NSW Police Minister David Campbell told the Sydney public (via ABC Radio) that one of the reasons police acted pre-emptively was intelligence that protesters were planning to roll marbles under the hooves of police horses. The same story was used (on the front page of the Australian, reportedly leaked by ASIO) to "explain" why it was necessary to confine and deport Halliburton activist Parkin. At this stage Newsweek hadn't uncovered the Pentagon File on the peanut butter sandwiches. The irony of reviving the "marbles and horses" story was that, because of the horse flu, there were no mounted policemen. Parkin's case is back before the courts now, in the wake of ASIO's disallowed appeal against the Federal Court's decision that the deportee should see the peanut butter drenched files that damned him.
The circumstances surrounding Haneef were different. There was a piece in the Australian last year in which a US counterterrorism expert forecast an ominous possibility. True, he gave it a likelihood of less than ten per cent at the time of mention. The notion was that on the weekend of APEC Al Qaeda could strike Australia by unleashing explosions simultaneously in three capital cities. It's not surprising, and in hindsight admirable, that the AFP detained somebody who, based on the circumstantial evidence available to them at that time, might well have been connected to an organised group employing the tactic of simultaneous explosions. The probability of the forecast being correct had suddenly become much greater. The trouble was that while Commission Keelty maintained that Haneef should be granted a presumption of innocence, this was not considered politically appropriate by the Federal Government. Haneef's lawyer Peter Russo has raised concerns this week that the visa appeal won't be heard until next year. Did anybody seriously expect it to happen before the election?
Having shown how brilliant they are at handling the counterterrorism powers they've already been given, have our authorities qualified themselves to receive more?
In the speech he gave in Adelaide on Monday night, AFP Commissioner Keelty had a fair bit to say on how much the world had changed since September 11 2001. He says that "Health, education and the economy remain important issues, but domestic security has been elevated to a level of importance we’ve never experienced before," adding that "our mindset has changed". He says that the AFP has "moved into new, global, law enforcement territory,"
Having stood in a public park and watched squadrons of police invade a gathering and arrest people to avert the possibility that they might commit a crime, I was particularly interested in what Mr Keelty had to say next. He explained that the Australian public expected terrorists to be caught before attacks occurred, and that legal problems would ensue. "In a prevention environment the courts will be dealing with larger numbers of inchoate crimes, or crimes that are prevented at a very embryonic stage of execution. Sentencing in this environment could become problematic, at least in the early stages." Keelty argues that through the new approach less people would be charged with "lesser" crimes because these crimes will have been prevented from occurring.
If the "marbles intelligence" was still current at the time of APEC, it would appear that one of the most publicly-active justifications of Parkin's deportation was a complete failure. And when Haneef gave a second chance to get the procedures right, another travesty arose. These are the sorts of situations Mr Keelty expects us not to read about in the future. Does that mean they won't be occurring, or just better concealed?
If APEC is an example of applying Keelty's proposed methodology, then we're about to become a society treated with benign contempt by an armed force sifting us for, and removing, potential evildoers from within our masses, smugly confident that any violations in civil liberties are justified in serving a greater good. This kind of sentiment was typified by the last NSW police commissioner when he explained that he had to worry about giving society the greatest civil liberty, "freedom from murder." All else, it seems, is trivial.
The bungling exhibited by the combined efforts of the government and its agencies, in what now can be perceived as prevention of Haneef and Parkin from carrying out future crimes, suggests that pre-emptive counterterrorism is failing miserably, and that its status quo is wide open to incompetency. And these people want us to have faith in them and give them more?
Accountability in applying counterterrorism powers is a major problem. If Keelty is lauded by federal ministers, then who is checking them? When you look at the ministerial support for the treatment of Parkin and Haneef, perhaps the concept of a Counterterrorism Ombudsman is one worth considering. The shady cloud of having allowed a government agency to provide material support (you know, the charge for which David Hicks, still the only Guantanemo convict, is locked in Yatala?) for Saddam Hussein before sending troops to capture him still looms over this government's head, and you can be certain that any political stuff-ups are going to be concealed as best as possible between now and the election. An apolitical ombudsman could have the power to eliminate such possibilities. Perhaps the idea is akin to shutting the door after the horse has bolted, but from Mr Keelty's ruminations this week, I can see that s/he could have a heavy workload in the near future. Perhaps it could be someone from ASIO? It would appear that the spooks are also unhappy with government/police power acquisition. Whether police and government would accept subservience to ASIO, though, is another thing altogether. After all, what would they know?
Looking at other end of counterterrorism gives us a fair idea of how far an idea can travel. Jack Hitt's Missile Defence piece in Rolling Stone sums up the global philosophy well.
[extract]
Working alongside Paul Wolfowitz, the future secretary of defense finally came up with the result that Republicans were looking for. The Rumsfeld Commission established a new standard of threat, asserting that any country with Scud technology would be able to easily convert to ICBM capability. Most important, they determined that the earlier intelligence efforts were flawed because they looked only at "likely" threats instead of "possible" threats -- such as North Korea and Iran and Venezuela.
This was a key conceptual shift, the difference between relying upon known facts to empirically project a likely scenario and relying upon the human imagination to conjure every possible danger. If the shift seems familiar, that's because it is the same one that occurred throughout the government after September 11th. All threats, big and small, were now on the table, and all were taken seriously. In foreign policy, this worldview became known as the War on Terror. In the realm of national defense, this idea became the missile defense shield.
If the perceived future possibility of terror attacks was enough to implement a global war to eliminate it, how long will it be before "terrorist friendly" words are forbidden? If the treatment of Parkin and his words is an indicator of a "possible threat" being dealt with badly, what measures are the Government and police prepared to take to correct their ineptitude? How long before authorities come to sites such as Webdiary and begin to censor our words, in the name of saving citizens from being murdered?
If local counterterrorism methods mirror the global approach of eliminating possibilities before they have a chance to occur, then our police and governments will be able to do whatever they please, whenever they feel like it.
I believe that we need to start some preventative thinking. Work out what our worst case scenario as a police state society might be, and eliminate the possibility. Under the new rules of the game, it's the only way to play.
We've had it drummed into our heads that if we change our lifestyles because of fear of terrorism then the terrorists will have won. Things aren't looking too good at the moment. We still, however, have much left to lose. In a situation with so much gravity, it's still a long way down for a society falling into becoming a martially-controlled community for the sake, so we're told, of its survival. The terrorists have much more to win, and in my opinion we're handing it to them on a platter decorated with thirty pieces of silver.
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220,000 Dead = Ho Hum?
Paul Morella: a few of the points you make need clarification. What, for instance, does America's population, or California's ethnic makeup, have to do with whether or not it fits your definition of what constitutes a terrorist nation? Likewise, what is the relevance of your point that most Americans have never killed anyone? Actually, I suspect that more Americans have killed someone than citizens of any other country that calls itself civilised, but even that has nothing to do with the question at hand.
Correction: Australians are not compelled to vote. They are legally obliged to enrol and to attend a polling place, and if they refuse to do even that they are only risking a fine. Americans, whether they choose to vote or not, live in a democracy, and are therefore responsible for terrorist acts carried out on their behalf by their elected government.
Terrorist is as terrorist does. The US military has a long history of targeting civilians, including women and children, stretching back to wars against America's original inhabitants. You must have heard of the Kent State University massacre, when four peacefully protesting students were gunned down by National Guardsmen, who had the day before bayoneted two civilians who had verbally harangued them. No one ever paid any penalty for those things. One can come to no other conclusion than that such things are considered culturally acceptable in the USA.
You must also have heard of the Mai Lai Massacre. More than three hundred unarmed men, women and children were murdered. Only one soldier, Lt. Calley, was charged with anything, (he was supposed to have killed all those people by himself?) and he spent only a few years in gaol before being released. This and the example above make nonsense of your claim that most Americans would support legal action taken against any American offenders.
Whether or not you or I were born when 220,000 or so Japanese civilians were killed by US forces has nothing to do with anything. Nor does the fact that Australians celebrated the end of the war. Throughout history all victorious sides have celebrated the ends of wars. The atrocity happened at a time when the war was inevitably won by Allied forces anyway — the Japanese were already beaten. This is a perfect example of your "detailed plans with the sole aim of killing civilians (which you will not even bother going into)" All the Americans were doing was using Japan's civilian population in a weapons testing exercise, as they have been doing to the world at large ever since.
Perception of terrorism
Paul Morrella: "My perception is that terrorism is an attack on non-combatants such as civilians"
If this is the case the US must be a terrorist organisation.
Nothing New To That Rogue Nation
Right, John Pratt,
Let's just completely postmodernize every concept into utter meaninglessness. As has already been done with "racism," which is now just an empty epithet. The only true racists among us these days are those lefties who think that only white women deserve the freedoms won by feminists. Brown ones need not apply.
I'd be interested in your reaction to the recent article by Sarah Baxter in the Sunday Times.
Sarah and Postmodern Hubby
Yeah, Mike, Sarah Baxter is a real bright spark. Except that she clearly isn't, and to prove that her husband isn't either she quotes him: "There is nothing radical about being tolerant of the intolerant," says he, apparently proudly defending his own radical status. Or perhaps vice-versa; it's had to say. Might he be post-modernising every concept into utter meaninglessness, you reckon? Anyway, I wasn't going to read any more of that brain-numbing nonsense trying to pass itself off as opinion. So perhaps you'll be so kind as to name some of those white feminists who reckon feminist freedoms are only for them, not for brown women. I'd be interested to see where anyone said that. But please don't refer me to someone who just postmodernly makes things up. And for your information, traditionally (before everything got postmodernized (sic), the word "racism" merely means the belief that the various peoples of the world can be categorised according to race. Some people don't hold with that belief, claiming that there is no such thing as race. The more proper word for the belief that some races are inherently superior or inferior to others is "racialism".
Standouts and Where People Really Stand
Richard Tonkin
Is it really? My perception is that terrorism is an attack on non-combatants such as civilians. I would also think that if one were to look at terrorist attacks all over the world, many are indeed attacks committed against ones very own government, and people - hardly a foreign force.
That is good to hear. You will of course be willing to condemn a movie that claims American soldiers kill people for the benefit of Jewish doctors so as Americans (I think) can gain their organs? I am certainly most willing to concede Mr Cheney is both a devious and a greedy P#### (with a capital P).
The Valley Of the Wolves?
Googling the keywords I found this Jerusalem Post review:
[extract]
Ummm.. nope, Paul,can't say, at first glance, that I'd approve. But is this promoting actual terrorism?
Yes, Paul, terrorism is aimed at civilians. And its intended result? Generally to stop the occupation of a perceived homeland? I know you don't think there'll be an attack on Iran, so let's go hypothetical. If Cheney orders the dropping of bunkabusters, how do you think Iran will retaliate? Dirty bombs? Globally?
Dirty Dick loves his brinkmanship. Seems to be keen on self-fulfilling prophecy (profit-cy?) as well. Maybe he did read the Dune books after all.
Equal Standards Should Apply
Richard Tonkin
I agree, though, the removal is the tricky bit.
My biggest beef with the site is that I believe it to be overly political. This causes the site to at times (not always) be rather narrow in scope. For example if one is to admit that "terrorist urgers" (great term) are amongst us; one has to admit they are to be found all around the world. This is never denied here, it is though, often under-played, ignored, and in some cases justified. None of which make the fight against the "terrorist urger" any more effective.
Even if one were to accept the USA is the major cause of all world problems: Is it right or even helpful that others adopt and use similar methods? Take the example of Turkey, a nation on the up economically in so many ways. This has naturally led to a percentage of the population lagging behind in what are others perceived wealth - a recipe for the urger if ever there ways one. Everyone is looking for a piece of the pie, and largest slice will go to those with the largest power base. The politics of race and religion are so effective in garnering such a base. Have you ever noticed the tendency for a thief, and the hoodlum to be completely paranoid about his or her own security? I would ask you to think about this next time you hear theft, and thug accusations being thrown about by any politician the world over.
Worldwide maybe, but some stand out
Sure, Paul Morella, there are people all over the world who would find terrorism advantageous. Terrorism is generally perceived as actions against a foreign force perceived as wrongfully occupying your territory. Where I draw the line, though, is when a terrorism-friendly environment is created in the interest of short-term financial profit. Cheney's history creates an ever-amassing collection of circumstantial evidence that he's creating wars to make money. Eliminate this man's actions and you may eliminate the root-causes of many terrorist deeds. Also those yet to come.
Examine the subtext of Commissior Keelty's words. He is back to his old angle that terrorism has and is being created by our current government. Given the rise of Halliburton/KBR in this country since the Howard regime began, it's not difficult to assume that this country was dragged into Iraq so that our national terror climate would be modified to suit Cheney's financial plans.. with a trinkets-and-beads kickback equivalent to local pollies, of course.
Think about this.. why would a company this size place one of its major global headquarters in a place like Adelaide? To benefit the locals? Doubtful. The company had a good run here for a while, but their influence has been fought against. Mind you, the corp's former global VP is now running the warship program, so they haven't fared too badly.
How can Cheney disprove of Iranian nuclear developments when he's been selling them the components with which to work. The report cited below bounced around the world in 2005, but seems to have been forgotten as Dick tells Iran that they can't have nukes:
[extract]
How can a man who has overseen such activities now take such an aggressive stance against those two whom he sold the ablilities? Beats me.
How much infrastructure for Iran, as a convenience for Cheney, was carried out in Adelaide? We'll never know, but I have an incredibly strong hunch.
Yes, Paul, I'm prepared to be open-minded on terrorism urgers existing all over the world. Some, at the moment, stand out more than others.
Making him and his mates richer is a bloody sad reason for Australia to be involved in such horrible wars.
Return of the good ole days for the spooks...
Richard, your concerns are of course quite reasonable and your tracking of Keelty and both Federal and State ministers on their active promotion of a paranoid mind state as the necessary counter to potential terrorist threats is admirable.
Until reading your piece I was totally unaware that someone had already raised the spectre of a multi-pronged attack during APEC week in Australia. How the spooks must yearn for the good times of the past when they could justify their budgets by the practical expedient of showing Australians how easy it is, really, to put a bomb in a garbage bin outside the Hilton Hotel.
Of course, they don't do that now, do they? Well, perhaps only to those unfortunate enough to be on a SIEV leaving Indonesian waters. They wouldn't do it to Australian citizens, would they?
On the day of the APEC march I was handed a leaflet in Town Hall Square suggesting that if I wanted to 'go further into the APEC zone' (or somesuch) there would be a meeting under the pink flag in Hyde Park to discuss how to do it. Maybe it was just an attempt to corral anyone stupid enough to want to have a go in the same place at the same time. Maybe it was more, though. I looked at the young woman who handed me the leaflet and noted the absence of dreads, tattoos, piercings and her gym fresh complexion and musculature before replying "No thanks officer".
Black ops from the cops? Of course.
The real question for us, Richard, is how far will they go? I have a copy of my very own NSW Special Branch files from the time when that great good citizen Roger Rogerson was a member. Recruits like him are still too easy to find, I fear.
Confession Day- Hicks And Haneef
It sounds to me, Anthony Nolan, that had you rallied under the flag you would have served as living proof that the police arrests in the park were preventative. No self-respecting "covert operation" organiser would be so stupid as to have been recruiting in the square on the day, let alone throwing paperwork around. To broadcast a plan in such a manner would be pure idiocy
She may not have been working for the cops though. Ambitious photojournalism setter-upper, rogue plant by the US, political party operative.. she could have been working for the Chinese for all you'd know. Any of the above would have an interest in a melee. Obviously nobody else was fooled, either, or we would have heard of it.
In two of the three cases referred to in the piece, today has been a day of finger-pointing by law enforcers at politicians. The accusations in Harpers that Hicks conviction was a stitch-up between Howard and Cheney (the ABC-PM transcript is a good summary of the day's to-and-froing. Those who've read my Halliburton pieces know that I think Cheney's influence on the Howard government has been excessively unhealthy. What is remarkable here is that if not because of the liaison then from the revelation of it David Hicks will go down in history as the only person ever convicted by the Guantanemo tribunals. The introduction of KSM into the terrorism story just before Hicks' trial is now under considerable suspicion of being pure stage-play.
Don't forget, also, that the only atrocity Scott Parkin committed in Australia was to organise street theatre in front of the Sydney office of Cheney's former business. At the time Cheney was still receiving "deferred payments" from Halliburton/KBR. Bob Brown thought at the time that the order for the arrest and deportation came from the White House. I have no doubt that when the ludicrous nature of the US files for which Parkin was deported are finally publicly spotlighted, Brown will be proven correct. Another Cheney manipulation.
The Herald-Sun has web-published part of AFP Commissioner Keelty's interview with the Bulletin, in which, apart from appearing surprised that Haneef was ever prosecuted, Mick appears to have had a gutful of Kevin Andrews.
[extract]
Keelty's words are tantamount to an accusation of yet another political manipulation, laid squarely on the shoulders of Minister Andrews.
Is the solution to the terrorism problem becoming more obvious to you? It is to me. If the influence of electioneering politicians in senstive national security issues cannot be nullified, then the terrorism-urgers need to be removed from their offices.
What do you know? The surge seems to be working?
Watching Senator John McCain being interviewed on PBS Newshour on Saturday, it suddenly occured to me why we haven'y heard much about the 'troop surge' lately on Dateline, the ABC or Green Left Weekly.
It's working.
Surge Working? War On Terror Won (again)?
Looking at the graphs you provide (wish there were pre-invasion figures for comparison) it appears that the deaths each week have not yet dropped back to the levels at "The End Of The War," deaths by vehicle bomb have increased sixteenfold from that point in time, and deaths by gunfire are still still 2.5 times higher than at the time the "Saddam Toppling" scene ended the telecast. This, Eliot, is winning the War On Terror? The results don't even match the climate after the last time we won it.
Downer and Howard being the global fingerpointers for accusing al Qaeda as responsible for the Bhutto bombings isn't going to help much either (it's weird watching Howard support Downer while simultaneously distancing himself) except to provide a "softening up" of our public so that they can blame anything in the future on Bin Laden. Really, it shows how shall the Australian interpretation of global events from. Did they acquire the knowledge as an aside while Bush filled in Howard on his meeting with Rudd?
Angela, I'll have to take your word on what's happening in SE Asia, as I am ignorantly misinformed. Good to see that you have your eye on Liam Fox as well. If he, as the shadow UK defence spokesman, is any indication of the conservatives' foreign policy, then a UK vote-out of the Brown government over Iraq will bring in a regime that will be similar Cheney finger-puppets as our current Liberal cabinet. Fox is another one who is doing dirty bombs and Iran attack, while not-quite putting the two together.
Eromanga
This news item has disappeared from the ABC website, and Eromanga Uranium's website is dead.
New uranium deposit found in SA
ABC Online, Australia - 18 Oct 2007
A uranium explorer has found a 34-kilometre-long deposit in the far north of South Australia. Eromanga Uranium says it found the ancient river known as a ...
Eromanga
Not a little name to toss about, Trevor, or so we're lead to believe. The SMH piece before their IPO in 2006 makes them look like a blue-chip dream-come-true, yet their big announcement is pulled. Unlike the ABC, too, to "unpublish" a piece.
Next thing we know you'll be believing that Doug Wood is working as a Liberal consultant. Naah... Dougie setting up a feelgood story for Kevin Andrews, wouldn't happen.
Anyway, Eromanga pre-announced itself at a too-high level of success to give it much further business cred. Surely not another Firepower?
The fast buck merchants dive in and out because all they can do is ape the galahs.
yeah, call in Scotland yard. Worked for Kelly.
Hi Richard, how about a little Philipines consideration?
Remember the recent horrible blast blamed upon some islamist group and occurring so conveniently just as Gloryo is in deed swill pain for corruption scandals involving broadband and other stuff, welll, boom. Some want Scotland Yard (well yeah sure, they are so good at cricket deaths and train bombings aren't they?) and direct accusations have been laid and the accused have threatened to deal with the accuser if the charges don't stick, hmmm.
"The police will formally get the statement of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV who had accused Armed Forces chief Gen, Hermogenes Esperon, Jr and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales of being behind the bombing Friday at the Glorietta 2 mall in Makati City …
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said Saturday that the department through the Philippine National Police has decided to get the statement of Trillanes because of the seriousness of the senator’s allegations."
Consider Mindanao, and Meiring caught blowing himself up a bit and then getting shifted back to the states. Oops, don’t look here move along and consider the rebel mutineer military blokes accused the Philipines gov/military of faking the attacks to garner more US military hardware and money. There is sure a lot of smoke in that there region.
Scotland Yard. How sad. See post in WD Iran attack title.
Cheers
ABC Radio: Uranium
Listen to Background Briefing, Sunday 21 October, 9.10am:
Radioactive rebellion
Niger has lots of uranium, and the world wants it. Australian companies too are there, pegging out their stakes. There's murder, kidnapping, hijacking and rebellion in a volatile mix of Tuareg tribesmen (and musicians) at war with other ethnic groups; and a government playing China and America off each other, with whispers that al-Qaeda is in there, too.
Repeated Tuesday 23 October, 7pm
IED = US Dirty Bomb- How WWIII Begins
I said about a week ago to expect this in a week, didn't I?
[extract from Washington Post]
Alright, so the Iranians are responsible for IEDs, and IEDs can be used as dirty bombs to attack America at home. Especiallly if you've got a reactor or two. Aside Ask Dick Cheney, he still has the receipts.
So, especially if the US is as badly prepared as the Post piece describes (problems including, you guessed it, interdepartmental inconsistencies in sniffer dog training) there's only one thing to do.
Save America = Bomb Iran. Here we go....
Epistemological Retardation
Eliot, you are on to a winner.
I have a vision of a department with many a PhD student beavering away.
"Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come."
Why not indeed?
Richard Tonkin asks:
Eliot, how many people has AIDS struck down? Why not declare war on it?
They already have:
'War on AIDS a top priority
China has always attached great importance to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, and is willing to contribute to the global fight against the deadly affliction, a senior Chinese health official said on Monday....'
Fear and loathing in Portland and Epsitemological Retardation
Hey, Richard...
"They later discovered that the dogs had detected traces of explosives in police and military vehicles that were involved in the exercise that was being staged. The bomb residue is something common in those type of vehicles."
Lately I've been toying with a concept I call "Epsitemological Retardation".
It's the cultural counterpart, though diametrically opposed to, Occam's Razor.
Occam's razor is the principle that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.
Epsitemological Retardation, on the other hand, is the rampant tendency in our age to explain the bloody obvious with absurdly elaborate and manifestly paranoid propositions.
The wild theories about the death of Princess Diana being the most spectacular if trite manifestation of Epsitemological Retardation to date, though examples stretch back to 'that fatefull day', 22 November 1963.
In Diana's case it's as if a drunk driver speeding through a narrow underpass swarming with motorcycling paparazzi popping flash bulbs in his eyes and then colliding with another car, crashing and his passengers not wearing seat belts wasn't in itself sufficient to explain the dead blonde lying on the floor of the wrecked limousine.
Oh no. It must be something else.
We have to drag in MI5 and a bi-national conspiracy involving the British Royal family, the French prime minister, various judges in different countries, a Vietnamese taxi driver, stacked juries, no juries, a couple of dozen 'fake' photographers, a phantom pregnancy, a trip to Diamond Traders by the boyfriend's butler, religion, racism and God knows what else.
On the other hand, a sniffer dog standing next to a military vehicle in an army exercise responds to, of all things, explosive material.
On the the one hand, it could be that military vehciles often convey explosive materials and traces of them linger inside.
On the other hand, George W could be in league with martians planning a coup
Martian Probes and Underdogs
Though the whole thing has potential to turn into not the War Of the Worlds of HG Wells but that of Orson, I wasn't looking for Martians, Eliot, though I don't think a decent probe would hurt Dubya. My point is more like a movie scene. The hounds are released, and the only baddies that they find are the soldiers and cops. The precautions taken imply that somebody got carried away. However if the canines were the last bastion of counterterrorism and all they could do was hang around waiting for Scooby-Snacks then the paranioa incited by Orson's broadcast could be an approximation of what happened next. I call this Future Epistimological Retardation Expialidocious.
What do you get when you cross a Rottweiller with a St Bernard? A dog that rips out your throat then runs for help. I'd love to see happysnaps of the bomb-dogs.
Future Epistomological Retardation
Anthrax mail, WMD, IED, dirty bomb, leaked Osama tapes.. plenty of material here. Mustn't dare think about putting together.
I like your angle, Eliot. It's like creating a smokescreen by talking about creating smokescreens. Whack a thesis off to the PNAC site, and they'd be bound to publish, I'm sure.
It came from outer space...
"We haven't had a War On Meteorites."
But having said that, if anyone managed to deliberately crash a meteorite into Sydney Tower and killed 3,000 people on a workday morning, I'd expect the government of the day to be pretty pissed about it. And if they were also in the mood subsequently to overthrow Kim Jong Ill, I wouldn't by entirely opposed to that either.
War On AIDS?
Dirty (Bomb Victim) Pictures
It's started. I wonder how long before such pictures are accompanied by soundtracks of Iranian invasion.
Coming to a city near you...
Not alarmed
It seems perfectly reasonable to expect emergency services to conduct drills like that one. And since a 'dirty bomb' incident can be perpetrated from a tiny cell, and with such widespread repercussions, it was a good choice and one that could have been framed in a context similar to the 1995 Oklahoma City bomb.
In Australian terms, though, the expense would be seen as a waste of tax cuts.
Fiona: Surely you meant a waste of good tax cuts, Trevor? BTW, are you on for Monday?
All Armed
Understood, Trevor, however when said drill is a part of three near-simultaneous events and the objective is to co-ordinate responses to those, that's one helluva drill. And a helluva diplomatic message, not dissimilar to the one being given in the Persian Gulf.
On another note, what do you make of the Indians pulling out of the nuclear deal? Who botched it, Bush or Downer? And did deporting a suspected Indian "simultaneous-bomber " have anything to do with it? I'm asking these of myself tonight... any ideas?
The Shell Game
Apologies if this extract is slightly long. I share the sentiment exactly:
[Andrew Greely, Chicago Sun-Times, 17/10/07
Dirty Bomb Dogs Discover Dirty Bombs.. Surrrprise!
So they're doing a drill at a hotel, and the doggies get excited. The pub gets shut down, a nearby school goes into lockdown.
The doggies were smelling residue in police and military vans. How handy that would have been if a timer was ticking.
-Via KATU and Portland Indymedia
Now let's see....
Richard Tonkin asks:
"Hey Eliot, do you reckon that getting out of Iraq will increase global terrorism?"
I don't even think terrorism per se is a particularly serious problem.
Unless you're one of the victims, of course. Then it's serious.
But in global terms, it's not a serious as obesity, lung cancer or motor accidents.
I don't think pulling out of Iraq too soon would be especially good for Iraq, though. It would be great for Iran, on the other hand.
And it would be bloody awful for the Kurds, whom we've already betrayed at least twice before, admittedly, so they're probably getting used to it.
Genocide, as opposed to some deluded jihadi blowing himself to bits along with a few Shiite schoolgirls and Philipino truck-drivers, is likely to increase in Iraq if we cut and run, however.
Specifically, the preferred alternative government will need to exterminate the Sunnis and Kurds.
Again.
And there's no doubt it would be a great boon to the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his close personal friend Hugo Chavez, and his mentor Fidel 'Our Father' Castro, his surviving next of kin Raul 'The Holy Ghost' Castro, the Pyongyang Industrial Machinery & Plutonium Refining Cooperative & Precision Massed Callisthenics Company, Noam Chomsky, President Assad and their various spokespersons presently loitering around student bars and grant-funded publishing collectives in the free world.
But terrorism? No.
Worse things could happen. Like, Mercedes Corby guesting on 'Dancing with the Stars' or something.
Agreed, Eliot
I've read somewhere that the probability of being killed and injured in a terrorist attack is less than being hit by a meteorite. We haven't had a War On Meteorites. Or a War On Famine. Not enough profit
Australia "International Partner" in US Dirty Bomb Drill
I'm still amazed that Australia is so heavily involved in the Topoff 4 drill and there's no-one reporting it. Australian authorities are running aroung ground zeroes in Guam and Oregon, liaising with US embassy staff in Canberra, and the Australian media isn't touching it.
Here's Attorney General Phil on the subject:
[extract]
While reported from China in the People's Daily, our country's preparation for such an event is not being reported here. Is it because the exercise is not being carried out from our shores but from Guam, the home base of the US planes practice-bombing the Northern Territory.?
The three hundred and fifty acting as dead and injured in Portland Oregon could just as well be lining the streets of Portland, Victoria.
I'm very curious as to why the story isn't being touched here. Is it because the whole idea is fiction. Naah, the Aus government haven't been so sensible before..
What would Noam do.....
"The question for the present is, what would the consequences be of an abrupt withdrawal of western forces from Iraq? I suspect it would be a bloodbath."
Yes, but think of the possibilities. Endless future editions of Dateline showing Cuban documentaries on how the USA 'supported' Moqtadr al Sadr.
Tinkers' Tosses
Shut up and take the tax cuts
Frank Rich in New York Times (The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us):
How many times will Howard & Costello let the letters I-R-A-Q slip from their lips over the next six weeks?
Strength In Unity
"There are however a number of essential core issues that need to be established and the major concern is the national interest. ie. the companies involved in Aus gov work would need to be transparent with the other contracted work so that security and conflicts of interest on a global scale are not raised."
-Shane Irving Unity Resources Group Aus, Asia, Middle East, Latin America.
When this lot gunned down an Adelaide resident who I think may have made a very interesting AWB witness. Downer was lying when he tried to downplay that one by telling us the company was low-grade. I thought then that he was covering for them.
I would go so far to suggest that some ministers might have money in companies that might have money in Unity, a la Downer's investing in Argo, which made a killing at the AWB IPO.
Mike Lyvers, I respect where you come from, but I don't think profiteering should be swept under a rug. This mess was caused by people out to make a fast buck. We should not allow them to be rewarded for creating it.
Planners Hopes- Dirty Bomb Insider Trading?
Did you hear the one about the AFP counterterrorism strategy founder who became the manager of a homeland security company that made a killing in the Australian share market? Sorry, it's not a joke. It happened years ago.
Let's set the scene...
"Planners hope that, the more they do it, the more the agencies and personnel will learn to work together, forming some semblance of organization before any occurrence of the real thing." Don't you find this to be bizarre language to hear on a nightly TV bulletin? Especially in a city about to host a fake terror attack? The way KOIN TV (love the name) would have it, it's gonna happen sometime or another.
That, after all, is the whole point of the exercise.. to show what is going to happen. TV cameras recording, in Portland, Oregon's case, three hundred and fifty people dead and injured, from a mock blast that in reality, according to the news bulletin, "throws the radioactive material around, thus contaminating wide areas."
No mention, of course, that the radiation won't actually hurt you, or that 350 dead and injured is a fairly dramatic figure, much more than Shadow Defence Minister Fox's (love the name) ten dead in London's Hyde Park.
And where do you think the grisly footage is going to turn up? My guess is Today Tonight and A Current Affair, and every similar evening program in the world. Who'd want to miss out on such a ratings grabber and toothpaste seller? Of course, local experts will be found to transpose the effect into their home cities, perhaps some police commentary downplaying local possibilities.
Share market tip, for those who came in late ... homeland security companies. While blue-chip, there'll be no big money, as the "smart" boys and girls got in and out during the oversubscribed IPOs before the share prices plateaued. You have to be "in the know" to get the real money. A minister investing in your portfolio would probably be helpful.
And who can we find to be potential terrorists? Anybody we can get upset enough to do it. Moslems, Indian doctors, Somalian refugees, Halliburton protesters... one minister or another can ruffle their feathers with a bit of vilification, and then sit back and see how good their script reading was Sooner or later, even if there's no ka-boom there'll be a ka-ching of cash registers processing the profits. What an easy lurk!!
It's like Downer's justification for having cash involved in the AWB float. He explained that he invests his money in investment companies so he doesn't need to worry where his money is invested. Yes, Minister. How much of your cash was running through KBR when it was split off from Halliburton?
Or perhaps, Xtek, Australia's only ASX registered homeland security company? They floated the day the deportation of that notorious terrorist Scott Parkin.
[extract from The Age 6/10/05]
I put this quote in a Your Democracy blog of two years ago. I also recorded these details of the IPO sourced from the same piece:: The company raised A$14 million for the float by the oversubscribed issue of 28 million shares at a price of 50 cents per share. By noon of their first day of trading, the shares had risen by forty per cent... not a bad morning's work for "ground-floor" investors. Anyone buying after that would be disappointed to see their investment slip back to a resting level of around 67 cents per share.
Still, shareholders shouldn't need to worry. The same Age piece recorded that "[XTEK's] Customers include the Australian Defence Force, federal and state police forces, their bomb disposal squads, federal and state government departments, ministerial offices, courts throughout Australia, airports, public venues and major national and international companies." and that they were a major equipment supplier to the Sydney Olympics. Sydney 2000's counterterrorism co-ordinator became the head of (can you hear this coming, Trevor Kerr?) the main bloke in Unity, the corporate military mob that shot those two women last week ... oh yeah, and the Iraqi/Australian Professor of Agriculture.
Let's get back to the Mr French mentioned in The Age:
[investor.xtek extract]
At the time of the float French said that he was putting the generated revenue through the UK office to get the ball rolling in the US of A. French also invested A$ 2 million in a WA company called QRSciences
[WA BusinessNews, 8/3/06 extract]]
This stuff would be a must-have for anyone wanting to avoid half a dirty bomb being sent in the mail. You have to wonder who's got the US rights.
Three years ago the Victorian Police decided to commission an independent study of counterterrorism practices by Monash University, which was released yesterday. Monash's head of criminology Jude McCullogh told the ABC that
The picture accompanying Ruddock's rebuttal in today's Age is of Customs officers wearing protective gear while searching a bin. Now you know who they bought the spiffy outfits from. It's accompanied by this brilliant riposte by the Attorney General:
To explain this further, Phil explains how he and Commissioner Mick have visited mosques. Yep. That'll do the trick
Phil goes on to say how the bungling of the Haneef case wasn't an example of the AFP's counterterrorism methodology being a stuff up. Of course it wasn't. It was Good For Business.
Getting back to the US Dirty Bomb Drill. After this, everyone's going to need a lot more gear.
We broke it...
Our Father, who art in Havana
The only reason the US hate Chavez is because he won't let them get hold of the oil.
They sell oil to the USA. Venezuela exports about 1.3 million barrels a day to the US.
Jus another point about John Pilger's statement about Chavez's Venezuela :
""It's easily the most democratic country in Latin America. It's not another Cuba, far from it."
- here's Hugo Chavez today grovelling all over Fidel Castro.
He actually called him "Our father".
Must have been tricky holding Fidel up like that for the photograph.
An Easy Fix ForThe Dirty Bomb Scare
""Experts working for Enviros, a consultancy that advises nuclear authorities around the world estimated the effect that a dirty bomb the size of the one in the Moscow park would have if it were to be detonated in London. If it exploded in Trafalgar Square it might only kill 10 people immediately. But given the heating of the air, millions of flecks of radioactive caesium chloride would soon be floating over London. The plume might reach Whitehall and a minute later Charing Cross then the city and before long the suburbs. While there might be little risk to the populations at this point it has been estimated that more people would be likely to die in the chaos, especially the traffic chaos, engendered by panic. Hence the description as the weapon of mass disruption."
Sounding like a chapter of HG Wells' War Of The Worlds, these words can be found in a media release put out by the UK conservatives on Friday, in the form of a speech written by. UK MP Dr Liam Fox, the UK's Shadow Secretary Of State For Defence. He also argues strongly for the prevention of acquisition of nuclear weapons technology by other countries.
Fox fails to mention, as most governments do, that informing the public about dirty bomb effects would go a long way towards taking the "terror" out of an attack. If most people would die running away from something they thought was going to harm them, even though they were actually safe, why not a public education program? It would be a simple effective counterterrorism tactic that could save many lives. The people of Sydney were bloody lucky that they were even instructed on Go Bags. Why couldn't the mailed-out pamphlets have contained practical information on what could be expected, alongside the instructions of how to run away?
I'd love to see a few lawyers calculating the financial liabilities of governments for having caused deaths and hysteria by not providing information. Maybe the sums have been done, and decisions made that it's more economically beneficial to remain silent.
Am I being simplistic in suggesting the use of information as a preventative weapon in the War On Terror? I don't think I am. However, I think that the fact that it's not being done amounts to a potentially murderous level of negligence.
If Keelty wants to pre-empt fatalities, he should be spearheading educational measures. After all, he was originally quite vocal in his beliefs that Australia's potential exposure to terrorism had been excarberated by our participation in the invasion of Iraq, before Howard shut him up.
It's a pity that the most likely time we might see such attacks was and is in the run-up to the election. Howard's not going to tell anybody anything that might cost votes. He won't let Keelty, either.
Eliot...
The only reason the US hate Chavez is because he won't let them get hold of the oil.
Haneef Shouldn't Have Been Charged- DPP
I'll find the report on the weekend and have a decent look. The gist of Bugg's assessment is that as the SIM card wasn't at the crime scene Haneef wasn't connected. It was negligent of the prosecution to not be aware of this situation and present it to the court.
Kevin Andrews, now using lack of Somalian literacy due to lack of education in refugee camps as grounds for not letting the people into the country, can hardly be expected to change his position on Haneef. That he won't is an indictment on how far removed from law the actions of federal Cabinet ministers have become.
These are the people who are working out what crime we might commit next and preventing us from carrying them out. I can't believe we're letting them do it to us. Watching the news listings on the topic of "dirty bombs' grow with every passing day, I can see where this is heading. Another international media war, with more and more freedoms demanded to be sacrificed.
The show of force exemplified by the mounted police out the front of our pub did nothing to stop the letting off of flares at the soccer stadium. Most likely they helped make it happen. Take that train of thought to the "simultaneous dirty bomb attack exercise" being conducted this week, and you tend to think that such an attack is imminent.
That the plot of a ten year old comedy movie is being enacted globally demonstrates how appalling the thinking of our leaderships has become.
Anybody proposing to lead a new regime should be promising to steer society away from the dangerous path towards which it's being driven. Haneef has exposed how badly things have gone wrong with counterterrorism philosophy, but we're not hearing how it can be corrected. We should be hearing such proposals today.
Terrorist bomb kills 30 in Iraq including 6 women and 9 kids.
This is no way to end terrorism.
Anti Soccer Riot Horses In Front Of The Gov
A couple of visits back of the Melbourne fans.. good people all, were joined by sombeody who let off a flare across the road. Tonight the 35 Melbourne fans were greeted on leaving the pub by five mounted troopers and six footmen.
What's going on in the minds of the people who order such things to happen?
Yours in horror, Richard
Where the real terror resides
Richard, your link gives us another look at the real agenda of the lib/lab corporate coalition.
Ultimately this will help in building a more resilient business sector, which can bounce back in the face of adversity, ensuring less disruption to our way of life," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, as saying.
And, “which is based on confidential information provided by banks and communications, energy and water companies. But it is yet to incorporate information on transport, health services and food supplies.”
The Lib/lab direction is only towards corporate survival and restoration, not the people. A rational sane person would expect those elected to serve them to firstly ensure the safety, freedoms and health of the people in the event of an violent ideological attack. Looking at the facts, we see those currently serving in or parliaments are there under false pretensions, as they outwardly display their true allegiances in all they do and say. This one statement by Ruddock, shows the ongoing depth of terror the lib/lab coalition would allow the people to suffer, under the chaos following an attack. However it pales into significance to the coming terror they have perpetrated upon the country by their ideological blinded drive for corporate control and suppression. The real adversity this country faces, comes from the ideologically controlled lib/lab coalition and our current primitive representative government system.
Computer Says No
Alga, there's only one god being worshipped in this game, and that's the Almighty dollar. Did you see Sydney's stock-market shut for the APEC long weekend? Nope, the faithful acolytes still gathered at the temple to present their offerings, secure in the knowledge that warplanes could divert attackers and police were ready to stamp down civil unrest, and mop up the blood spilled in a post attack panic.
Compare the treatment of Sydney's population to that of New York. Over there, when things looked a bit tense before September, radiological detection gear was put into the streets, the Health Department put up advice on the nature of dirt bombs, the police department released information on how to identify potential attackers. Here, on the other hand, people were told what to keep in a Go Bag in case they neeeded to run, choppers and coppers followed Dubya around the city, and the public was informed that the greatest danger was people with marbles in their pockets brandishing metre-high placards. The public of Sydney was treated as a simpleton. Did anyone see any reports at the time of the event that a bombing attack was likely? Nope. That would be Bad For Business. Not great for Howard's profile either.. he'd be forced to admit that yet again he'd created the possibility of an Australian attack.
What did this fancy new computer software say to do in the event of an attack... hand control of Sydney to the FBI? What if that plane the Hornets fired flares at had a suitcase in the back seat? Or one of those hot air balloons was about to spew contamination across the city? Unlike New Yorkers, Sydneysiders were left totally uninformed, and if an attack had occurred the ensuing panic, from something that (if a dirt bomb) would have done (most of them) no harm, would have thrown the city into chaos. Of course, the stock exchange could keep going, no doubt by this stage buoyed by the knowledge that Bush had a Pearl Harbour for Iran.
Until we're told what contingency plans were on implementation standby do we assume there weren't any? For all the counterterrorism information available, we might as well. With a military that loses rocket launchers and a police force misshapen into a propaganda tool that can't handle Indian doctors and Texan sandwich makers, it would probably be safer if our authorities were sitting on their hands. On their track record, they were most likely to bugger things up anyway.
Wag The Dog -US Dirt Bomb Exercises and IEDs
With the death of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan already being linked by our defence minister to IEDs, I can only wonder how long it will be before the link is made to possible western dirt bomb attacks. Expect it next week, the week after at the latest.
The US Homeland Security Department is conducting a simulated dirt bomb exercise in Arizona, Oregon and Guam. Australian officials will be participating. The exercise has as a focus preventing an attack before it occurs.
After such a PR exercise creating the public links between Iranian activity and explosions in other countries will be easy. In fact, it's already happened. Now all that's required is to suggest that Iranian technology could detonate radioactive material in New York and Sydney, and we're back to the plot of Wag The Dog.
White House Leaked Osama Tape and More Dirt Bomb Hype
Debkafile is the website that posted the Al Qaeda warning that triggered the New York radiological deployment in August.
[extract 8/10]
And if Australia's, joining in, you can bet we're on the list as well. The only trouble is that it appears from reports circulating today that the US has "blown its cover" (and I'd guess Debka's) for intercepting Al Qaeda e- messages by releasing the pre-9/11 Osama message before it could be broadcast through "official" channels. The vernerable warmonger, the New York Sun reports that after this intelligence analysts watched the terrorism internet disappear before their eyes. If you believe that, Angela, I have a bridge in Sydney. If the assertions of this apparently remarkably well-informed staff writer hold water, the US has lost a valuable intelligence resource just for a few days advanced screening time. Apart from the fact that this suggests that the Osama tape may never have come from Al Q, it implies a level of idiocy that has left the west with no way of knowing if dirt bomb attacks are imminent. It's either a massive stuff-up or a Capricorn One, I reckon.
Here's how the Sun put it:
The Washington Post version (subscription required), which is the one being quoted around the world, is much more explicit:
[extract]
Bush can't be held responsible for this- he was in Sydney for APEC. It goes to show what happens when you leave the kids with the keys to the car when you go on holidays... especially when the kid is Dick Cheney. Perhaps Dubya was looking for an insurance write-off?
Now I've gone and gotten myself worried again.
Come to think of it, Al Qaeda would have been realising that their security had been compromised while Dubya and Condi were in international airspace, en route from Sydney to Washington. And if the feared simultaneous Al Qaeda explosions in Australia were about to be ordered, the US would have been unable to detect it, just after having angered its enemy and and become blind to its activites.
Don't miss this investment opportunity....
Investors in collectibles are advised to get copies of John Pilger's latest "documentary" called The War on Democracy in which John get's an extended intervew with a ranting, raving Hugo Chavez, whom John admires almost as much it seems as does Chavez's political soul-mate and fellow racist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
I can assure you, within a few years copies of this "documentary" are going to be harder to get than first editions of Noam Chomsky's glowing accounts of Pol Pot's regime.
Fawning all over Chavez, Mr Pilger offers this priceless insight on Chavez's Venezuela:
"It's easily the most democratic country in Latin America. It's not another Cuba, far from it."
Puts me in mind of George Galloway's famous remark about the late Fidel Castro being not a dictator, "indeed, far from it".
Hugo of course is probably the foremost lickspittle of the Castro family junta on earth and makes no secret of his admiation for the dead fascist dictator nor that he is modelling his socialist revolution on Cuba's example.
Despite this, John along with so many other former Castro mouth-pieces are now getting ready obviously to put a bit of historical revisionist space between themselves and their dead former idol.
It must make the folks down at Green Left Weekly nervous to see their star correspondent so obviously getting ready to ditch Cuba in favour of some new marxist pin-up, even if merely Chavez.
But it was always thus on the Marxisant left.