Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

"After spending three years incarcerated at various locations by the US Army, you’d expect this book to be one long vituperative tirade. Despite Moazzam Begg’s hardships, the former Guantanamo prisoner comes across more an impatient rather than angry man.": Chris Saliba

"Southeast Asia’s return to prosperity since the financial crisis of 1997 has brought a region-wide splurge on new weapons. Most Southeast Asian countries are, indeed, now busily modernizing their armed forces. So far, most have done so without compromising their autonomy in security matters. But, with China’s military build-up causing nervousness everywhere, many governments in the region are starting to work with outside powers.": Hideaki Kaneda

"On few other issues is the battle over history so intense as on the Israel-Palestine conflict. On few other issues has history been so turned from an academic discipline to a weapon of war. ... One tactic is to muse about how much nicer the world would be if the illegitimate state of Israel had never existed. Let’s go with this premise for a bit: Israel should never have existed. How would we shove the historical toothpaste back in the tube?" Will Howard

"President George W Bush has said that Iran’s development of nuclear weapons is unacceptable, and recent press accounts suggest that his administration is exploring preventive military options. In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has defied the diplomatic efforts of the European Union and others, using the nuclear issue to stir rally domestic support. Is it too late to prevent a showdown?" Joseph S Nye

"No well balanced parent would encourage their child to pull the wings off an insect because it bites, string the kitten by its paws from the clothesline as punishment, or nail the dog’s tail to the floor to stop it stealing food from the table. Such violence and cruelty would be seen as unhealthy at best and seriously dysfunctional at worst. And yet the signs are increasing that there has been a lessening of opposition to the use of torture on human beings. The term ‘torture lite’ has entered the lexicon as if something like torture could ever be less than what it so awfully is." Roslyn Ross

"The family had decided to keep quiet about the mystery surrounding Jake's death, preferring to let the Army handle the media questions, but a string of incredible mistakes has culminated with the body of Judy's son not being sent back to Australia where the family was waiting to retrieve the coffin. Judy Kovco now wants Australians to know exactly what has happened in the six days since her son was killed, and the circumstances under which he died." Darryl Mason

"Maybe if the mercenaries who ended his life didn't belong to a company that had lost lives in a car bomb explosion two years back, when they were protecting water and electricity engineers, this tragedy might not have occurred... All these armed men saw, as they guarded a convoy of contractors, was an old Iraqi getting too close for comfort." Richard Tonkin

"Islamic theology is characterised by pluralism. Further, the exposure of sharia to other legal traditions has led to quite substantial changes in understanding of key legal concepts. Indeed, the existence of substantial Muslim minorities living in greater religious liberty in Western liberal democracies than in Muslim-majority states has led many Islamic scholars to argue that non-Muslim states are more Islamic than Muslim ones." Irfan Yusuf

"Peter Costello is right. If you can’t commit to Australian values, we should put you on a boat and send you out to sea you later. Democratic beliefs, respect for the rights and liberty of others, and respect for the rule of law are our core beliefs "Those who are outside this compact threaten the rights and liberties of others," the Treasurer warned at his speech to the Sydney Institute. Amen to that." Chris Saliba

"Your appointment strengthens my confidence that still outstanding serious issues raised with your predecessor, Senator Robert Hill, and members of the Australian Defence Forces, will now be quickly resolved." John Richardson, writing to new Defence Minister Brendan Nelson

"As George W Bush embarks on his sixth year in office, it’s anybody’s guess whether his administration’s egregious misrepresentations, misjudgements and (quite probably) crimes will end up carrying any penalty. We will perhaps be able to gauge the electoral implications with the midterm Congressional elections this November, though it should always be remembered that the US electoral system, which has become heavily reliant on unaudited electronic voting machines, is vulnerable to vote-tampering." Kerryn Higgs

"Whilst Australian citizen, David Hicks, continues to endure his 4^th year of illegal imprisonment and torture in America’s Guantanamo Bay gulag, a new report by Joshua Denbeaux, a law professor at Seton Hall, has found that, based on data supplied by the Pentagon, that "55% of the detainees have not committed any hostile acts against the United States or its coalition allies." John Richardson

"Terrorism is likely to define the year 2006 as much as it has every year since 2001. Years from now, historians will likely label the opening years of the twenty-first century the “Age of Terrorism.” As with any new era, we do not yet fully understand what is happening and why. While most of the world recognises the problem, there are very different views on its causes and cures." Steven Metz

"On 31 March 2002, in between the two Passover holidays, the Hamas dispatched a suicide bomber to my home town of Haifa. My parents, Haley and Shimon, and my sister Adi went out for lunch at the Matza restaurant on that day. At about 14.45 the terrorist entered the restaurant and blew himself up. My mother was very badly hurt and my father was critically wounded. My sister and 14 other people perished in that attack. Only someone who has been through that experience can understand what we have been through since then." Eyal Shiran, translated from the Hebrew by Sol Salbe.

Several Adelaide-based US Defence Corporations are disguising themselves as small businesses to "loophole" US Legislation, according to a US Survey.

"The evening with Mr Ritter was hosted by the Victorian Peace Network, with Bill Deller chairing. In Mr Deller's introduction, he told us how  he believed it would be necessary in future to create broad coalitions with people of differing ideological hues in order to achieve similar goals. To prove how pear shaped politics has become, Deller introduced us to Scott Ritter, a man who voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 election and a former marine who worked as a ballistic missile adviser to General Norman Schwarzkopf during the first Gulf war." Chris Saliba

"One of my favourite newspapers from Indonesia is Media Indonesia Online, in particular its editorials. It is often hard hitting and pulls no punches in its criticism of Indonesian social, economic and political value systems that have led Indonesia to its current predicaments. Monday's editorial was titled 'Three reasons why the terrorists choose Indonesia'. The original in Bahasa Indonesia is Tiga Alasan Teroris Memilih Indonesia. I thought it would be of interest to the Webdiarists to see the Indonesian perspective and so I translated the editorial." PF Journey

"We do not yet know who actually released Plame's name to reporters. We think Novak had one source whose name has not been made public. Two prominent members of the Bush administration have admitted talking to reporters about Plame - Cheney's Chief of Staff 'Scooter' Libby and Karl Rove, but both have maintained that it was reporters who told them Plame's name and job.... According to several sources, Fitzgerald is examining the possibility that blowing Plame's cover was a desperate tactic in a far-reaching conspiracy, first to falsify WMD intelligence and, later, to destroy Wilson's credibility and warn off other potential whistleblowers." Kerryn Higgs

"Let’s look at our community for a moment. Let's observe what goes on. On the street we might come to the same intersection. To connect we must first acknowledge each other’s presence. A glance, a relaxed and open stance, a smile. Then we can communicate with positive body language at a level deeper than we generally understand. We begin to comprehend what could unfold if we create the opportunity. We find confidence, and trust. We start connecting, we start to communicate." Craig Rowley.

"You see we do not freely examine the texts that Ayman Zawahiri and his student Osama bin Laden would have themselves read closely, because such an exercise is deemed to be dangerous. And in many ways it is very dangerous, especially in the hands of naïve and easily manipulated people. On the other hand, if intelligent people in the community did freely access such material - in the same way as we could freely access the Al Qur'ān Al Karīm, the Biblical Canon or the Hebrew Bible and all the related literature - we might together come to a better understanding of what makes a suicide bomber tick. We might even begin to see what they think they see and 'Bingo!' we might find a way to defuse the ideas that form in their minds." Craig Rowley

"If Australia does not call for the Geneva Convention to be applied to its citizens now, then it is possible that countries involved in conflict with Australia in the future will disregard the Geneva Convention. History has shown us that this will result in the unnecessary ill-treatment and no doubt deaths of Australian service men and women. It has always been a mystery to me why General Cosgrove was not pounding on the Prime Minister’s door advising that Australia should insist that all those captured in Afghanistan be dealt with under the Geneva Convention to ensure the future protection of our own forces. Unfortunately for our Defence personnel... it is now only the United States and Australia who are publicly committed to supporting the Military Commissions in Guantanamo Bay." Stephen Kenny

"Revelations last week by Richard Clarke - Bush's counter-terrorism guru until just before the Iraq invasion - could destroy the Bush presidency. I asked Webdiarist Kerryn Higgs, a Australian living in New York who's been glued to live TV coverage of Clarke's evidence to the September 11 inquiry, to report the controversy." Kerryn Higgs