CONTENTS / BLOG (17), Just World Campaign

• Naked soldiers abuse exposed on the internet.

   The West Australian, p 33, Friday, July 1, 2005
   SEOUL: Photographs on the internet of South Korean soldiers forced to stand naked have raised new concerns of abuse in the nation's military.
   The pictures were released as the legislature prepared to vote to dismiss Defence Minister Yoon Kwang Ung after a deadly shooting spree by a conscript.
   Eight troops died on June 19 in a rampage by a conscript who was angered by verbal harassment.
   The photos have been circulating on the internet since last week.
   One of the 88 pictures released by the civic group Citizens' Solidarity for Human Rights shows naked soldiers crouching with their heads bent to the ground while commanders looked on. [Jul 1, 05]

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This series begins at: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/cont.htm • How Scary Is the Deficit?

Response

How Scary Is the Deficit?

America Power and American Borrowing
Our Money, Our Debt, Our Problem    Foreign Affairs, By BRAD SETSER AND NOURIEL ROUBINI, p 194-200, July / August 2005
The U.S. current account deficit--the gap between what the United States earns abroad and what it spends abroad in a year--is on track to reach seven percent of GDP in 2005. That figure is unprecedented for a major economy. Yet modern-day Panglosses tell us not to worry: the world's greatest power, they say, can also be the world's greatest debtor. According to David Levey and Stuart Brown ("The Overstretch Myth," March/April 2005), "the risk to U.S. financial stability posed by large foreign liabilities has been exaggerated." Indeed, they write, "the world's appetite for U.S. assets bolsters U.S. predominance rather than undermines it."
   But in fact, the economic and financial risks that arise from the U.S. current account deficit (and the resulting dependence on foreign financing) have not been exaggerated. If anything, they have received too little attention--and are set to grow in the coming years.
   Levey and Brown make three basic arguments. First, they claim that foreign central banks will probably continue to finance U.S. Deficits. Second, they predict that even if foreign central banks do pull back at some point, private investors will step in. And finally, they assume that even if this financing does not materialize, a dollar crash would hurt Europe and Japan more than it would hurt the United States, Unfortunately, there is a good chance that all of these assumptions will prove false. Foreign central banks may well stop financing growing U.S. deficits, private equity investors might not take their place, and the resulting adjustment process would prove quite painful for the United States.
DEBT DYNAMICS
   U.S. external debt is now equal to more than 25 percent of GDP, a high level given that exports are a small fraction of U.S. GDP. More important, the United States is adding to its debt at an extraordinary pace. The U.S. current account deficit is now comparable to those of Thailand and Mexico in the years leading up to their financial crises.
   In the late 1990s, the United States borrowed abroad to finance private investment. Today, however, the country does most of its foreign borrowing to finance the federal budget deficit, which is projected to be close to 3.5 percent of gdp in 2005. (In 2000, the United States had a surplus equal to 2.5 percent of gdp.) Recent economic growth has not reduced the budget deficit, but it has increased private demand for scarce savings; the net result has been even more borrowing from abroad. In 2004, foreigners bought an amazing $900 billion in U.S. long-term bonds; the United States exported a dollar of debt for every dollar of goods it sold abroad. Looking ahead, the U.S. debt position will only get worse. As external debt grows, interest payments on the debt will rise. The current account deficit will continue to grow on the back of higher and higher payments on U.S. foreign debt even if the trade deficit stabilizes. That is why sustained trade deficits will set off the kind of explosive debt dynamics that lead to financial crises.
   Nothing to worry about, argue Levey and Brown: foreigners may own a majority of U.S. Treasury bonds, but their holdings of other types of U.S. debt and equities remain limited; the United States, unlike other debtors, borrows in its own currency, displacing the negative consequences of a falling dollar onto its creditors; and the United States has substantial assets abroad, the value of which rise as the dollar falls.
   In recent years, the rising value of existing U.S. assets abroad has in fact offset much of the new borrowing the United States has taken out to finance its trade deficit, and Levey and Brown bank on similar gains in the coming years. But this bet is unwise. Most U.S. assets abroad are in Europe. Since the dollar already has fallen by around 40 percent against the euro, further falls in the dollar are likely to be against Asian currencies, and the United States holds relatively few Asian assets.
THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS
   The falling dollar also reduces the value of foreign investments in the United States. Eventually, foreign creditors are likely to demand higher interest rates to offset the risk of further decreases. Over the past few years, the United States has found a novel way out of this dilemma: rather than selling its debt to private investors who care about the risk of financial losses, it has sold dollar debt at low rates to foreign central banks. The extent of U.S. dependence on only ten or so central banks, most of them in Asia, is stunning: in 2004, foreign central banks probably increased their dollar reserves by almost $500 billion, providing much of the financing the United States needed to run a $665 billion current account deficit. These banks are not buying dollar-denominated bonds because they are attracted to U.S. economic strength, the high returns offered in the United States, or the liquidity of U.S. markets; they are buying them because they fear U.S. weakness. If foreign central banks stopped buying dollar-denominated bonds, the dollar would fall dramatically against their currencies, U.S. interest rates would rapidly rise, and the U.S. economy would slow. Foreign central banks have financed the United States to keep their export sectors--heavily dependent on U.S. consumer spending--humming. But they now must weigh the benefits of providing [195] the United States with such "vendor financing" against the rising cost of keeping the current system going. [***]
Levey and Brown Reply
[***] According to Setser and Roubini, the current situation is especially dangerous because foreign central banks are financing three-quarters of the $665 billion current account deficit. This accounting is incomplete, because it ignores most of the funds flowing into and out of the United States--especially private foreign investment, which totaled over $800 billion in 2004. The $500 billion provided by central banks, therefore, represents only one-third, not three-fourths, of total capital inflows. Ongoing sizable additions to foreign private holdings reflect the unmatched safety and liquidity of U.S. financial markets and the dollar's as-yet-unchallenged key-currency role. [page 199 a]
   [COMMENT: Levey and Brown are committed to the present ramshackle arrangements, including "private foreign investment, which totaled over $800 billion in 2004."
   Well, in February 2006 a few Congressmen woke up that control of some U.S. ports had been sold by a British firm to a firm in the Arabic Muslim world. Among their objections were "security." Most nations that have swallowed the modern economic heresies of "globalism" and "competition policy" will gradually find everything in their homelands falling into the hands of merciless cosmopolitans. Voters have been deceived, but they also bear much of the responsibility.
   President George W. Bush's war plans have accelerated the U.S. debt addiction. He, Blair, Howard and the Insiders will be keen to cut health and welfare, and the populations will see more and more jobs disappearing offshore, while foreign cosmopolitans will take over the companies and public amenities. Similar wrong policies have changed Britain into one of the Sick Men of Europe, complete with Fifth Column. The French car burnings, and the organised attacks on the Danish and other embassies, are "try-ons" to see if the decaying Caucasians have reached the "tipping point" yet.
   The "as-yet-unchallenged key-currency" -- the U.S. dollar -- was already under challenge by the Euro, if not the Yen, before these articles were printed. Iraq had intended to switch to the Euro, and to sell its oil to Russia and France, before it was invaded illegally, albeit on the cheap. (If Saddam Hussein had been more sensible about arms inspections, he might still have been bluffing the nations, and cheating on the corrupt UN oil-for-food programme, AND possibly increasing his arms supplies immensely. Arms dealers have no consciences.)
   The number of Coalition troops sent to Iraq was so low that they could not, and still cannot, guard any but a few public assets, nor seal the borders, nor provide security for Iraq residents, not even lawyers for Saddam's defence! There is an unhindered inflow of fanatics, whose activities are increasing, not decreasing, with time. On the other hand, the invasion is enriching the Insiders, with their armaments and oil oligopolies, but it ought to prove unsustainable. It keeps the democratic peoples' attention diverted from the more serious matters of the nuclear arming of the unstable societies of India, Pakistan, and Iran, not to mention Israel, going on apace.
   (The Golden Dome explosion in February 2006 is just as likely to have been carried out by the British or American secret service, as by the Muslim "insurgents. Two groups of whites dressed as Arabs driving in cars loaded with explosives have been reported in recent months.) - Just World Campaign, February 26, 2006.) ENDS.] [July / Aug 2005]
• Unanswered questions about Chinese defectors

   News Weekly, Australia, by John Miller (former senior intelligence officer), pp 4-5, July 2, 2005
   AUSTRALIA: In the Cold War days, a defector would be whisked away to a safe house and his bonafides established. Then he would be debriefed extensively. Australia could then pass intelligence on to grateful allies. Could this happen today? Only in one's dreams ...
   Economists the world over have lured the West into believing that somehow communist China is becoming capitalist and democratic (something like the discredited idea, peddled by academics in the 1970s, of "convergence" of the USSR with the West). [...]
   With the grand announcement only a few days ago that ASIO had set up a whole new section monitoring the activities of China in Australia, ASIO's lack of professionalism is clearly exposed. [...]
   Is it true that they [the pro-China lobby inside ASIO] betrayed details of the listening devices installed in the new Chinese Embassy, and were those devices procured from an allied intelligence service?

SECRET INTELLIGENCE Unanswered questions about Chinese defectors		The basic thrust of his argument was that ASIO was obsessed by legality, at the price of doing its job properly -- especially its primary task of catching spies. This article could well be revisited today as "ASIO: Clean, Unprofessional, Treasonous and Inefficient or Neutered". The fact remains that successive governments ran down ASIO in terms of personnel, finance and professionalism, turning it into a public service department run primarily by former Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) officers. Serious questions about KGB penetration of ASIO have never been answered satisfactorily. It is claimed by some that the Australian Federal Police conducted an operation inside ASIO which drew up a list of some 20 officers whose loyalty was in question. This number was winnowed down to five or six who received the equivalent of honourable discharge with full pay and allowances and a golden handshake to help them on their way and, presumably, keep them quiet (News Weekly, May 7, 2005). The real spies Apart from ABC television's Four Corners documentary, Trust and Betrayal (November 1, 2004), probing away at this issue, like a dentist at a rotten tooth, by and large the lid has remained hammered down tight. Even the prosecution of former ASIO officer George Sadil for removing documents from the office failed dismally. As Four Corners implied, he was a mere "patsy" for the real spies. Since the shock to Western civilisation of 9/11 and sundry bombing campaigns thereafter, followed by the intervention in Iraq, the Commonwealth Government was galvanised into action to beef up ASIO once more, and all possible resources were thrown at the terrorist target There followed a massive recruitment campaign and expenditure on new technology, buttressed by changes WWW.NEWSWEEKLY.COM.AU
The news during the past few weeks that three Chinese officials under diplomatic cover in Australia wished to defect produced a pantomime which, if it were not so serious, would be hilarious. In the Cold War days, a defector would be whisked away to a safe house and his bonafides established. Then he would be debriefed extensively. Australia could then pass intelligence on to grateful allies. Could this happen today? Only in one's dreams ... Economists the world over have lured the West into believing that somehow communist China is becoming capitalist and democratic (something like the discredited idea, peddled by academics in the 1970s, of "convergence" of the USSR with the West). Certainly, the People's Republic of China is regarded as a major trading partner by most Western countries eager to capitalise on an absolutely huge market. By introducing certain features of capitalism, China has enhanced its image as a country with which we can do business, especially in the form of free-trade agreements and the like. Tactical change However, has China really changed that much? True, the Mao suits have gone and well-dressed, apparently happy, people cycle around the major cities, while waiting for delivery of Western cars being assembled in their country. It is no longer a crime to be rich in China, although there is a suspicion that corruption has become rampant and the Chinese Communist Party is merely adopting a tactical change of which the Great Helmsman himself would have approved. China, it appears, is not an enemy but a trading partner. The last NEWS WEEKLY, JULY 2, 2005 -- PAGE 4	thing the Howard Government has wanted, as The Australian has presciently pointed out, is have three Chinese officials wanting to defect. To make matters worse, the Government has treated this as an immigration issue, talking calmly about normal procedures for immigration. This leaves the would-be defectors in a parlous position. With the grand announcement only a few days ago that ASIO had set up a whole new section monitoring the activities of China in Australia, ASIO's lack of professionalism is clearly exposed. [Picture] *Prof. Paul Dibb* Australia's intelligence services have suffered since the end of the Cold War as successive governments have run down defence expenditure and reaped a peace dividend. This policy can be traced back to the 1986 White Paper on Defence, mostly written by Professor Paul Dibb and accepted by a government not wanting to see any external threat that would prompt a rise in taxes to pay for defence hardware and manpower. As governments scaled back spending on defence and intelligence, a strange torpor descended on ASIO and ASIS. In 1986, ASIO's headquarters were transferred to Canberra, accompanied by the loss of some of the organisation's most talented officers. Nearly 10 years of attempting to convert ASIO into just another public service department, and officers into public servants, finally paid off. In 1984, an Australian academic wrote a savage attack on the organisation, entitled: "ASIO: Clean or Professional?" (Quadrant, September 1984). The author obviously had some inside information, judging by the furore that ensued.

to the ASIO Act allowing for the detention of suspects, that old-timers could until then could only have dreamt of after a few stiff drinks.
But the mishandling of the recent Chinese defections raises a number of urgent questions:

When was the old ASIO section that covered the People's Republic of China run down or disbanded? And why?

How many old China hands from DFAT have found their way into positions of influence in ASIO, and how has this affected coverage of the Chinese intelligence services?

Is it a fact that a pro-China lobby of five or six officers came into existence inside ASIO after the move to Canberra? Is it true that their motive was basically anti-Americanism?

Is it true that they betrayed details of the listening devices installed in the new Chinese Embassy, and were those devices procured from an allied intelligence service?

Is it also true that the perpetrators of this betrayal were identified but not disciplined or dismissed?

How big is the knowledge gap between the winding down of the old China section and the establishment of the new?

Is it a fact that the Chinese intelligence service presence in Australia is around 40 and that their targets are military and scientific projects and attendant secrets?

Why is it that the Australian Government appears unaware that the Chinese armed forces war-fighting doctrine (not defence) is based on war with the Americans in the none-too-distant future? Do they somehow imagine that Australia can stand back and watch?

Is the government aware of the years of experience in intelligence and foreign affairs resident in the Lowy Institute, which is an integral part of the drive to trade with communist China?
The same questions should be put to the Opposition. It beggars belief that both Government and Opposition cannot see that China is run by a brutal and tyrannical dictatorship with only tenuous links to the proletariat in
VWW.NEWSWEEKLY.COM.AU

whose name it governs. The armed forces are paramount.
   Communist China's occupation of Tibet has lasted so long that the majority of that country's population is now Chinese. Beijing casts covetous eyes on prosperous and democratic Taiwan, which will have to be retaken as were Hong Kong and Macau. Can this happen without armed conflict?
   Furthermore, is it moral for Australia to trade with a country that uses slave labour -- even child labour -- to produce cheap goods which it foists on us in the name of free trade?
   Does anyone really believe the bravura performance of the attractive, svelte Chinese Ambassador to Australia, Madame Fu Ying, when she states that nothing will happen to the defectors when they go home? The Ambassador is clearly one of the most sophisticated and articulate Chinese diplomats ever to enter this country.

It beggars belief that both the Government and the Opposition cannot see that China is run by a brutal dictatorship.

   The reality is that if these defectors are not protected, they could well be kidnapped by agents in the Chinese community and whisked out of the country. The Chinese, being a little more sophisticated than the old Soviet Union, would probably allow them to be seen for a while before subjecting them to harsh interrogation and possibly torture, before tossing them into a labour camp and executing them in a couple of years when Australia will have forgotten all about them.
   In many ways, it is remarkable that Tasmanian Greens Senator Bob Brown -- not known for his love of ASIO or intelligence services -- should be raising this matter of public importance. What of the official Opposition? Is its head so buried in the sand that it cannot see a thing? These three Chinese diplomatic or

consular staff have a right under international law to ask for political asylum in this country. It is to our collective shame that the Government has procrastinated over the matter and declined to defend or protect them as intelligence defectors have been traditionally.
   Already, newspapers are repeating disinformation that these defectors would have no useful intelligence as they are only monitoring a religious group, Falun Gong.
   However, intelligence officers are intelligence officers and their knowledge of the workings of the other arms of Chinese intelligence in this country and the identification of their personnel would be quite useful, even to the new glitterati of ASIO. Australia cannot treat these defectors as though they have been working in a vacuum.
   The role of The Australian newspaper should not pass without the odd comment. Two of its reporters have obviously treated this story with the respect it deserves and pursued it like hounds. Even Paul Kelly managed to steer a relatively neutral position in the Weekend Australian (June 11-12,2005).
   Nevertheless, the paper ran a short editorial mid-week asserting that the problem with the defectors would not interfere with relations between the Canberra and Beijing. Given that the paper's proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, has considerable business interests in China, it is rather surprising that investigative journalists should get away with the story without intervention for a week.
   It is to the profound shame of this country and its Government that its behaviour and treatment of Chinese intelligence service defectors is so crass as to astound a great number of former intelligence officers.
   When the seven deadly sins were believed to exist in terms of morality, the greatest sin was left out: that of betrayal. There is nothing worse. It cannot be justified -- not in the name of trade, international relations, human rights or the name of Australia.

-- John Miller is a former senior intelligence officer. #
NEWS WEEKLY, JULY 2, 2005 -- PAGES

[WORDS: "USSR" = Soviet Union. "Great Helmsman" = Mao Tse-Tung. ENDS.] [Jul 2, 05]

It's Imperialism, Stupid

   Information Clearing House, www.information clearinghouse. info/article9387. htm , "ICH", By Noam Chomsky, July 5, 2005
   UNITED STATES: IN his June 28 speech, President Bush asserted that the invasion of Iraq was undertaken as part of "a global war against terror" that the United States is waging. In reality, as anticipated, the invasion increased the threat of terror, perhaps significantly.
   Half-truths, misinformation and hidden agendas have characterised official pronouncements about US war motives in Iraq from the very beginning. The recent revelations about the rush to war in Iraq stand out all the more starkly amid the chaos that ravages the country and threatens the region and indeed the world.
   In 2002 the US and United Kingdom proclaimed the right to invade Iraq because it was developing weapons of mass destruction. That was the "single question," as stressed constantly by Bush, Prime Minister Blair and associates. It was also the sole basis on which Bush received congressional authorisation to resort to force.
   The answer to the "single question" was given shortly after the invasion, and reluctantly conceded: The WMD didn't exist. Scarcely missing a beat, the government and media doctrinal system concocted new pretexts and justifications for going to war.
   "Americans do not like to think of themselves as aggressors, but raw aggression is what took place in Iraq," national security and intelligence analyst John Prados concluded after his careful, extensive review of the documentary record in his 2004 book Hoodwinked.
   Prados describes the Bush "scheme to convince America and the world that war with Iraq was necessary and urgent" as "a case study in government dishonesty ... that required patently untrue public statements and egregious manipulation of intelligence." The Downing Street memo, published on May 1 in The Sunday Times of London, along with other newly available confidential documents, have deepened the record of deceit.
   The memo came from a meeting of Blair's war cabinet on July 23, 2002, in which Sir Richard Dearlove, head of British foreign intelligence, made the now-notorious assertion that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" of going to war in Iraq.
   The memo also quotes British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon as saying that "the US had already begun 'spikes of activity' to put pressure on the regime." British journalist Michael Smith, who broke the story of the memo, has elaborated on its context and contents in subsequent articles. The "spikes of activity" apparently included a coalition air campaign meant to provoke Iraq into some act that could be portrayed as what the memo calls a "casus belli."
   Warplanes began bombing in southern Iraq in May 2002 -- 10 tons that month, according to British government figures. A special "spike" started in late August (for a September total of 54.6 tons).
   "In other words, Bush and Blair began their war not in March 2003, as everyone believed, but at the end of August 2002, six weeks before Congress approved military action against Iraq," Smith wrote.
   The bombing was presented as defensive action to protect coalition planes in the no-fly zone. Iraq protested to the United Nations but didn't fall into the trap of retaliating. For US-UK planners, invading Iraq was a far higher priority than the "war on terror." That much is revealed by the reports of their own intelligence agencies. On the eve of the allied invasion, a classified report by the National Intelligence Council, the intelligence community's center for strategic thinking, "predicted that an American-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict," Douglas Jehl and David E. Sanger reported in The New York Times last September.
   In December 2004, Jehl reported a few weeks later, the NIC warned that "Iraq and other possible conflicts in the future could provide recruitment, training grounds, technical skills and language proficiency for a new class of terrorists who are 'professionalised' and for whom political violence becomes an end in itself." The willingness of top planners to risk increase of terrorism does not of course indicate that they welcome such outcomes. Rather, they are simply not a high priority in comparison with other objectives, such as controlling the world's major energy resources.
   Shortly after the invasion of Iraq, Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the more astute of the senior planners and analysts, pointed out in the journal National Interest that America's control over the Middle East "gives it indirect but politically critical leverage on the European and Asian economies that are also dependent on energy exports from the region." If the United States can maintain its control over Iraq, with the world's second largest known oil reserves, and right at the heart of the world's major energy supplies, that will enhance significantly its strategic power and influence over its major rivals in the tripolar world that has been taking shape for the past 30 years: US-dominated North America, Europe, and Northeast Asia, linked to South and Southeast Asia economies.
   It is a rational calculation, on the assumption that human survival is not particularly significant in comparison with short-term power and wealth. And that is nothing new. These themes resonate through history. The difference today in this age of nuclear weapons is only that the stakes are enormously higher.
   Noam Chomsky is a professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author, most recently, of Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance.
   Copyright: All rights reserved. You may republish under the following conditions: An active link to the original publication must be provided. You must not alter, edit or remove any text within the article, including this copyright notice.
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   (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
   Join the Daily News Headlines E-mail Digest by visiting the Information Clearing House website. [July 5, 2005]
• Explosions in London.
   Electronic news media, (Western Australian date, approx 6.15pm WST) Thursday, July 7, 2005
   LONDON, England: Several explosions took place in London at 5 stations in the tube (underground railway) and on buses, and according to one report at Brighton, a seaside resort, in the rush hour.
   There are terrible injuries, according to early reports. [Jul 7, 05]

• [London terror bomb attacks. Saddam's torturers back at work -- for 'democracy'. World roundup.]

   Information Clearing House, "Why London, Why Now?", Call for World War, and other newsitems, E-mail dated July 8, 2005
   • Ex-Mossad Chief Calls For World War After London Attack, Rules of conflict for a world war, By Efraim Halevi
   There will be supreme tests of leadership in this unique situation and people will have to trust the wisdom and good judgment of those chosen to govern them. The executives must be empowered to act resolutely and to take every measure necessary to protect the citizens of their country and to carry the combat into whatever territory the perpetrators and their temporal and spiritual leaders are inhabiting. www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9410.htm http://snipurl.com/g3oc
   • Why London, Why Now? Americans believed Al Qaeda was targeting the United States because we stood for democracy, when, in reality, they hated us because we massively supported oppressive regimes in the Middle East. Patrick Doherty
   This time, with that narrative already established, the work of interpreting the London subway bombings through the Bush worldview is a much simpler matter. Regrettably, Tony Blair has already begun the spin in his statement from Gleneagles: www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9409.htm http://snipurl.com/g3od
   • It's Up to the Anti-War Movement to Restrain the Thirst for More Blind Revenge, Message from London, By Mike Marqusee
   The bomb blasts were grimly predictable. Indeed, they had been widely and repeatedly predicted � not least by rank-and-file Londoners, who knew that by taking Britain into Iraq side-by-side with the USA, Tony Blair had placed their city in the firing line. www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9407.htm http://snipurl.com/g3oe
   • West turns blind eye as police put Saddam's torturers back to work, From James Hider in Baghdad
   IRAQI security forces, set up by American and British troops, torture detainees by pulling out their fingernails, burning them with hot irons or giving them electric shocks, Iraqi officials say. Cases have also been recorded of bound prisoners being beaten to death by police. www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9402.htm http://snipurl.com/g3of
   • Bush was right, but too late; I did a little linguistic analysis on George W. Bush's Fort Bragg address to Americans on June 28 and came up with some pretty strange results. By Robert Fisk.
   Bush's speech begins by frightening the audience to death with terrorism and finishes triumphantly by rousing them to patriotic confidence in their country's future victory. It wasn't actually a speech at all. It was a movie script, a screenplay. www.information clearinghouse. info/article 9400.htm http://snipurl.com/g3oh
   • Three blasts rock subway, at least 40 killed : More than 350 wounded http://snipurl.com/g3oj
   • At least 33 dead in London attacks:
   More than 33 people were killed in a series of terrorist blasts in London today, police said. Seven people died in the first blast in a Tube tunnel 100yds from Liverpool Street Station, 21 died in a blast at between King's Cross and Russell Square and five died at Edgware Road station in an explosion involving three trains. http://snipurl.com/g3ok
   • Blasts rock London, Blair breaks off G8 meeting:
   Four blasts ripped through London at rush hour early on Thursday, killing people, wounding 150 seriously and disrupting a meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Scotland in attacks Prime Minister Tony Blair called "barbaric." http://snipurl.com/g3ol
   • London Bomb Attacks: BBC Live Video Feed. www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9404.htm , http://snipurl. com/g3om
   • Al-Qaida in Europe claims responsibility for blasts :
   The statement, which also threatened attacks against Italy and Denmark, said: "Rejoice, Islamic nation. Rejoice, Arab world. The time has come for vengeance against the Zionist crusader government of Britain in response to the massacres Britain committed in Iraq and Afghanistan." www.information clearinghouse. info/article9406. htm , http://snipurl.com/g3on
   • Statement claiming London attacks :
   This is the full text of the statement. http://news.bbc. co.uk/1/hi/uk/ 4660391.stm
   • Extra: Rice dismisses Iraq/Afghan angle to London attacks:
   U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that the deadly bombings in London will strengthen British resolve to defeat terrorism and dismissed suggestions that the attacks were in retaliation for Britain's role in Iraq and Afghanistan. news.monstersand critics.com/ northamerica/article_ 1031895.php/Extra_ Rice_dismisses_ Iraq_Afghan_angle_ to_London_attacks , http://snipurl.com/g3ot
   • Galloway: Bombings price of Iraq :
   Londoners have paid the price for Iraq and Afghanistan, says George Galloway. news.bbc.co.uk/ 1/hi/uk_politics/ 4661633.stm, http://snipurl.com/g3ou
   • Israel Warned United Kingdom About Possible Attacks:
   Contrary to original claims that Israel was warned "minutes before" the first attack, unconfirmed rumors in intelligence circles indicate that the Israeli government actually warned London of the attacks "a couple of days" previous. The British government sat on this information for days and failed to respond. www.information clearinghouse.info/ article9412.htm , http://snipurl.com/g3o4
   • Report: Israel Was Warned Ahead of First Blast :
   The Israeli Embassy in London was notified in advance, resulting in Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remaining in his hotel room rather than make his way to the hotel adjacent to the site of the first explosion www.information clearinghouse. info/article 9405.htm , http://snipurl.com/g3ow
   • Netanyahu Changed Plans Due to Warning :
   British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday's explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city, a senior Israeli official said. http://news.yahoo. com/news?tmpl= story&u=/ap/20050707/ ap_on_re_mi_ea/ israel_britain_ explosions_1 , http://snipurl.com/g3ox
   • Scotland Yard has denied reports they were warned of an attack by Israel www.sky.com/ skynews/article/ 0,,30000-11882 65,00.html
   • Israel not warned about blasts - foreign minister:
   A Foreign Ministry official had said earlier that British police warned the Israeli Embassy in London of possible terror attacks minutes before the first explosion. http://breakingnews. iol.ie/news/story. asp?j=122106240&p= yzzyx68zx , http://snipurl. com/g3bd
   • Iraq occupation resistance:- Iraq: President calls for unity as at least nine killed:
   Separately, five decapitated bodies were located Thursday on a road in northwestern Iraq, police said. www.albawaba.com/ en/news/185997 , http://snipurl. com/g3oy
   • Car bombs kill many in Iraq:
   Thirteen people were killed and 30 wounded late on Wednesday in two almost simultaneous car bombings in Mashruh, some 60km south of the Iraqi capital, police said. http://english. aljazeera.net/NR/ exeres/96D40084- C307-4F95-9B78-259 A01E09753.htm , http://snipurl. com/g3p0
   • Three killed, 46 injured in mortar strikes in Mosul:
   Heavy mortar strikes targeting the local government headquarters in Iraq's northern city of Mosul hit nearby shops, killing at least three people and wounding 46 people, hospital officials said on Thursday. http://abcnews. go.com/US/wire Story?id=915823 , http://snipurl.com/g3p3
   • One killed, three wounded in mass protest in Tikrit:
   Police battled 1,000 demonstrators who took over the police headquarters in ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit on Wednesday, a Reuters television camera operator said. www.alertnet. org/thenews/ newsdesk/GRA7 22250.htm , http://snipurl.com/g3p4
   • Egypt confirms diplomat's death in Iraq:
   The Egyptian government has confirmed the death of its envoy in Baghdad, abducted near his house last Saturday after one month in the country. www.abc.net.au/ news/newsitems/ 200507/s1409617.htm http://snipurl.com/g3p5 ,
   • Senior police officers plotted to bomb interior ministry:
   Iraq: Iraqi security forces have foiled a plot by senior police officers linked to Al Qaeda to bomb the interior ministry, Interior Minister Bayan Solagh told a news conference Thursday. http://snipurl. com/g3p6
   • From Filmmaker in Los Angeles to Iraq Detainee:
   Mr. Kar has been held in what his relatives and their lawyers describe as a frightening netherworld of American military detention in Iraq - charged with no crime but nonetheless unable to gain his freedom or even tell his family where he is being held. www.information clearinghouse. info/article9403. htm , http://snipurl. com/g3p7
   • Iran, Iraq Agree On Military Cooperation:
   Iran said today that it will complete a military and anti-terrorist cooperation agreement with Iraq that will include Iranian help in training Iraq's armed forces. http://snipurl. com/g3p9
   • Iraq War "Deserters" Speak Out:
   Three young U.S. servicemen currently living in Canada explain why they refused to return to Iraq. www.alternet.org/ story/23371
   • Top Hussein Lawyer Quits, Chides U.S.:
   Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer quit the Iraqi dictator's Jordan-based legal team, saying Thursday some of the team's American members were trying to control the defense and tone down his criticism of the U.S. presence in Iraq. http://snipurl. com/g3pa
   • Halliburton bags another Iraq contract:
   The US military has signed on Halliburton to do nearly $5 billion in new work in Iraq under a giant logistics contract that has so far earned the Texas-based firm $9.1 billion. http://english. aljazeera.net/NR/ exeres/49DE55BF- FF64-4588-A2CB-33 B401107787.htm , http://snipurl.com/g3ph
   • So, Mr Bremer, where did all the money go? :
   One ministry claimed to be paying 8,206 guards, but only 602 could be found : One American agent was given $23m to spend on restructuring; only $6m is accounted for. www.information clearinghouse. info/article9401. htm , http://snipurl.com/g3pb
   • In case you missed it: To the Victors Go the Spoils of War:
   British Petroleum, Shell and Chevron Win Iraqi Oil Contracts. www.corpwatch. org/article. php?id=7989
Rest of the world:-
   • Robert Kennedy Jr: Video Lecture: Environment, Health and Democracy :
   The corrosive impact of excessive corporate power on American democracy. www.information clearinghouse. info/article 9397.htm , http://snipurl.com/g3pi
   • Taliban Threatens To Kill Captured American Commando:
   Spokesman: 'American Definitely Will Be Killed' www.nbc4i.com/ news/4692982/ detail.html , http://snipurl. com/g3pj
   • Forget Confidentiality, Out Rove:
   In this case, journalists as a community have been played for patsies by the president's chief strategist, Karl Rove, and are enabling him to abuse the First Amendment, by their invoking it. www.information clearinghouse. info/article 9398.htm , http://snipurl.com/g3pk
   • Judith Miller - the Patron Saint of Propaganda:
   Pardon me while I intrude on the whorish theater of martyrdom now assigned to the likes of Judith Miller. The same Judith Miller who is going to jail to protect whom? Sources such as Chalabi? He is after all one of her sources and has been one for her false reporting regarding WMD. http://snipurl. com/g3pn
   • Joseph Wilson Comments on 'Real Victims' in Plame Case :
   "The real victims of this cover-up, which may have turned criminal, are the Congress, the Constitution and, most tragically, the Americans and Iraqis who have paid the ultimate price for Bush's folly." www.information clearinghouse. info/article 9399.htm , http://snipurl. com/g3pp
   • The American hand in Iran:
   The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)and its non-governmental organization (NGO) regime-change industry hope to stage another cardboard coup in Iran. But it could be a black and blue revolution. http://www.atimes. com/atimes/Middle_ East/GG06Ak03.html , http://snipurl. com/g3pq
   • US media group face charges in Uzbekistan :
   Authorities in tightly controlled Uzbekistan have filed criminal charges against a former director and another employee of a US-based media rights and training group, the organisation said on Wednesday. www.dailytimes. com.pk/default. asp?page=story_ 7-7-2005_pg4_18 , http://snipurl. com/g3ps
   • Uzbekistan to reconsider future of U.S air base:
   Uzbekistan indicated on Thursday that it was reconsidering the future of the U.S air base in this Central Asian nation. www.usatoday.com/ news/world/2005- 07-07-uzbek_x.htm , http://snipurl.com/g3pt
   • US misses the next wave: China:
   Beijing is making the running in Asia, leaving America well behind. www.information clearinghouse. info/article9411.htm , http://snipurl. com/g3pu
   • Sami Al-Arian Arabic translation key to Sami Al-Arian trial:
   According to court documents, the two Orlando linguists have offered "counter translations". Assistant Federal Public Defender Kevin Beck, Fariz's attorney, said the translation work by Diab and Yunis was "invaluable" and both may be called to testify when prosecutors introduce translations of phone calls or documents. http://snipurl. com/g3pw
   • US imposes controls on a new security threat - birdwatchers :
   US security agents have come up with a new target for increased scrutiny in their battle against terrorism: birdwatchers. Birdwatchers in certain areas are being forced to provide photographic identification, submit themselves to background checks, and even pay for a police escort. www.guardian.co. uk/usa/story/0, 12271,1522968, 00.html , http://snipurl. com/g3px
   • Energy Co. Paid $25,000 for DeLay Meeting:
   A Kansas energy company said it donated $25,000 so that it could attend a golf outing with U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to try to influence pending energy legislation. http://news.yahoo. com/s/ap/20050707/ ap_on_re_us/delay_ fundraising_1 , http://snipurl. com/g3py
   • Sidney Blumenthal : All the president's men :
   With O'Connor's retirement from the US supreme court, the Republican counter-revolution sees the chance of a lifetime. www.guardian.co. uk/usa/story/0,12 271,1522946,00.html , http://snipurl. com/g3pz
   • U.S. layoffs surge to 17-month high, Challenger says:
   The U.S. auto and retail sectors slashed tens of thousands of jobs in June, bringing the number of planned job cuts to 110,996, the highest in 17 months. http://snipurl. com/g3q0
PITHY QUOTATIONS
   "One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation." : Thomas B. Reed - (1839-1902) Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, known as "Czar Reed" 1886
   Unless you become more watchful in your States and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will in the end find that the most important powers of Government have been given or bartered away, and the control of your dearest interests have been passed into the hands of these corporations: Andrew Jackson, farewell address, 04 March 1837
   "Government is the Entertainment Division of the military-industrial complex.": Frank Zappa - (1940-1993), Musician
   Liberty can not be preserved without general knowledge among people." (August 1765) John Adams
   To read this newsletter online www.informationclearinghouse.info or http://snipurl.com/ayzc
   RSS FEED www.feedfire.com/site/rss.cgi?ChanContentId=001864
   Charge Him or Release Him -- Jose Padilla : U.S. Citizen Imprisoned Without Trial or Charges for 3 Years and 60 Days
   • APPEAL. This web site represents the effort of one person. I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help by clicking here www.information clearinghouse. info/support.htm , http://snipurl. com/dn4j .
-- Peace & Joy, Tom Feeley [Jul 8, 05]

• Readers win new food label standards

   The West Australian, by JENNIFER ELIOT, p 9, Friday July 8, 2005
   PERTH (W. Australia): WA supermarkets bowed to public pressure yesterday by agreeing to label all fruit and vegetables by their country of origin.
   But the supermarket giants are yet to heed calls from nearly 50,000 readers of The West Australian for their food to also be labelled by its State of origin, meaning the campaign will continue in a bid to bring about further changes to labelling laws.
   Yesterday's move, which has been adopted voluntarily by the supermarkets, including Woolworths and Coles, caps an intense three-week campaign by The West Australian during which consumers, growers and independent supermarkets joined forces in a bid to make labelling compulsory.
   The supermarkets will not extend their new labelling commitment to other States.
   Agriculture Minister Kim Chance praised the campaign, titled Where does our food come from?, saying the State now had the highest food labelling standards in the country.
   "Clearly the campaign, which was very effective, tapped a strong will of opinion among consumers," Mr Chance said. "They want country-of-origin labelling, they want it now, they want it in an unambiguous way. They are not interested in the second-rate labelling of imported goods." [...]
   [COMMENT: The newspaper started the revised campaign with a new coupon: "... I still demand to know which State it is from. Please make State of origin labelling compulsory." COMMENT ENDS.] [Jul 8, 05]

• [West Australian enforces holiday sell-off.]

   The Australian, "Publisher enforces holiday sell-off," www.theaustralian. news.com.au/common/ story_page/0,5744, 15887309%5E 2702,00.html , by Michael Bachelard, July 11, 2005
   PERTH (WA) Australia: JOURNALISTS at a West Australian newspaper are being forced by their employer to sell two weeks of their annual leave, contradicting assurances from the Howard Government and employer groups that cashing out holidays would be voluntary.
   West Australian Newspapers, publisher of The West Australian, is signing some of its journalists on to individual contracts that include an enforced leave buyout.
   "WAN may, at its absolute discretion, pay out up to 10 days of your annual leave entitlement each year," the Australian Workplace Agreement says.
   The controversial contract is a product of federal industrial relations law, which will, under John Howard's IR changes, take over from all state and territory regimes.
   The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance's West Australian secretary Michael Sinclair-Jones said new recruits at the paper were being told they must sign the AWA if they wanted the job.
   "I've also heard from at least two people now who, when applying for pay rises, have been told, 'We're prepared to give you a pay rise, but you have to sign an AWA'," Mr Sinclair-Jones said.
   The revelation of the agreement will embarrass Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews, who assured employees last week that "cashing out annual leave will only be able to occur at the request of the employee".
   Mr Andrews has confirmed the Government's new laws will contain a provision allowing workers to take cash for up to two weeks of their four-week annual holiday.
   Unions said the clause would mean employers could force workers not to take leave, reducing the leave entitlement to the US standard of two weeks, and that the traditional Australian family holiday would "go up in smoke".
   Mr Andrews countered that the legislated minimum holiday entitlement would remain at four weeks under the new laws. A spokesman for Mr Andrews said he could not comment on The West Australian case until he had sought advice, but he reiterated that leave buyouts should be voluntary.
   But ACTU secretary Greg Combet said the revelation showed it was "impossible to police employers" who forced people to sign contracts that cashed out leave.
   "It is Kevin Andrews who is misleading the Australian people because annual leave is not protected under the current system and it will be even more vulnerable under the proposed new laws," he said.
   In the case of West Australian Newspapers, even if the employer buys out two weeks of leave, the journalists would still have the statutory minimum of four weeks, because it is standard for journalists to receive six weeks' leave a year.
   The extra leave has traditionally been compensation for the requirement that journalists work public holidays for no extra pay. Under The West Australian's AWA, journalists are still expected to work public holidays.
   Mr Sinclair-Jones accused the newspaper of hypocrisy after it editorialised on Friday that it was unions that wanted to "deny workers free choice" by opposing the leave buyout, saying it was a "matter of choice and of mutual agreement" between workers and employers.
   West Australian Newspapers managing director Ian Law declined to comment, saying he would "have to get (the contract) and have a look at it". (By courtesy of StopMAI Coalition, Western Australia.) [Jul 11, 05]

• Senior Liberal attacks Costello faction.

. [Electoral manipulation, 'thuggery'] - Joy Howley and Wendy Spry expose branch-stacking.

   The Age (Melbourne, Australia), www.theage.com. au/news/national/ senior-liberal- attacks-costello- faction/2005/07/10/ 1120934131242. html?oneclick=true ; by Paul Austin, State Political Editor, July 11, 2005
   MELBOURNE: Former Liberal state president Joy Howley has launched an extraordinary attack on the Peter Costello/Michael Kroger forces that run the Victorian division, and says opinion polls show the party cannot win government under Robert Doyle's leadership.
   Ms Howley says that under the Costello/Kroger regime, many Liberals are scared to speak their mind.
   "If anyone is seen associating with people who have challenged the current regime in any way, they are then punished," she told The Age.
   "There's an element of thuggery within the party. There are stories of some members receiving foul phone calls. They (the Costello/Kroger forces) manipulate branches by placing people in and out of them. Sometimes I could weep about my party."
   On Mr Costello, she said: "It's sad that Peter cannot understand that members can give him strong support while also supporting other people. Unless you're totally subservient, he sometimes starts to unnecessarily question your loyalty."
   On Mr Doyle's leadership, she said: "I think there is a real issue there because all the polling tells us we can't win with Robert.
   "It's unfortunate for Robert that, despite his best efforts, the electorate hasn't warmed to him and as a consequence the party has a real challenge confronting it. The electorate seems to have passed judgement on Robert."
   Ms Howley was president from 1997 to 2000 and is associated with the so-called Jeff Kennett forces in the party.
   She said she had decided to speak out because of the treatment of fellow Victorian Wendy Spry, who was replaced as federal vice-president last month by Victorian president Helen Kroger.
   Ms Howley said Ms Kroger had challenged Ms Spry because the Costello/Kroger forces believed she had not been sufficiently supportive of them.
   "That's yet another story in the way in which the Victorian division is now being run," Ms Howley said.
   "The thing that really concerns me, and I think a lot of others, is that freedom of speech is no longer available to members of the Liberal Party here in Victoria, and yet that is a basic right of all Australians and it is a core belief in the 'We Believe' document of the Liberal Party."
   Ms Spry echoed Ms Howley's concerns about increasing factionalism, telling The Age: "Factionalism fosters lack of respect for the individual - and respect for the individual is a core principle of Liberal belief."
   Ms Howley said the present Victorian administration was "totally focused" on supporting Mr Costello in his ambition to become prime minister.
   "But what happens to the Victorian division if he doesn't get there? What's Plan B?" she said.
   Ms Howley said the organisation's preoccupation with Mr Costello's ambitions was affecting the current preselections for parliamentary seats.
   The position of state director was supposed to be filled by "an impartial employee of the party", but the present director, Julian Sheezel, was "a factional player", she said.
   Ms Kroger said last night that she was surprised Ms Howley had chosen to criticise the present operations of the party given that during Ms Howley's presidency the Liberals had suffered two electoral setbacks: at the 1998 federal election they had lost more than 15 per cent of their seats in Victoria, and at the 1999 state election they had been "turfed out" of office.
   Ms Kroger said everything the party had done under her presidency "has been to turn around that demise". This was succeeding: at last year's federal election the Liberals had achieved a swing of 3.14 per cent in Victoria.
   Mr Sheezel said he was surprised Ms Howley had used a public forum to attack the party.
   (Picture, visit Joy Howley; Photo: Simon O'Dwyer) # [Jul 11, 05]

• [PM's new breed of workers - race to the bottom.]

   The Australian, "PM's new breed of workers," www.theaustralian. news.com.au/ common/story_page/ 0,5744, 1590 0511^ 601,00.html , by Brad Norington, July 12, 2005
   AUSTRALIA: JOHN Howard has identified a new class of "enterprise workers" willing to put Australia's long-term economic needs before their own, and foreshadowed even more workplace reforms.
   The Prime Minister said last night that a large number of these enterprise workers understood businesses needed to be successful for their jobs to be safe.
   Brushing aside opposition to his workplace agenda, Mr Howard spoke confidently about a "new breed" of Australians united by "an attitude of mind".
   "They recognise the economic logic and fairness of workplaces where initiative, performance and reward are linked together," he said in an address to the Sydney Institute.
   "They understand the need for firms to strive for better ways of doing things, that each workplace has to meet the competitive challenges in its own way."
   Mr Howard's belief that he can bring many workers with him in his Government's industrial relations reforms is the strongest indication yet that he has no intention of making concessions or retreating in the face of opinion polls showing 60 per cent of voters reject his plans.
   In a chilling message to union and church opponents who claim workers would be worse off, Mr Howard signalled more changes lay ahead -- even before the release of detail and relevant legislation for the current round of change -- because Australia's performance was still "a long way shy" of the world's most productive economies.
   Singling out the need to counter the rise of China and India as great economic powers, the Prime Minister endorsed continuous change, saying laws and institutions needed to be "regularly assessed".
   Mr Howard said perseverance with workplace reform was essential in a global economy that increasingly valued specialisation and flexibility, if Australia was to narrow the productivity gap.
   "A common error -- one that my opponent Mr Beazley always makes -- is to regard workplace reform as a one-off," he said.
   "Have a few meetings of 'the industrial relations club'. Remove a few 1950s work practices, and the job is done.
   "He could not be more wrong. The job is never done."
   According to Mr Howard, Australia was on the cusp of a great demographic transition with the retirement of the baby boomers. "This will require evolutionary change where laws and institutions are regularly assessed against the needs of the workplace."
   While Mr Howard's present reforms would not abolish awards or the Industrial Relations Commission, a further round could see them scrapped and more curbs placed on unions as interfering "third parties".
   Mr Howard said the rise of the "enterprise worker" was Australia's most important economic development over the past two decades.
   "These Australians do not fit neatly into categories based on age or geography, occupation or industry, income level or formal qualification.
   "They are white-collar and blue-collar. They work each day in our factories, our small businesses, our great service companies, our farms and our mines."
   Mr Howard said enterprise workers included "knowledge workers", who made up about 40 per cent of the labour force, and almost 2million Australians working for themselves as independent contractors, franchisees or consultants.
   Labor industrial relations spokesman Stephen Smith last night slammed Mr Howard's speech for lacking any coherent economic rationale for how the Government's "extreme, unfair and divisive changes" would increase employment or increase productivity. He also criticised Mr Howard for complacency on skills, infrastructure, research and export performance.
   The Prime Minister said that enterprise workers grasped that high wages and good conditions in today's economy were bound up with the productivity and success of their workplace.
   "Those of us who have long made the case for freeing up the Australian labour market always felt that the most important change would be a cultural one."
   Mr Howard effectively confirmed that his plan to exempt businesses with up to 100 employees from unfair dismissal claims - covering up to 99 per cent of firms - meant the demise of the regime.
   "We will end the Keating government's failed experiment with job-destroying unfair dismissal laws," he said.
   Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews last night supported the move by West Australian Newspapers, publisher of The West Australian, to force journalists it is hiring to cash out two weeks of annual leave.
   He said it was his understanding that the journalists would still have the statutory minimum of four weeks' leave after they cashed out two weeks. "I've only read the report and I can say as a matter of principle that four weeks will be the standard and any cashing out will be entirely at the request of the employee."
   Additional reporting: Richard Gluyas #
   [COMMENT by Dion Giles: In today's issue of The Australian ( http://www.theaustralian. news.com.au/common/ story_ page/ 0,5744,1590 0511%5E601,00. html ), Australian Prime Minister Howard has spelled out in the clearest terms yet that his government has committed Australia to a race to the bottom working conditions -- a race begun in earnest for Australia by former Treasurer and then Prime Minister Paul Keating. The medium term goal is to continue "reforms" until conditions in Australia resemble (code term: "compete with") those in China. Indonesian conditions are no longer the bottom -- China caps even those.
   Yet even the wretched conditions of the Chinese are not the bottom. Howard has made it clear that there is no bottom -- that the greed of the grabber class is insatiable. For Australia, read every other Western country including the countries of Europe. Mr Greed runs all their governments and (more important) bureaucracies, and the only difference is the "pace of 'reform'."
   Many millions of people around the world, in countries civilised enough to allow labour unions and political parties, belong to unions and parties, or otherwise interact with them in one way or another. Many of these unions and parties support the same race to the bottom as the likes of Howard and Bush and Blair but quibble over the pace or mechanism or seek temporary partial exemptions.
   Therein lies one avenue of resistance: turn their own hypocrisy against them by challenging them over the basic issue -- the race to the bottom -- and agitating for them to get real about this issue or be increasingly shown up as frauds. The people of Latin America have been stung worse than most (having been slated by US employers for the role of interim "bottom") and are now responding appropriately.
   It is high time to do likewise, reminding reformist parties that the direction of "reform" has changed since their early days and today's struggle is over direction, not pace. Today's change of direction needs to be to erect, not dismantle, barriers to the international trade which forces workers to compete for their jobs with slaves.
   In a race to the top, not the bottom, trade is conditional on improvements in wages, working conditions, environmental standards and the "social wage" where these are substandard in the exporting country, or no deal. Even if it means giving up importing manufactured goods at depressed prices. -- Dion Giles, Western Australia COMMENT ENDS.] [Jul 12, 05]

• [Non-local food, food security, fuel waste, and takeovers.]

   The West Australian, "Our Solution," Letter to Editor, by Mary Jenkins, Spearwood, p 21, Saturday, July 16, 2005
   FREMANTLE, W. Australia: It is not enough to know that what we buy is Australian. It is most important we have food labelled "grown in WA". It is not being parochial but rather a safety net that will contribute to the sustainability of our future food and agricultural industries in this State. Who knows what the future holds? Drought, famine, climatic change, war, in such times it is wise to have the resources to grow your own food, as was discovered during World War II.
   Different standards apply in each State. For example, bananas go through a process of food irradiation in Queensland. This prolongs the life and many would say takes away the real taste of food. Also, we do not know what the long-term effects of food irradiation might be.
   Do we in WA need to buy those big Queensland bananas, sold in our supermarkets, when we have far superior Carnarvon bananas that taste a lot better - just like real bananas? Apart from any danger there may be in food irradiation, Queensland also sends us its cane toads as a bonus.
   To overlook future escalation of transport costs of food is shortsighted and a big political mistake. Ronald Bright, novelist and historian, warns of the house of cards factor that collapsed past empires in history.
   We may be on the cusp of collapse as unelected offshore corporations take control of public assets and what we eat. They care nothing about our future, only big profits now. [Jul 16, 05]
• [Suspects tortured in Iraq - 11 Yankees charged.]

US abuse charges

   The Sunday Times, Perth, W. Australia, p 39, July 17, 2005
   BAGHDAD: Eleven US soldiers have been charged with violation of military law over alleged assaults on suspected insurgents captured in the Baghdad area.
   A US statement said the charges were filed on Wednesday after a complaint by a soldier assigned to Task Force Baghdad that "other soldiers had allegedly assaulted some suspected terrorists".
   "None of the insurgents required medical treatment for injuries related to the alleged assault," it said.
   "Only one of the suspected terrorists remains in custody of coalition forces at this time."
   Names of the soldiers and their unit were not released, and the statement gave no further details of the alleged assaults.
   In Baghdad, US and Iraqi soldiers have been involved in a major counter-insurgency mission - Operation Lightning - since May 28.
   The operation is credited with reducing suicide car bombings in the capital, despite a wave of attacks on Friday that killed more than 30 people, including some attackers.
   The operation involves sweeps through neighbourhoods known to be insurgent hot spots and raids of suspected rebel safe houses.
   About 1700 people had been rounded up since the end of May but about 500 of them had been released, Iraqi officials said this week.
   According to the US statement, the Army's Criminal Investigation Division has begun an investigation into the assault allegations.
   US commanders have been especially sensitive to alleged mistreatment of detainees since the abuse of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison triggered a major scandal.#
   [COMMENT: "Operation Lightning" perhaps ought to have been named "Operation Frightening," because it frightens a lot of realistic yet peace-loving people of all communities. How can democratic Westerners encourage people of terrorist-breeding communities to stop torturing and murdering, if they do it themselves? COMMENT ENDS.] [Jul 17, 05]

• [Don't stop defending food sustainability.]

   The West Australian, "DON'T STOP," Letter from Steven Smyth, Leederville, p 17, Monday, July 18, 2005
   First, I would like to applaud the efforts of The West Australian and its readers on the effort to begin the discussion about where our food comes from.
   This is an important step in the right direction. I sincerely hope that as the movement progresses that you continue to push forward and include issues of sustainability and safety in your investigations of the food supply chain.
   The issue of pesticides, fertilisers and hormones in our food is at least as important as where it comes from. One example would be the presence of the hormone rBGH that is prevalent in dairy farming. Britain and Canada have banned outright the use of this product.
   Unfortunately, Australia and the US have not been nearly as proactive. The question I would ask is: why not? Please keep up the good work. [Jul 18, 05]

• Wran deal protected Dowding: Anderson

   The West Australian, by MARGOT LANG, p 5, Tuesday, July 26, 2005
   PERTH (W. Australia): Former NSW premier Neville Wran threatened to stop a lucrative property deal in December 1988 if Warren Anderson did not drop his plan to sue WA premier Peter Dowding, Mr Anderson said yesterday.
   "His job was to get Mr Dowding through the next election and to keep him as clean as he could," Mr Anderson told the Supreme Court.
   "He understood that I was threatening to sue Mr Dowding and the government. He couldn't have that -- it would cause the Labor Party a major problem in the election.
   "He didn't want any mud flying around, because Dowding had the image and he was the one who had to get Labor across the line."
   Mr Anderson and Sydney tycoon Kerry Packer were then negotiating to sell part of the Westralia Square site in St Georges Terrace to the State Government Insurance Commission and the Government Employees Superannuation Board.
   Mr Wran, then working for the firm of Whitlam Turnbull, had insisted that Mr Anderson sign a deed releasing Mr Dowding from any liability over the $50 million loss.
   "They put a gun to our head, and that was it," Mr Anderson said.
   He signed a deed releasing "the ministers, officers, employees and instrumentalities of the government of WA" -- but insisted that he had no intention of releasing the State from liability.
   "I was in a terrible predicament at the time. There was no way I was going to drop $50 million out the door. Packer was getting very belligerent," he said.
   Mr Anderson is suing the State for losses of about $100 million. He claims Mr Dowding demanded a $50 million deposit into Laurie Connell's shaky company Rothwells in earlier negotiations over the Westralia Square site, assuring him that the State was backing Rothwells.
   Cross-examined by Chris Zelestis QC, for the State, he said he had told Mr Dowding he would not sue him or any other individuals but retained his right to sue the government.
   "Why would I throw $50 million out the door? Would you? I bet you wouldn't," he asked Mr Zelestis.
   He said he had signed the deed of release after his lawyer had assured him it did not include the State.
   He said he was very disappointed when Mr Wran refused to give evidence in the case. "I said to him, 'I want you to support me.' He said, 'I don't want to get involved'."
   Mr Anderson said Rothwells' failure to repay the $50 million had ended his friendship with Mr Packer. He had not spoken to him for 15 years. He had tried without success to get him to testify in the case.
   "He was quite upset about the whole thing," he said. "I think you'd be wasting your time trying to get him out. He wouldn't entertain that idea. I know what he's like. He's in ill health."
   [RECAPITULATION: Mr Wran, then working for the firm of Whitlam Turnbull, ...
   Mr Anderson said Rothwells' failure to repay the $50 million had ended his friendship with Mr Packer. He had not spoken to him for 15 years. He had tried without success to get him to testify in the case.
   He said he was very disappointed when Mr Wran refused to give evidence in the case. ENDS.]
   COMMENT: So, two witnesses are said to have refused to testify in this case, part of the "WA Inc" saga. When did people gain exemption from the courts? And who is Mr Turnbull, partner in "Whitlam Turnbull" mentioned above? Ah, now we can see how Liberal and Labor join together so smoothly to keep any small party with a patriotic policy from being very successful, such as the Perth stockbroker's attack on the Australian Democrats in WA, and the businessmen's attack on the One Nation Party Australia-wide. ENDS.] [Jul 26, 05]

• EU loses trade fight on banana imports

   The West Australian, By PETER CAPELLA, p 42, Wednesday, August 3, 2005
   GENEVA - The European Union has lost a World Trade Organisation dispute with nine Latin American countries over its planned new tariffs on banana imports, according to a WTO ruling.
   A three-member team of WTO arbitrators said on Monday the EU's proposed banana regime, including $370 a tonne import duty, would not allow "total market access" to trade partners.
   Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela had challenged the EU at the WTO in March and April. They welcomed the decision.
   "It doesn't surprise us," Costa Rican ambassador to the WTO, Ronald Saborio, said. "The arbitrators came to the conclusion that a tariff of 230 euro ($370) per tonne is not compatible with the EU's obligations to the WTO."
   The ruling said the EU's planned change to its banana system "would not result in at least maintaining total market access for MFN (Most Favoured Nation) banana suppliers". MFN refers to the WTO's basic principle of non-discrimination between trading partners.
   Mr Saborio said the EU's planned replacement for its controversial quota system next year would be discriminatory for banana producers that were not part of the 25-nation bloc or the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations that had preferential access without tariffs to European markets.
   "One can't maintain concerns about the EU and ACP to the detriment of Latin American countries," he said.
   The Latin American exporters had argued that they would have no chance of maintaining their market share in the EU with the planned levy.
   The challenge had opened a new chapter in the banana war.
   In the late 1990s, the EU, the United States -- which was backing American multinational fruit companies -- and some Latin American countries were locked in a bruising confrontation over the EU's banana barriers, which combined quotas and tariffs.
   That dispute, which shook the global trade body, culminated in a WTO ruling in 2000 that found the EU quota system illegal. The EU agreed about a year later to come up with a revised system.
   The European Commission notified the global trade watchdog this year that it intended to impose the blanket $370-a-tonne levy on banana imports to replace its quota system from January next year.
   Under the current regime, the EU applies a levy of $1090 a tonne on bananas from Latin America that exceed the quota.
   Although they welcomed the end of the EU quota system, the six Latin American countries were adamant that the proposed EU $370-a-tonne duty was too high, prompting the new challenge.
   Mr Saborio said the Latin American countries would have trouble swallowing a tariff of more than $120 a tonne. The ACP countries, which export about 786,000 tonnes of the fruit a year to the EU, fear that the planned $370 tariff for their rivals is too low.
   The Latin American countries planned to hold talks with the EU about a new duty, Mr Saborio said.#
   [PAST NEWS: For 1999 banana war news by courtesy of The New Internationalist, click Unholy Banana Wars. ENDS.] [Aug 3, 05]

• China, Russia plan joint exercise

   The West Australian, p 42, Wednesday, August 3, 2005
   BEIJING: China and Russia will hold their first joint military exercise from August 18 to 25 with nearly 100,000 troops in two sites on China's and Russia's eastern coasts, the Chinese Defence Ministry said yesterday.
   The announcement highlights warming ties between Beijing and Moscow after decades of Cold War hostility.
   The exercises with army, navy and air forces will take place on Shandong Peninsula in China and in the Russian city of Vladivostok and in nearby waters, the Chinese Defence Ministry said. [Bolding added]
   [COMMENT: And the rest of the world is falling over itself to arm China, and is bending over backwards for its trade, while China builds up huge overseas credits. Meanwhile, farmers and businesses all over the world are closing down because of the import pressure. The question is, will China's exports, like the Soviet Union's grain exports of the late 1920s and early 1930s, help trigger an increase in the world's long-term unemployment? COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 3, 05]

• US indicts Israeli lobbyists

   News.com ; www.news.com. au/story/0,10117, 16159261-23109, 00.html , Agence France-Presse, From correspondents in Washington, August 05, 2005
   WASHINGTON: TWO former employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, have been indicted by a US federal grand jury amid a probe into the release of classified Pentagon documents.
   US analyst Lawrence Franklin, who worked on the Pentagon's Iran desk, was indicted in the affair in June and charged with passing classified information to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group who were not named at the time.
   Steven Rosen, 63, AIPAC'S former director of foreign policy, and Keith Weissman, 53, AIPAC's senior Middle East analyst, were indicted today "with conspiracy to communicate national defence information to persons not entitled to receive it", according to a Justice Department statement.
   Mr Franklin's indictment had alleged a series of contacts in 2003 and 2004 in which the onetime Pentagon analyst apparently divulged classified information about an unnamed Middle Eastern country to two employees of a Washington lobbying firm and a foreign diplomat.
   The indictment from the grand jury, sitting in Alexandria, Virginia, charged the two former AIPAC staffers with also gathering sensitive US government information among other charges.
   "When it comes to classified information, there is a clear line in the law. Today's charges are about crossing that line," said Paul McNulty, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, in a statement. [Aug 05, 05]

• [Western powers muddle along with Islamic extremism.]

The West Australian, Various newsitems, Friday, August 5, 2005
• Extremists in WA under close watch, By Natalie O'Brien and Luke Eliot. Potential terrorists with links to extremist organisations, including the radical group Jemaah Islamiyah, are living in Perth and are under close surveillance by authorities. Page One.
• Britain-Israel nuclear deal exposed. LONDON: Britain secretly sold Israel a key ingredient for its nuclear program in the 1950s, according to official documents reported by the BBC. ... 20 tonnes of heavy water. ... "They just seemed to be concerned about making a bit of money." P 25.
• Italians go slow. ITALY: Italian magistrates said a suspect detained in Rome over the July 21 London bombing attempts would be held for as long as it took them to complete their inquiries. ... Hamdi Issac ... of Ethiopian extraction. British police had more luck ... Haroon Rashid Aswat ... Zambia has agreed to hand him over.# P 28
• Expect more attacks, al-Qaida tells Britain. LONDON: ... videotaped message from al-Qaida warned London of more bloodshed. ... al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman Zawahri linked ... invasion of Iraq ... destruction in central London ... more of that, God willing. ... [UK] Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis ... Muslims to integrate ... [Zaki] Badawi, ... leading moderate voice ... tense situation ... attacks on Muslims ... Muslim women ... remove their hijab ... attacks on mosques ... P 28
[COMMENT: Re P 25: One could ask why the Israeli secret police used a female spy to enable them to kidnap an Israeli citizen who told the world years ago that Israel was secretly developing nuclear weapons. (He had come to Australia, and converted to Christianity.) He was imprisoned for years, and only released (I think) in 2005, but under strict controls. If the British civil service knew about the 20 tonnes of heavy water (but which the politicians said they didn't know about), why would the Israeli "powers behind the throne" want to pretend that their internationally-illegal nuclear programme was a secret? Or was it just for revenge? In any case, it tipped the balance of power in favour of the US-funded Israeli state, and against the surrounding Muslim states (on which the UK, the US, and many other countries depend for cheap oil), but who want Israel to give a far bigger measure of justice to the Palestinians than being hounded like second-class non-people and walled off from visiting other parts of their homeland. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 5, 05]
• [Canberra opens door to nuclear weapons buyers]

Canberra takes control of NT uranium mining.

   The West Australian, p 10, Friday, August 5, 2005
   DARWIN: The Federal Government has taken control over the future of the Northern Territory's rich uranium deposits, declaring the Territory open for business on uranium.
   The NT Labor Government had promised to ban new uranium mines, despite fierce opposition from the Federal Government.
   But the Federal Government sought legal advice and said after a meeting between the Federal and NT resources ministers in Darwin yesterday that it had taken over responsibility for the development of new mines.
[Picture] Open cut: Trucks loaded with uranium at the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory.
   "This morning in our meeting with the NT Resources Minister it was made clear by the Territory Government that they were abdicating their part of decision-making on uranium mining," Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said.
   "On that basis, and under the NT Mining Act and the NT Mining Management Act, the Commonwealth will assume responsibility for the approval of uranium mines.
   "None of those approvals will be considered before they have the full support of the indigenous owners of the area where the mine is proposed."
   Mr Macfarlane said the Federal Government was taking control "for the good of the territory" and resources industry.
   "We can't allow this confusion to continue," he said.
   "This no-uranium policy is a nonsensical policy.
   "The Northern Territory is open for business on uranium mining,
   "We were reticent to go down this road. Even as late as this morning I was asking the Territory Government to co-operate.
   "But if they're not prepared to do that... the Commonwealth will act to accept that responsibility."
   About a dozen companies were now exploring for uranium in the resource-rich Territory, which is home to about $12 billion worth of known uranium deposits, he said.
   Energy Resources of Australia is mining at Ranger, which is surrounded by Kakadu National Park.
   French nuclear power company Cogema is lobbying traditional owners in a bid to mine its Koongarra deposit in Kakadu National Park.#
   [COMMENT: The French government were so keen on nuclear bombs that when the ship Rainbow Warrior was in a New Zealand harbour, French secret service people blew it up, killing a man. Later the two murderers were decorated by the French government.
   It is "nonsensical" to oppose uranium proliferation, according to Mr Macfarlane, overlooking the fact that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty had bans on exporting everything that could aid in more nations developing nuclear weapons. But, like their UK counterparts years earlier who exported heavy water, money is the god of such leaders, who abdicate their responsibility to the future of humanity.
   The USA has recently accepted India as a nuclear power. India had developed nuclear bombs in defiance of "world opinion." The US denies that Pakistan or Iran have the right to do the same. Both these nations export terrorism, and so does Israel, but the US pays for Israel's existence, while in August 2005 President Bush will not rule out the use of force to stop Iran's defiant nuclear experiments. Money and political bias leads to acceptance of what was outwardly opposed, it seems. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 5, 05]
• [Terrorists, or terrifying police?]
   The West Australian, "In Short," letter from Kevin Watkins, Belmont, p 18, Friday, August 5, 2005
   PERTH (W. Australia): Understandably, Londoners must be feeling very nervy. It's not surprising that they might be thinking: Who will strike us next, terrorists in civilian clothing or those in uniform, employed by the state? [Aug 5, 05]

• The price of freedom

   The West Australian, letter from Detlef Ullrich, Mt Lawley, p 19, Friday, August 5, 2005
   PERTH (W. Australia): On the surface it seems most laudable of Hugh Mackay (Don't let PCness beat academic freedom, 30/7) to defend Professor Fraser's right of dissent, even if he has to dig out this insufferably trite cliche, commonly attributed to Voltaire, about the guy's wish to die for his opponent's right to disagree with him. But is his intention really quite so noble?
   As the price of freedom is to suffer the freedom of others, so it must inevitably be with freedom of thought and the expression thereof. George Orwell said: "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four." That was, of course, a metaphor relating to imposed socio-political dogma. We might today say: freedom is the freedom to say a woman is not a man and there is no such thing as same-sex parents, for instance. If we rewrite the laws of biology today -- and history, as here and in Orwell's 1984 -- to suit the politically correct preferences of the day, we might rewrite the laws of physics and maths tomorrow.
   Freedom of thought, however, does not exist if its free expression serves only to get the "intellectual freaks" out into the marketplace for the mob and the more cowardly contingent of the "commentariate" and the compulsive followers of fads and fashions to gang up collectively to kick their heads in. And that is what Mackay seems to advocate. Professor Fraser's views are "outrageous, unsupportable" and "misguided". Though he doesn't tell us why.
   Unless the free expression of dissent means the calm and rational exchange of views, involving sober consideration and keen inquiry of the heretic's reasons, with a willingness to be persuaded by whatever merit they may have, it means absolutely nothing. That we don't actually burn them at the stake (because we don't have to and it looks more humane this way) does not make this politically correct quasi inquisition any less oppressive than its medieval equivalent.
Today's text
God blesses those people who are merciful. They will be treated with mercy. -- MATTHEW 5:7. (The Bible for Today). From the Bible Society. [Aug 5, 05]

• [Give us a vote every four years on multiculturalism, death penalty]

   The West Australian, "PLEASE EXPLAIN," letter from Colin Black, High Wycombe, p 19, Friday, August 5, 2005
   PERTH (W. Australia): I was brought up in WA to believe that I lived in a democratic and free society where people decided what happened in our own country. I was taught about the evils of communism and totalitarian states and countries. I now realise that this was propaganda in itself. I have indeed voted many times, but for what? Nothing that really matters.
   If our governments do indeed represent the people, as they claim, why can't we vote on multiculturalism, capital punishment -- things that really matter to the people? A referendum every four years on these matters would stop governments from being exclusive boys' clubs just representing themselves. As everybody knows, unless you serve eight years you haven't set yourself up financially for life. This is their prime aim, not serving the voters. [Aug 5, 05]

• Britain-Israel nuclear deal exposed.

   The West Australian, p 25, Friday, August 5, 2005
   LONDON: Britain secretly sold Israel a key ingredient for its nuclear program in the 1950s, according to official documents reported by the BBC.
   The Newsnight television program said it had unearthed papers in the British National Archives that showed a deal was done to export 20 tonnes of heavy water.
   Ministers in the government of prime minister Harold Macmillan apparently were not aware of the deal, which was also kept secret from the United States, the program suggested.
   And no "peaceful use only" conditions were placed on the heavy water, which was vital for the production of plutonium at the top-secret Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert, after officials decided that to do so would be "overzealous".
   Former Conservative defence and foreign office minister Lord Gilmour said the revelations were "quite extraordinary".
   "Whether the civil servants who were involved knew what they were doing, or whether they didn't, I don't know," he said.
   "One must assume they must have known and what's more they seemed to have no idea of the political, or indeed even the technical and foreign-policy implications, of what they were doing.
   "They just seemed to be concerned with making a bit of money."
   In one of the documents, Foreign Office official Donald Cape concluded: "On the whole I would prefer NOT to mention this to the Americans". However, he told the BBC he did not remember the episode.
   The US had refused to supply heavy water to Israel without a guarantee that it would be used for peaceful means and Robert McNamara, US president John Kennedy's defence secretary, told Newsnight he was astonished at the cover-up.
   He said: "The fact that Israel was trying to develop a nuclear bomb should not have come as any surprise. But that Britain should have supplied it with heavy water was indeed a surprise to me.
   "It's very surprising to me that we weren't told because we shared information about the nuclear bomb very closely with the British."
   Minutes apparently reveal that the heavy water -- surplus from a consignment bought from Norway in 1956 -- was shipped from a British port to Israel in two consignments. Yet officials seem to have presented it as a deal between Norway and Israel.
   The papers show that by the time Israel asked Britain for more in 1961, the existence of the reactor and a probable nuclear weapons program had been exposed by the Daily Express newspaper, leading the Foreign Office to block the sale.
   Sir Hugh Stephenson of the Foreign Office wrote: "I am quite sure we should not agree to this sale. The Israeli project is much too live an issue for us to get mixed up in it again." #
   [COMMENT: Notice that the prohibition (words only, but better than nothing) on weapons use was NOT placed on the shipment. Donald Cape says now he can't remember, but at the time he was involved in keeping it secret from the United States. That is ironic, because the United States taxpayer picks up nearly all the costs of running the Israel bridgehead into Arab and Muslim lands. These supposedly British civil servants breached the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty by selling one of the essentials of atomic warfare to this small "thorn" in the Near East.
   One wonders if the ordinary voter can make any effect on the people behind the scenes who commit these crimes. Note that the officials made it appear like a deal between Norway and Israel. The sale has the earmarks of a Zionist plot (remember that many ill-informed Gentiles are supporters of Zionism).
   The brave Israeli who exposed the fact that Israel was breaching international law in this matter was kidnapped by trickery, and spent years in an Israeli prison, and is not free to return to the less-uncivilised world. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 5, 05]

• Politics rocked by theft charges

The West Australian, www.thewest.com. au/20050809/news/ general/tw-news- general-home-sto 131920.html , By SEAN COWAN, Page One, Tuesday, August 9, 2005
PERTH: One of WA's most powerful public servants has been hit with 55 charges of official corruption, attempting to pervert the course of justice, possessing drugs and stealing more than $227,000 as a servant. Laurence Marquet faces 55 charges. Picture Greg Burke; WA Newspapers

Laurence Marquet faces 55 charges. Picture Greg Burke; WA Newspapers

   The charges against the Clerk of Parliaments Laurence Bernhard Marquet, 58, which stemmed from a three-week investigation by the Corruption and Crime Commission, have rocked WA's political and bureaucratic circles.
   CCC executive director Mike Silverstone said the investigation was sparked by a report from Auditor-General Des Pearson, who received an allegation from an officer of the Legislative Council.
   The flamboyant Mr Marquet, who holds the positions of Clerk of the Legislative Council and Clerk of WA Parliaments, is understood to be gravely ill with only months to live.
   He could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
   Neighbours of his Hills property told The West Australian yesterday they had not seen Mr Marquet in months and that he had not lived at the house for at least six months, though his friend Graham Crabb still lived there.
   Mr Marquet was one of WA's most influential public servants who was required to sign every piece of legislation. His critical role was highlighted by his decision to refer the Gallop Government's one vote, one value legislation to the Supreme Court before it was finally ruled invalid by the High Court in 2003.
   He was also caught up in the explosive Penny Easton affair, which involved a petition to Parliament and the subsequent suicide of Ms Easton. "He is the sort of fellow that you just can't believe has been charged with these offences," said Norman Moore, leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council. "It's beyond my comprehension.
   "He is a very helpful person when it comes to advice on how Parliament operates. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to constitutional law and he put in place a very impressive committee system for the Legislative Council."
   Mr Moore said he had visited Mr Marquet in hospital a few months ago, but he had since moved into a hostel.
   Mr Marquet was often consulted by MPs on parliamentary processes and was involved in high-profile political issues.
   Mr Marquet resigned from his $125,000-a-year job on Friday and was charged by summons yesterday.
   He is due to face Perth Magistrate's Court next week on one count of corruption, two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice, 50 counts of stealing as a servant and two counts of possessing methylamphetamine, or speed.
   Legislative Council President Nick Griffiths said in a statement yesterday that he had asked the Auditor-General to review the Council's accounting systems.
   The Auditor-General had also started a full audit of the Council's accounts, he said.# (Also see The Australian, August 09, 2005, www.news.com. au/story/0,10117, 16196851-1245, 00.html ) [Aug 9, 05]

• China - Don't touch it with a bargepole

John C. Massam, 46 Cobine Way, Greenwood, WA, 6024, Australia. Tel. 08 9343 9532
Mobile 0408 054 319, E-mail: john.massam@multiline.com.au
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/cont17.htm

August 11, 2005

Committee Secretary, fadt.sen@aph.gov.au
Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee,
Inquiry into Australia's relationship with China
Department of the Senate
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

Submission
CHINA - DON'T TOUCH IT WITH A BARGEPOLE

I was depressed at the attitude of those whom I heard give evidence to the Committee in Perth on 1st August 2005. Trade, investment, and learning Chinese culture/language seemed to fill the presentations I heard. The Senators asked questions about human rights, mainly about the modern phenomenon of Falun Gung, not about decades-long persecutions by the Chinese dictatorship.

Global perspective: The most important danger to world peace and prosperity is the threat of gross overpopulation of the planet. The Communist Chinese dictatorship, to its credit, has adopted the "one-child policy" (with limited leeway for rural people and ethnic minorities). However, the Chinese dictatorship and latent Red terrorists are among several serious dangers to world peace and prosperity - the others include Islamist terrorists, India, Iran, the military-industrial complex including the armaments makers and traders in the USA and other Western nations, and Russian imperialist tendencies. Other dangers include various failed and/or dysfunctional states and/or dictatorships of most of Africa, much of Asia including North Korea and Pakistan, and nearly all South America.

Imperialism/Colonialism. The Chinese Communist Party attacked the Chinese Nationalists in the 1930s and 1945-49, and after conquering mainland China invaded Tibet in 1950, aided North Korea's attempted conquest of South Korea, began bombarding Quemoy in 1954, and attacked Matsu and the Tachens, intermittently using violence against these islands since then. In 1959 China occupied 12,000 square miles of India, and in 1962 advanced on the eastern and Ladakh borders, then withdrew to the 1959 positions. China tested a hydrogen bomb in 1967. Chinese troops invaded Vietnam in February 1979, withdrawing in March. In 2005 China continues its campaign to again seize Taiwan, which like Tibet is a past conquest of the Chinese Emperors.

Espionage - in Australia hundreds of spies were alleged by asylum-seeker Cheng in 2005, although our partly-crippled intelligence agencies don't seem to be interested (just as they seemed not to have interviewed an Islamist who offered to give information about his knowledge of that dangerous conspiracy). ASIO seems to have lost its way in a kind of sleep since 1986 when Professor Paul Dibb's theories appeared in a White Paper, and the enforced move to Canberra.

The Chinese want to buy uranium. The West has trained people in nuclear science from all over the world. Our leaders seem not to notice the envy of the West that simmers below the surface in many nations that until the 1950s had to play "second fiddle" to Europeans. This envy will probably lead, like German and Japanese envy did, to support for militarism, which is fed by giving arms secrets away.

The Beijing dictatorship is notable for persecution and prohibition of opponents (1 million executed 1949-50), Christians suppressed, formation of a government-controlled "Catholic Church" and other such Churches, and the destruction of, and refusal to licence, places of worship. In recent years serious attacks have been made on the Falun Gung philosophical or religious group.

Continues gradual reversal of democratic strands in Hong Kong, underlining the brutal repression of student demands for opening up to democracy, in the Tienamin Square massacre of about 10 years ago.

Below-cost production and exports -- "dumping", even of vegetables, which presumably would be better used either by Chinese in China, or sent to famine areas in Africa. It is obvious that these foodstuffs, some grown with human excrement as fertiliser, are being produced as a deliberate attempt to put growers in other countries off their farms. Wag