Howard's Horror : Fear Of Terrorism Falls In Australia

Huge Majority Of Australians More Concerned About Effects Of Climate Change

75% Reject Government's Plans To Beat Global Warning With Nuclear Power

Can John Howard now re-brand himself as a climate change-fearing, tree-stroking environmentalist who smacks around Australian corporations for not doing enough to fight global warming?

More importantly, can he undertake and complete this re-branding in time for the late 2007 federal election?

A stunning new poll reveals that this is exactly what Howard will have to do if he wants to cruise to victory.

Australians simply don't trust Howard, according to the poll, when he talks about the environment and climate change. They believe, for the most part, in the reality of global warming and climate change.

Not as a theory, but as a harsh New Reality.

But they don't believe that Howard believes in it like they do.

At least, they don't believe he has become a true believer. Not like they have.

They think he's spouting spin, and that he's only now appearing concerned because this is what the polls are telling him he must do.

These poll results clearly indicate that Australia's are deeply suspicious of their leader, and they're seriously concerned about the future. A future that they no longer believe John Howard will do his best to protect and take care of, for the generations of Australians to come.

So not only does Howard have to undergo a re branding from global warming sceptic to true believer, he must also be seen to undergo a Green Values conversion of monumental magnitude.

Plus, his political spin machine will have to completely repackage almost his entire slate of environment, energy and climate change-related policies if he is going to sell John 'New Green' Howard successfully to the Australian public.

And he's got less than ten months to get all that done.

This is going to be one seriously entertaining election.


I'll throw out a theory here that I have a feeling will gain a lot of ground in the coming months. I look forward to being proved completely wrong, but I doubt it :

Australians aged from 30 to 80 are no longer concerned about themselves. They think they're doing okay. They're not overly troubled about their finances or interest rates. They been made to feel financially secure, for the most part.

They don't fear interest rate rises, or losing their homes to economic upsets. They're not overly worried about losing their jobs and then not being able to find another one.

But what really freaks them out, what really sends the ice-shivers of fear up their spine is when they look at their kids, or their grandkids, and they think about the future that lies in wait for them. A dark future, where the wild and freakish weather is the greatest, most dangerous, most deadly enemy of all.

Far more dangerous, far more deadly, in fact, than any terror attack.

They believe, for the most part, that climate change is real, they can see it happening all around them. State wide fires and endless droughts and freezing mornings that melt into blistering afternoons.

They believe that the effects of global warming are going to spell out some m-a-j-o-r d-o-om for their kids and their grandkids.

And they don't believe Howard is capable of facing that still vastly mysterious threat and defeating it. Or at least, they don't believe Howard will do what needs to be done to fight back the onslaught of severe climate change as hard as he can.

It won't be fear of terror or a widening Christian Vs Muslim world war, or nervousness about interest rate rises, or paranoia about economic devastation, or gut-grinding dismay about getting screwed over in the workplace that will determine their voting choice come election day.

It will be a general Fear Of The Future, spawned primarily of their concerns for the next generation and alive with near daily confirmation that a severe climate change -induced Hell on Earth is rapidly becoming the New Reality.

A New Reality that the prime minister, and his government, appears unable and uninterested in effecting some dramatic change to stop it dead in its tracks.

Howard must be wondering what the hell has happened to his country. How did everyone get so caught up in all this climate change business? Like an all consuming new religion, climate change terror has devoured the commonsense and dirt-standard distrust that most Australians once had for nearly all things connected with environmentalism, and conservationism.

It's Howard's worst nightmare in blinding neon : The Greenies Were Right. And Most Of Australia Now Knows It.

Howard must be shaking his head in shuddering disbelief about how once such deeply-embedded scepticism of all the major 'Green Issues' has melted faster than an Greenland glacier into mass acceptance.

Australians never used to believe in global warming. It was smelly hippie-enviro-leftytrash-
conspiracy guff.

But that was then, as they say. And this is now.

Australians have become true believers. Passionate ones.

Perhaps worst of all, this is not Howard's territory. It's so far out of his traditional stomping grounds he can't even get the boots to fit his feet.

Howard's hopeless at the long-term vision thing, particularly when it involves the detailed construction of a brighter tomorrow. He's a salesman, not a prophet. A huckster, not a futurist. A white-knuckle gambler who's run out of chips and can't hock his pants to match the bets now on the table.

He has traded on fear and paranoia for a solid decade, refusing to acknowledge mistakes of the past, and point-blank ignoring the dangerous possibilities that were always lying in wait around the next corner on the Prosperity Highway.

Global Warming? Climate Change? Carbon trading credits?

What the fuck?

Howard never wanted to know about all that Green Future paraphernalia. He certainly never thought he would have to start spouting it, let alone debating it.

He just wanted to get good seats at the cricket, and move in the kinds of social circles that he would never have gotten anywhere near if he hadn't become prime minister of the greatest country on the planet.

It used to be so easy for Howard. All he had to do was freak the public out about all the evil terrorists who were trying to smuggle themselves into Australia disguised as asylum seekers so they could blow themselves up at the footy grand final.

But these poll results reveal that, despite the daily tabloid-talkback media trumpeting about the imminent explosive threat of Muslim terrorists in our midst, the number one global issue that raises the most worries and concerns with Australians is climate change.

It trumps fears about terrorism, immigration, you name it.

Some 75% of respondents told pollsters that they were now paying close attention to the issues of climate change, in a personal way. Meaning they were choosing to walk instead of drive, where possible, and were looking into alternative energy. For starters.

They believe that John Howard should sign up to the Kyoto Protocols licketysplit, and go one better. He should come up with a new plan of reining in climate change that will leave the current carbon-emission targets for dead.

But the poll results also reveal a most curious, and fascinating, anomaly. More than than half of all Australians believe that other Australians are "poorly informed" about climate change and global warming.

The anomaly is described in this story as "mass public confusion" about the relevant issues.

But some three out of four Australians are not confused about nuclear energy. They don't want it. Full stop. And they don't believe that rolling out nuclear reactors across the country is the solution to stopping global warming, or meeting the future energy needs of Australia's air-conditioners.

The distrust the Australian public feels about the government's views and actions on global warming are palpable.

And a stunning 82% of respondents don't believe that Australian businesses will do the right thing, or will take the necessary action required to stop global warming, unless they are forced to do so.

You can take it as gold standard then that the majority of Australians do not believe Howard will push businesses to make the emissions cuts required of them.

John Howard has invested an enormous amount of energy in the past year in trying to sell himself as a leader concerned about the environment, about global warming and climate change, and as someone who understands the public's growing concern about the crippling drought, the ferocious storms and the chilling onset of water shortages.

Howard has tried to flog himself as new and improved, and suddenly enlightened, but he has failed spectacularly.

And then there's the Australian public's changing views on the Iraq War, the torture-dosed imprisonment of an Australian citizen by our American allies, the general future of our alliance with the United States and John Howard's ceaseless echoing of President Bush's talking points and endless support for BushCo.'s 'War on Terror'.

But that discussion will have to wait for another day...

On issues relating to the environment, climate change and global warming alone, Howard's exit is coming up fast. You can see it already, just ahead, on the Left.


Go Here For The Full Story On How Australians Now Fear Climate Change More Than Terrorism


The Australian Debate About Climate Change Rages On Here. Scepticism Abounds.

Australian Soldiers Battle Insurgents In Baghdad Streets

We don't hear much about exactly what Australian troops are actually doing in Iraq, but every now and then the Defence Department throws out a few bones

There's about 120 Australians doing security detail in Baghdad for Australian diplomats, primarily. Here's a report about a blitzing encounter between Australian troops and insurgents.

Reports don't yet reveal whether or not the Australians were targeted specifically by the insurgents, or whether they were just the closest Coalition of the Willing patrol to insurgents ready to launch an attack :

The patrol was attacked on Tuesday evening, with Iraqi gunfire causing superficial damage to the vehicles.

The soldiers returned fire with more than 400 rounds. No Australian soldiers were hurt.

The patrol, which included three Australian light armoured vehicles and personnel from the Australian Security Detachment, was attacked by at least three armed gunmen.

Some more details here :

The three ASLAVs and an unidentified number of soldiers from the Australian Security Detachment (SECDET), which is charged with protecting Australian embassy staff in Baghdad, were on patrol at about 5.40pm local time when the insurgents struck.

Around three insurgents fired on the vehicles as they approached a road overpass.

"A number of rounds hit the ASLAVs, however, there were no injuries to Australian personnel," defence officials said.

"Australian personnel returned fire with machine guns and Steyr rifles as they moved through the incident location.

"There were multiple strikes against the Australian vehicles but the exact number was yet to be confirmed."

Last week, Australian soldiers opened fire with mounted machine guns on an Iraqi truck that approached a checkpoint some 200 metres away out from the Australian embassy.

The driver allegedly refused to stop and he was killed after three bursts of gunfire, five to ten rounds fired in each burst. The incident is being investigated.

Police Look To Digger's Past To Find Possible Motive For Beheading

Exactly why an 82 year old World War 2 veteran was beheaded in the backyard of his country New South Wales home remains a complete mystery.

Police don't have a motive, or a weapon, not yet anyway. More background in our earlier report here.

Police are now sifting through the elderly man's personal history to see if they can find anyone who might have wanted him dead. The fact he was brutally beheaded has left police believing whoever did it really must have hated the old guy something shocking.

Unless, that is, there is a motive completely unrelated to the digger's history. The ongoing investigation has shut down whole parts of the country town of Armidale. Naturally, locals are shocked almost out of their minds by what has happened.

Mark Hutchinson was a fit and agile old bloke. He used to walk six kilometres into town every morning for a cup of coffee at his favourite cafe. His table sits empty this morning in his honour.


Bush Fires Black Out Australia's Second Largest City - "Don't Turn On Your Air-Con!"

Amazing scenes in Melbourne today and tonight. Ash clouds and choking smoke are blanketing towns and villages and hazing the city centre. A sweltering gridlock blocked key roads in the city after power failures shut down traffic lights. Broken down vehicles forced delays of buses as people queued hundreds deep to find a way out of he city after work.

Hundreds of thousands of homes have no electricity after the bush fires that have ravaged the state forced the shutdown of power supplies to almost one third of the entire state of Victoria.

Heatwave temperatures struck today and are expected for days to come, but people across Victoria are being asked to lay off the air-conditioning, to ease power drains on the damaged grid, which could lead to more widespread, and longer, blackouts and power cuts.

The bush fires have been burning for a solid month. Tens of thousands of firefighters from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and, recently, the United States have fought battles to save towns and villages.

Tonight, more than two dozens towns still lie in the path of the fires, which have laid waste to a stunning One Million Hectares of bush, national park, pasture and farming lands.


Shocking Outbreak Of Violence At....The Tennis?

Nothing funny about a couple of packs of aggroheads going at each other in a public space, but there was something almost Monty Pythonesque about the news reporting surrounding the all-in brawls between Australian-Croats and Serbs at a Melbourne tennis competition yesterday.

You can watch the flag-related kick-fist-fest here.

It just sounds so very, very wrong.

Outbreak of violence at the footy? Sure. Outbreak of violence at the cricket? Maybe.

But an outbreak of violence at a tennis match? A tennis match?

Tommorow's headlines : Savage Brawls Over Undercooked Scones Mar Lawn Bowls Finals.


She thought she had atoned for her sins, but not yet. 34 years ago, this woman abducted a four year old girl, smashed her head with a brick then tried to slit her throat. Twice. The woman was convicted for her crimes and spent time in a mental institution. Now she works for the Juvenile Justice Department, and recently recieved a reward for her work with troubled youth.

But her victim, now in her late 30s, claims she is still suffering from the attack, and is outraged that such a reward, and recognition, has been given to someone who still haunts her nightmares.

"She doesn't deserve a dog bone," said the victim.

"Here is someone who has turned themselves around," says the woman, who now fears she will lose her job.


The 'War' In A Country Town To Allow Sudanese Refugees Fleeing War zones To Start New Lives

This is a story we'll come back to in some detail, because it's a pretty amazing one.

The last place you might expect to find families of Sudanese refugees from African warzones is an Australian country town like Tamworth.

A raging controversy over whether or not the local council would block plans by the federal government to place Sudanese families in the bustling little metropolis has kicked off yet another 'race debate' in Australia.

There are already Sudanese-Australians in Tamworth. But the local council had voted a Big No to any more, with some of the councillors telling the media they "feared the changes these people would bring".

The story became national, and international, news, but it's got a happy ending.

The council was forced to take another vote, one that was to reflect the feelings of the majority of Tamworth's residents, instead of a few bigoted and ill-informed councillors. Tamworth will now open its arms to some 20 new families of Sudanese-Australians.

The people of Tanworth want the new Australians to feel right at home. And some of them might get there just in time for the Tamworth Country Music Festival. An absolute iconic event on the Australian social calendar now. If you like country music, that is.


An Australian woman claims she has had a near miraculous recovery from a severe brain injury after undergoing stem cell therapy treatment. She didn't get the cure in Australia, of course. She had to fly to Germany and spend more than $40,000.


Water May Be Shipped To Sydney From Tasmania In Solar Powered Supertankers

Pretty amazing plan, but damn scary to think that Sydney could get so dry that we have to actually ship in fresh water so the city doesn't have to be abandoned in decades to come.

A plan to fight the drought that is now gaining vast interest is one that would see hundreds of millions of litres of fresh Tasmanian water being loaded into massive supertankers, powered by solar energy and shipped up the coast to Sydney, the Central Coast and even up as far as Brisbane.

Is the drought going to get so bad that we'll be down by Circular Quay with our empty buckets queuing for fresh water? Probably not. But if the drought doesn't break, it's going to see people paying five times, at least, more for their fresh water than what they're paying now.

One of the chief reasons why the Fresh Water Supertanker ideas is gaining interest, and true believers, is that it is so much cheaper than laying pipelines to cross the thousands of miles of Australia's vast spaces.


50 kangaroos are set to get their hopping orders to move on from their favourite munching grounds to make way for a supermarket.

Not so long ago, a couple of blokes in a ute would have been brought in to shoot them. Not now. The supermarket developer is going to have to pay about $2000 each for every kangaroo that needs to be relocated.

Christian Australians Just Don't Understand Arabic Humour... Apparently

The Australian mufti Sheik Taj el-din al Hilaly caused a mostly media-only shitfit in Australia when he went on Egyptian television and said Muslims had more right to be in Australia as they brought tickets to the colonies, whereas most English/Scots/Irish Australians were transported here, for free, in chains as slave labour.

"The Anglo-Saxons who arrived in Australia arrived in shackles. We paid for passports from our own pockets. We have a right in Australia more than they have,"

Funny stuff.

Oh, wait, some people didn't think it was funny at all. Well, the prime minister John Howard thought it was funny, at first, before he quickly realised that the "Society of Perpetual Outrage" - that is, Australian right wing politicians and commentariat - were going to run this non event into the ground.

And thus, a four day long media roasting followed.

In the Daily Telegraph today, Hilaly's unofficial spokesman, Keyser Trad, attempts to claim that Hilaly's outrage-inducing "exaggerations" are in the tradition of great Australian tall-tale tellers like Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson, and is a melding between Australian storytelling traditions and something uniquely Arabic.

"...the use of exotic, colourful or exaggerated generalisations – familiar to readers of Lawson and Patterson – remains a feature of contemporary Arab culture," says Trad.

Err, yeah. Good luck with that.

The Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said no-one takes the mufti seriously anymore. We should listen to Downer. If anyone knows all about what it's like not to be taken seriously, to be regarded as a joke and an idiot of true supremacy on the world stage, it's Alexander Downer.

But Hilaly says he doesn't hate Australia. No. In fact : "I love Australia. I respect the Australian nationality, Australian society, the land of peace. Australia is the best country in the world."

You got that right, buddy.

While he has been off target and stunningly offensive in the past, Hilaly can also be right on the money as well when it comes to John Howard's endless bowing and scrapping at the blood-stained heels of BushCo.

Hilaly calls the Australian prime minister, "Mr Me, Too".

As in Howard waits until he hears what BushCo has to say about a world or war related issue before he agrees with the White House, wholeheartedly.

There's a bit of bitter truth that most Australians would find hard to deny.

It's always interesting to note that when these debates flare up in Australia about who is more Australian, what it means to be Australian, who should or should not be allowed to be Australians, you never hear the opinions of any Aboriginals.

So much for balance.

82 Year Old World War 2 Veteran Found Decapitated In Country Town

"It's Like A Horror Film In Our Neighbourhood"

Mark Hutchinson survived the jungles of Burma and New Guinea, fighting the Japanese. He made it home, and two decades ago, returned to the New South Wales country town where he had first signed up for what had then been promised to be, "The Great Adventure".

Too many old War World 2 veterans have been murdered in terrible ways in the past decade in Australia. Muggings gone wrong, home invasions, mowed down outside their local RSLs.

But Mark Hutchinson's death is one of the most unusual of all.

An elderly man living in a small country town, regarded as quiet and friendly by the locals, he was found dead in his own backyard by visiting relatives. He had been decapitated.

And, for now at least, no-one can seem to work out why. There appears to be no motivation behind this brutal murder that has shocked the whole town of Armidale.

The way in which Mark Hutchinson was murdered holds errie parallels to the jungle wars he survived in World War 2, where at least a few dozen young Australian men were decapitated by their Japanese enemies, by the use of ceremonial swords.


From 'The Australian' (excerpts) :

Family members discovered the 82-year-old World War II veteran's severed head next to his body in his backyard on Saturday afternoon.

The pensioner and old gunner had lived alone at the same house for two decades and was well-liked by neighbours in the New England city in which he enlisted 63 years ago.

The quiet northern NSW town has been shattered by the news.

Local resident Dianne Burton said: "Armidale is a pretty small town and most people know each other, but apart from being very sad this is pretty scary.

"It's like a horror film in our neighbourhood, in our streets. Everyone is talking about this. Everyone is stunned."

Local RSL president Keven Smith told Seven News: "He was just a mild mannered, fine, upstanding gentleman, and I just can't possibly imagine why anybody would do what they've done."

Mr Hutchinson served as a gunner in the 2/12 Field Regiment in World War II, having enlisted on May 10, 1943, fighting in New Guinea and Borneo.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

Police have searched the adjacent parkland for a possible murder weapon and other clues.

"He was just a mild mannered, fine, upstanding gentleman, and I just can't possibly imagine why anybody would do what they've done,'' local RSL president Dr Kevin Smith told Seven News.

Armidale mayor, Peter Ducat, said the murder was distressing.

"I'm shocked to think that something like this could happen in Armidale.

Most people would be sickened that an 82-year-old person has been murdered in their own home,'' he told Nine News.

Neighbours said Mr Hutchinson had lived alone at the house after moving there in 1985.

Neighbour Jenny Schultz said the man was well-liked in the area.

"I just can't believe it, he was so friendly. The whole neighbourhood thought he was wonderful,'' she said.

Is This Australia's Sexiest Woman?


Come November, Deputy Leader of the Australian Government, Julia Gillard.

Poll Shock : Kidman Out, Gillard In

Possible Future Prime Minister = Absolute Hornbag

FHM Magazine runs one of the more popular, and well read, 'Australia's Sexiest Women' polls.

This year, Nicole Kidman didn't even make the cotender list, but the deputy leader of "alternative government" is up there in the rankings.

Could it be true? Is Julia Gillard Australia's Sexiest Woman?

Considering the absolute multitudes of brilliant, beautiful, funny and talented women in Australia, she might have some trouble making the Top Five. Competition is fierce.

But, voting is still open.

Gillard is the rising star of Australian politics, and the old-school, pigheaded blokeworld ministers of the Howard government are clearly troubled every time they have to face her in parliment. She takes no prisoners, and she can be funny as hell.

And Julia Gillard has a better shot than most of the current crop of parlimenarians at becoming a future prime minister of Australia.

Can't wait.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

While Ms Gillard made a list of 87 contenders for FHM magazine's "50 Sexiest Aussie Babes" survey, another well-known redhead Nicole Kidman missed out.

The list of contenders includes the usual array of soap stars and supermodels.

But convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby makes the cut along with fellow one-time Bali prison inmate Michelle Leslie.

Kidman might have been excluded, but Australians on the list with a Hollywood profile are represented by Naomi Watts and Toni Collette.

FHM deputy editor Ben Smithurst said: "Australia has the most beautiful women in the world, as well as the most talented."

Gillard Makes Top 50 List Of Australia's Sexiest Women

Iconic 'Anzac Legend' Image Deemed Inappropriate For Army Recruiting

$50 Billion Spent On Massive Arms Build-Up



The above image is one of the most famous in Australian war history. It shows two Australian soldiers crossing a river in New Guinea during World War 2. One soldier is clearly wounded, and his mate is helping him.

It exemplifies everything that Australians hold dear about what it means to be Australian. You don't leave your mates behind, you help them. This is the Anzac legend in action.

It is widely regarded as the iconic image of Australians at war.

But not anymore.

Too much reality, perhaps?

The image, from a series of newsreels, was considered to be included in a series of ads that will form part of massive $1 billion advertising splurge aimed at swelling the ranks of Australia's military, but it was deemed "inappropriate" and "overdone".

The Australian government is desperately trying to ramp up recruitment numbers, to meet a target of 57,000 full-time soldiers by 2016. An increase of more than 8000 on present numbers.

At the same time, the Defence Department is the process of spending more than $50 billion on new Naval ships, aircraft and second-hand Abram tanks from the US Army. Tens of billions of dollars from massive outlay of taxpayers dollars will go to defence industries in the United States and Israel.

Per head of population, Australia's annual military budget is now soaring beyond even that of the United States.

More than $20 billion is expected to spent on defence in 2007, to 'defend' 21 million Australians.
A military spend that almost equals the official defence budget of China, a country of more than 1.3 billion people.

The purchase of dozens of 'refurbished' M1A1 Abram tanks from the United States proved particularly controversial, as they are virtually useless for deployment in the heavy tropical jungle terrains of countries in the Australian region, such as East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Pacific Islands nations.

The tanks were designed, and refitted, for desert warfare. Which would make them handy to have if the Australian government is expecting to see major action in the next decade in Iraq, or Syria, or Iran.

Or the Australian outback.

Being a "close friend" of the United States does not come cheap.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

The military faces an enormous challenge to reach the target set by the Government of boosting defence numbers by 8000 to 57,000 in 2016.

To meet targets, entry standards are being relaxed to allow in overweight recruits, former recreational drug users and the heavily tattooed.

Up to $700 million will be spent improving wages and conditions.

From next year, $306 million will be spent on a "military gap year" scheme for school leavers to spend 12 months in the Defence Force with incentives to join up after completing their studies.

Foreign military are also being snapped up. In the past two years 125 British ex-soldiers have joined the Australian Army, 103 ex-Royal Navy have joined the RAN and 56 ex-RAF have joined the RAAF.

Rocket Launchers Stolen From Australian Defence Force Sold To Man Now Being Held On Terror Charges

One Rocket Launcher Recovered, SEVEN or More Still Missing

Attack On Nuclear Reactor With Rocket Would Only "Chip Away" At Exterior


A massive investigation involving the Australian Federal Police and the nation's chief spy agency has led to the arrest of a 28 year old man in Sydney for allegedly trying to sell rocket launchers believed to have been stolen from the Australian Army to a man now being held on terror-related charges.

The man now facing charges - a known gun dealer and convicted double-murderer - also believed to have been in possession of 20 kilos of Power Gel explosives, was already under investigation following a sting operation where undercover detectives paid him $50,000 in a failed attempt to recover one of the deadly weapons.

One rocket launcher has so far been recovered. Police said today seven or more 66mm rocket launchers are still missing.

It would appear there is plenty more to this story that has not yet been made public. The 28 year old man was described by one investigator as one link in a chain involving stolen Australian Army weapons and ammunition and powerful underworld crime figures.

But were the rocket launchers part of a terror plot? Or some powerful weaponry for crime gangs out for explosive revenge attacks?

The police refuse to confirm one story or the other.

When the story of the missing rocket launchers broke last month, police and Army spokespersons refused to confirm to journalists that the launchers had been stolen from Australian Army stockpiles.

A theory that the launchers may have been smuggled into Australia was floated instead.

No wonder. Now serious questions are being raised about why private security companies are being used to patrol Australian military bases and, presumably, are tasked with securing stockpiles of rocket launchers and explosives.

Incredible. Who defends the Australian Defence Force bases after midnight? Private security guards.

The fact that rocket launchers, capable of destroying vehicles or even taking down airliners, were missing somewhere in Australia triggered one of the biggest joint ASIO-Federal Police investigations in years.

A sense of dire urgency was added to the investigations due to the fact that Sydney is set to host the APEC conference in less than eight months, when dozens of world leaders will gather for days of meetings, including President Bush.

As the APEC summit draws nearer, it is expected that US Secret Service and CIA agents will become involved in the hunt for the missing weapons, as they are unlikely to allow President Bush to visit Sydney when such a massive security breach remains unresolved.

If the rocket launchers are not recovered, and the APEC summit goes ahead with President Bush in attendance, Sydneysiders can look forward to having much of the central business district completely shut down and locked off for at least two days before, and for the entire duration of, the conference.

The NSW state government is already considering making the days of the APEC summt into public holidays, so workers will not be inconvenienced by what is expected to be the biggest security operation ever mounted in Australia.

State and federal police agencies are now urgently appealing to the public to help find the missing rocket launchers.


From the Sydney Morning Herald (excerpts) :

Counter Terrorism police have arrested and charged a 28-year-old Sydney gun dealer over the theft of seven rocket launchers from the Australian military allegedly for sale to a major underworld figure and suspected terrorist.

Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Frank Prendergast said the man supplied two rocket launchers to one man and five others to another individual who is facing terror charges on another matter.

The arrested man is accused of stealing all seven launchers and has been charged with 17 weapons and stolen property counts...

From news.com.au (excerpts) :

AFP Assistant Commissioner Frank Prendergast, who is the AFP's counter terrorism national manager, said the 28-year-old man supplied two rocket launchers to one man, and five of the weapons to another man.

"The person who received five is facing terrorism charges on another matter,'' Asst Commissioner Prendergast said.

"It is a matter of great importance to us to recover the six outstanding weapons.''

The charged man is believed to be one link in a "chain of supply'', Asst Commissioner Kaldas said.

Army chief Lieutenant General Peter Leahy said earlier that the Defence Department was investigating claims that former soldiers may have sold anti-tank rockets on the black market to criminals or even terrorists.

UPDATE : Claims aired today indicate that the alleged terror plot included launching rockets at the Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor. But that might not be quite as terrifying as it sounds. There would be no meltdown, no leak of radiaton, no mega-explosion.

All that would result from a rocket attack on the reactor would be...the waste of a rocket :

Security consultant Peter Collins said the easy-to-use single-use rockets could destroy a car, or if fired into a packed train or bus, would cause a blast and shrapnel spray capable of killing people within a five metre radius.

But the former navy intelligence officer said the outdated rocket, which has a range of 220m and is best used on stationary objects, would have almost no effect on a building like the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.

"It would chip away the exterior but the chance of it penetrating the reactor area of the site would be zero,'' Mr Collins said.

Go To 'Your New Reality' For More


Dawn Raid, Men In Black, Helicopters, Machine Guns - The War On Terror Comes To A Quiet Surburban Sydney Street

Rocket Attack Plot Blurs The Line Between Criminality And Terrorism

Who's Got The Rockets? Terrorists? Or Crime Gangs Out For Explosive Revenge? Police Are Still Undecided.

Rocket Launcher Found On Sale For Only $2

Australian Spy Agencies Join Hunt For Missing Rocket Launchers, As World Leaders Conference In Sydney Draws Closer

86 Days Of Savage, Booze-Fuelled Violence In New South Wales

5 People Beaten To Death

Another 5 Punched And Kicked Into Comas

More Than 7200 Brutal Assaults In Just Twelve Months

There's something terrible happening in New South Wales. A level of violence and aggression we haven't seen in years, and alcohol abuse is believed to be a major factor in most of the assaults.

In the space of one year, an average of twenty assaults per day are being reported by police. More than 7200 in total. The majority of the beatings and assaults and murders have occurred on Friday and Saturday nights.

In some areas of New South Wales, primarily in Sydney and country towns, teenagers are reportedly so scared of being assaulted they are choosing to stay home on Friday and Saturday nights.

One in ten youth between the ages of 15 and 24 are reported to have been hashed, or threatened with assault, in the past year.

The evening news has become a cavalcade of murders, beatings, rapes and child molestation.

In just the past 12 weeks alone, five people have been beaten to death, including a fifteen year old boy, and another five have suffered such savage assaults they've been left in comas.

The storm of savage violence engulfing New South Wales towns and cities shows no signs of abating.

From The Daily Telegraph :

Homicide squad chief Detective Superintendent Geoff Beresford said police were worried by the aggression and the ferocious nature of the attacks. "There has certainly been a rate of assaults that is of great concern to us," he said.

"People are getting into a fight or king hitting someone and not thinking about the consequences."

Dr Weatherburn said he was most concerned for young people who were often targeted by drunk people who pick on them because they are more vulnerable or of smaller build.

He said the problem was worse in rural areas, particularly in the northwest of the state.

The victims have included Geoffrey Taban, 26, who escaped war-torn Sudan only to die after he was bashed...

And there's this incredible story, from Victoria, about a a family picnic destroyed by a booze-fuelled brawl involving more 60 drunken youths :

It was midday on the last day of the year and Adrian Leckie, his sister and their families were enjoying a picnic in a park outside his holiday house in Brunswick Heads, on the North Coast.

A few hundred metres away a group of about 100 youths were riding bikes and playing cricket.

It was a sedate and peaceful beginning to a day that was to end otherwise - Mr Leckie and two others savagely beaten, his house attacked and invaded and his three-year-old daughter picked up and thrown on the road.

The Australian government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade running ad campaigns about the dangers of illegal drugs. Alcohol abuse by teenagers, and adults, rarely gets a look in from the federal or state governments. Despite the fact that social service agencies repeatedly publish studies showing that alcohol abuse is constantly cited in thousands of cases of rape, child abuse, domestic violence, car accidents and street assaults.

While cigarette advertising has been banned across all media in Australia, most major sporting events are still awash in advertising and promotions for alcohol.

Rocket Launcher For Sale For Only $2

We reported here that there are at least eight rocket launchers circulating somewhere in Australia that the police and the Defence Department are trying to track down.

But one rocket launcher has turned up in Queensland.

It was on sale. For $2. At a rubbish tip.

The rocket launcher was brought by a man who works in a local theatre, who thought it would make a great stage prop.

Once he saw a newspaper story about the missing rocket launchers, he called the police...Sorry, he delivered it to his local newspaper.

Why?

The media stories didn't explain.

The rocket launcher found in the tip was reportedly a Matador anti-armour model, developed by Singapore, to be used once and then....thrown on a rubbish tip.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

He gave the weapon to a reporter from Rockhampton's The Morning Bulletin, who kept if for a number of days to photograph it and write a story.

"The police rang me earlier this evening and they told me they didn't know where it was so I redirected them back to the reporter," Mr Maloney said earlier this week, adding that the last time he saw the weapon was in the back seat of the reporter's car.

The reporter handed it in at Yapoon police station...

"It's sitting right in front of me at the moment. I'm sitting here trying to deal with it," said Senior Constable Vicky Lees.

"It's not dangerous at all ... unless you have some sort of explosive to fire it off..."

A Defence Department spokesman said the matter was under investigation.

The spokesman also said it would be "unusual" for used military ordinance to be dumped at a public tip.

Unuusal, but obviously not unlikely.


Eight Rocket Launchers Missing In Australia, As APEC Summit Draws Closer

'Black September' In Australia : The Assassination Conspiracy That Wasn't

Israel Accused Of Tricking Australia's Chief Spy Agency Into Believing Palestinian Assassins Were Gunning For A Future Prime Minister

In the early 1970s, a future prime minister of Australia, Bob Hawke, believed he was the target of Palestinian 'Black September' assassins.

Hawke claimed in his biography that he had received a telephone call in 1973 (when he was a rising star in Australia's trade unions and the Labor Party), from a man who said he was a member of 'Black September.' Hawke said the caller had threatened the lives of his children.

In 1974, Bob Hawke gave an emotional speech to the Zionist Federation in Sydney. He burst into tears and said the Australian government had to end its policy of neutrality when it came to the conflict in the Middle East.

"I know that if we allow the bell to be tolled for Israel, it will have tolled for me, for us all," he said.

Hawke, who became prime minister of Australia in 1983, was not the only possible Australian target of 'Black September', according to newly declassified ASIO files.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

The Australian Security intelligence Organisation (ASIO) also believed prominent pro-Jewish figures, Isi Liebler and journalist Sam Lipski, were on the hit list.

Cabinet documents for 1976 - released by the National Archives of Australia today under the 30-year rule - reveal security authorities and the government were deeply concerned about the rising tide of Palestinian terrorism.

Liebler and Lipski are now questioning why ASIO didn't do more to alert them to the alleged threats posed by Palestinian militants in Australia.

The most likely explanation is that while ASIO recognised a possible threat, they had no credible evidence that such plots existed, or that assassination attempts were likely to occur.

Isi Leibler told the Jerusalem Post yesterday that he knew nothing about the alleged 'Black September' plot to kill him until his son read it on the internet, following the declassification of the ASIO file.

He now intends to find out from the Australian authorities about why he was not told of the claimed plot back in 1975 :

The details (of the alleged assassination plots) were in a secret ASIO report that had been presented to the cabinet of prime minister Malcolm Fraser.

The report described the terrorist threat to Australia at a time when Palestinian groups were hijacking aircraft and carrying out attacks aimed at Jewish institutions in Europe and the Middle East.

ASIO identified a key figure in the plan as Munif Mohammed (Ahmed) Abu Rish, who came to Australia in 1974 claiming to be a journalist and indicated he would return in 1975...

Abu Rish never returned to Australia. He was killed by the Israeli Defence Force in the early 1980s.


Part of the controversial ASIO report reads : "The Government has made a number of decisions which could be interpreted as unfavourable to the Palestinian cause...A pro-Palestinian terrorist attack could take place in Australia."

In 1972, at least 15 letter bombs bearing the addresses of Jewish community members and Israeli diplomats were intercepted by Australian post offices.

ASIO suspected the letter bombs were sent by members of the 'Black September' group.

Leaders of the Australia's Jewish community were alerted to the threat of letter bombs, but were not told of the alleged assassination plots.


So where did the information contained in the declassified ASIO documents come from?

All it would have taken for such a file to be compiled and classified by ASIO in the 1970s would have been warnings or rumours passed on, or generated by, Israel's Mossad agency.

Mossad were involved in assassination conspiracy plots of their own at the time, hunting down and killing Palestinians across Europe and the Middle East.

Mossad were at war with the 'Black September' militants and terrorists throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. As part of that war, the agency spread their warnings far and wide about how they believed Palestinian militants were gunning for pro-Israel figures across the world.

That Australia's chief spy agency, ASIO, would have been briefed by Mossad agents on the threat posed by 'Black September' militants would not have been unusual. Tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors had made Australia their home by the early 1970s, and thousands of Israelis temporarily relocated to Australia from the Middle East during the height 'Black September' attacks and tensions.


It is clear from reading the declassified files that ASIO took a long, hard look at information supplied by Mossad regarding the threats, weighed it against other reports they received, and then assessed the available evidence for assassination plots as weak, or mere hearsay.

Palestinian militants might have expressed interest in taking out targets in Australia, ASIO concluded, but no credible plots to do so were ever initiated.

ASIO wrote up a thin report about the possible threats, a report rife with words like 'could' 'might' and 'maybe'. A number of government ministers were briefed on the report, it was stamped "Classified", then it disappeared into the files for three decades.

Former Palestinian ambassador to Australia, Ali Kazak, said he believes the 'Black September' assassination conspiracies were cooked up by Mossad :

"It has never been the intention of Palestine to bring this [Middle East] conflict to Australia and we made this clear to ASIO.. This was part of Mossad's campaign against Palestine.

"ASIO have a job to do, it's got to take everything seriously but they were taken for a ride..."

Interestingly, declassified files also revealed that the Fraser government had been extremely willing to develop relationships with both Iran and Iraq in 1976.

The Whitlam government approved the opening of an embassy in Baghdad in 1975.

Australia's foreign minister in 1976, Andrew Peacock, thought it was important to open a Baghdad embassy because he viewed Iraq as being :

a "front-line" state in the dispute with Israel and "as an oil-rich power of growing strategic and economic significance".

Malcolm Fraser, the Australian prime minister at the time the assassination conspiracies were investigated by ASIO, now claims he has no memory of the alleged plot to assassinate Bob Hawke and Jewish leaders, but he told ABC Radio that there were growing concerns about the threat posed by international terrorists. But not by Palestinian militants, specifically.

"In the middle to late 70s, the...countries that had the greatest terrorist problem... were Britain, from the IRA and then Germany and Italy from the red brigades or red armies."

Fraser was either not briefed by ASIO on the 'Black September' threats. It appears ASIO determined the threats were not valid, nor viable, and saw no reason to brief the prime minister.


More documents relating to the claims, and the threats posed by Palestinian militants, and their supporters, inside Australia, are expected to surface at the end of 2007, when another batch of 30-year-classified government documents will enter the public domain.

Australian Jewish Leaders Mentioned In Declassified Spy Agency Files As Possible Assassination Targets

Government Ministers, Intelligence Agents Were "Alarmed" About Threat Of International Terrorism In Australian In Mid-1970s

Claim : 1000 Chinese Spies In Australia

Intelligence Services Recruit Dozens More Spies With Asian Language Skills, But Share Only 12 Arabic Speakers Amongst Five Agencies

Australian Government Has Doubled Staff Of Key Intelligence Agency Since 9/11

While sections of the Australian media and commetariat have been obsessed with paranoid fears that Australian society as they know it will somehow be undone by the 300,000 Muslims who now call Australia their home, the much more realistic security threat appears to be the alleged 1000 Chinese spies living and working here.

In less than five years, the Australian government has doubled the staff of the chief intelligence agency, ASIO, to more than 1600, and have recruited nearly 90 foreign language speaking spies and analysts.

But only twelve of those new recruits speak and read Arabic. More than 70 have been hired specifically because of their skills with Chinese and Asian languages.

The government claims that they are having trouble recruiting fluent Arabic speakers.

The impression is given that those who can speak and read Arabic don't want to work for Australia's intelligence agencies. To become an Australian spy or intelligence analyst, new recruits are subjected to lengthy and highly intrusive 'screening' procedures.

Former analyst Andrew Wilkie has claimed (in his book 'Axis of Deceit') that every single address each new recruit has ever lived at is examined, as well as the backgrounds of those they frequently associate with, be they friends, family members or former co-workers.

Having to explain your relationships, your employment history and your international travel history would prove difficult for most young Australians, not just those who can read and speak Arabic languages.

There is little to suggest that those who offer Chinese and Asian language skills as part of their resume are subjected to less investigation and background checks than those who can handle the complexities of Arabic.

So what's going on here?

Is the threat posed by Chinese spies and espionage greater or less than that posed by Middle Easterners?

So great is the need to recruit Chinese and Asian language speaking spies and analysts in Australia that ASIO has formed a new counter-espionage unit specifically to deal with the perceived threat.

And yet, the five key intelligence agencies are said to share amongst themselves only some 12 people skilled in Arabic languages.

The disparity of new recruits skilled in one set of foreign languages compared to another is vast.

Which raises the question : Is the threat of Chinese espionage now viewed as a greater threat to Australian security than that posed by jihadists or extremists of Middle Eastern backgrounds?

It is also interesting to note that in recent months, senior officials and ministers of the Australian government, including the prime minister, John Howard, are now using the words "extremists" and "radicals" where they had previously word-punched "terrorists."

'Extremist', of course, is even more open to broad definitions and categorisations than 'terrorist'.

So presumably it is no accident that senior government officials are reflecting US President Bush and UK Prime Minister Blair in their change of words to describe the what are deemed to be the key threats to national security.

It's out with "terrorists" and in with "extremists" and "radicals".

The threat of terrorism, it would then appear, is far less than the threat posed by government and corporate espionage, from the Chinese in particular, sniffing out details of new military hardware and software, courtesy of the United States, and examining Australia's relationship with 'The Locals' - Fiji, Tonga, East Timor, the Solomon Islands.

From 'The Australian' :

....many of the new recruits are fluent Chinese speakers who have been assigned to a new ASIO counter-espionage unit specifically to combat the increased number of Chinese spies in Australia.

Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock told The Australian that ASIO needed recruits with "a range of experience and backgrounds".

The new intake of Chinese-speaking ASIO officers has bolstered its capacity to monitor the activities of Chinese spies, which now outnumber the Russians that dominated Canberra intelligence circles during the Cold War.

....senior government sources believed Australia had been targeted aggressively in recent years by Chinese spies seeking information on military-related technology and strategic policy secrets.

"China would be the biggest now by a fair way ... they have built up their capabilities over the last 10 years and are more aggressive in their activities," the source said.

China has denied it has spies in Australia, a claim dismissed by security officials who say they operate mostly under diplomatic cover and under the guise of businessmen.

ASIO has now established what has been called "a dedicated division" to ramp up defences against the increased threat posed by "foreign spies."

Since September 11, 2001, ASIO has given its greatest emphasis and resources to the threats posed by terrorism, particularly those threats that may have originated from jihadists or Middle Easterners.

But the establishment of a Counter-Espionage and Foreign Interference Division by ASIO
clearly shows the chief threats to Australia's security have changed in the past two years.

And this change of percieved threats appears to have begun somewhere around the time that a Chinese diplomat announced that there were some 1000 Chinese spies living and working inside Australia.

From the Australian :

Many of the recruits will work in the counter-espionage unit of the new division, which was set up in July. A separately managed unit on "foreign interference" completes the new division.

The division's mission is to "address threats from espionage and foreign interference that complements the focus on terrorism and other extremist activity", ASIO said.

You don't exactly have to read between the lines.

When Australia's chief spy agency is dishing up such details to a national newspaper you can assume they want their friends and enemies to know what's going on, and where their focus is now centred.


June 2005 : Attorney General Confirms Australian Intelligence Agencies Looking Into Claims Of Chinese Spies In Australia

Chinese Diplomat Claims At Least 1000 Chinese Spies Inside Australia

Defector Claims To Be Chinese Spy Master

Mossad In Australia : The New Zealand False Passports Scandal

Government Denies Mossad Obtained 25 Australian Passports

Australia's Top Cop : Don't Blame Australian Muslims For Terror


Go Here For The Latest Stories From The 'Your New Reality' Blog

Go Here For The Latest Stories From 'The Fourth World War' Blog

PRIME MINISTER VOLUNTEERS TO HAVE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT BUILT NEXT TO HIS HOUSE

The Australian prime minister, John Howard, has announced that he would be quite happy to live right next door to a nuclear power plant.

"I wouldn't have any objection," he told reporters today when asked if he would mind a nuclear power plant being located in his neighbourhood. "No objections....None whatsoever."

When journalists snickered and shook their heads in disbelief, Howard pursed his lips and affected his trademarked hurt look.

"I'm serious," he said, and then paused. "...quite serious."

Howard didn't reveal whether or not he had consulted his neighbours about the installation of Australia's first nuclear power plant in their street, just to prove his point that nuclear energy is safe.

But then, he's the prime minister, and he doesn't allow the objections of any Australians to change his mind, or views, regardless of whether the issue is Australia's involvement in the 'War On Iraq' or the establishment of some two dozen nuclear power plants up and down the east coast of Australia.

Howard wants Australia to become the biggest exporter of uranium in the world, and he's using the debate over Australia's energy future to ram through a change in the public mind, from anti-uranium mining and energy, to pro, on both issues.

He's got a hell of a fight ahead of him.

Most Australians believe that alternative energy sources are the key to Australia's "energy security" (to use a Howard pitch).

Poll after poll reveals that Australians would rather see the mass roll-out of solar power and wind farms, and more focus on energy efficiency, than putting massive potential terrorist targets in dozens of Australian towns and cities.

Howard seems quite keen to have Our Nuclear Future become a key election issue.

Of course he is.

Even if a site was chosen tomorrow, Australia wouldn't have its first nuclear energy power station until 2020, at the earliest.

The prime minister wants to cram the 2007 election issue grinder with controversies of his own choosing, rather than issues that actually concern Australians.

Like why average families will be paying almost half their income to meet their mortgages, and why Australia is still involved in the Iraq War, and why an Australian citizen named David Hicks can be detained by the United States for five years, tortured, psychologically destroyed and still not be put on trial as the most basic tenets of western democracy demands, and why young Australians can't afford to go to university. Issues like those.

Howard is already claiming that the opposition Labor Party is going to run a "fear campaign" surrounding nuclear energy.

But the fear of a nuclear power station down the road is already well entrenched. Australians are not necessarily fearful of Three Mile Island-like meltdowns, but they are fearful that the value of their homes will suffer a meltdown once it becomes public knowledge exactly where these plants are going to be built.

If they are ever built at all, that is. And Howard has made no promise yet that nuclear energy will be a part of Australia's future. He just wants to fuel the debate.

Of course he does. Howard's political mastery has long been controlling the issues in the arena of public debate, and in the media. He'd rather be pilloried for pursuing nuclear energy than face involved public debates about why and how Australia became involved in the Iraq War.

Create the issues, fuel the debates, control the national agenda.

And turn Australia into a massive uranium mine and nuclear waste dump along the way.


Howard Wants Nuclear Power In His Own Backyard

Good Luck : Prime Minister Tries To Energise Nuclear Energy As An Election Issue

Lift Bans On Uranium Mining, Demands Howard

Tell Australians Where Nuclear Plants Will Be Built, And Where The Waste Will Be Buried


Go To 'Your New Reality' For The Latest Stories

Go To 'The Fourth World War' For New Stories

TWO SHOCKING MURDERS, TWO CORPSES DUMPED IN WHEELIE BINS

ELDERLY "HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR" STRANGLED

MISSING TEEN GIRL FOUND MURDERED

In the space of just one week over Christmas, revelations about two murders on the East and West coasts have shocked Australians, not only because of the brutality surrounding the deaths of a 16 year old girl and an 81 year old woman, but because both corpses were dumped inside wheelie bins.

When the two young Perth women charged with murdering their 16 year old friend, Stacey Mitchell, appeared in court yesterday, they giggled as authorities struggled to pronounce their names. Not surprisingly, this behaviour earned them a sharp rebuke from the magistrate.

Police believe an argument broke out between the victim and her friends at a rented house in a Perth suburb on Sunday, December 17. The 16 year old girl was missing for four days before police found her remains crammed into a bin behind a house in which police found bloodstains and signs of a struggle.


But police are mystified as to why 81 year old Kathy Schweitzer, from Bellevue Hill in New South Wales, was killed. A detective admitted he was "struggling to find a motive for such a callous act."

Schweitzer lived alone in an apartment overlooking Sydney Harbour. Neighbours found her body inside a wheelie bin after they became concerned that no-one in the building had seen or spoken to her in days.

Police have assigned more than 20 detectives to the murder case, a task force commitment described as an "unusually large" number of police resources by one newspaper.

Police believe Ms Schweitzer was strangled to death in her apartment, but they've found no signs that there was a break-in, that she had been robbed or that a struggle had taken place.

Ms Schweitzer was described as a "Holocaust survivor" by 'The Australian' newspaper.

Although described by most residents and locals interviewed by media as "a very nice lady", "kind", "she always had a big smile" and "a quiet woman who kept to herself", 'The Australian' quoted a member of a Hungarian Holocaust survivors social group who claimed Ms Schweitzer was "a terrible racist. She didn't like Aborigines, or any other race. She didn't like the advantages they were gaining."

The unnamed woman suggested her murder may have followed an argument with a taxi driver, noting that taxi drivers grew "annoyed" with Ms Schweitzer because she used taxis for short journeys.

Ms Schweitzer is believed to have been active in the Hungarian Resistance during World War 2, forging fake birth certificates and ID documents for other Jews while in hiding from the Nazis.

Claim : Teenage Girls Tried To Clean Up Blood Stains, Removed Carpets From House After Murder

An Undignified Death : Strangled And Dumped In A Garbage Bin

ROCKET LAUNCHERS GO MISSING, AUSTRALIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES JOIN INVESTIGATION

THE HUNT IS ON

NINE MONTHS AND COUNTING UNTIL APEC 'WORLD LEADERS CONFERENCE' IN SYDNEY

Maybe someone stole the now missing rocket launchers from an Australian Defence Force ammo dump, or maybe the armour-busting weapons were smuggled into Australia illegally.

Whatever. The fact is at least eight incredibly destructive weapons, that can unpacked, fired and dumped in a car boot within minutes, are now missing somewhere in Australia.

In just on nine months, the Australian prime minister will celebrate one of the crowning glories of his leadership years when he hosts the APEC conference in Sydney, bringing key world leaders to Australia, including US President Bush.

You can probably understand now why cops, detectives, counter-terror security officials, government ministers, the prime minister himself and key intelligence agencies are shitting themselves.

It's the stuff of horror stories.

From the Melbourne Age :

ASIO has been called in to help investigate whether rocket launchers have been stolen from the army and possibly sold to criminal gangs or terrorists.

With thousands of high-level foreign visitors due in Australia over the coming nine months for a series of meetings leading to the APEC summit in Sydney in September, ASIO, Australian Federal Police, NSW Police counter-terrorism specialists and the Middle Eastern crime squad are all involved in a major effort to track down eight 66-millimetre rocket launchers capable of destroying a light-armoured vehicle.

Police have reportedly paid $50,000 to recover a ninth launcher and explosives. Security around all ADF munition supplies has been strengthened.

The light anti-armour weapon is used by infantry to destroy light-armoured vehicles and bunkers or to knock holes in buildings.

Presumably knowing these weapons are out there, and that terrorists would pay top dollar for them, means this event constitutes a major terrorist threat.

So why has the prime minister been so quiet about it?

And yet, when a mysterious white substance turned up at the Indonesian embassy last year, he rushed in front of the cameras to announce Australia's first biological terror attack, which turned out to be nothing of the sort.

Perhaps eight missing rocket launchers constitutes an all-too-real terror threat you don't want to promote, too loudly.

Not with the prime minister's good mate, President Bush, coming to town.


Army's Shocking History Of Weapons Theft

Warnings On Weapons Security Was "Ignored"

Blackmarket Weaopons Ring Run By 'Rogue Military' Suspected