Australia To Hand Over $30+ BILLION To US War Industry

Australian Defence Companies Drool Over Arms Sales To Middle East Dictatorships And 'Enemies' Of Israel

It's just like the 1930s all over again. A wider world war looms, as economies crash and burn and powerful military nations move on weak states with vast energy and mineral reserves, while Australia, the US and the UK are busy flooding the world with bombs, bullets, jets, tanks and vast arsenals of new weaponry.

BushCo. recently announced some $73 billion worth of military hardware sales to Middle East "allies" and Australia's defence industry are now hankering to get their slice of this international arms race.

As this story in the Sun Herald explains, to get in the action, the Howard government will appoint its own international arms dealer to flog our "war machines" to allies and potential future enemies alike :

Defence experts said the most likely Australian-made military equipment that could be sold to Persian Gulf states included fast troop-carrying catamarans and the Bushmaster armoured vehicle.

"Australian defence firms could get a slice of the action as we have developed some excellent niche technology and equipment," said Greg Ferguson, editor of Australian Defence Magazine. "The new government unit will use the muscle and reputation of the Australian Defence Force to push the overseas sale of Australian defence products."

Professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University, Hugh White, said the massive US arms deal to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the Gulf States opened up opportunities for Australia.

"The aim of the US is to armour up these countries to contain Iran, which has a long coast on the Persian Gulf. It would be ideal for the Australian-built high-speed catamarans which could be used for military transports," he said.

Thank goodness for Iran's mullahs acting so crazy and supposedly claiming they want to "wipe" Israel off the map. Otherwise, Australia's involvement in the US effort to "armour up these countries to contain Iran" might look...well, dangerous, or even grossly irresponsible.

Nearly all the Gulf states our international arms dealer will be sent off to schmooze do not officially recognize the existence of Israel, like Hamas, and impose horrific human rights violations on their people, while jailing and torturing dissenters. Nor do most of these future arms trading partners of Australia allow fully democratic elections, even though the United States continually claims it is pressuring countries like Egypt to give its people more freedom and liberty.

But forget all that, we're talking billions of dollars of arms sales here.

The Saudis and Egyptians know that one of the best ways to get the United States to shut up about human rights and democracy is to commit to mega-billion arms deals with the US, or its arms-producing allies. Like Australia.

According to the Sun Herald, and other media reports, the Howard government has committed to pouring more than $31 billion dollars into the coffers of American defence contractors in the coming years, for transport planes, jet fighters and second-hand tanks.

The top 40 defence firms in Australia turnover $6 billion per year. At the moment, they sell $400 million worth of guns, bombs and bullets internationally. A figure that is set to rapidly escalate should our new arms dealer be able to score some of the American action in arming up all those Middle East countries.

Interesting how the fact that Australia, a nation of only 20 million people, is funneling $31 billion into American defence contractors, and currently has a "defence" budget of more than $21 billion a year, barely rates a mention in the American or British mainstream media.

Australia and the US had a virtual shitfit last year when it became known that China, a country of more than 1.3 billion people, had raised its annual defence spend to some $40 billion.

Australia's move to help in the mega-arming of Middle East countries is all part of the US-Israel-Sunni Middle East Alliance against Iran. In part, this is also a future front against the Russia and China, who are now tied to Iran through recent oil and natural gas deals worth hundreds of billions of dollars.


Australia's Massive Plan To Become A Military World Power

Australia's Future Role In Helping To Contain China

Our New Arms Trading Partners : The US-Sunni-Israel Alliance Against Iran

Family of Australian Terror Victim Brushed Off By Downer

Why? She Didn't Die In A "Mass Casualty" Terror Attack

Families Of Bali Bombing Victims Sent "Insert Name Here" Form Letters

Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, feels it is completely ethical to use the threat of terrorism, and the horrific deaths of more than 120 Australians from terror attacks over the past seven years, to frame his arguments on why the War On Iraq must continue, why Australia is a part of the 'War on Terror' and to explain why Australians must get used to having their civil liberties torn away as part of that war.

But the shattered family of one Australian terror victim were told by Downer that they would not get any help from the government to meet the costs of bringing home the body of their dead daughter, who died in a terror attack in Turkey.

They needed $16,000, and thought they would get help, because the Australian government had compensated the families of Australian terror victims who were killed in Bali, in Indonesia, in London and in the 9/11 attacks on New York City.

But the distressed, mourning family were brushed off by Downer, then ignored. Then they were sent an insulting letter.

Why?

Because their daughter didn't die in a "mass casualty incident"

Why should that make any difference at all?

Because Downer's clearly not interested in one dead Australian terror victim here, or a couple there. He only wants to know about the terror attacks where dozens of Australians are slain, because that's what grabs the headlines, and that's the kind of horror and terror that supplies the political capital he needs to justify the War On Iraq and to attack political opponents for supposedly being "soft" on terror.

Alexander Downer is beyond repulsive. and as inhuman as all the other despicable creatures who use terrorism for political, religious or personal gain.

Just when you think Downer can't get any lower, he'll prove you wrong.


And then there's the generic form letters sent to the Australian families of terror victims by Downer's office. You can see the letters for yourself here :

...the email version came with a number of documents, apparently sent by accident. They included a six-page summary of occasions the Government had helped Australians, such as reimbursing the cost of repatriation of remains for Bali bombing victims, $5000 for funeral costs, the cost of air fares and accommodation for close relatives to go to Bali and financial help to attend the first anniversary of the bombings and the trials of the accused terrorists.

Another attached document was a generic Foreign Affairs letter for Bali bomb victims' families, with spaces to "insert address here" and add "first name" here.

If Downer and John Howard can find the time to spend entire mornings preparing for their purely politically motivated attacks in Parliament, ranting about the threat of terror and why Australia is supposedly fighting in the front lines of the 'War on Terror' in Iraq, then they can surely find the time to write all the families of terror victims proper letters, and deal with their inquiries in a humane and decent way.

Beyond chilling.

Bureaucracy as its coldest, and most heartless.

Explosives found in a parked, unregistered car in Melbourne during police stop. Possible terrorist leaving a car bomb in a city street? No, he was white, and not a Muslim. Therefore, not a suspected terrorist. But talk about being fully busted. This is what the police claim they found in this guy's car :

an extendable baton, a can of pepper spray, eight mobile phones, a large amount of amphetamines, nunchuckas, an unregistered handgun...

Plus the explosives. And more explosives were found when they searched the suspect's home.


Russell Crowe likes to try to boost his rugby league's team morale with lots of positive talk, declarations of love and hugs. Some of the players are less than impressed, calling his morale building methodology "bullshit". Clearly men hugging other men is far too wussy for these guys. They're rugby league players. Macho guys. Who get paid to grab other men, climb all over them, insert their fingers up each other's bums to try and make them drop the ball and grope each other's genitalia. But hugging? God no!

Annabel Crabb, the rising star of Australian political journalism. Sharp, funny and dead on. Here she imagines Christmas-based policy option discussions about whether the Rudd child should, or should not, be gifted a bicycle. Brilliant.



John Howard used a fear campaign based around interest rates to win the 2004 election. In person he famously promised to keep interest rates low. In advertisements, he said he planned to keep interest rates at record lows.

Now interest rates are about to go up again, for the fourth time since the last election, putting extreme financial pressure on millions of already hard-hit Australian families, Howard says his government is not responsible for interest rates. Well, not when they go up. Make up your mind, mate. Voters already think you're sneaky, now they're going to think you've completely lost your mind.


Jack Marx writes the usually entertaining, and sometimes damned extraordinary, Daily Truth blog. Now he's been forced to actually post daily, instead of two or three times a week, he makes our blog roll. Jack's blog is well worth checking out. Daily.


You need to find ten minutes, right now, not later, and go here and read the full story that goes with this downright Australian urban legend :

...mad scientist "Monkey Jones", obsessed with finding the secret of eternal youth, had spent the wild years between the wars transplanting monkey testicles into the scrotums of aging male human beings, thus transforming the isolated Lake Macquarie hamlet of Dora Creek, nearby the doctor's clinic, into a kind of sexual Shan-gri-la, where old men at the end of their days matched sexual vigour with fresh young women. The honeymoon ended, says the legend, when the doctor died, the experiments ceased and everything - to the relief of the township's elderly women - returned to normal.

Now go here and read the Jack Marx story on the truth behind the urban legend. In many ways, the true story is even better than the legend. Guaranteed, this is the greatest, most eye-opening, jaw-dropping story you will read anywhere this week. Now go for it.


Would it surprise you to learn that a pedophile who carried around a kitten to draw in children also kept a locked dungeon in his backyard? Probably not. Chilling, nonetheless. Apparently, it's not illegal to build and keep your own backyard dungeon in Australia. It's only illegal when you keep people inside it, against their will.


'Downwards adjustment' : That's the terminology used by the National Gallery of Victoria to describe what has happened to the value of a Van Gogh painting they've proudly displayed for decades...now they've found out that it isn't a Van Gogh painting. It was probably painted by someone apprenticed to the Dutch master, says the NGV, or Van Gogh contemporary. Not a chance in hell, says the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. The NGV will still display the painting because, they claim, "it isn't a forgery" and it is still "interesting".

Yes, particularly interesting to the those hundreds of Van Gogh addicts and completists who've traveled from all over the world to Victoria, through the decades, to gape in awe at this remarkable Van Gogh, that isn't actually a Van Gogh.


John Howard has ruled out the judicial inquiry now being called for by Opposition leader Kevin Rudd into what the hell happened went down between the Australian government, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian mainstream media over the smearing and fearing of Dr Mohamed Haneef. Why no inquiry? Because, Mr Howard said, the...oh crap. Read it for yourself. It's too late in the night to try and make sense of Howard's bizarre logic train.


Phillip Adams finally comes clean. He's slept with the prime minister's wife. Twice.


We're still betting that one of the coming federal election slogans from the Howard government will be a variation on "Better To Be Safe Than Sorry." It's so adaptable. They can use it for terrorism, to argue why straggling voters should not switch over to Kevin Rudd, for keeping Australian combat troops in Iraq and for trusting the Howard government to keep interest rates at record lows, well kind of low, sort of...if you're rich.


The Howard Huggers in the Australia media continue to dump their idol as reality dawns like a bucket of ice water in the face. Andrew Bolt is all but begging the prime minister to leave now, so as to allow the government the slimmest of chances of winning the election. In fact, a recent column demanded "Howard Must Quit".

Fellow News Limited Howard-hugger, Tim Blair, is already anticipating Kevin Rudd's first 100 days as prime minister.


Australia's Hillsong church has got itself a very powerful and captivating whistle blower. A former lifetime member of the fundamentalist, extremely wealthy church has written a book which is bound to be a bestseller. In it, we learn that Hillsong is about money, getting money from its true believers, getting more true believers into its churches to get more money out of them, all of whom are expected to hand over 10% of their wages. In 2004-2005, the church made $50 million and paid no taxes.

Hillsong has been very successful in accumulating wealth. The church recently purchased a piece of luxurious Sydney property worth $28 million. Clearly, they must have skipped the part of the Bible where Jesus talked about how it was harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than it was for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Get rid of all your possessions, Jesus said, and give them to the poor.

Hey, what the hell did Jesus know? That was 2000 years ago.

The Aboriginal Romeo And Juliet

This story was told on SBS a few weeks back through a short documentary, with some stunning historical footage of the couple discussed below.

Why this beautiful and sad story of love, tradition and incredible survival in the harsh Australian outback has never been made into a full-scale movie, starring many of the superb indigenous actors, is beyond explanation.

From the UK Independent :

They were an Aboriginal Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers who eloped into the desert because tribal law forbade them from marrying. And for 40 years they roamed, living off kangaroo meat and bush fruit, happy with their own company and the red landscape.

Warri and Yatungka were perhaps Australia's last nomads, leading a traditional lifestyle long after their Mandildjara tribe gravitated to urban settlements. They abandoned the desert only in 1977, when a severe drought dried up the waterholes, and tribal elders, anxious for their welfare, sent out a search party.

Warri and Yatungka met in the 1930s, but were from different "skin groups", so their relationship breached tribal law. Rather than separate, they ran away together. They had three children.

By the 1960s, with mining companies and pastoralists encroaching on their land, most Mandildjara moved to towns such as Warburton and Wiluna. British nuclear tests conducted in the Outback during the 1950s had also blunted Aborigines' desire to live in the desert. But Warri and Yatungka stayed there, leading a solitary existence, apart from occasional encounters with tribe members and white anthropologists.

It was not until the drought that they struggled to survive. It took the search party, led by an Aboriginal tracker, Mudjon, and a white explorer, Bill Peasley, several weeks to find them.

The couple were naked and stick-thin. As well as having to walk for days to find water, they had not eaten meat for a long time. Warri had a leg injury and could not hunt.

The couple, still inseparable, were close to starvation. They agreed to come into town, although they feared they might be punished. In fact, the elders had forgiven them.

However, Warri and Yatungka yearned for their peripatetic existence, which was how Aborigines had lived for 40,000 years.

In 1979 they died within weeks of each other.

A remarkable story, and a unique portrait of shared Aboriginal and Australian history.

Police : "Testing The Power To Arrest Anybody"

Coming on the back of a flurry of alarming stories about police and state and federal governments pushing for new powers to enter homes without warrants to plant surveillance devices and monitor any and all internet activity; of new laws that will allow police to conduct full body searches on anybody they don't like the look of during September's APEC conference; detaining possible "troublemakers" during APEC in a fleet of "mobile prison" buses, and the more recent detention of a suspect who was held without charge for twelve days and then released, without charge, this "accidental" e-mail release could not have come at a worse time.

This morning, the Sydney Morning Herald received an e-mail that stated, ominously :

"Testing the power to arrest anybody".

Naturally, the NSW police claim this was all a big "mistake".

Perhaps so, but the explanation offered up to the Herald makes the "mistake" sound like anything but :

"The email was accidentally generated when a member of our IT [Information Technology] department was doing some testing on the back-end of our website, while looking at ways to improve the distribution of our media releases to you," said Tim Archer, media manager at NSW Police.

"The email was not generated by the Police Media Unit and was not relevant to any police operation or announcement. It was a simple internal test using random text which should not have been sent externally, so apologies if it caused some confusion in news rooms."

The SMH said the email arrived this morning, was three lines long and started with the words :

"Test - Arrest anybody".

Then came tomorrow's date. And then the line "Testing the power to arrest anybody."

"Random text", eh?

The more believable version might have been that the IT people testing the media release service were having a bit of a joke, and wrote the disturbing line and then accidentally fired off an email to someone on their media list. In this case, the smh.com.au.

But with all the other Big Brother-ish, police state-like new laws and opportunities for arrest and detention coming online for police for September's APEC summit, the "mistake" email actually sounds like an internal memo that got loose.

One that was alerting other police that they were going to conduct a test tomorrow, where they would arrest "anybody", as a way of testing the new powers being given to them.

Weird.

We'll see who gets arrested tomorrow in Sydney, and for what reason.

Sydney Turns 'Big Brother Police State' Into A Cliche

If you haven't been to Sydney for a few years, and you're familiar with Communist-era East Germany, you will be shocked at what you see if you happen to be in town come September.

September is, of course, the month that central Sydney is turned over to 21 of the world's most powerful regimists, dictators, Communists, war makers and mega-capitalists. In short, 21 of the world's most powerful leaders.

Sydneysiders will be greeted by police and soldiers sporting machine guns, checkpoints, sniper nests, random full body searches and special badges that restrict the movement of people through the centre of the city where the APEC summit is being held.

Although the State government denies it, the APEC summit is also the reason why light poles and traffic lights in 40 locations around Sydney are now being fitted with large speaker systems, just like in the China of Chairman Mao, from which messages of warning, instruction, control, conformity and behaviour modification can be blasted, thrummed and inaudibly toned.

APEC is the reason the speaker systems are going up, but "unspecified emergencies" is the reason why they will still be there, long after the world leaders have gone home.

First you will hear a wailing siren, then you will hear the messages telling you what to do, where to turn, where to hide, in the case of an "attack", straight from Police Central.

Are we living in Israel now? Is Newcastle or Wollongong about to start launching homemade rockets into our suburbs?

Less detail is know about the 'Text Message Boards', which will also spring up in time for APEC, and will allow police, or Chairman Iemma, to relay glowing, flashing instructions to the people of Sydney from a mobile phone.

Tied in with all this is the fact that the public and private surveillance cameras, red light cameras and traffic cameras are now being united into a combined surveillance system stretching the length and breadth of Sydney and its suburbs.

Terrorism is the excuse. The mega-billion dollar security industry is the reality.


All of the above also gels nicely with extraordinary new super police powers :

Police and security agencies will be given unprecedented "sneak and peek" powers to search the homes and computers of suspects without their knowledge under legislation to go before Federal Parliament next week.

The extensive powers - which also give federal police the right to monitor communications equipment without an interceptions warrant - come amid growing public disquiet about counter-terrorism powers following the bungled handling of the Mohamed Haneef case.

Under the laws, officers from the federal police and other agencies would be able to execute "delayed notification warrants", allowing them to undertake searches, seize equipment and plant listening devices in businesses and homes.

Police and security officers will be able to assume false identities to gain entry and conduct the surreptitious searches.

But the person affected by the raid does not have to be informed for at least six months, and can remain in the dark for 18 months if the warrant is rolled over.

The Greens senator Kerry Nettle said the handling of Dr Haneef's case served as a reminder that law enforcement and intelligence agencies made mistakes, and already had extensive and intrusive powers.

"Given the Haneef debacle, now is not the time to be giving more powers to the Australian Federal Police," she said.

The bill also deals with "controlled operations" - undercover operations where federal agents are permitted to undertake criminal activity in order to further their investigations.

Privacy Is An Illusion.


'Mobile Prisons' Readied For APEC Summit

APEC To Cost A Staggering $24 Million Per Day For Security - Sydneysiders To "Leave Town" During Summit

Detentions Without Charge, Random Body Searches, Machine-Gun Armed Soldiers To Hit The Streets Of Sydney

"Old JellyBack" - Downer Steals Trademark Keating Insult To 'Wet Lettuce' Rudd

Foreign minister Alexander Downer refuses to yield to easy temptation of trying to score desperate political points off the terror-related issues, and the Dr Haneef fiasco :

"I think we could sum [Opposition leader) Mr Rudd up in one word – and that word is jellyback," he said in Manila, where he is attending a regional security meeting.

"This is somebody who has decided to change his position because of the media controversy," Mr Downer said.

"If Mr Rudd would have become a prime minister of Australia, I think we have a pretty clear idea that old jellyback would just do what the media said. And actually that's not the best way... to run a country."

Can't say that "Jellyback" is a slang term I've heard used all that often. But Googling around I came up with some interesting examples of its usage in the past.

According to the Urban Dictionary, 'Jellyback' (Jangler) can mean grabbing a woman's breast, twisting it and then slapping it.

Perhaps not the definition that Downer was reaching for. But then again, this is the same person who thought it was funny to make public jokes about horrific incidents of domestic violence.

The search for 'jellyback' got interesting when I narrowed it down to Australian references.

Lo and behold, who was the famous user of the insult "Jellyback" before Downer resurrected it?

Why Paul Keating, of course.

On more than a few occasions, Keating called former prime minister Bob Hawke, "Old Jellyback", just like Downer called Rudd.

And then in 2005, it started popping up in online forums all over Australia. But this time in reference to then Labor leader Kim Beazley, again with the "Old Jellyback".

So Downer is reduced to digging through old slang terms from, and for, former Labor prime minister to come up with something he can try to smear Rudd with?

How sad. How very Alexander Downer.

Downer and Tony 'The Cleaner' Abbott keep trying to come up with a nasty little name for Rudd that will stick, but nothing seems to stick. At least, not in the public mind. Well, nothing except for the reality check that Downer and Abbott are acting like a couple of moronic teenagers, with nothing more important to do than to call people names.

And it's refreshing to see Downer not reduced to trying to score any desperate political points off issues related to terrorism that he can. Downer would never do that. The threat of terror is far too important to be sidelined as a mere political issue, or a political cricket bat with which to donk your opponents on the head. Downer's said so himself, many times.

Speaking of Keating, here's some of the insults he tossed at John Howard when they were at war in Parliament in the 1980s and 1990s :

"He's wound up like a thousand day clock..."

"...the brain-damaged Leader of the Opposition..."

(Of his 1986 leadership) "From this day onwards, Howard will wear his leadership like a crown of thorns, and in the parliament I'll do everything to crucify him."

"He is the greatest job and investment destroyer since the bubonic plague."

"But I will never get to the stage of wanting to lead the nation standing in front of the mirror each morning clipping the eyebrows here and clipping the eyebrows there with Janette and the kids: It's like 'Spot the eyebrows'."

"I am not like the Leader of the Opposition. I did not slither out of the Cabinet room like a mangy maggot..."

"He has more hide than a team of elephants."

"I do not want to hear any mealymouthed talk from the Member for Benelong."

"The principle saboteur, the man with the cheap fistful of dollars."

What we have got is a dead carcass, swinging in the breeze, but nobody will cut it down to replace him."

I bet the "dead carcass" line above still makes Peter Costello laugh, and wince.

And poor little Alex. He wants to be as fast and funny and savage as Keating was, but all he can do is steal his best insults. Word for word.

Will "Better To Be Safe Than Sorry" Be The Liberals Election Campaign Mantra?

The only line about the Dr Mohamed Haneef fiasco dumber than John Howard's "better to be safe than sorry" dismisser, was Alexander Downer's pathetically sooky "Get real" whine.

But was Howard actually giving the Liberals federal election campaign slogan a bit of an early airing?

Howard claimed that when it comes to terror, "It's better to be safe than sorry". A line that, if it actually held water, could be used for virtually any injustice, false detention or personal smear campaign by the Howard government that had even the barest of linkages to the 'War on Terror' or national security. It's a disturbing precedent.

Some Muslim bloke gets shot dead for wearing a backpack that looks a bit suspicious?

Better to be safe than sorry.

An innocent man gets detained and held without charge for a few weeks or a few months, or in the case of David Hicks, a few years?

Better to be safe than sorry.

Billions of taxpayers' money pulled out of education and health and re-directed to unjustified foreign wars and completely invasive homeland security?

Better to be safe than sorry.


Michelle Grattan lays out the facts of John Howard's involvement in the Dr Haneef fiasco, under a headline that asks if the 'War on Terror' really does mean that anything goes now :

By yesterday, however, Howard was circling the wagons, as was Alexander Downer, who bluntly told sceptics to "get real". Howard said there'd be no apology, and mistakes happen.

The message is, if you are dealing with allegations to do with terrorism, forget highfalutin notions of accountability.

Here's the embarrassing Alexander Downer sookfest quotes in full, after being asked if Dr Haneef was owed an apology from the Australian Federal Police or ministers in the Howard government :

A request for an apology seemed to offend Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

"What do you expect them to do, fall on the ground and grovel - eat dirt - I mean, get real. This is a quite common situation," he said.

Mr Downer shrugged off the critics of the bungled case as political operatives with an axe to grind.

"[It is] an attempt here by Howard-haters to try to paint the Government as having conducted the investigations unsuccessfully and this was all some political stunt - I think that's pretty reprehensible," he said.

What's wrong with Downer? Is he mentally or emotionally unstable? Why does he get so easily wound up and unfurl such patently ridiculous answers to simple questions from reporters? It's clear Downer is losing it. He should be drip-fed valium during the APEC summit in September so he doesn't embarrass himself, and the country, in front of world leaders.

The only thing more laughable than Downer's whining is his government's repeated use of the Andrew Bolt line that anybody who dares to question the motives of the prime minister is automatically a "Howard hater".

That Downer has been reduced to viewing any criticism or finding of faults in the actions of the Howard government as being part of some broad conspiracy, or proof of hatred, is another sign of the crippling paranoia infecting the government right now. They are beset with The Fear, and it shows every time someone like Downer has a hissy-fit.

What Downer is actually saying when he calls millions of Australians "Howard Haters" is that he thinks the government should not be held to account, and should not have to tolerate genuine, and well deserved, criticism.

Absolutely pathetic.

The Howard government could try and cling to its hold on power with a $100 million advertising blitz in the weeks before election day ringing out its "Vote Liberal. Better To Be Safe Than Sorry" message.

But the polls clearly show, in the huge numbers of former Howard voters now backing Rudd, that plenty of Australians are already sorry about the choice they made back in 2004.

It's unlikely Howard can say, or do, much now to win them back.

And trying to fear up the electorate, when more than half already clearly trust Kevin Rudd, is not going to work.

If Howard & Friends go for The Fear this time, it will show just how far out of touch they really are with the Australian people.

Dr Haneef Back Home In India

Keelty : The Brits Blew It

Claim : $200,000 For Haneef's First Interview

UPDATE : Contrary to earlier reports, presumably leaked by the police involved, and that we based the last lines in the below story on, Dr Haneef said in his first public statement that he was victimised by the authorities during his time in their custody.


Dr Mohamed Haneef has arrived back in India after three weeks in Australian custody, leaving behind a storm of controversy assaulting the Howard government and the Australian Federal Police.

Howard sent Tony "The Cleaner" Abbott and Malcolm "Mr Nice Guy" Turnbull onto Sunday morning talk shows to try and undo some of the political damage the Haneef fiasco has caused. Abbott and Turnbull's main line of parry and defence was to claim the Rudd opposition supported the government over what happened to Dr Haneef. Disingenuous at best.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, is pushing the main blame for the Haneef fiasco back onto the British authorities, who he claims first told them that a SIM card once owned by Dr Haneef was found in the burning vehicle that crashed into glass doors at an airport in Scotland earlier this month. It was later revealed the SIM card was found hundreds of miles away.

Stories this morning claim that Dr Haneef was paid between $100,000 and $200,000 for an exclusive interview with the 60 Minutes television program.

The interview was said to have been conducted in the hours at the airport before Dr Haneef boarded the plane that took him back home, and back to his family.

Here's the Mick Keelty 'Blames The Brits' story from the Sydney Morning Herald:

Mr Keelty said British police initially told AFP investigators that Dr Haneef's mobile phone SIM card had been found inside a Jeep allegedly used by his second cousin, Kafeel Ahmed, in a failed car bombing in Glasgow on June30.

Instead, the SIM card had been found in the home of Kafeel's brother, Sabeel, in Liverpool...

But Mr Keelty said: "Whatever else you may think of Haneef, the fact remains his SIM card was found in the possession of the person labelled as a [suspect]" in the failed Glasgow attack.

Mr Keelty said the case had been "poorly handled by some sections of the media".

"There is a lot of confusion at the beginning of any complex investigation...errors in the investigation came to us from the UK...we're all under time pressures," he said.

On (Immigration Minister Kevin) Andrews's intervention in the case, Mr Keelty said: "You can't blame Andrews. He acted on our information."

A report here claims that one of the conditions of Dr Haneef's immediate release from 'home detention' yesterday was that he would not give a media conference at the airport before flying back to India :

Immigration authorities had also made it a condition of Dr Haneef's return to India that he did not speak to the media or allow his picture to be taken.

Mr Russo said he had tried to organise for Dr Haneef to speak to the media before his departure but was not able to.

Mr Russo said Dr Haneef could speak about his ordeal once he left Australia but he would rather he did not speak publicly before his visa appeal on August 8.

Mr Russo said Dr Haneef's legal team was disappointed that he was prevented from publicly thanking Australians who supported him during his detention.

"This has been a severely traumatic time for him, made worse by the fact that his wife has just had their first child, a baby Dr Haneef has not even seen yet. His mother is also ill and he wants to be there with her."

Dr Haneef's wife is obviously very happy that she is getting her husband back, after three weeks of intense pressure and damaging media speculation.

The Indian Government wants Australia to restore Dr Haneef's visa, but Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews says, for now, that is not going to happen.

This editorial from Arab News is a good example of the slamming tone much international media, particularly in Arab and Muslim states, and across India, are now taking on "the appalling treatment metted out to the doctor."

Dr Haneef is widely portrayed as a victim of a vindictive and racist Australian government, who went after Dr Haneef for being a Muslim first and above all, with his family connection to a British terror suspect as merely a grounds for suspicion.

The line taken by Howard government ministers that this fiasco has not damaged Australia's international reputation, or the credibility of its fight against terror, is laughable.

If there is any good news from this fiasco, it is that Dr Haneef appears to have been sympathetic to the police during their interrogations of him, understanding the pressure they were under, and that he was treated with a certain level of decency by those who detained him. In short, he wasn't tortured, unlike terror suspects detained in the United States, Afghanistan, Iraq and across the Middle East.

The Haneef Fiasco : An International Embarrassment

Haneef's Wife Thanks Supporters

Haneef Free But Fallout Rages

Immigration Still "Suspicious" Of Haneef As He Flies Home

Farewell From The Land Of The "Fair Go"

"Disgraceful Treatment" Of Mohamed Haneef Part Of Howard's Political Games

Army Recruiting Posters Scrapped For Being "Offensive"



UPDATE : The poster series discussed in this story have now been scrapped by the Department of Defence


The above is a screengrab from the news.com.au homepage, showing two images from a new series of Army recruiting posters. There's a bit of a kerfuffle over the use of a buxom, doey-eyed cartoon woman in the posters, mostly because some female soldiers feel this portrayal of a female digger like that is inappropriate.

But as regular reader Rollie points out, perhaps there is a more subliminal form of offensive imagery going on in that poster to the left.

Rollie (via e-mail) :

"I'm not a perv, but I'll be fucked if I don't see a huge cock and balls in profile in the steam coming off that soup pot she's stirring. Am I wrong?"

We didn't actually notice it until Rollie pointed it out, but know we know it's there, it's impossible not to see it.

Yep. It's a cock and balls all right.

This story claims the posters are about to be recalled.

We, and now you, know why.


Stuck for something to read?

Darryl Mason is the author of the free, online novel ED Day : Dead Sydney. You can read it here

An International Embarrassment

Weak 'Terror' Charges Against Dr Haneef Dropped

Dr Haneef Set Free


You can have your shoes back now, Dr Haneef. Sorry about the whole 'terrorist' mix-up

UPDATE : Dr Haneef will be given back his passport and allowed to stay in Australia.

So, no great surprise here :

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has dropped the terror charge against Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef.

Commonwealth prosecutors withdrew the charge of supporting a terrorist organisation in Brisbane Magistrates Court this afternoon, following a review of the case by DPP Damian Bugg...

The 'terror charges' being that Dr Haneef had "recklessly supported a terrorist group" because he gave a SIM card to a relative back in England who then allegedly went on to try and launch terror attacks in England.

Of course, the British authorities haven't charged Haneef's cousin with being a part of a terrorist group. So how can Haneef be charged with supporting a terror group that doesn't, at this point, officially exist?

Hence, the dropping of the charges.

A statement from the Director Of Public Prosecutions :

"On my view of this matter a mistake has been made ..."

Understatement of the year. The DPP accepts some responsibility for the "mistake", the Australian Federal Police says it did nothing wrong, and prime minister John Howard still backs the Immigration Minister's very public, and legally damaging statement, that Dr Haneef was "of bad character" and so had to have his visa cancelled.

The blame gaming has now officially begun.


EXCLUSIVE : First Draft Of Joint Australian Federal Police/Howard Government Statement Of Apology To Dr Haneef :

Umm, sorry about the whole "You're probably a scumbag terrorist" thing, Dr Haneef.

We realise now that you were telling the truth all along and that you didn't try to make a bomb-detonating call to those supposed car bombs in London, and that you didn't plot to blow up buildings in Queensland and that you don't want to destroy the West and that you don't worship Osama Bin Laden.

But, you know, them's the breaks in the 'War on Terror', mate.

And after all, you are a Muslim. And all terror attacks are done by Muslims....well, except those done by the ETA, and the ones carried out by black ops forces on enemy infrastructure, and the occasional bombings by Mossad and MI5, and the governments of Pakistan, India, Russia, China, the United States and all those trying to fight the War On Terror by using state terror for...look, none of that really matters to you, right?

So, thanks for coming to Australia and helping to fill the shocking doctor shortage. And thanks for being such a good sport about us holding you in custody without charge for, what, it was only 12 days or so, wasn't it?

And thanks for letting us 'interview' you for 12 hour long sessions, and parade you in front of the media dressed like a convicted criminal, with no shoes.

You'll probably want to sue us now, right? Okay. Well, here's the deal : Fuck off back to India, we'll see you in court. And don't forget we'll spend five million of taxpayers money to avoid having to pay you even $100,000 in damages.

By the way, Dr Haneef. Could you pass the word around back home that we're still looking for more doctors? We've still got a pretty bad shortage of them here.

Of course, a lot of Australians are paranoid about Indian or...well, let's face, any dark-skinned doctors now, what with all that 'Those Who Will Heal You, Will Kill You' black propaganda stuff.

Again, sorry about the mix-up.

Thank you, come again. (just a little joke there to show the Aussie sense of humour)

BTW : Even though the charges against you have been dropped, the Immigration Minister still thinks you are "of bad character". Which probably says more about him than it does about you.

I'm not sure the above letter is the real deal. It seems a bit restrained to me.

Naturally, Howard government spin master Tony Abbott got in early this morning, clearly aware that the charge against Dr Haneef would be dropped today :

"If he's a good guy who has done nothing wrong, I suppose, he should be treated like other good guys who've done nothing wrong."

Tony Abbott only supposes Dr Haneef should be treated like someone who has done nothing wrong even though it was abundantly clear he had done nothing wrong. Continues Abbott :

"But whether he is a good guy who has done nothing wrong is the sort of thing that Kevin Andrews, quite rightly, will be seeking expert advice on

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews hasn't changed his mind :

"I believe that Dr Haneef fails the character test and for that reason I cancelled his visa," Mr Andrews told ABC radio today.

"Nothing that has been revealed to me in the last 24 or 48 hours would lead me to believe that information was inappropriate or incorrect."

Of course not, Dr Haneef is still a Muslim.


Here's but one example of the Murdoch media' s terror scaremongering around Dr Haneef, before even the most basic facts were known or even taken into consideration. Naturally this example comes from the Daily Telegraph's blockhead-in-chief Piers Akerman :

The detention of a Gold Coast doctor shows the alleged sweeping extent of the global links of international terrorism.

The liberal use of "alleged", "seems" and "probably" in the Akerman column of July 4 will presumably protect News Limited and the Daily Telegraph from having to fork over another six figure sum in damages for Akerman's inability to restrain himself from writing such garbage, and trying to smear people long before they are even charged, or not charged, with terrorism-related crimes.

You can only hope that this appalling fiasco does not make Australians less alert to the threat of terrorism, from whichever groups or extreme religious true believers who think they can change the direction of politics or international policy through the killing of innocent people.

But the more often incidents like the Dr Hannef fiasco occur, the more often that terror attack warnings are issued for reasons other than the safety of the public, the more people will tend to believe that the threat of terrorism is overwrought, and that fear campaigns are being used against the public for strictly political reasons.

The terrible irony is that in the case of Dr Haneef the only people who ended up being terrorised was him, and his family.

An Earlier Story From The Orstrahyun on the Dr Haneef Scandal

Howard Tries To Distance Himself From The Collapse Of The 'Terror' Case Against Dr Haneef - Good Luck With That PM

Haneef Will Be Released


MORE ON THIS STORY COMING...

India Uranium Sales Key To Formation Of Asia Pacific Alliance To Contain China

Pakistan Gives Australia Harsh Warning On Selling Nuclear Fuel To India

By Darryl Mason

The Howard government wants to sell uranium to India, to power some 14 nuclear power stations it needs to keep up with its ever-growing energy demands. This news comes in the wake of a remarkable bypassing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT) by President Bush, who is pushing Washington to allow India to expand its nuclear energy capabilities and to gain more nuclear technology, and equipment, from the United States.

India is not a member of the NNPT, designed to stop a new Cold War style nuclear arms build up, but the Howard government wants to sell them uranium, regardless. The Bush administration has spoken. Australia must sell uranium to India, so naturally the Howard government moves quickly to please our American allies.

But behind the sniffy rejections by the Howard government of the genuine fears that India will use Australian uranium to build more nuclear missiles, and other weapons, Australia is moving ahead with American-led plans to form an Asia-Pacific alliance between India, Australia, Japan and the United States with one key long-term goal on its agenda : contain China.

The Howard government is already selling a local angle on supplying India with nuclear fuel as a move towards helping India lower its future carbon emissions, and it being generally good for the Australian economy, which undoubtedly it will surely be.

But at what cost to regional and world stability?

So enthusiastic are the Howard government to follow the coal export-driven golden economy with a nuclear-fuel driven one, they are "seeking advice" on how to over-ride state controls that limit or impose outright bans on uranium mining.

The majority of Australians reject the expansion of uranium mining, and have done so for decades. So much for democracy.

You would expect the news that Australia, with Bush Co. backing, will sell uranium to India might upset India's neighbour Pakistan. And you'd be right.

A senior Pakistan government minister last night gave Australia a dark warning over its plan to supply nuclear fuel to India :

TONY JONES: Do you expect there to be a diplomatic backlash from Pakistan if a uranium deal goes ahead with India and Pakistan is excluded?

IJAZ UL-HAQ: As a Pakistani, I can tell you the entire nation is going to be very upset.

Pakistan argues that if India refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and it can still access nuclear fuel from Australia to power its economy, then Pakistan should be given the same access to uranium supplies.

Locally, Howard government ministers are already trying to hose down opposition from Australians to the purposeful shattering of the NNPT.

Treasurer Peter Costello told Melbourne Radio 3AW :

"I would want to know that there were very strict safeguards in place before we sold to any country that was outside the Nonproliferation Treaty."

Err, safeguards more strict than the the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Mr Costello?

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer tried to claim that "no final decision has been made" on Australia exporting uranium to India. Well, not officially anyway :

Mr Downer said exports could go ahead if India agreed to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), similar to a deal being negotiated between India and the US.

"In these circumstances it is a possibility that we would begin negotiations with India over supplying uranium to power stations which were subject to United Nations inspections and to the regime of the international atomic agency," he said.

Interesting then that Downer, and the Howard government, remain so vehemently opposed to Iran using these same IAEA surveillance measures to create its own nuclear energy industry.

But then hypocrisy is Alexander Downer's middle name. Unofficially.

The larger, global context of new strategic alliances has never been, and will never be, brought into the national debate in regard to uranium exports by Downer, or anyone else in the Howard government.

Australia won't sell nuclear fuel to Pakistan because Pakistan is gradually becoming part of the strategic military and energy alliance between Iran, China and Russia.

India is okay to get uranium outside of the NNPT because they will be part of the future Asia Pacific axis between Australia, Japan and the United States. There'll be more hints towards the formation of such an access at September's APEC summit in Sydney in September.

The Australian people, meanwhile, and as usual, are treated like mushrooms (a dark room, lots of bullshit) by the Howard government who don't seem to comprehend that many Australians are keenly aware of what is going on in the larger world, and how the new world alliances are taking shape. These things are hardly secrets.

But the Howard government will, as always, appeal to Australians through its foundation mantra "Please think of the economy!" And why not? They've done a great job of transforming the way most Australians view wealth and the accumulation of assets.

Through a decade of appealing to base instincts, and lots of very expensive marketing and propaganda campaigns, the Howard government has morphed Australia into a greedy nation. A national mindset that was all but non-existent until the mid-1990s.

Australians are loaded up with shocking levels of personal and family debt, and the Howard government can now use all that debt-related fear and anxiety to ram through anything it likes, simply by saying, with varying degrees of subtlety, that if we don't sell uranium to India, for example, the economy will suffer. And we all now what that means.

In reality, the long-term balances of regional stability, and the possibility of future economic embargoes against Australia from China, if things get really ugly, will make a few billion dollars worth of uranium sales in the next few years look like a handful of worthless coins in the coming decades.

We are told by the Howard government that China uses the coal it buys from Australia to fuel its generators. No doubt this is true enough. But there are growing rumours that China is saving up its own huge coal deposits in anticipation of future isolation attempts by the United States, and is using Australia coal to also expand its apparently fairly successful energy programs to turn coal into oil. Australian coal may sound expensive, but its cheap if you can turn it into oil, particularly when oil is likely to reach $100 per barrel, or more, in the next two years.

Every action of this kind - selling uranium to India - carries a larger, long-term cost. But don't expect the Howard government to lay out all the options and information so Australians can decide what is in their best interest. The Howard government will keep insisting that everything it does is in "our national interest". But its definition of "national interest" differs greatly from what most Australians would assume it means.

Powerful New Asia-Pacific Axis Gathers Pace : Australia-India-Japan-USA Looks At New Alliance To "Contain" China

Nuclear Deal With India Met With Skepticism In Washington

The Abuse Of Realism : Australia In The Pacific, "National Interest" Above Regional Stability

Containing China : Australia And Japan To Join US Missile Shield, As Part Of New Asia Pacific Alliance

In Anticipation Of US Led Asia-Pacific Axis, Japan Re-Arms, Prepares For Future Wars

Kerry Packer's House Of Hookers Still Holds Dangerous Secrets

What Journalist Will Be Brave Enough To Reveal The Politicians And Business Leaders Who Accepted Packer's Sex Bribes And Corruption?

By Darryl Mason

In our story yesterday - Kerry Packer : King Of The Whores - we mentioned that journalist Paul Barry had faced legal threats over the inclusion, in his 1993 biography The Rise And Rise Of Kerry Packer, of key details about Kerry Packer's involvement with prostitutes, and the bordellos he set up for the pleasure of himself, his mates, Australian politicians and key business leaders in Barry's earlier version of the book The Rise And Rise Of Kerry Packer.

Barry has now explained all this in greater detail in a remarkable interview.

The immensely sad story of Carol Lopes, the woman Packer used to recruit his hookers, is filled out by Barry. And points to the ABC for not burying the lead.

Media magnate Kerry Packer used paid sex to advance his business and political interests, an expanded edition of his biography has revealed.

The revised edition of The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer says the former PBL boss had a long-term mistress who supplied him with prostitutes and effectively ran a brothel for him and selected friends.

Mr Packer gave her a house and paid her regularly. He put her in a Los Angeles business but after it went bust, their contact stopped.

"She felt that she was being punished for that and she couldn't see Packer thereafter, she couldn't get through to him," Mr Barry said.

"She would dress up and go down to Consolidated Press and sit in the foyer, trying to see him, and she would be ushered away.

"She would try to ring him and she would write to him, and she would sit outside his house. She wasn't able to see him.

Barry denies it is cowardly of him to release the story after Mr Packer's death.

"I think you would have been suicidal to write something like this about Kerry Packer while he was alive," he said.

"I think he was personally quite a frightening man, anyway. He was rich enough to keep you in court for evermore, even if he didn't have a case against you.

"He had been very aggressive in pursuing legal action against journalists. He would sue them personally to make sure their own assets were at risk.

"I think it would have been legally extraordinarily unwise to publish this while he was alive."

The author says he left the stories out the original edition because he feared he would be sued for defamation.

"...the stuff that we really baulked at is the personal stuff, even though it involved allegations about a brothel being run for him and paying off business and political mates.

" ... when you've got a very rich and powerful man who has a lot of dealings with government and with politicians, who is running or causing to be run a brothel or a bordello to reward people he does business with or can have favours from, I think that's absolutely in the public interest to know about that. I think the public has a right to know about it."

So are Australians really that interested in finding out which particular politicians and business leaders frequented Kerry Packer's bordellos? Do they really want to know such details?

In short, is there still life to be found in this story for investigative journalists, seeing as Barry refused to name the politicians involved in his biography?

To gauge the level of interest from Australians in this story, here's three screenshots taken after the Packer's Bordellos story had been online for almost 24 hours.

From the News Limited homepage (the central hub site for all of Rupert Murdoch's Australian city daily, rural and suburban online newspapers) :




From the Sydney Morning Herald :




From the Melbourne Age :



It's worth noting that this is one of the few occasions where a story about a dead Australian businessman has beaten stories about American celebrities, or cute animals, or violent murders, to the top of the 'Most Popular Stories' rankings.

More than a million Australians, a massive slab on the Australian online news readership, accessed this within hours of it being published. Millions more read about in newspapers across the country, and heard it reported on radio.

Australians clearly want to know more, and it would not be presumptuous to say that they want to know who the politicians and business leaders are who were bribed, or repaid for favours, with free visits to Kerry Packer's bordellos full of very expensive prostitutes and escorts.

But will Australian journalists dare to dig deep and crack the rest of this story? Will they find out who these politicians and business leaders were, and what they did for Kerry Packer that earned them such generosity?

We'll hazard a guess :

No. Not a fucking chance in hell.

Some secrets are not worth discovering for those who dare to dig too deep, and go so far as to name names. Some closets are too full of skeletons to even dare to think about opening. You might get a bone in the eye.

Many prominent Australian journalists and senior ranking politicians will rip and tear each other to shreds in public, and in private, but they still have boundaries they will not cross. Even when it involves the use of prostitutes for bribery and to repay favours that have led to massive wealth gathering.

Hopefully in a few weeks, or months, we can update on this story here and highlight some excellent mainstream media investigative journalism that has told Australians which politicians allowed themselves to be bribed and corrupted by Kerry Packer, but we seriously doubt it.

Too many people, in politics and in the media, have shared secrets they never want revealed.

And once those kinds of tidal waves start hitting the beach, lots of people end up getting swept away.

Kerry Packer : King Of The Whores

Kerry Packer : King Of The Whores

By Darryl Mason

So what does SONAP means?

Sex Only, No Appearances in Public.

Why does it matter? Read on.

Money can't buy you love, but it can buy you the influence of politicians, if you're prepared to lay out tens of thousands of dollars to import the finest prostitutes in the world to your private bordello.

Just ask Kerry Packer. Well, you can't of course, he's dead, but you could ask the politicians who were pleasured at his private bordello. If you knew who they were. You probably won't find out who they were, either, of course, until after they're dead.

This story discusses new information in the updated and rather extraordinary Paul Barry biography, The Rise And Rise Of Kerry Packer. One particular, and integral, story from Packer's life that was kept out earlier editions of the book concerns the media magnate's mistress, Carol Lopes. One of Packer's many mistresses.

Lopes' tale is a tragic one. She told her friends she was a SONAP. She was there for Sex Only, with No Appearances in Public. No doubt, Lopes lived a life of luxury, but there was enough sadness to drive her to thoughts of suicide. She tried to end her life at least three times during their years together. When Kerry Packer finally abandoned her, and locked her completely out of his life, she killed herself :

Packer put (Lopes) up in lavish apartments in Bellevue Hill, near his family residence, and she enjoyed brief public fame as a late-night B-grade movie hostess on Packer's Nine television network.

After their affair ended in the early 1980s Lopes began organising for Packer private bordellos each summer in expensive and secluded rented houses in Palm Beach.

Lopes travelled to New York, London and South America to find intelligent, well-educated and beautiful women who were paid about $10,000 a week at the bordello, the biography says.

Barry writes: "Carol confided to friends that Kerry ran this private bordello to thank men who had done him a good turn." He says politicians and business people attended the bordellos, but does not name any.

Packer supported Lopes financially until the late 1980s. When he cut off, she tried to kill herself three times. In 1991, she managed to carry through with her threat to take her own life.

She left a 16 page suicide note to Packer. Apparently it's still on file with the NSW coroner's office, but its contents have never been released.

But another letter Lopes left has been made public :

"Kerry Packer is the only family I know [Lopes had been raised by foster parents]. He has taken care of me for 12 years. I have been denied access to this man. For what reason, I don't understand. He is not aware of how distressed I am … I have no alternative but to end my life."

Barry's book reveals Kerry Packer spent a fortune on Lopes and a long stream of mistresses, while penny-pinching from his staff at Channel Nine and the employees of his racks of magazines. Staff were told to buy cheaper coffee for the canteen, while the mistresses got apartments and Packer blew tens of millions of dollars in Las Vegas casinos.

While his tabloid magazines raged and hissed over the slightest indiscretion by Australian actors and rock stars, and regularly sent photographers to destroy the lives of any who dared to have an affair (all the while generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for his empire), the details of Kerry Packer's stable of mistresses and his bordello for politicians and business leaders were kept under wraps until after his death. And any journalist, like Paul Barry, who even appeared to be digging too deep were threatened with legal action.

Most Australians were unaware that Packer even had one mistress, let alone many, and Packer's Hooker Palace was one of the best kept secrets of Australia's media, politics and business elite for more than a decade. Many of them knew about it of course, many of them frequented the bordello(s), but they never talked about. At least, they didn't talk about it outside of their own insulated little circles.

All the while Packer kept his bordello, and his stable of mistresses, his media empire gently portrayed him as a pillar of society and politicians lined up to praise him. The outpouring of emotion from the upper ranks of Australian politics and business at Packer's funeral can now be viewed as a mix of genuine grief and utter relief. Many secrets died with Packer, and once in the ground, Kerry Packer at least would never be able to tell tales on those who frequented his menagerie of whores.

How could such incredible secrets stay secret for so long? It certainly makes you wonder what sort of information, or images, were collected in that bordello to keep so many politicians and power brokers firmly in line and consistently under Kerry Packer's control.

Paul Barry's The Rise And Rise Of Kerry Packer is a remarkable book, if only for how much you can learn about the business and social worlds that Packer moved through, and the scandals he kept hidden by his power and money for so long.

Along with Neil Chenoweth's Packer's Lunch, you can discover some of the details of the very private worlds in which Australia's media, business and political elite existed through the 1980s and 1990s. No doubt, some of the same players in the books are still living lives not altogether different from those days, but with Kerry Packer dead, the lifestyle are presumably far more subdued.

Of course, as Rene Rivkin died knowing, the full story was/is even more debauched and shocking than either these two books will tell you. But they come close. As close as we're allowed to get to knowing what goes on behind the headlines, inside the boardrooms and beneath the sheets of the bordellos frequented by Australia's mega-rich and ultra-powerful.

Don't worry, they're not laughing at you.

They don't even know you exist.

The Spin Is In : Voters "Bored To Sobs" With Howard

After taking a Bush-length European holiday, Andrew Bolt is home and dipping straight back into his stale old bag of tricks - projecting misinformation, twisting the truth and trying to ram obvious falsities into the national debate about why voters have turned so strongly against prime minister John Howard.

Today Bolt claims :

...voters seem bored to sobs by Howard after 11 years...

Clearly Bolt hasn't been keeping up with the polls or the media coverage of those results while he's been jaunting through those European countries he used to revile for being so anti-American and full of Bush haters.

Australian voters aren't going to vote Howard out because they're "bored to sobs."

The majority of Australians have clearly and repeatedly stated they don't believe Howard on climate change, on the Iraq War, on interest rates and are furious over the often dire changes to their working lives, and their pay packets, that Howard's WorkChoices have wrought.

"Bored"? Anything but. Voters are energised, engaged, and, for now, are enthusiastically reacting to the day when John Howard and the coalition government no longer are in control of the country and their lives.

And then there's this extremely creepy thought bubble from Bolt :

...something might yet turn up that will make us appreciate anew his vast experience and steadiness under fire....

Even if there were to be another terrorist attack, God forbid, the public is now so cynical it’s as likely to blame Howard for provoking it as it is to admire his firmness in handling it.

Another terrorist attack? We haven't had a first 'War on Terror'-era attack in Australia yet.

Do Howard-huggers like Bolt sit around contemplating the benefits of a terrorist attack in Australia for the government's re-election chances? Anticipating the opportunity for Howard to showcase his leadership skills in the wake of such horror? It sure sounds like it. Absolutely disgusting.

But be under no illusions that the Australian public is simply "bored to sobs" with Howard.

The 'Letter To The Prime Minister' page we highlighted and excerpted from here will give you hundreds of reasons why the Australian public will vote Howard out of office. Few of those reasons have to do with people being "bored".

In saying that the Australian public are simply "bored to sobs" with Howard and that "seems" to be the main reason they will vote him out of office is to all but declare that Australians are stupid.

Or at least simple-minded. That they are not politically aware, or keeping track and score of the issues where John Howard has lied and been dishonest, the numerous 2004 election promises he has failed to deliver on, and the endless storm of controversies that have swirled around the prime minister ever since he decided to join Bush Co. in the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq in mid-2002.

"Bored to sobs"? Yeah, right. Australians are more likely to vote against John Howard come election time because they feel he is "desperate", "old" and "sneaky".


From The People Of Australia To The Prime Minister : Dear Johnny, It's Time To Go

Howard's Claim That Australian Families "Have Never Had It So Good" Will Haunt Him All The Way To The Election

Haneef Contacts Lawyer To Free Police Of Allegation They Wrote 'Incriminating' Names In His Diary

UPDATE : AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty now claims police did not write anything in Dr Mohamed Haneef's diary. It was a duplicate diary, or something...wait, it now appears that Dr Haneef himself contacted his lawyer to tell him that the story of the police writing names in his diary was not true. The police wrote names on a piece of paper and showed them to him, according to this story.

Keelty says, wait for the case to go before the courts. And then what? Find out the entire case against Haneef was worthless? The most likely scenario now appears to be that the charge of "supporting a terrorist group", a group that doesn't appear to actually exist in the UK, will be dropped and he'll be deported. Or he willingly flee Australia.

The Haneef fiasco is receiving blanket media coverage in India, soaking up front pages, editorials and letters to the editor. A friend writes from India that Australia, its police and the Howard government are disparaged nightly on the news and current affairs shows. The Greens, apparently, are being seen as the action makers in trying to get Haneef released.

An international 'Free Haneef' campaign also appears to be gathering steam.

All in all a very poor outing for first major use of the updated 2004 anti-terror laws. While talk back radio and online public comment has a few "deport the terrorist" types, the vast majority of Australians contributing their opinions to the public debate seem pretty annoyed, disgusted and ashamed at how Dr Haneef has been treated, how the AFP have conducted their investigation and how some in the media have frenzied in their coverage.

PREVIOUSLY : Is the case against Dr Haneef really so pissweak that federal police officers have to try and fake evidence?

...investigating AFP officers wrote the names of overseas terror suspects in Dr Haneef's personal diary, only to later grill him during an interrogation over whether he had written the potentially incriminating notes.

Apparently, it was all just "a mistake".

Thank God for that. Otherwise you might be led to believe that something absolutely dodgy has been going on, what with all the 'leaks' claiming that Haneef was more evil than previously speculated and was somehow, once more allegedly, involved in plotting terror attacks in Queensland.

The Courier Mail reported on Sunday :

Police are investigating whether detained doctor Mohamed Haneef was part of a planned terrorist attack on a landmark building at the Gold Coast.

Australian Federal Police are examining images of the building and its foundations found among documents and photographs seized in a police raid on the doctor's Southport unit three weeks ago.

The AFP inquiry is looking at documents referring to destroying structures discovered in the raid, law enforcement sources said.

Within hours the story had been exposed as complete twaddle, by none other than the head of the Australian Federal Police, Mick Keelty.

Still no word yet on where the Courier Mail got its information, or even if the source was valid, and the editor has published no apology for being involved in yet another smear campaign against Haneef.

Presumably the bullshit story came from the police, otherwise why would Mick Keelty decide he needed to all but apologise to Haneef's lawyers for such an allegation becoming public?

...Mr Keelty issued a statement describing as "inaccurate" reports police were investigating a local terror plot after discovering images of the Q1 building in Dr Haneef's Gold Coast unit.

"We will be taking the extraordinary step of contacting Dr Haneef's lawyer to correct the record," Mr Keelty said.

David Marr :

Crooks are not caught by backyard gossip and idiotic speculation but by bringing logic to bear on facts.

Was that tiny weapon of mass destruction - Haneef's SIM card - found at the scene of the crime in Glasgow? No. Perhaps the overcoat he left also with his cousin turned up in the blazing Jeep Cherokee driven into the airport terminal? Apparently not. Was he roaming Surfers Paradise looking for a target to destroy? Not according to the police.

It seems we're just where we were last Friday: the public case against Haneef has entirely collapsed.

Mick Keelty back on July 3, when talk radio and online news page comments were busy spreading the myth that Haneef may have tried to detonate the London car bombs by mobile phone calls from Queensland :

...we should be cautious here that Dr Haneef may have done nothing wrong and may, at the end of the day, be free to go.

Keelty was insisting on July 20 that the police case against Dr Haneef had not been damaged by the near endless stream of controversies, foul-ups, leaks and mismanagement of the investigations.

After another weekend of false stories and allegations being leaked to the media, by "law enforcement sources", and yet more mopping up by Mick Keelty, you have to wonder whether he still believes there is still a case worth pursuing against Dr Haneef at all.

British police still haven't named or even confirmed the existence of "the terrorist group" that Haneef is being accused of supporting.

The Haneef tale has become a major story across the world, particularly in India, the UK and across South East Asia, but not because of the charges against Haneef, but for the endless series of screw-ups and controversies surrounding the federal prosecution's increasingly hole-ridden case.

As the Calcutta Telegraph writes in this lead :

Critical information used to brand Mohammed Haneef a terrorist and condemn him to solitary confinement might not be true...

Somewhere in Pakistan, the leaders of Al Qaeda are laughing themselves stupid. They barely have to even try anymore to send a nation and its federal law enforcement officers into a state of confusion, panic and chaos. We are quite capable of doing all that to ourselves.

Lawyer : Government Is Trying Haneef By Media

Prosecution May Have Misled Court

No Comment From Ruddock On Haneef 'Plot'

Australian Federal Police Under Fire As Haneef Case Unravels

Australian Authorities Flayed For 'Sloppy' Investigations