Bargain Basement Bush



Elton John charges more for floor seats, and Elton doesn't give you a meal :

Celebrity agent Max Markson plans to bring former US president George Bush to Australia on a $1000-a-head speaking tour next year.

"I was on a cruise in the Caribbean the day after President [Barack] Obama was sworn in and I received an email asking if I could arrange for president Bush to come out," Mr Markson said.

The day after Obama was sworn in, Bush was ready to start hoiking his blood-caked wares to punters in Australia.

Bush is desperately trying to raise about $US500 million for his presidential library. Not a lot of those who promised him years back, "Yeah, sure, Mr President, I'll throw in $50 million for your book place, sure, now how many missiles do you want to buy?" haven't come up with the money he needs. And he'll be lucky to get even a few hundred grand for his memoirs.

At least he'll find enough punters in Australia to cash him up enough to fit out his library.

A smaller library.

Maybe a mobile library....

They won't be shutting down the streets of Sydney and running kilometres of steel fencing through the heart of the city and the Botanical Gardens this time when Bush visits.

A Look Back At APEC : The "Violent Riots" That Didn't Happen



Something was going to happen during the APEC conference in Sydney, one year ago next week. The police were convinced that protests were going to turn into bloodbaths of frenzied rioting and looting, they said as much in press conferences during a month of increasingly crazed claims, leading up to APEC, of what they insisted was absolutely going to happen.

But nothing much happened at all. There was violence. But it came from the police.

There was a lot of police, and not much for them to do, besides stand in long lines and tell old people they couldn't cross a city street and would have to walk all the way across Hyde Park to get to where they wanted to be, which was right there, on the other side of the street.

There was a ski-masked collection of supposed 'National Anarchists', who didn't seem to grasp the inherent contradiction in their very name. The media grew impatient waiting for them to senselessly kick in the windows of the closest fast food or coffee franchise, but a motley crew of anti-Bush protesters boxed them in, while grisled old communists mocked them mercilessly. I'll come back to all that later in the week, and do some retro on the stories of that month.

But for now, to celebrate the one year anniversary of the $300 million APEC : This Is What Your City Would Look Like If You Were Living In A Police State, some ultra-security porn :























The nozzles they are holding are for chemical weapons

All images by Darryl Mason

Flashback : Police On Use Of Brutal Tactics During APEC : "That's The Way We Do Business Now."

Police Declared Anti-Bush Marches Would Be "Full Scale Riots", Four Days Before They Were Held

If The Threat Of 'Terror' To Australia Is So Great, Why Is Howard's Security So Weak?

I was photographing the security fence cutting through the Botanical Gardens, during the APEC summit, when an American jogger walked up and asked what I was doing. I showed him the camera, and some of the images, and told him it was such an amazing and weird site to see that I had to get photos.

"It's like a piece of modern art," I said, and the American laughed. "Yeah, ugly as hell."

I asked him if he was a Bush secret service agent, on a break, a question he ignored completely. He then asked if John Howard went for a walk every morning along the foreshore of the harbour, like he had seen on the news.

Every morning he's in Sydney, I said. The American nodded and snorted a laugh, before saying something along the lines of "He's not worried about his security then?"

It's a question worth considering. No doubt John Howard insists on a low key security presence, so passers-by are able to say hello and shake his hand. He clearly enjoys the contact with the people, and it looks good on TV as well.

But if the threat of terrorism to Australia is so great, so real, and so pending, you also have to ask why it is that any terrorist's presumed number one target leaves himself wide open, every morning on his walk, and at almost every speech and public appearance?

All of this was sparked by the incident today, where a man armed with a pooper scooper tried to "rush" the prime minister during a speech. The man was holding the pooper scooper, he said, because he wanted to clean up Howard's smelly trail of non-core promises that he's left in his wake :

A protester carrying a doo-doo collector surged towards the prime minister, getting to within three metres of him as the PM took the stage.

The man - wearing a badge marked Ken Franklin but later identified as education union official Ken Case - was tackled by security and thrown out of the Convention Centre, before explaining he had been collecting Mr Howard's non core promises.

And a long and festy trail of broken promises it is indeed.

If Howard's lax security is anything to go by, perhaps the threat of terrorism is not quite as intense as all those evening TV ads and intrusive airport security checks might lead you to believe it is.

If the prime minister, a prime mover in the horrific War On Iraq, can leave himself so wide open to protesters and possible snipers every morning and every afternoon, what the hell are the rest of plebs supposed to be afraid of?

Is Howard Delaying Election In Anticipation Of An Explosive 'Event'?

As we mentioned here, there is a growing paranoia amongst the Australian people, and some quarters of the media, that prime minister John Howard is holding off announcing the date of the federal election in anticipation of a Big Event that might turn the tide against a humiliating defeat at the polls.

The short version of this suspicion is 'Howard Needs Terror'. Murdoch journalist Andrew Bolt was probably the first to clearly state that a terror attack in Australia could be of great benefit to John Howard. Back in July, Bolt dreamily fantasised about how :

"...something might yet turn up that will make us appreciate anew his vast experience and steadiness under fire...if there were to be another terrorist attack...(we could) admire his firmness in handling it."

The 'Big Event' scenario popped up again last night in a discussion on Lateline. The interviewee is Michael Costello, a columnist with Murdoch's The Australian newspaper :

Costello : In 2001, events were absolutely crucial. Not so much Tampa as people think, but what was absolutely crucial was out of the blue, 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan. That totally turned things round and it's worth remembering that even so, with all that going for them, the Government only just got across the line, 51-49.

Q: So the Government's hanging out waiting for a disaster?

Costello : No, no, I'm just saying events can happen.

If President Bush has already made his decision that the US and Israel will go to War On Iran before Christmas, you can rest assured that he has already told his good mate John Howard about his plans. Hundreds of Australian troops in the south of Iraq would likely become targets for retaliatory strikes or terror hits by Iran, or the Shiite militias, so Howard would need to get them out of the way. Hopefully.

If terror threats elevate as polling day grows near, you can expect to see the 'Steel Wall' security fencing used during the APEC conference back on the streets of Sydney. The government has a three year lease on the five kilometres of ten foot high security fencing. It's being stored in Darling Harbour, only minutes out of the city centre, along with dozens of the white mobile 'prison' buses that were used to block off entire streets during the anti-Bush protests a few weeks back.

If you were being funneled through gates in that fencing, lined with police, to cast your vote on election day, would you be more likely to vote for Howard or Ruddley-Do-Right?

Exactly.

Sydney's Promised "Violent Riot" Protest Descends Into Shocking Peace


An eight year old waves at the massed ranks of the riot squad, many of whom ended up laughing at the stupidity of being deployed in total readiness mode, when there was clearly no trouble to be found, or any violence that needed to be dealt with.


Thousands of people marched through the streets of Sydney today, and nobody died. No buildings were stormed, no shops were smashed up and no police cars were burned.

So many of the hundreds of journalists and photographers who turned up to witness the "scenes of carnage", including Channel Nine's Mike Munro, seemed so very, very disappointed that the peaceful protest ended up being so...peaceful.

Aside from those arrested for swearing, and nudity, and the one idiot who attacked two police officers, the much promoted "anarchy in the streets of Sydney" was a case of wishful thinking for the anti-protest freedom haters of Australian politics and the mainstream media.

After weeks of nervous politician, police and pundits howling about the horrors and spectacular violence that could only follow when Sydneysiders dared to stage a march in the streets of their city at the same time world leaders were meeting at the APEC summit, the protest went off with only a handful of arrests, many of them for minor infractions.

There was easily 10,000 people, far more than the standard police estimate that always slashes the true figure of protest turnouts by two-thirds.

There were about a dozen face-masked anarchists ready to give police a reason to crack heads, and unleash the bone breaking debut of the absurdly expensive water cannon truck, but the NeoNazi anarchists were quickly surrounded and held in place by a number of protesters calling themselves "peace police."

We'll have a special report, with plenty of photos, on the confrontation between anarchists and peaceful protesters tomorrow.

There were hardly any ferals or crusty dread-head Lefties to be seen at the protest, shattering the pathetic cliches spouted by some Murdoch journalists that such protests are only ever populated by minorities. Lefty, feral minorities.

The 10,000 who marched today came from all walks of Australian life and were united in their opposition to the Iraq War, to rich nations refusing to fight climate change and to workers rights being stripped away under the Howard government's workplace 'revolution'.

There were thousands of protesters aged 45 years or older. Hundreds of families, many with young children, came along, defying police warnings to stay away because "your safety cannot be guaranteed.

There were die-hard unionists and angry conservative Liberals from Sydney's north shore, who one voted for John Howard, and now want nothing more than for him to be gone from their lives. There were students and teachers and lawyers and labourers and taxi drivers and bus drivers and plumbers and carpenters and hookers and small business owners and council workers and delighted tourists, who all joined together for a party in Hyde Park following the virtually incident-free protest.

Cafes and shops in the city centre that have suffered crippling 50-80% down turns in business thanks to APEC ended up having a boom day, and many were very happy that the protesters were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on food and drinks while they were in the city today.

Many protesters joked and laughed with police, who were bored out of their minds standing around with nothing to do for four or five hours. Police posed for pictures with tourists and children and explained their new riot gear to the curious.

The disappointment shown by most even television news reports that the protests didn't match up to the overblown predictions of police spokesmen, the NSW premier, the prime minister and a fleet of mostly Murdoch media opinionists was glaring, and obscene.

White House On The Chaser's Breaching Of Bush Security - 'We Are Not Amused'

While this story provides only the scantest of detail about the White House reaction to The Chaser's major breach of Australian police and American secret service security around President Bush's hotel, a Washington friend e-mailed to say that "the talk" over there in the corridors and coffee shops wasn't about whether or not the prank was funny, but was all about how in the hell Bush's SS team could have screwed up so monumentally.

When it comes to the president's security detail, "blaming the locals" just doesn't cut it.

The main and most obvious concern about the security breach being, "What if it wasn't a few cars full of comedians? What if it was three cars full of fertilizer, ammonia and a half a ton of nails and bolts?"

Here's the only comment so far from the White House :

Talk to the secret service.

Uh oh.

Here's White House spokesperson Dana Perino on the ultra-security caging Sydney :

“It’s unfortunate that security climates were as such, but, as soon as we get out of town, then Sydney will return to normal, hopefully,” Perino said.

Hopefully?


The Chaser have now joined the growing blacklist of media persons and organisations distributed by the Howard government to police and security personnel.

'Canadian' Motorcade Carrying Osama Bin Laden Enters Sydney's Ultra Security Zone, Stops Near Bush Hotel

Stars, Crew Members Of Comedy Show Detained By Police

Fake Beard Confiscated



UPDATE : The Chaser team has issued a statement claiming they were given permission by police to drive into the restricted security zone near President Bush's Sydney hotel, where they were then arrested. Interesting.


The stars of the satirical sketch comedy show The Chaser promised they would deliver something "extreme" during the week long Sydney lockdown for the APEC summit of world leaders.

And they've pulled off a stunning breach of security, driving a three car, fake Canadian motorcade close within 30 feet of President Bush's hotel before being pulled over police.

When the motorcade stopped, a cast member jumped out, dressed as Osama Bin Laden. His beard was confiscated by police. Detectives and police were seen chatting and laughing with members of The Chaser after the arrests.

11 crew members and two stars of The Chaser are now being held by police.

If police are prepared to use the full force of the law against the comedy team for purposely breaching the ultra-security zone, inside the now notorious Sydney Cage, they could find themselves in some very deep, very serious shit.

UPDATE : The 11 cast and crew members of The Chaser were questioned and interrogated by police for eight hours before being charged and bailed.

Police were granted a set of new laws for APEC that allow them to control the movement of people across the city. The Chaser team have been charged under one of those new laws :

... entering a restricted area without justification.

But they had justification. They needed to pull off a very funny stunt for their television show, to cheer up a few million Australians.

The maximum jail time for "entering a restricted area without justification" is SIX MONTHS.

This is one of the numerous new laws police are using to control the anti-Bush protests expected to draw tens of thousands of people to Sydney on Saturday.


Most of the rest of Sydney will bust a gut and give a cheer for The Chaser for bringing some comedy relief and a good laugh to the miserable, repressive atmosphere forced on us by the blocked roads, blocked footpaths, snipers leaning out of hovering helicopters and the endless violations of privacy thousands of workers in the city are being subjected to on a daily basis, with demands to see ID, physical searches in city streets and briefcases and handbags opened and emptied.

While the police are hassling people trying to get to work, or to lunch, or get back to the office, a motorcade cruises by carrying 'Osama Bin Laden'.

What else can you say but "Brilliant!":

Chaser crew members were initially detained in their cars while "police on the ground'' waited for special units to arrive, Taylor said.

Riot squad police formed a cordon around a Corrective Services truck where Morrow, Licciardello and about ten crew and extras were detained.

The Chaser convoy had been dressed up to look like an official Canadian motorcade, with Canadian flags attached to the cars and "Canada'' signs visible in the front windscreen.

"No particular reason we chose Canada," said Taylor. "We just thought they'd be a country who the cops wouldn't scrutinise too closely, and who feasibly would only have three cars in their motorcade - as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him."

The vehicles in the motorcade were hired - two were black "SUVs" imported from the US, and the other was a regular car.

Police superintendent Ken McKay confirmed the pair had been arrested for breaching the restricted zone.

The arrests had been made using new powers available under the APEC Act, he said.

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So much for all a couple of hundred million dollars worth of ultra-security to keep world leaders safe from terrorists.

A television comedy team easily got through the 'steel wall', they didn't even have to get out of their cars.

Meanwhile, confused Japanese tourists are told they can't take photos of Sydney landmarks because of "national security".

So if The Chaser can do it, why haven't all these terrorists, posing such dire terrorist threats that Sydney needs to become a mini-police state, tried giving something similar a shot?

Because the dire threat is all but non-existent in Australia?

Because the ultra-security clampdown is really more about teaching an entire city, filled with dissenters, what it's like to be stripped of their rights, privacy and dignity?

Or is it because when you give security and police forces hundreds of millions of dollars to make up their own laws and to fence off a huge section of one of the world's most famous cities, chaos and madness will always result?

The Chaser comedy team from ABC TV are about to become world famous thanks to this brilliant stunt. And police now find themselves in something of a fascinating quandary.

How they can bust these guys, using the full force of the law, when they simply showed how easy it is to get by all those layers of ultra-security and drive right up to President Bush's hotel?

Incredibly embarrassing, and incredibly funny. Can't wait to see the footage.

If we ever see the footage.


The Chaser's Brilliant 'Osama' Jape At APEC Hits Headlines All Over The World

Chaser Team Charged Under New APEC Laws To Restrict Free Movement Of People Across Sydney - Maximum Sentence : Six Months Jail

11 Crew Members Of Chaser Comedy Team Detained By Police Over APEC Stunt

Sydney : Inside 'The Cage'

"We're Like A Bunch Of Fucking Rats In A Maze!"


The 'steel wall' goes up only metres from the Sydney Opera House.

Report And Photos By Darryl Mason

On the outside of the 'steel wall' stretching five kilometres through the centre of Sydney, it looks like a fence. A three metre high, concrete reinforced fence.

But it's only once you're on the inside of the 'security zone' that you realise what it really is.

It's a cage. It's not the Great Wall Of Sydney, as the media were referring to it a few days ago.

It's The Sydney Cage.


One of The Cage entry points for vehicles in the heart of Sydney.

Inside The Cage yesterday afternoon, police, security guards and foreign secret service agents patrolled the streets, manned entry points along the 'steel wall' and videod every person who walked past the side and rear service entries to the Intercontinental Hotel, where President Bush is now staying.

The few pedestrians and tourists wandering around inside The Cage barely spoke. Heads down, shoulders slumped, people moved as fast as they could to get to where they were going. Entire cafes, normally crowded with tourists, sat empty, rows of chairs and tables bereft of customers. If you wanted coffee, or food, you waited until you were outside of The Cage to stop and get what you wanted.

Nobody wanted to linger in there. Inside The Cage was a Sydney I'd never seen before. Quiet, subdued, confused and nervous.

Inside The Cage, police can stop you, demand you show your ID, question you about your reasons for being inside the 'security zone' and ask to see photographs on your cell phone or digital camera.

The police 'can' do all these things, according to the media. We must get used to it.

But there isn't any law that allows the police to do any of these things.

The media has actively helped to create the mindset amongst Sydneysiders that they have to do what police and security guards demand of them, whether that be hand over their day planners and cell phones for investigation, or provide details of where they work.

But police don't have the law on their side. You can refuse all these police requests, and on Tuesday afternoon I witnessed a number of Sydneysiders, furious and frustrated at being forced to navigate a series of steel corridors just to cross the street, telling police they were not going to comply with requests for ID and personal details.

"You have no right to ask me for that information," said one elderly man, on Bridge Street. "Show me the law that says you have the right to question me like this."

The policeman couldn't, and he look embarrassed at being challenged.

At best, all the police can do inside The Cage is ask to you leave the area, and if you fail to do so, they are allowed to escort you out. If you resist, police are then able to arrest you on any number of minor offences related to resisting police directives.


More than 40 wireless 'emergency alert' speaker systems were installed throughout the city centre. They emit ear-piercing sirens and spoken alerts.

Before the arrival of President Bush, the general mood of the hundreds of security guards and police milling about at various check points and gate ways along the walls of The Cage was not tension, or paranoia, it was sheer and total boredom.

Inside, or outside, The Cage, there were no hordes of "violent protesters". No "roaming gangs" of anarchists and anti-capitalists as the media and John Howard had promised.

There were just an enormous number of security people standing around doing nothing, or chatting quietly with tourists.


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The only people I found in two hours of walking around inside The Cage who were close to anarchy were the owners and managers of retail shops, tourist outlets and restaurants and cafes.

Dozens of cafes and food courts and restaurants and bars had less than four or five customers, many others sat completely empty. Food outlets that struggle to break even at the best of times were selling off meals and containers of unsold food for a quarter of their normal prices. Literally forced to give away their products and produce by the presence of an economic summit that promoted free trade and free markets.

Nearly all the small business owners I spoke to inside The Cage, that rely on street traffic trade for their livelihoods, said their takings were down 60 to 80% because of the APEC summit, and the presence of the 'steel wall' security fence. They still have five more days of such economic ruin to endure before The Cage is taken down.

For many of these pro-capitalism entrepreneurs, the APEC summit has heralded a financial disaster that will take months to recover from. Staff have been laid off, deliveries from wholesalers cancelled, the financial damage seeps out from these small businesses across the sprawl of Sydney and its suburbs.

Tens of thousands of Sydney workers have been told they aren't needed to work this week in restaurants, cafes and retail outlets. For most of these casual workers, a day off means a loss of a day's wages. A week with no work means big financial trouble for minimum wage workers who are already struggling to get by.

None of the cafes, restaurants and retail outlets inside The Cage who are suffering from a massive loss of trade and income due solely to the APEC summit have been offered any kind of compensation by the state or federal government.


The three metre high 'steel wall' also, bizarrely, cuts through the heart of Sydney's Botanical Gardens. The local fauna were as confused as the office workers who usually eat their lunch in the park.

"I don't want to go in there," said one elderly German tourist to his family, at Circular Quay, as he balked at entering The Cage. "I don't like checkpoints and questions."

Neither do most Sydneysiders.

The crush of pedestrians on street corners at 5pm as people headed home from work was intense. Open gates to get out of The Cage were few and far between. You were forced to squeeze through small openings, people rushing to make buses and get home slammed into each other as the disorientating effects of so many 'steel walls' and checkpoints and gate ways caused confusion and anger.


Sydney, 3pm Tuesday - No cars, few pedestrians, stunned tourists, local businesses suffer 80% downturn in takings.

It's remarkable how easy it is to get disorientated trying to navigate your way through the maze of fences. Street names and routes through the city you've known and walked for decades become mysteries as you discover you can no longer duck down that back lane, or cross the street where you have thousands of times before. Everything looks different when there's a three metre high security fence blocking your view and looming over your head.

"We're like a bunch of fucking rats in a maze!", one business man cried out on a Bridge Street corner. "Look at this bullshit! We're rats in a goddamned cage!"

None of the dozens of people, all trying to squeeze through the one metre wide gap in the fence to get across the road, disagreed with him. Nobody laughed. Everybody just wanted to get out of there.

And then, on the other side The Cage, outside of that rat maze, the tension in the crowd visibly lifted. The pedestrians streaming towards relocated bus stops began talking, some were laughing, but everybody seemed far more relaxed.

It was like being free, for the first time that afternoon.


Bush Tells Australian Minister "We're Kicking Ass!" In Iraq

No Customs, No Traffic, No Red Lights - Airport To City Hotel In Less Than 15 Minutes - It's Good To Be The President

Pro-Bush Rally Granted Permission To March Outside President Bush's Hotel - Inside The Security Zone Cage

Head Of Riot Squad Says Anti-Bush Protesters Run The Risk Of Being "Injured" If They March In Sydney

Police Tell Supreme Court Anti-Bush Protesters Will Target War Memorial, Smash Shop Windows - But Judge Refuses to Believe Them

Supreme Court Hammers Police For Trying To Block Anti-Bush Protest In Sydney

The New South Wales Police copped an earful from a Supreme Court judge this morning over its attempts to stop a protest march through the streets of Sydney this Saturday, and adjourned further hearings until Wednesday night.

NSW Police were seeing a court order to keep protesters from gathering and marching through public areas outside of the fenced in security zone, but were criticized for not having requested such a court order last week.

The Stop Bush Coalition announced the September 8 march date months ago, and police were criticised in the court for not having made their application sooner.

From ABC News :

A lawyer for Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione says the 20,000 people expected to assemble through APEC's security zone will pose a risk.

The application for the court order caught the protest group off guard and its three lawyers want more time to prepare their case.

The court heard police had the chance to take the matter to court last week.

Police have been in discussion with the Stop Bush Coalition for weeks over their proposed protest route, which they object to because it includes the declared APEC zone of Martin Place.

In declared zones, officers have more powers to search people and move them on.

Earlier today, coalition spokesman Alex Bainbridge said Martin Place was not a restricted area and protesters should be allowed to be in the same space as the rest of the public.

"We are planning to enter the declared area, which is open to the public," he said.

"It's nowhere near the restricted area or any of the APEC venues. What we believe is that nowhere that is open to the public should have protests banned or free speech restricted."

The court clearly understands NSW Police were trying to railroad and pressure them into granting the order to effectively ban the march.

No dice. It is not illegal for crowds to gather and voice their dissent in a public area of Sydney.

Well, not yet anyway.

NSW Police will have to come up with something better, like actual provable threats posed by protesters, for the court to grant the order to legally stop the Saturday march.

Welcome To Sydney President Bush, But Watch Out For The Rocket Launchers

When Will The 'Security Threat' Related Curfews For Sydney Be Announced? Thursday? Or Friday?

The search for nine Army rocket launchers, stolen last year and allegedly sold on through a ring of organised crime members and religious extremists, goes on even today, as President Bush arrives in Australia.

Police and ASIO agents have reportedly spent many long nights digging up sections of national park near Sydney, searching for the missing rocket launchers, believed to have been hidden away inside lengths of PVC tubing, and then buried.

So far, all those night-time searches have turned up nothing.

It's easy to imagine the conference calls between the CIA, Bush's secret service detail, the Australian Federal Police and ASIO :

"Have you found those fucking rocket launchers yet."

"Err, no."

"WHY THE FUCK NOT?"

"Well, we're following some leads, and we believe they've been buried in a patch of land somewhere between Sydney and Wollongong, and we're very confident that..."

"The President of the United States is coming to Sydney and you've lost NINE FUCKING ROCKET LAUNCHERS! Find them!"

"Yeah, righto...(click)...bloody Seppos."


The Australian has a detailed story about the intensive, and sometimes bizarre, search for the missing rocket launchers :

The fact that there are nine rocket launchers believed to be in the vicinity of Sydney as a meeting of world leaders begins has meant in recent months this operation has become one of the highest priorities of ASIO.

It is one of the reasons Australian and US security advisers are insistent that protesters will be at least 300m from the President at all times.

Theoretically, the launchers can fire from that distance but an amateur would generally be able to fire them only 125m.

The most worrying aspect of the weapons is that they are concealable - when folded, they are about 67cm, which means they can fit into a backpack. They can be painted any colour to blend with carry bags.

The M-72 launchers are designed to carry warheads that can cut through metal with a small hole then explode. The warheads are designed for a "blast effect". They are often used in warfare to attack bunkers, as they cause maximum damage.

Despite all the claims by prime minister John Howard that "violent protesters" are the reason why the entire Sydney area of APEC conference centres and hotels are surrounded by a ten foot high, five kilometre long 'steel wall', it's clear that the missing rocket launchers are the most active, realistic and dire security threat facing President Bush while he's in town.

It has been occasionally mentioned in the media that the 'steel wall', reinforced by a few tons of concrete blocks every dozen metres, could stop car and truck bombs, it's clear once you've had a look at it that it has also been designed to stop rocket launchers.

Prime Minister Howard has worked hard to make sure that the unlikely threat of "violent protesters" fills news bulletins and newspaper front pages, but some in the media now know they've been conned, and distracted from the bigger, far more dramatic story.

The real story of APEC security threats is, of course, the Missing Rocket Launchers. And today, the media will begin making them the focus of their headlines.

They will make for some very wide-eyes amongst the APEC world leaders, delegates and international media when they pick up their morning newspapers outside their hotel room doors.


The question now is, when will some "new security threat" (which will not be revealed in the interests of national security) be announced, which will lead to the announcement that parts of the city will be put under curfew?

Thursday? Or Friday?

Under the raft of new laws NSW Police have been granted to deal with APEC security, we've been told they have the authority to declare entire blocks of Sydney completely off limits to non-APECers, under a dawn to dusk, or 24 hour long, curfew.

Back to back curfews may be announced due to "ongoing security threats" which would keep everyone but the APECers out of the key security zones for all of Saturday and Sunday.

A dawn to dusk curfew inside and surrounding the fenced off security zone would mean that anybody who doesn't posses APEC accreditation will not be allowed inside the 'steel wall' of Sydney, which takes in the conference centres and hotels where APEC leaders are staying and meeting.

Which means Stop Bush Coalition protesters could be stopped from attempting to march through parts of the city on Saturday.

And which would also mean a weekend long ban on any member of the public getting anywhere near the Opera House on Sunday night, where leaders and their partners will gather on a balcony overlooking Sydney Harbour for the biggest private fireworks show in Australia's history.


April 2007 : Army Captain And Army Officer Arrested For Stealing, Selling 10 Rocket Launchers - Army Captain Was Munitions Expert

January, 2007 : Stolen Army Rocket Launchers Allegedly Sold Onto Man Being Held On Terror Charges

December 2006 : Rocket Launchers Go Missing From Army Base, Intelligence Agencies Begin Hunt To Track Them Down

Police Claim Anti-Bush Marches Will Be "Full Scale Riots", Four Days Before They're Held

Police Attempt To Make All Protests In Sydney Illegal


The five kilometre long 'steel wall' cuts right through the heart of the Botanical Gardens - a beautiful harbourside park.


Go Here For A Special Report From Inside The Sydney Lockdown Zone - Inside The Great Sydney Cage - Photos And Observations


UPDATE : It appears anti-Bush protests planned for Saturday will now be completely locked out of the city centre, as NSW Police ramp up the hysteria about Sydneysiders exercising their democratic rights to free speech.

It's stomach-churning listening to all this bullshit filling every news break, while President Bush is widely praised for his "vision" and "resolve" on Iraq. Incredibly, while police are trying to make protests illegal in Sydney, Bush said during a press conference how disgusted he was by the suppression of pro-democracy activists in Burma, who are getting hammered for daring to march in the streets of their cities.

It's enough to melt your brain.

In the Supreme Court today, NSW Police appeared to be pushing for all protests during APEC to be made illegal, which means anybody who turns up to march or voice their dissent will be breaking the law, and as police have previously warned, "will be charged with the full force of the law". This may also include provisions under the extremist anti-terror laws that would make Hitler shake his head in disbelief.

But get this, a pro-Bush support group were granted permission to gather outside President Bush's Sydney hotel, inside the most extreme security zone ever forced onto the people of Sydney. Not only were the pro-Bush supporters allowed to gather, they were also allowed to use long poles to hoist their banners. Sticks, poles and pieces of plastic tubing are banned in the security zone, as police claim "violent protesters" will use them as weapons.

A news break just quoted one senior police officer as saying he is convinced that Saturday's anti-Bush rally will turn into "a full scale riot". Yet, nobody involved with any of the protests have said they will be using violence, and are actively discouraging anyone who wants to use violence from turning up on Saturday.

The police seem very sure that there will be violence at the Saturday marches.

Why would that be? The Stop Bush Coalition organising the main march on Saturday will be policing their own march, watching out for people trying to start trouble or encouraging violence. They are very well aware of the 'agent provocateurs' used by Canadian police recently.

We'll be covering the marches on this blog later in the week, and will keep you updated with the latest stories about Sydney's week as a police state, crippled by ultra-security.

Go Here For The Latest Stories



Previously...

Police overseeing the ultra-security state forced on the people of Sydney - so President Bush doesn't have to see potentially offensive hand-painted signs or hear protesters singing critical songs while holed up in his harbour-view hotel - have launched a legal challenge to effectively make anti-Bush protests illegal while the president is in town.

President Bush arrives in Sydney tonight, and the first anti-Bush protests will be held later today.

But on Saturday, September 8, thousands of protesters are expected to stage a march through the streets of Sydney. A march that the police minister and various police spokesmen claim will become "a flashpoint for violence".

But a key organiser of the 'Stop Bush Coaltion' rightly pointed out the only talk of violence occurring during such demonstrations is coming from prime minister John Howard, the police and ministers in the state and federal governments, along with their echo-friendly talkback radio allies and anti-democracy newspaper opionists.

Naturally, the Australian media, virtually across the spectrum, have repeatedly stated Howard's hallucinatory claim that the presence of President Bush is not the reason why Sydneysiders and tourists are being asked for their ID, searched, detained for questioning, forced to move through the city via security checkpoints and have a massive 'steel wall' dividing their city in half.

No, don't blame Bush, says Howard, on a daily basis, blame instead the threat posed by "violent protesters."

Observe :

"The reason that we have the security clampdown in Sydney, the reason why people are being inconvenienced, is because people in the past have practised and in the current environment are threatening violence," Mr Howard said.

"It's not the fault of the guests in our country, it's not the fault of the American President or the Chinese President or the Russian President, it's not the fault of the NSW Government or the Federal Government; it's the fault of people who threaten violence.

"It's got nothing to do with the motives and the behaviour of people who are coming here as our guests."

Howard is ranting like a loon. And Australians no longer believe his guff. They know very well why thousands will try and march through the streets of Sydney this weekend : President Bush. And China's president Hu. And some of the other Communists and fascist regime leaders who populate APEC.

What is even more curious, however, is that these "urban terrorists", as some media commentators have already begun to parrot, don't appear to actually exist. Or at least, they don't appear to exist in any noticeable number.

When the police released their 'hit list' of troublemakers they were warning to stay away from the city centre, there were less than 25 names. So much for the threat posed by hordes of "violent protesters."

But the media repeats Howard's absurd blame-claims without challenge or correction. Watch too much of the news during Sydney under APEC, and you begin feeling like the John Hurt character from V For Vendetta has shat inside your head.

Let's be very clear about this.

President Bush's 600-plus strong contingent of secret service, undercover intelligence agents and visible security guards are not overly concerned about the all but non-existent "violent protesters".

They're concerned about car and truck bombings, suicide attacks and those nine missing Army rocket launchers that ten months of intensive police searches have failed to locate.

The Australian and US military are co-operating in launching fully-armed jet fighter and helicopter gun ship patrols because they're worried about international or state-sponsored terrorists trying to kill President Bush, not because a dozen protesters might try and scale the 'steel wall' security fence, or wave giant puppets about.

Howard doesn't seem to understand that the vast majority of the public know he is speaking absolute twaddle, and are all too aware that he is actively participating in a massive anti-protest psychological operation. A psy-op aimed solely at scaring away the tens of thousands of people who wish to publicly march in Sydney's streets against the corpse-strewn foreign policies, and soon to be Australia-centric policies, of President George W. Bush.


The Stop Bush Coalition intends to stage its march on September 8 along three Sydney streets that will take the protesters through a section of the 'steel wall' security zone.

NSW Police have refused to grant the Stop Bush Coalition permission to march along this route, citing the potential of security-related threats to the 21 APEC world leaders who will be meeting at this time, more than a kilometre away from the controversial march route.

Despite the legal action by NSW Police, the Stop Bush Coalition said, "we are determined to go ahead."

If successful, the (NSW Police) application will effectively prevent protesters lawfully using city streets for the rally and march...

“We have put several route options to the police for the march and they have rejected all of them,” Mr Bainbridge said.

”We are determined to defend the right to protest.”

But there's some fabulous irony to the news that NSW Police are trying to make protests in Sydney illegal.

In Victoria, their fellow officers of the law, who are sick of crap pay and working conditions, are threatening to launch industrial action, strikes and...protests.

Yes, police protesting in the streets of a major Australia city.

The Stop Bush Coalition should do an amnesty/solidarity deal with the police union that if its members refrain from unnecessarily cracking heads in APEC Sydney this week, they'll throw their now high media profile behind helping police in their fight for a better pay deal.

Personally I think police, ambulance officers, firemen and emergency response workers should all be paid as much as your local state or federal politician, or at the minimum get a federal politicians' superannuation benefits, the very best of all super payments in the nation.

Police, firemen and ambulance drivers have appallingly high rates of PTSD, stress-related illness and fatigue driven burn-out, and most don't have many luxuries to look forward to when they reach retirement age. Unlike our PTSD-free politicians.

Anyone who has to endure the stress and horrors of dealing with alcohol-fueled domestic violence, car accident carnage, bush fires and all manner of Darwin Awards-worthy accidents should be looked after, in work and in retirement.

Masses of police recently marched in Brisbane for improved pay and working conditions. Thousands of interstate cops turned up in support of their Queensland friends and colleagues. Strangely there was little to no coverage of such a remarkable event on the national news.

So the police like to march and protest when the issues that draw them onto the streets are directly related to their working lives, and lifestyles.

But with the threat of the first police strike in eight decades looming in Victoria, and the likelihood of mass cop protests in the streets of Melbourne if they don't get what they want, will police now be seen and heard all over the news snapping off sharp warnings about the threat posed by "violent protesters"?

And if the police protests in Victoria get out of hand, who polices unruly, rioting cops?

The Army?

A Special Report, With Photos, From Inside The Ultra-Security Zone

Welcome To Sydney President Bush, But Watch Out For The Rocket Launchers

No Law Broken, But Tourists Are Questioned, Hassled By Police For Taking Photographs In Sydney

Australia's NeoCon Friendly Prime Minister Faces Election Pure Massacre

Dead Sydney - The Free Online Novel Of A Post-Bird Flu Pandemic City

Australians Like Americans, But Hate Bush, Just Like Americans

Greg Sheridan's Bizarre Pro-APEC Anti-Democracy Propaganda

From the Sunday Telegraph :

ALL this week and next weekend, Sydney will host the biggest and most important international meeting in the history of Australia.

The Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum will attract cabinet ministers and government leaders from 21 economies around the Asia Pacific.

There will inevitably be some traffic disruption in and around central Sydney, but it is truly in a noble cause.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, was right when he said that if there is any real disturbance, the people to blame for this are not the APEC delegates, but the violent demonstrators themselves.

It is a tragedy of modern democracies that violent extremists exploit their freedoms to try to shut down free discussion.

It is a bitter fruit of the anti-democratic, totalitarian, fascist, street-fighting qualities of modern demonstrators that, for international delegates, it can be easier to have a free discussion in Beijing than Sydney.

It would, of course, be madness for a proud, democratic nation like Australia to give in to the anti-democratic forces by not holding meetings such as APEC.

APEC provides an opportunity for leaders to hold private meetings, without all the pre-meeting negotiation involved in one leader visiting another's country.

At difficult times between the US and China, their presidents have been able to meet at APEC and often defuse the tensions between their nations.

APEC is wholly a good thing.

The demonstrators trying to wreck it are nuts.

95% of the commenters who responded to Sheridan's 'story' recognized it for the blatant anti-democratic, pro-fascist propaganda that it is. Most could scarcely believe such crap would be printed in an Australian newspaper.

Tourists Questioned By Police For Taking Photographs In Sydney

What Happened To "Not If, But When" Threat Of Terror Attacks?


Don't worry. Everything's okay. APEC will benefit Sydney and Australia's international reputation enormously. As long as the tourists stopped in the streets of Sydney and questioned by police for up to half an hour by a police squad, for simply taking photographs, don't go home telling tales of fear and paranoia and Sydney becoming a mini-police state.

Taking photos and using your video in Sydney isn't illegal. But your ID information will be run through police and immigration databases, just in case, if you get caught. Pre-crime is now a reality in Sydney, Australia :

German tourist Thomas Gannopp was among those stopped on Bridge Street and forced to delete images from his digital camera as police watched on.

Mr Gannopp said he was quizzed for close to 25 minutes with police wanting proof of his identification down to the exact number of his tourist visa before having him checked through the immigration department's computers.

"I didn't expect all of this just because I wanted to take a photograph of the fence," he said.

The fence. The precious 'steel wall' now cutting Sydney in half. The security fence originally designed and planned to stop terror attacks is now simply to keep the "ferals" away from the world leaders.

Of course, John Howard can't admit that Sydney is at a heightened risk of a terror attack because President Bush is in town because that would cause an association between Bush's foreign policy, supported by Howard, and the threat of terrorism.

The corporate media are allowed to photograph the security fence as much as they like. Photographs of the fence are all over online newspapers and every evening news bulletin had extensive footage filling their stories.

But if you're some homeless guy and you get caught using your camera phone inside the security zone, you may be taken away for further questioning.

A Melbourne documentary maker, Pip Starr, had the gall to shoot footage of the fence and wound up being questioned by police and federal agents for "more than an hour."

"Having police going through my personal diary just for filming on Sydney streets is pretty appalling," he said.

As the full measure of the chilling ultra-security now enveloping the streets of one of the most casual and laidback cities in the world clarifies in the collective mind of the Australian media, the tone changes dramatically.

The most conservative newspaper in Australia is now making reference to "Fortress Sydney" in its headlines and the security fence has become "the wall".

Wait until the first photographers and journalists caught up in protests get hit with pepper spray, water cannon bursts (it's like being smashed with a block of concrete wrapped in carpet) and loose some ankle flesh to police dogs.

As the chant goes, "The Whole World Is Watching."

The first APEC related arrests of protesters occurred in Newcastle, when twelve Greenpeace activists were detained and charged for painting an anti-coal exports slogan on the side of a ship.


UPDATE : As commenters below point out it was very, very strange to see Sydneysiders forced to walk through a surveillance checkpoint on the morning news.

And still no news on those missing rocket launchers. What happened to the threat of terrorism being the reason for the Steel Wall through the heart of Sydney? Howard, Rudd, Iemma, the police chiefs all blame the threat posed by "violent protests". So terrorism is no longer a threat to Sydney and to the world leaders gathering for APEC?


Protesters On Alert For Agent Provocateurs Aiming To Turn APEC Marches Into Riots

April 2007 : Army Captain And Army Officer Arrested For Stealing, Selling 10 Rocket Launchers - Army Captain Was Munitions Expert

January, 2007 : Stolen Army Rocket Launchers Allegedly Sold Onto Man Being Held On Terror Charges

December 2006 : Rocket Launchers Go Missing From Army Base, Intelligence Agencies Begin Hunt To Track Them Down

Sydney To Be Cut In Half By Ten Foot High, Five Kilometre Long 'Steel Wall'

Nine Army Rocket Launchers Still Missing As APEC Summit Begins In Sydney - President Bush To Arrive Tuesday

Frantic Scramble By Security Agencies To Protect Motorcades From Terror And Rocket Attacks

On Monday morning, the APEC summit will begin in Sydney. A five kilometre long 'steel wall' is now being constructed through the centre of the city, and 2500 police, the Australian military, dozens of security agencies and literally thousands of secret service agents from across the Asia-Pacific region are now preparing for the arrival of their leaders.

US President George W. Bush arrives early Tuesday morning, and a much greater, far more expansive security 'lockdown' than previously disclosed to the public is expected to be launched.

This is expected to include blanket mobile phone blackouts when the president is on the move, helicopter gunship escorts and the clearing of boats and cruisers from the harbour for two to five days. If credible terror or security threats are uncovered, all people without the mandatory APEC security clearances may be blocked from entering the fenced off 'security zone' encompassing the Opera House, numerous city hotels and a wealth of tourist attractions.

It would appear every precaution has been taken to keep potential terrorists, assassins or so-called "violent" protesters well away from the hotels and conference centres where the presidents and prime ministers of 21 nations, including Indonesia, China, the US and Russia will converge.

But after more than nine months of intensive searching, arrests, surveillance operations and raids, Australian Federal Police and the ASIO intelligence agency have reportedly still not located at least nine anti-tank rocket launchers stolen from an Army base late last year.

The rocket launchers, capable of destroying a tank from two hundred metres away, can be unpacked, ranged, fired and dumped back into the boot of a car within minutes.

A news report tonight claimed that the anti-tank rockets could rip through the side of a presidential limousine, but that seems a little hard to believe. President Bush's vehicles are supposed to be able to withstand mines and rocket attacks, and support vehicles are said to be equipped with anti-rocket technology and other munitions systems that have never been disclosed.

But despite all the precautions, President Bush, and numerous other world leaders, will still be exposed to potential attack from rocket launchers when they travel in heavily secured motorcades across Sydney and its suburbs, traveling to and from airports and through city streets at speeds most Sydneysiders, used to near day long gridlock, have only ever dreamed about.

Dozens of American, Chinese and Russian secret service and intelligence agents are believed to have been working in Sydney for weeks in preparation for the APEC summit, scouring all possible locations from where attacks by car bombers, or from rocket launchers, could be unleashed on motorcades.


story continues after....
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Go Here To Read The Latest News From 'The Last Days Of President Bush'

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story continues.....


According to news reports this evening, Australia intelligence agencies and the Australian Federal Police also fear that terrorists may choose the APEC week to attack a 'soft' target elsewhere in Sydney, or Australia, while vast police and military resources are tied up with APEC security arrangements.

More than 1500 international journalists and media representatives are flooding into Sydney to cover the APEC summit, where China is now expected to announce literally world-changing plans to tackle global warming.

If terrorists wanted to capture worldwide attention, security experts fear, next week will provide ample opportunities for maximum exposure.

Another reason why, in the age of the 'War on Terror', such mass gatherings of world leaders should be held away from large population centres.

Prime minister John Howard's decision to hold the APEC summit in the heart of Sydney, instead of in Canberra, or on one of the numerous tropical island resorts off the north coast of Australia, literally laid down the welcome mat for terrorists who wished to gain the attention of the world's media by killing civilians.

Yet John Howard would have us all believe that the greatest threat to the people of Sydney is posed by anti-war and anti-globalisation protesters.

You can imagine the scramble to find those rocket launchers is now unfolding at a fever pitch.

The APEC summit, and the presence of President Bush in town for four to five days, has made the people of Sydney sitting ducks for a terror attack.

Sydneysiders can take some comfort knowing that thousands of police, security guards and soldiers will be out in force to keep them safe.

We won't know, however, until next Sunday evening whether all of the ultra-security measures know being deployed across Sydney will have been enough.


April 2007 : Army Captain And Army Officer Arrested For Stealing, Selling 10 Rocket Launchers - Army Captain Was Munitions Expert

January, 2007 : Stolen Army Rocket Launchers Allegedly Sold Onto Man Being Held On Terror Charges

December 2006 : Rocket Launchers Go Missing From Army Base, Intelligence Agencies Begin Hunt To Track Them Down

Sydney To Be Cut In Half By Ten Foot High, Five Kilometre Long 'Steel Wall'

Protesters On Alert For Agent Provocateurs Aiming To Turn APEC Marches Into Riots

Sydneysiders Told To "Leave Town" During APEC Summit

Sydney Set To Become 'Mini-Police State'

Howard : Blame 'Violent' Protesters For Hardcore APEC Security

Zoo Animals To Be Relocated For Private Viewings By APECers

Harbour Fireworks, But Public Told To Stay Away

We actually thought it would be sometime late next week that the prime minister, John Howard, would begin blaming "violent protesters" for the increasingly draconian security locking up half of the centre of Sydney for more than seven days during the APEC summit.

But no, Howard's cut loose. Protesters, you see, can't be trusted to not become violent, even though dozens of protests have been held in Sydney since early 2003, drawing tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people to the city streets, with no violent incidents whatsoever.

But Howard insists, as though someone has given him a firm promise, the protests will be violent. Howard knows this already. Somehow. And that three metre high 'steel wall' carving five kilometres through the city's CBD and parklands are simply to keep out protesters.

What happened to the threat of terrorism?

Or the fact that reviled leaders like President Bush usually require such extreme levels of security before he can show his face in public?

According to Howard, the threat of terrorism no longer matters. It's the threat of protesters that everyone should be concerned about. Or something :

Prime Minister John Howard says violent protesters are to blame for the severe security measures in place for the APEC meeting in Sydney.

"If people didn't violently demonstrate, these precautions would not be necessary."

Howard is still trying to pretend that the hours of traffic jams experienced by Sydneysiders when Dick Cheney visited Sydney earlier in the year only occurred because of the non-existent threat posed by "violent protesters".

Everyone knows that the Harbour Bridge was shut down for more than 90 minutes, causing huge traffic jams, just so Dick Cheney could whip across the bridge to have a beer with Howard at the publicly owned house he has occupied at Kiribilli, on Sydney's north shore, for 11 years.


Liberals want the APEC protests banned from the streets of Sydney completely. They're not fascist pigs or anything, and they certainly don't want to deny people their democratic rights. Or so they say. They just want the protests to take place somewhere well away from the APEC summit :

The New South Wales Liberals say Sydney's Domain should be designated as an official protest zone to avoid traffic chaos during the September APEC meeting.

Liberal leader Barry O'Farrell said a designated zone would be the best solution for everyone, because street marches planned by protestors in the lead-up to and during APEC would cause chaos and confusion.

"People have a right to peaceful protest, but they don't have a licence to interfere with others trying to get on with their lives."

O'Farrell's argument should then apply equally to the world leaders descending on Sydney for the APEC summit. APEC leaders have the right to meet, but they don't have a licence to interfere with others trying to get on with their lives.

"A protest zone in the Domain, with facilities to allow media coverage of demonstrations, would balance the public interest and the right to protest," he said.

O'Farrell is talking about the absurd notion of installing 'free speech zones', to keep protesters who oppose war, violence, Communism, the crushing of human rights and censorship well away from those leaders of APEC nations that are guilty of some or all of the above.


Except for the political and business elite, Australians are not invited to take part in any of the functions surrounding APEC. All of which will ultimately cost Australian taxpayers more than $400 million.

But animals from Australia's Taronga Park Zoo are invited.

Well, not invited.

They've been drafted, and will be relocated for private viewings by the wives of world leaders :

A contingent of Aussie wildlife from Taronga Zoo will be taken to Garden Island for a private viewing by the spouses of world leaders attending next month's APEC summit in Sydney.

A huge APEC sign will be lit up on the Harbour Bridge for the duration of the APEC summit. On the final night, September 8, a lavish dinner and show will be held at the Opera House, complete with a huge fireworks display on the harbour.

But the public are not invited. In fact, APEC organisers have made of point of using the media to tell families to not bother coming to the harbour foreshore to try and see the fireworks.

You're not invited. The fireworks are not for you, even though you will be paying for them :

Tall ships also will grace the harbour for the display named "River of Fire" but organisers moved today to ensure that it was staged for VIP eyes only, citing the security crackdown.

"The fireworks are a very short part of the evening and I would not suggest that it's worthwhile for the public to try to view the display."

Ms Fulwood said the concert and fireworks were designed to "show our guests from the Asia-Pacific a celebration of a confident nation rejoicing and proud of a wealth of talented performers".

A confident nation whose officialdom is not so confident as to invite the public to join in the 'celebration of democracy' that APEC is supposed to signify.

Stay home, APEC organisers have told the public and watch it on television instead.

Throw another two or three million into the APEC money pit for that private party.

What an abominably shitty way to treat the very same people who will be the most inconvenienced by the APEC summit.


Police Tell School Students Planning To Protest During APEC : We Cannot Guarantee Your Safety

Sydney Jails Cleared To Make Room For Up To 500 APEC Protesters - Weeks Before The First Protest Is Held - How Do The Police Know They Will Need To Arrest Anybody?

APEC Protesters Should Be On The Alert For Agent Provocateurs In Their Midsts

Talk Back Host, And Close Friend Of Prime Minister, Wants Any And All APEC Marches Shut Down - Free Speech Not As Important As APEC

Eight Year Olds Subjected To APEC Security Checks - Have Your Photo ID Ready If You Want To Cross The Street