Steve Irwin Gets A Touching Campfire Goodbye

Steve Irwin spent thousands of nights of his life in the middle of the Australian bush, jungles, rainforests and deserts. When he wasn't tracking crocodiles and nocturnals by torchlight, he enjoyed sitting around a fire, chatting with his wife, his camera crew, his friends, or just listening to the sounds of the night wilderness.

So it's wonderfully fitting, then, that as part of the farewell for Steve, his family and friends gave him a send-off around a campfire.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

On Saturday, (Steve's wife and kids) were among a small group of family and friends who took part in a funeral in the grounds of Mr Irwin`s Australia Zoo.

Bob Irwin, the wildlife celebrity's father, told a media conference today that the intimate farewell "was held just like he would have wanted with everyone telling their favourite stories about him around a candlelit fire.

Soon after his death, the Irwin family turned down offers by the Queensland and Federal Governments for a state funeral, saying he had regarded himself as "just an ordinary bloke" who would not have wanted such a fuss being made.

A PETA spokesman was asked for his thoughts on Steve Irwin as a conservationist, and on the way he lost his life. Not much sympathy here :

“It comes as no shock at all that Steve Irwin should die provoking a dangerous animal....He made a career out of antagonizing frightened wild animals, which is a very dangerous message to send to kids.”

“If you compare him with a responsible conservationist like Jacques Cousteau, he looks like a cheap reality TV star.”

Cheap? Far from it.

Steve didn't blow his money staging demos and handing out leaflets to mostly disinterested people to promote his cause. He did something that obviously shocked PETA. He made his education of children to all things environmental FUN.

Yeah, PETA's idea of a "responsible conservationist" obviously doesn't include someone like Steve who spent millions of dollars buying up tens of thousands of acres of wilderness across Australia and the US, and a few Pacific Islands, to ensure vast pristine tracts of endangered animal environments will be protected forever.

Does that sound like a "responsible conservationist" to you? Hell, no!


Steve's sudden death has apparently shocked the hell out of the Jackass team, no strangers to throwing themselves in amongst the some of the most dangerous animals on the planet.

Here's Johnny Knoxville's reaction :

"God bless Steve Irwin. All the guys were really upset about that. We had so much respect and love for the guy.

"We were all talking about it and thought, 'If he's going to go it's the way he'd want to go'. He's got kids and that's horrible, but he was doing what he loved.

"I know it's cliche, but if there's any man who was doing what he loved it was Steve."

It ain't a cliche when it's that true.

One member of Jackass, Steve-O has been so shocked by the death of Irwin that he's thinking about throwing in his own blood-soaked encounters with some of the most dangerous animals on the planet :

"I think I'm generally going to close the book on wildlife encounters,"

Steve-O had a nasty brush with death recently when he offered himself up as 'human bait' to a Mako shark during the filming of a Jackass movie. The Mako nearly took his leg off. He managed to kick it away in time.

The 'Crocodile Hunter' Is Being Remembered, And Celebrated, Right Around The World

Steve Loved His Surfing - 250 Australian Surfers Give A Special Ocean Memorial 'Service' In His Honour

Steve Irwin To Be Replaced On Animal Planet By....Ted Nugent!

Six Australians To Be Shot On A Bali Beach

Indonesia's War On Terror Vs War On Drugs




8 TO 18 YEARS FOR BALI TERRORISTS

DEATH SENTENCE FOR DRUG COURIERS

By Darryl Mason

The story of 20 year old Australian Scott Rush is an unfolding tragedy. He got busted in Bali, part of a gang hired to smuggle heroin out of the Indonesian province and into Australia. His father knew what he was going to do and dobbed him in to the Australian Federal Police.

But the AFP didn't intervene, like his father had hoped they would. Instead, they gave Indonesian police the information and Scott wound up being busted in Bali and sentenced to life in prison. The Indonesian police managed to lose track of the suppliers of the heroin.

Rush appealed the sentence, against his own gut instinct, and now he is facing the death penalty - a bullet in the head on a Bali beach at dawn - along with five other Australians who also acted as drug couriers.

But there's another sting in the tail to this story.

Yesterday, the same day that the new death sentences were made public, two Indonesians involved in the Bali terror attacks of last year, were also sentenced for their crimes.

From the Jakarta Post :

Judges sentenced two Islamic militants to up to 18 years in prison Thursday for involvement in the 2005 terrorist attacks on Bali...

Mohammad Cholili and Dwi Widiarto were among four men charged in the attacks on the Indonesian resort island, which killed 20 people and wounded nearly 200 others.

Death for drug couriers.

Prison, with the chance of parole, for convicted terrorists.

The Indonesian judge who tossed aside the life sentences and handed down death instead said :

"Drug problems are a very dangerous crime against the Indonesian community, and not just for Indonesia but also for other countries and communities," Judge Kamil said.

"This is a serious case. The amount (of heroin) is quite large. Heavy crimes must be paid with similar punishment."

Obviously, blowing people up figures lower down the "heavy crimes" chart than being a drug courier.

For the families of those now facing death by firing squad, the way they found out was a total fiasco.

The father of Scott Rush was not told by lawyers or any government official that his son's appeal against a prison sentence had been commuted to the death sentence. No.

Like the parents and families of the three other young Australians who also just learned they are now facing the death penalty, Scott's father knew nothing had changed until he was informed by the media.

The federal government, including the prime minister, the foreign minister and the justice minister also claimed they knew nothing about the horrific changes to the sentences, even though the decision had been made some three weeks earlier in Jakarta.

It is a mark of acknowledgement of just how Indonesia feels about Australia that the key Australian ministers were not even briefed, off the record, about what has already proved to be a public opinion bombshell in Australia.

Nobody from the Indonesian government contacted their Australian compatriots because they obviously have no respect, or time, for them at all.

The news that drug couriers copped a death sentence, but terrorists got less than twenty years in jail has caused has caused widespread angst, disgust and plenty of dissent in Australia.

Prime Minister Howard has said he has little sympathy for convicted drug smugglers, but has been careful not to stir up anymore trouble in Jakarta than is necessary to try and appease his public, who in the majority are firmly opposed to death sentences.

Australia, and the Howard government, clearly have little influence in Jakarta now.

Particularly since tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) of Indonesians were outraged to see Howard, and numerous other ministers and opposition politicians, on television parroting the Bush Co. mantra that : "Israel has the right to defend itself" last month, while Israel reduced Southern Lebanon to rubble and massacred hundreds of Lebanese Muslims.

Australians are mostly unaware of just how often clips of their politicians defending Israel's actions were shown on Indonesian television, followed by graphic footage of dead Lebanese women, children and the elderly.

In the space of one week in Bali, I saw such a sequence of images on the news at least a dozen times, in the course of less than 20 newsbreaks. The destruction of Lebanon by Israel, with the backing of the US and Australia, was the biggest story across Indonesia for weeks.

For the prime minister to now kick up a fuss about convicted drug smugglers being put to death in Indonesia is clearly going to increase tensions between the two countries.

It won't help, either, that the government backs the US in slagging and lie-mongering about Iran.

Indonesia views Iran as a closer friend, and a far more important strategic ally and trading partner than Australia.

The Indonesian president can use clemency provision to free the Australian drug couriers, or clear them of the death sentence. It's not going to happen, even though it would be a huge favour to Howard.

Howard will say little that may offend the Indonesians, even though he insists he will push pleas for clemency, knowing it won't matter an iota.

This is why Howard has now started his spin campaign about Australians living on "false optimism" that the death sentences will be wiped.

He wants, and needs, to get Australians used to idea that all too soon Indonesian police volunteers will execute six young Australians.

Howard can hope that the brutal execution of these six young Australians will not take place while he is still prime minister of the country. Death sentences in Indonesia can take years to be carried out.

But widely respected QC Lex Lasry believes the executions may come even sooner than most people expect, including Howard.

"I'm not confident that there's two years to go, I think it might well be less time than that and I think it's therefore important that we do the things we have to do reasonably quickly.

Scott Rush is ready to beg for his life, awestruck at the extremely short future he now faces :

"If there is anything people can do to prevent this, please make it happen because I need a second chance at life...they won't give us a second chance …"

This is going to get very, very ugly.


Scott Rush : "Don't Bury Us Before We're Dead"

A Mass Execution Of Australians?

Final Throw Of The Dice For Bali Nine

Australians Need Threats & 'Realities of Terrorism ' & War To Feel United

By Darryl Mason

This is downright weird, and a little disturbing.

A piece in today's 'The Australian' claims that our "sense of well-being" has plunged, mostly because we feel so distant, so unconnected with our fellow Australians.

Something called the 'Wellbeing Index' has recorded the "lowest personal wellbeing" ratings since April, 2001 :

"...the marked drop was directly linked to how we feel about our relationships and connection to the community.

It was also linked to the fact Australians were feeling less threatened by external events and were subsequently less attached to each other.

This in turn caused their personal wellbeing to drop, he said. As people felt more secure within the world, their sense of wellbeing was more attuned to the quality of personal relationships.

"(The Index) showed a marked rise in personal wellbeing following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Bali bombing and the early stages of the Iraq war...."

Go here for the whole story.

Does this explain why John Howard is apparently planning to use National Security as a key platform in next year's federal election?

There may well be a serious threat of terrorism in Australia - we don't really know for a fact if this is true because the details of such threats are now off-limits to the public, journos, lawyers, even those accused of being a threat - but it is a little creepy to think that all a politician has to do is ramp up the "You Will Be Bombed Soon" mantras to unite the country and install a sense of national unity.

Or can they?

In the US and the UK right now, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair are learning that The Threat Of Terror isn't uniting the masses like it used to.

At least, The Threat is not uniting the public behind their leaders.

Recent polls in the UK exposed a mind-blowing statistic : Only about 20% of all Brits believe their Prime Minister when he talked about the threat of terrorist attacks in the UK. And that's after the July 7 bombings last year.

Very, very strange.

One of John Howard's closest mates, and former staffer, is Sydney Morning Herald columnist Gerard Henderson. He stated a few days ago that :

"....John Howard and (Treasurer) Peter Costello have given clear indications that national security will be an election issue, with a focus on the real threat of radical Islamism..."

If we go the way of the Yanks and the Brits, John Howard may discover that ramping up the rhetoric about terrorism and Radical/Militant Islam Threats To Our National Security won't work to unit the country behind him like it used to.

It's something like the threat of Bird Flu.

The headlines may well say, "1/3 Of Humanity Could Die," and you can then hear of outbreaks killing people in countries around the world, but until it happens in your own country, until you lose someone close to you, or see lines queuing outside of hospitals or bodies piled up in the streets, the Fear Factor fades after a while, the threat doesn't seem so real, so looming.

The hassles of day to day reality intrude on the sense of being in perpetual danger from something deadly that may or may not impact upon your life. The longer it doesn't, the easier it is to treat The Threat dismissively.

When something terrible happens, it's easy to get The Fear, but then it fades, it always does. You move on, you get on, and the talk of The Looming Threat loses its power the longer the danger remains an unreality in the lives of most people.

How many Australians live with a serious fear of a massive meteor strike destroying a population centre?

Or a tsunami smashing coastal communities?

Or out of control bushfires destroying whole towns?

Or perpetual drought causing a whole city to eventually run out of water and result in tens of thousands of people having to relocate?

All of these are serious possibilities, and all would cause a far larger loss of life and have a far greater impact on the economy and the lives of everyday Australians than a terrorist attack the size of most we have witnessed during the War On Terror.

But what if Attorney General Philip Ruddock is right?

"One has to be clearly focussed, we believe that Australia is vulnerable, a terrorist attack in Australia is certainly possible."

What if Australia is hit by a terrorist attack between now and the federal election late next year?

Will Australians' "sense of wellbeing" rise as a result?

Will Australians feel more connected to each other, more united?

And will we then, on mass, unite behind the Howard government?

Or will Australians be like the Brits and, in the majority, blame their leader for any terrorist attack?

Hopefully, we won't have to find out.

"The Animal World Has Finally Taken Its Revenge On Steve Irwin"

Germaine Greer Hammers Steve Irwin in Life, And Death

By Darryl Mason

The UK media is ripping into the issue of whether or not Australians were divided on their feelings about Australia's most famous man, Steve Irwin. Did we love Irwin more than we hated him? What did he contribute to the image of Australians across the world?

Was he a hero of Australian conservation? Or just a loundmouth nest raider? Protector of rare fauna? Or exploiter of defenceless animals for fame and profit?

It doesn't seem to be an issue in the minds of most Australians right now, he died a tragic, way too early death and his kids and wife are crushed. There's been little outright hate on display in the majority of Australians' reactions, not that you would expect there to be.

But there have been plenty of comments amongst the tens of thousands of comments listed on Oz sites that meander around : "I never liked his show, but..." and "I couldn't stand him, but my kids loved him".

Writer Germaine Greer decided some time last night that she wasn't going to wait even a few days before she put the boot into Irwin's still warm corpse.

She lets rip today in the UK Guardian :

"The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin..."

Ahh, yeah, right.

Greer has taken the Gaia concept to a frightening new level of Nature collectively fighting back against those who dare intrude upon its sacred spaces.

According to Greer, all the world's animals apparently shared a blood-thirsty dislike of Steve Irwin and finally decided they couldn't tolerate his presence in their habitats any longer.

The unified world animal mind issued the call for Irwin to be X-ed and a 2.5 metre long stingray off Port Douglas carried out the hit, efficiently and effectively.

As the Chaser sang on the ABC last year, after she wrote of her visual admiration for the bodies of young boys : "What will that crazy old Germ say next?"

This :

What Irwin never seemed to understand was that animals need space. The one lesson any conservationist must labour to drive home is that habitat loss is the principal cause of species loss.

There was no habitat, no matter how fragile or finely balanced, that Irwin hesitated to barge into, trumpeting his wonder and amazement to the skies. There was not an animal he was not prepared to manhandle. Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress.

Greer seems to miss the point, by obviously never having given his shows more than a grimaced glance, that Irwin well understood that to get his message of conservationism over to the next generation, and to ram home just how spectacular and wonderful the creatures of Australia really were, he would have to be more entertaining, more vivid, more over-the-top than everything else on television, or in the video game console.

David Attenborough's kept a whispering distance from his televisual prey, most of the time, and it worked for the kids of the 60s and 70s.

Irwin reached hundreds of millions of people, mostly children, and instilled in them a love and respect for the wild world which will reap huge rewards for their generation and the animal world.

Greer seems to think that Irwin has inspired children to tromp into unexplored jungles and wrench animals out of the trees and shake them around for fun, or that they will put themselves in dangerous proximity to lethal creatures trying to be like their hero.

But the number of children getting bitten by snakes and spiders, particularly in Australia, has plunged in recent years, and some of that must surely be attributed to what usually followed a classic Irwin wild-eyed rant - a quiet, stern warning that kids must keep their distance from dangerous animals and respect them and their habitat.

If she'd actually watched his shows, no doubt Greer would be aware of this.

Freak Death Of Steve Irwin Caught On Video

Russell Crowe On Irwin : "The Ultimate Wildlife Warrior"

By Darryl Mason

Steve Irwin boasted in 2003 that television cameras follow him around and capture almost every second of each day in his life.

It is then, not surprising, that Irwin's sudden death has been caught on any number of cameras, and not just those that were vidding him for a new TV series on Australia's deadliest creatures (the irony would have made him laugh long and loud, no doubt).

A camera crew caught the moment when a 2.5 metre long stingray pierced his heart, but tourists on a reef cruise nearby also captured the frantic attempts to revive this legendary Australian on the deck of a boat.

Right now, Queensland police are reviewing the video of the moment the stingray pumped venom straight into his heart, bringing on cardiac arrest.

It will only be a matter of time before the videos of tourists pop up online.

For a man who lived his life so publicly, should the moment of his death be private, or shared with those who wish to view it, regardless of how traumatic the footage of a dying man may be?

From news.com :

"The footage shows him swimming in the water, the ray stopped and turned and that was it," said boatowner Peter West, who viewed the footage afterwards.

"There was no blood in the water, it was not that obvious ... something happened with this animal that made it rear and he was at the wrong position at the wrong time and if it hit him anywhere else we would not be talking about a fatality."

Stingrays the size of the one that killed Irwin have a spike on the end of their tale, described as being "like a dagger", 20cm long. It seems likely now that Irwin may have died almost instantly.

Spear fisherman and fellow film-maker Ben Cropp has a few more details on what happened :

"He was up in the shallow water, probably 1.5m to 2m deep, following a bull ray which was about a metre across the body - probably weighing about 100kg, and it had quite a large spine. The cameraman was filming in the water."

Mr Cropp said the stingray was spooked and went into defensive mood.

"It probably felt threatened because Steve was alongside and there was the cameraman ahead, and it felt there was danger and it baulked.

"It stopped and went into a defensive mode and swung its tail with the spike.

"Steve unfortunately was in a bad position and copped it.

"I have had that happen to me, and I can visualise it - when a ray goes into defensive, you get out of the way.

"Steve was so close he could not get away, so if you can imagine it - being right beside the ray and it swinging its spine upwards from underneath Steve - and it hit him..."

Millions of Americans, like Australians, like people across the planet, have gone into a state of shock over the sudden death of Irwin.

Irwin once explained to US TV host Jay Leno how he goes about determining whether a crocodile is male or female :

"I put my finger in here and if it smiles, it's a girl," Irwin said. "If it bites me, it's a boy."

Interesting bit of info on just how valuable an entertainment icon Irwin was viewed as in the US

He was being wooed by cashed up Las Vegas casinos willing to pay a reported $US50 million to perform nightly, long-term shows.

Hard to imagine such a lover of the outdoors and animals in their natural state would have ever commited to a Las Vegas strip show, that would have kept in the desert city for months on end.

The RSPCA said Irwin was like "a modern day Noah" due to his devotion to conservation causes and efforts to save endangered Australian fauna :

"His loss will be felt by animal lovers not just in Australia but all over the world," said RSPCA Queensland chief executive Mark Townend.

RSPCA Queensland spokesman Michael Beatty, who first worked with Irwin when the Crocodile Hunter was just 15, said Irwin's contribution to society would only truly be recognised in the years ahead.

"He put his money where his mouth was," Mr Beatty said.

"Other people talked about it, Steve did it.

"His television series inspired millions of people all over the world to not only appreciate and understand wildlife, but to become active in the conservation movement.

"Whether he was speaking to global leaders or ordinary Australians, Steve Irwin told it like it was.

"His death truly is a tragedy.

"Wildlife has lost its most vocal champion," Mr Beatty said.

Australian actor Russell Crowe says goodbye to his mate :

He was the Australian we all aspire to be. He held an absolute belief that caring for the richness of our country, meaning specifically the riches of our fauna, was the highest priority we should have. And, over time, we might just see how right he was.

He was and remains, the ultimate wildlife warrior. He touched my heart. I believed in him. I'll miss him. I loved him and I will be there for his family.

His manager and close friend, John Stainton, says goodbye :

"The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet. He died doing what he loved best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. He would have said, 'Crocs Rule!'"

Internet forums across the world are steadily filling with millions of tributes, goodbyes and words of praise for Irwin and his work. It's truly remarkable. It's easily the most volumuous outpouring of public grief and affection since the death of Princess Diana.

The news.com forum in Australia has logged more than 3000 comments in less than eight hours since the news of his death hit the headlines. The CrocodileHunter.com homepage has been down for hours due to the millions of people trying to reach the site to say their goodbyes.

Hopefully Irwin's most important message to all of us will never be forgotten.

Treat the Earth with respect and love and conserve it for future generations.

After all, it's the only one we've got.

The Wit & Wisdom Of Steve Irwin, Wildlife Warrior

By Darryl Mason

He was a genuine, true blue Australian. He loved his wife, adored his kids, he lived his dreams and he never tried to hide who he really was. Steve Irwin also happened to be one of the biggest stars on the planet, and one of the most famous Australians in our short history.

Few know that he wrote a series of widely admired scientific papers on Australian fauna and died as one of the largest private landowners in Australia - he used his millions to buy up tens of thousands of acres of pristine Australian bush and rainforest, never to be developed, never to be touched. That's putting your money where your mouth is and putting those hard-earned dollars to a wonderfully good use.

Some Australians found him a little hard to take, he was maybe too Australian in his honesty and his vocabulary, but it was probably his unbound enthusiasm and energy that grated on the nerves of some of his fellow countrymen.

But the kids loved him. Absolutely loved him.

There's been quite a few comments from Australian bloggers who were in the US in 2000 and 2001, as I was, who were stunned to learn about this Crocodile Hunter that seemingly every American loved and couldn't stop talking about.

But how many Australians knew who he was back then? Not many.

If he was known at all by the masses in Australia it was as the over-the-top, hammy host of a kids afternoon TV show.

But in the US? Mega-star. I lost track of the amount of times Americans said, "Oh, you're an Australian? Can you say 'Crikey! Look at the size of this fella!" or variations on that theme.

Okay, and onto the subject of this post.

Steve Irwin, as well as being Australia's most enthusiastic conservationist, was also quite the philosopher, and stand-up comic, as well as a storyteller of immense talent.

Here's a selection of quotes from some of the longer, in-depth television interviews Steve Irwin gave during 2003 and 2004.

Read them and think of his voice and add the energy and laughter.

It's interesting how different these quotes read to hearing them come out of his mouth on television. Some of them seem far more powerful in type.

Quick note on the first quote : Irwin had a big problem with entreprenuers who called themselves conservationists but promoted crocodile farming (for meat and skins). Same with kangaroos. He wanted to save all Australian animals, all the time.

They're on some crusade, these wildlife perpetrating people, where they think that, you know, by eating crocodiles and whales that we'll actually save the world, and that is bullshit, and that is bad, and it is something that must stop, and it is something that I fight vehemently.

Just say what you're gonna say, mate.

I'm fair dinkum, like kangaroos and Land Cruisers, winged keels and bloody flies! I think we've lost all that. I think we've all become very, sort of, money people.

If you don't have your highs and your lows, then you're just going to have a pretty mundane sort of a boring life and and my highs are really really high and my lows are really really low...

And then you've got the detractors having a go at me. You know, "Taking tourism back to the Stone Age." It seems to me that they're actually trying to promote nice beaches, cosmopolitan cities, cafe latte. That's in every country. What haven't they got? They haven't got kangaroos, haven't got koalas, haven't got saltwater crocs, mate.

I've got a photo of my daughter and I can just sit there and start crying just looking at her. Who would have thought someone as ugly as me could bring into the world something so beautiful, such a treasure?

I think I've actually got animals so genetically inside me that there's no way I could actually be anything else. I think my path would have always gone back to or delivered me to wildlife. I think wildlife is just like a magnet, and it's something that I can't help.


You know, easily the greatest threat to the wildlife globally is the destruction and annihilation of habitat. So I've gone, "Right, well, how do I fix that? Well, making a quid here. People are keen to give me money over there. I'll buy it. I'll buy habitat."...

There's too many good ones. I'll post another round-up, or you can read the interview transcripts in full for yourself, here and here and here

Steve Irwin The Crocodile Hunter Is Dead



By Darryl Mason

Known across the planet as the Crocodile Hunter, the TV presenter, actor and conservationist
Steve Irwin was killed earlier today near Port Douglas, Queensland, hard at work making a new documentary on Australia's beautiful, and sometimes incredibly deadly, marine life.

In what is being widely described as a freak accident, the long, razor sharp barb of a large stingray is believed to have entered his chest, causing his death in less than two hours.

Here's a good, quick-read obituary. His love of Australia's wildlife, in particular crocodiles, was instilled in him from his earliest years, and he deeply admired his father, an avid wildlife protector and part-time adventurer :

...the (Irwin) family's consuming passion was rescuing and rehabilitating local (Queensland) wildlife.

In 1970 the hobby became a full time operation when the Irwins opened the Beerwah Reptile Park.

Irwin recalled how, even with the advent of a formal facility, the family home was itself a mini zoo and wildlife hospital, with makeshift marsupial "pouches" slung over the backs of chairs and snakes stashed everywhere.

The young Irwin came to share his parents' obsession with wild creatures, and he soon displayed an uncanny rapport with them, able to sense their moods and preferences intuitively

As the Australian media scrambles to cover the story, marine life experts are being innundated with questions about how many people have actually died after being stung by a stingray. Some experts in Queensland say none, never heard of it. Others outside of Australia say such deaths are not as common as shark bite deaths, but they are not completely unknown.

...stingrays have poisonous spines that can inject venom deep in to the unwary victim, causing excruciating pain. Handle all fish with care, avoiding the spinous areas along the backbone and around the gills.

From the early reports, it sounds like Steve may have been stung close to the heart, as the stingray's barb is believed to have actually pierced his chest.

Reports of divers being stung by stingrays are not uncommon, but usually the stings occur on the feet or the legs. People can become violently ill from such stings, but stings to the chest, and in particular reports where the venomous 'spike' of the tail actually entering the chest are extremely rare.

There will no doubt be much fear amongst the Queensland, and particularly Cairns, tourism industry over his death.

Dive boat operators will now be questioned by tourists on just how dangerous it is to get in the water with stingrays.

How will they be able to deny that stingrays can kill?

Steve Irwin became famous for his theatrical wrestling of crocodiles, but stingrays will be viewed with fear and dread now they have claimed the life of Australia's most famous son.

Terrible news. He was one of the best friends Australia's shrinking rainforests and increasingly threatened wildlife has had in a long time. His TV shows, watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world, regularly featured him talking about the rare beauty of the Australian wilderness, and why it was so important to preserve it for the good of the country, for the benefit of the tourism industry and for future generations of Australians.

See you later, Steve. You were a top bloke. We'll miss you plenty.

Go here to read tributes from Australian fans to Steve Irwin.

Another board of tributes and comments can be found here.

We'll post links to other news boards of comments and tributes. Can't supply the links right now. At least major Australian news comments boards have crashed due to the overwhelming number of people who want to say goodbye.

UPDATE : I should point out that the tributes and goodbyes pouring in to Australian news sites are now also coming from people in the US, the UK, all across Europe, Russia, Turkey, all across the Middle East, New Zealand...indeed, most of the known world that is hooked up to the net.


Stingray "Fear Factor" Media Freakout Begins

It only took a few hours after the death of Steve Irwin was confirmed for some of the Australia
to begin ramping up the fear over the dangers of stingrays. The best quotes so far have come from the wildlife expert and film-maker long regarded as the original Crocodile Hunter :

"...they (stingrays) are very dangerous.

"They have one or two barbs in the tails which are not only coated in toxic material but are also like a bayonet, like a bayonet on a rifle.

"If it hits any vital organs it's as deadly as a bayonet."

Go here for the most recent updates and stories, including 'The Wit And Wisdom Of Steve Irwin'

New US Ambassador Says It's Okay For Aussies To Disagree With American Policies...

Particularly The Ones That Result In The Deaths Of Thousands Of Innocent People

By Darryl Mason

Apparently Australians don't have to agree with every vicious, brutal, war pig ideology and mantra that stumbles from the lips of President Bush and Offence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The new US ambassador to Australia has announced it's okay for Australians to disagree with American policy, and if we choose to do so, that doesn't make us anti-American.

That's a good plan. If dissenting against the War On Iraq and the way Bush Co has chosen to fight the War On Terror was a sign of anti-Americanism, then, well, something close to 60% of all Australians would have to be branded with this badge of dishonour.

Of course, the majority of Americans as well would also be anti-American. Which would mean America would be populated with more than a hundred million anti-Americans.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

THE new US ambassador to Canberra wants Australians to understand that it is OK to disagree with the Bush Administration yet still feel warm towards America.

Apparently trying to contain the damage that the Iraq venture has inflicted on Australian sentiment towards the US, Robert McCallum said he would appeal direct to the Australian public.

"I want to get out across the entire continent of Australia" to say that "it's OK to disagree with this US policy or that US policy but still be pro-American, because we have so much in common", he told the Herald.

He agreed that this approach was designed to stop Australians throwing the baby out with the bath water.

And the ambassado....said he was surprised to learn that a majority of Australians polled last year said US foreign policy was a potential security threat.

"The national security of Australia and the US is a common interest, each with the other," Mr McCallum said.

A poll for the Lowy Institute last year found 57 per cent of respondents believed US foreign policy to be a security threat, the same percentage that cited Islamic fundamentalism as a threat.

"Australia and the US are both pioneer nations with great energy and determination. Americans have the greatest respect for anything Australian. It's quite remarkable."

Complete crap. Most Americans know next to nothing about Australia, Australians or Australian culture, outside of the Crocodile Hunter/Dundee cliches.

Most Americans remain unaware that Australians devoted tens of thousands of troops to the Vietnam War, with more than 500 killed in action.

Today, the vast majority of Americans also remain unaware that Australians are fighting in Iraq. This is not unexpected, as President and Secretary of Offence Donald Rumsfeld rarely mentions that next to the UK, Australia is the United States' chief ally in the War On Iraq.

Rumsfeld, and Bush, have also failed to adequately acknowledge that Australian supplied more than one third of the special forces that tore down the Taliban regime in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US, and saved the lives of countless US special forces troops and CIA agents on at least three separate occasions.

Robert McCallum has a particularly difficult job ahead of him if he thinks he can turn the tide of Australian opinion on how Bush Co. has conducted itself in the War On Iraq and the War On Terror.

Australians don't hate Americans, but most Australians are smart enough to know that the road to the War On Iraq was paved with deceit and ouright lies, and that the Howard Government and Bush Co. conned them all in the worst possible way.

The always excellent Road To Surfdom blog has a great take on this story, and the comments are well worth reading.

This blogger's contribution on the Road To Surfdom board reads as follows :

We do have so much in common with Americans. More than 60% of Australians also believe that President Bush is a threat to world peace and the War On Iraq was an appalling mistake.

The new ambassador is off to a great start with his enthusiastic embrace of dissent.

Of course, Australians are free to dissent, as Howard has repeatedly said.

(Attorney General Philip) Ruddock will soon release new guidelines on what the parameters are of the kind of dissent and free expression we will all be able to democratically engage in….within the specificed Dissent Expression Zone in the Simpson Desert, and after you obtain the right permits to freely express yourself, for which you will need to provide proof that you are, at least, a fourth generation Australian.

The new ambassador….Good to see a Skull And Bonesman finally walking the corridors of power in Canberra. He should feel right at home amongst all those Freemasons and Opus Dei-ists.

Australia's Painted Desert

image from The Australian

Only a handful of people know the true location of one of Australia's most stunning natural treasures.

Australia's 'Painted Desert' is located in the South Australian outback and sits on land owned by a handful of farmers, and they don't want anyone to know that it's there.

Fear of 4WDs trashing the apparently fragile, extremely ancient landscape being Fear Number One.

South Australian Tourism Commission chief Bill Spurr - who flew hours through the outback to reach the location last week - told The Weekend Australian it offered a glimpse of some of the world's most stunning natural formations.

"Imagine a lunar landscape with conical shaped mountains stretching across the horizon," he said. "Now imagine the area covered in a patchwork of rich ochre, ranging from mustard to iron-ore red and whites. That's the beauty of the painted desert."

William Creek-based pilot Trevor Wright is one of the few people who have seen the clay and iron-oxide formations estimated to cover an expanse 20km wide and 10km long.

"The people who look after it guard it with their lives," Mr Wright said. "It was known about for years on the stations, but they wanted to keep it secret because of its fragility."

Paeleontologist Jim Gehling said the rocks were probably formed as a result of millions of years of climate change.

"The climate has gone from glacial to wet and semi-tropical over millions of years," Dr Gehling said. "Australia's landscape has only really dried up in the last three million years or so.

"What you're looking at is the leftover effects of about 50million years of climate change."

Adelaide University geologist John Foden said the rock formations were extraordinary.

The changing colours were the result of oxidation, he said. "The desert landscapes are red because of the oxidation of iron in the rocks. And you get leach zones where the iron has leached away and sections are white."

The Very Best Of John Howard On The First Six Weeks Of The War On Iraq


John Howard Little Digger sculpture image grabbed from here


"....our goal is to make certain that the weapons that Iraq now has, chemical and biological and a capacity to develop nuclear weapons, are taken from Iraq. I don't believe the world can turn its back on that. If Iraq gets away with this, if Iraq stares us all down, she will certainly not abandon her weapons then." January 23, 2003

"..if as a consequence of that military action the current regime disappears, that circumstances in Iraq could well be a lot better, I’m certain they will be a lot better and that in a relatively short period of time the situation could stabilise in the way that it did in Afghanistan." February 7. 2003

"I think there’s a very big connection between Iraq and North Korea and the connection is this, if the Security Council and the world community can’t discipline Iraq it has no hope of disciplining North Korea." February, 16, 2003

"Iraq must be disarmed. We cannot afford to allow a rogue state like Iraq to retain chemical and biological weapons. Others will do likewise. North Korea will not be disciplined by the world community if Iraq is not disciplined." March 14, 2003

"I have no doubt at all in my mind, and many would agree with me, that the Iraqi people will suffer less if Saddam Hussein is removed." March 17, 2003

"You don't make parallels with history when you are dealing with contemporary events." March 18, 2003

"I think you’ve also got to remember that the suffering of the Iraqi people will be a lot less once this regime has gone..." March 19, 2003

"I want the Iraqi regime disarmed, I want Iraq disarmed. The question of what happens to Saddam Hussein to me is incidental. The aim is the disarmament of Iraq," March 19, 2003

"...we don’t have any quarrel with the ordinary people of Iraq, we don’t want to inflict any avoidable pain injury or death on them. We do have a big quarrel with the regime because it’s the regime that has defied the world in relation to its chemical and biological weapons. We mustn’t lose sight of what this is all about." March 20, 2003

"....on the scale of suffering I have believed for a long time that the people of Iraq will suffer less if he’s gone than if he’s left there." March 21, 2003

"...it is a very tyrannical regime and once it’s gone the people of Iraq will I’m sure have a much better life." April 2, 2003

"...if Iraq had disarmed and fully cooperated, then I don’t think people would have been arguing on its own for regime change." April 2, 2003

"...getting rid of the regime and thereby ensuring that Iraq does not retain chemical and biological weapons or a capacity to develop them in the future, that is the goal....I would say victory once the regime is gone." April 6, 2003

"...we won't be making a significant peacekeeping contribution. I would expect that as our military involvement winds down, and I'm not announcing that it's about to wind down, let me emphasise, but at some point obviously it will begin to wind down. I would think during the transitional phase we may retain during that transitional phase - I'm not talking about a period of 12 months or two years, but the immediate period of the transitional phase - we could retain some niche contribution of military forces in order to assist in the immediate transition phase. But we certainly don't intend to have a significant army of peacekeepers." April 10, 2003

"...the same thing with the civilian casualties. Of course there were. But you have to put that in the balance against the tens upon tens of thousands who have died in different ways as a result of this regime." April 13, 2003

"It was inevitable that when you topple a tyrannical regime and you took the lid off, it was inevitable there was going to be a period of some upheaval..." April 16, 2003

"It’s one thing, as I say, to have a short, sharp, highly professional, highly effective contribution when it’s really hot. It’s another thing to have a very long commitment of a large number of regulars."

"...it was a remarkable military victory, and a great tribute to the American military leadership." May 2, 2003

"...can I Mr President congratulate you on the leadership that you gave to the world, at times under very great criticism, at times facing very great obstruction...I think what was achieved in Iraq was quite extraordinary from a military point of view. I think the military textbooks will be replete with the experiences of Operation Iraqi Freedom for many years to come..." May 3, 2003

IT'S UN-AUSTRALIAN TO BE ANTI-AMERICAN

ENGLAND SEES THE UNITED STATES AS AN EMPIRCAL PLAGUE ON THE WORLD

Some light fluff here about an alleged rise of anti-American sentiment amongst Australians.

No solid examples of this claimed anti-Americanism are cited, just vague generalisations and a threat that such a rise in anti-American sentiment could have dire consequences...of some kind.

Apparently far too many Australians are too willing to think of Americans as "stupid" or "dumb".

And this opinion piece attempts to argue that this is dangerous, unacceptable and downright un-Australian :

When communist China enjoys a higher standing than the world's oldest democracy in opinion polls...and phrases such as "dumb Americans" and "stupid Americans" as well as other dismissive remarks can be used in everyday conversation without any sense of opprobrium, it's time to get serious about the long-term health of US-Australian relations.

There is a ferocity with which Americans are being lampooned, and it can apply to anything - accents, food, entertainment, social graces, fashion, weight, as well as their supposed lack of intelligence and insensitivity to other cultures. And it is the banal and crude nature of such jabs that differentiate anti-Americanism from plain and reasonable criticism of US foreign policy and attitudes, making it a prime candidate for the status of a prejudice.

....parodies of Americans as stupid hillbillies, wild cowboys or just plain dumb have little to do with reality but everything to do with earlier myths of slant-eyed and conspiratorial Asians. It's the return of prejudice, but with an added vengeance.

The problem with all this is, of course, the fact that the majority of television and movies screened in Australia that parody Americans as "stupid hillbillies, wild cowboys or just plain dumb" are made by....Americans.

You can turn on any commercial network channel any night of the week and within a couple of hours you will see such cliched American characters being played for laughs, or for the fear factor, if the show happens to be related to crime.

In fact, it is America's entertainment industry that panders to these cliches, constantly.

It's hard to think of a single British or Australian movie which has recently featured lead American characters hitting these cliche red alerts anywhere near as hard as TV shows like 'My Name Is Earl' and movies like 'The Dukes Of Hazzard'.

Our cinemas are full of American-made movies starring American actors protraying American characters obsessed with sex, violence, money, guns, consumerism and with no real interest in the world outside their own shores.

So what are Australians supposed to think when America itself makes bllions from sending these cliched characters out into the entertainment world market?

While Australia has decisively ditched earlier forms of bigotry, the pervasiveness of anti-American sentiment or prejudice is growing. But unlike other forms of discrimination, it is stigma free....insults and cheap shots have increasingly substituted intelligent debate on American policy. Neither practice bodes well for the long-term future of the relationship.

It's academic, waffle-twaddle. The majority of Australians judge people on how they act and interact when they meet them for themselves.

Australia is widely regarded as one of the most tolerant countries on the planet, and Americans are deeply entrenched in our culture and our national psyche.

If some Australians think that Americans are "dumb" or "stupid", well maybe that's because those Australians met Americans that they thought were dumb or stupid, or watched too many US shows where Americans were portrayed as dumb or stupid.

It doesn't have to be anymore sinister than that.

While American tourists are finding themselves being aggressively confronted by strangers in the streets of England and across the EU, mostly for the actions of their president, few Americans are complaining that they are facing racism, or intolerance, or abuse, when they visit Australia.

To portray the honest reactions of Australians to their encounters with Americans as some ultra-threat to the future of Australian-American relations is absurd and it's anti-Australian.

Per capita, we are the largest consumer of American entertainment products (movies, music, TV shows, video games) in the world. If we didn't like what them, and we didn't like their gear, we wouldn't be buying so much of it.

There's a growing attempt at society-shaping by some who want to see Australia far more integrated into American business, politics and culture more than we already are.

But we are not a state of the US, and we are one of the last of their world allies who do not view this allegiance as negative or dangerous.

As usual, the culture that America sends out to the world through its entertainment industries in exchange for billions of dollars, is not taken into account for how Americans are perceived. Television, in particular, is a powerful and vastly influential medium for shaping peoples' minds and perceptions, and ingraining beliefs.

This is why the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, spends more taxpayer funds on television advertising than any other Australian leader since the medium first rolled out across the nation.

If Americans, generally, are worried about Australians thinking that they're stupid and dumb - and there is little evidence in the American media to show this is does concern them - then it's up to their cultural exporters to help change those perceptions.

And it's up to the President, as well, to talk and explain himself and his actions like one of the most powerful leaders in the world when he makes national, and with growing frequency, international addresses, not to laugh it up like he's still snapping towels in college locker rooms.

Bush is the American face most frequently seen on the news in most of the world, and people in most of the world find it genuinely creepy and disturbing that he feels the need to smile so much when talking about mass murder in Iraq and torture in his own military prisons.

But, Australians know that Bush is not all of America, just as John Howard is not all of Australia.

Americans know they are always welcome in Australia, and that the vast majority of Australians are happy to talk to them, show them around and teach them a bit about our country and culture.

It's in England that the US now has some extremely serious public perception problems, according to a new survey :

More than half of those interviewed regard the United States as an imperial power bent on ominating the world.

A majority of Britons think American culture and the actions of the Bush administration are making the world a worse place to live in, and almost no one thinks the United States is now, if it ever was, a beacon to the world...

More than three-quarters of Britons think President Bush is a "poor" or even "terrible" world leader, and almost as many think his rhetoric about promoting the cause of democracy in the world is a cover to promote U.S. national interests.

Americans are still held in high regard in Britain, but America's role in the world is not. The so-called "special relationship" may still thrive in official government circles, but it obviously has atrophied among the British public.

It's not all bad news, however. As with polls taken recently in countries across Europe, and the Middle East, it's Bush Co and the 'War On Terror' that seems to be inflicting the major damage on how the world now regards the US in general.

A large majority of Britons like Americans either "a little" (49 percent) or "a lot" (21 percent), and 54 percent are inclined to feel positively about the United States in general. There are certainly few signs in YouGov's findings of an across-the-board anti-American prejudice.

Fully 69 percent of Britons say their overall opinion of the United States has worsened in recent years.

Fewer than one-quarter, 22 percent, think the Bush administration's policies and actions make the world a better place. And 65 percent regard U.S. influence in the world today as predominantly malign.

...77 percent (of Britons) were startled by the idea that the United States may be setting the rest of the world a good example.

The Gallup Poll in 1975 found that 27 percent of Britons had considerable confidence in U.S. leadership.

That figure has fallen to 12 percent.

Court Declares David Hicks' Military Trial Would Be Illegal

Prime Minister Howard Blames "Bad Advice"...Yet Again

Prime Minister John Howard likes to boast, in private, that he can get Australian terror suspect David Hicks freed from Guantanamo Bay any time he likes just by calling his good mates George & Dick.

But how quickly Howard changes his tune when he realises how big an election issue the David Hicks saga may become.

From news.com :

Prime Minister John Howard has urged the US to find a quick alternative for dealing with terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo Bay after the inmates won a major court victory. In a blow to US President George W Bush and the US military, America's Supreme Court has ruled the controversial military commissions set up to prosecute Australian David Hicks and other Guantanamo prisoners were illegal.

Mr Howard said he was not embarrassed by the ruling but admitted his government, and the US administration, were incorrectly advised that the military commission process was lawful.

He said the US government had to move fast to find another process to try Hicks and the other detainees at the US naval base in Cuba.

"What now has to happen is that, quite quickly in my view, the administration has to decide how it will deal with the trial of the people who are being held," he told Southern Cross broadcasting.

"Our view in relation to Mr Hicks is that he should be brought to trial.

"As the military commission trial is regarded by the court as unconstitutional, there clearly has to be another method of trial – a court martial or a civilian trial – which conforms with the supreme court decision."

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

Australian terror detainee David Hicks's military lawyer said he was not surprised by Thursday's US Supreme Court ruling upholding a challenge against military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay inmates.

The decision will have major implications for Hicks, who has faced a military commission, but is yet to face trial.

Marine Major Michael Mori, the US military lawyer appointed to defend Hicks, said the ruling did not surprise him.

"The military lawyers who have been defending the defendants at Guantanamo have been saying this all along," Major Mori said.

"Any real lawyer who isn't part of the administration knows this violates the Geneva Conventions."

From news.com :

Mr Howard said he was not embarrassed by the ruling but admitted his government, and the US administration, were incorrectly advised that the military commission process was lawful.

He said the US Government had to move fast to find another process to try Hicks and the other detainees at the US naval base in Cuba.

"What now has to happen is that, quite quickly in my view, the administration has to decide how it will deal with the trial of the people who are being held," he told Southern Cross broadcasting.

"Our view in relation to Mr Hicks is that he should be brought to trial.

"As the military commission trial is regarded by the court as unconstitutional, there clearly has to be another method of trial - a court martial or a civilian trial - which conforms with the supreme court decision."

Federal Human Services Minister Joe Hockey said it was up to Mr Bush to decide what to do with Hicks.

"We have been pushing and pushing the US Government to put him to trial - to try him and have him convicted," he said.

"There has been a lot of legal argy bargy.

"Now the US Supreme Court, the highest court in the US, has said that they believe the Guantanamo Bay process is wrong ... and the ball is now back in President Bush's court.

"Obviously, we will be waiting for the US Government to find out what they will do now with Hicks."

Quotes From Key Players In The Gitmo Fiasco :

PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH:

"As I understand it - now, please don't hold me to this - ... there is a way forward with military tribunals in working with the United States Congress. As I understand, certain senators have already been out expressing their desire to address what the Supreme Court found. And we will work with the Congress.

"And one thing I'm not going to do, though, is I'm not going to jeopardise the safety of the American people. People got to understand that. I understand we're in a war on terror, that these people were picked up off of a battlefield, and I will protect the people and at the same time conform with the findings of the Supreme Court.

LT. CMDR. CHARLES SWIFT, a lawyer for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, defendant in the case before the US Supreme Court:

"All we wanted was a fair trial and we thank the Supreme Court. Yes it is a rebuke for the process. ... It means we can't be scared out of who we are."

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL:

"Today's Supreme Court ruling blocking the military commissions set up by President George W. Bush is a victory for the rule of law and human rights. The US administration should ensure that those held in Guantanamo should be either released or brought before civilian courts on the US mainland."

ZACHARY KATZNELSON, lawyer for 36 Guantanamo inmates including Ethiopian Binyam Muhammad, one of 10 who faced charges before the military commission:

"I think its a fantastic victory for us. It's a strong rebuke from the Supreme Court to President Bush. They clearly have said he is not above the law and that the men at Guantanamo absolutely have rights, and the military commissions are just blatantly illegal."

US SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY, Vermont Democrat on Judiciary Committee:

"For five years, the Bush-Cheney administration has violated fundamental American values, tarnished our standing in the world and hindered the partnerships we need with our allies. This arrogance and incompetence have delayed and weakened the handling of the war on terror, not because of any coherent strategic view it had, but because of its stubborn unilateralism and dangerous theory of unfettered power.

SENATORS LINDSEY GRAHAM AND JON KYL, Republicans of South Carolina and Arizona:

"We are disappointed with the Supreme Court's decision. ... It is inappropriate to try terrorists in civilian courts. ... We intend to pursue legislation in the Senate granting the Executive Branch the authority to ensure that terrorists can be tried by competent military commissions.

SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts Democrat:

"This decision is a stunning repudiation of the Bush administration's lawless behaviour at Guantanamo. As we approach the Fourth of July, it is entirely appropriate that the Supreme Court has reminded the president and Secretary Rumsfeld that there is no excuse for ignoring the rule of law, even when our country is at war."

MICHAEL MORI, a military lawyer appointed to defend Australian prisoner David Hicks before the tribunals:

"It doesn't come as a shock to me. The military lawyers who have been defending the defendants at Guantanamo have been saying this all along. Any real lawyer who isn't part of the administration knows this violates the Geneva Conventions."

FARHAT PARACHA, whose husband was sent to Guantanamo in 2004 after 15 months at a detention centre in Afghanistan:

"There is no justice. They have no rights, even don't have status of prisoners of war. It reminds me of the medieval era. ... Really, it is not serving any purpose but triggering more and more hatred."

Supreme Court Completely Rejects Gitmo War Crimes Trials

Supreme Cout Decision Is "A Nail In The Coffin For The Idea That The President Can Set Up These Trials"

Alexander Downer Lobbied Washington, Baghdad In 2003 On Behalf Of BHP

Excerpts from this Sydney Morning Herald article :

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, warned BHP Billiton that pushing for control of an Iraqi oilfield straight after invasion would be "very sensitive" because the US-led coalition had made it clear "there would not be blood for oil".

Despite this Mr Downer agreed he would raise the company's claim over the huge Halfayah oilfield with Washington and the head of the post-war occupation government in Iraq, Paul Bremer, according to documents released yesterday by the Cole inquiry into the Oil for Food scandal.

A highly confidential record of the meeting between Mr Downer and BHP Billiton executives written by the Department of Foreign Affairs details their discussion of the project in London in May 2003, only weeks after the Saddam Hussein government fell.

The document reveals an extraordinary effort by BHP Billiton to get its share of the Halfayah oilfield, one of the richest in the country, by lobbying the key players in postwar Iraq.

The executives told Mr Downer the company had already lobbied Arthur Sinodinos, the chief adviser to the Prime Minister, John Howard, and were about to approach Downing Street and the US Vice-President Dick Cheney.

In a frank assessment of the power structure under the occupation government in Baghdad, the executives told Mr Downer they had a key contact there, the former boss of Shell Oil in America, Philip Carroll, who had been hand-picked by the White House to advise the new Iraqi oil minister. Mr Carroll also had a number of Iraqi exiles with him who had worked for the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

"The Australian Government had said sincerely that it had not joined coalition forces on the basis of oil," Mr Downer is recorded saying. "Wise judgement suggested it was the Iraqis themselves who needed to be awarding the oil contracts.

"That said, Mr Downer agreed he would raise the matter both in Washington and in Baghdad with Paul Bremer. He would also have it raised with the Oil Ministry in Baghdad."

The document also clearly sets out of the first time that real relationship between BHP Billiton and the controversial company Tigris, its joint venture partner in Iraq.

Tigris has been accused in evidence to the Cole inquiry of being involved in a major fraud in the UN's Oil For Food program to assist Australia's wheat trader, AWB.

According to the document, Mr Harley told Mr Downer: "Tigris was responsible for maintaining relationships with [Saddam Hussein's] Iraq by working Oil for Food projects until a normal political situation could be established in Iraq.

"This arrangement was judged by all parties to give Australia the maximum chance of securing the Halfayah field investment."

The Cole inquiry also released a bundle of new documents from AWB and the UN supporting evidence to the Cole inquiry that AWB knowingly paid hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime to maintain its wheat contracts in Iraq.

Several Iraqi documents written by Saddam Hussein's officials between August and December 2000 detail orders to Iraqi ministers to collect kickbacks and fees on humanitarian shipments to Iraq under the UN Oil for Food program and transfer the money back into government coffers.

The Full Story Is Here

Howard Government Denies Conspiracy to Overthrow Government Of East Timor

World Bank Now "Stands Ready To Assist" East Time After PM Kept Them Out For Years

By Darryl Mason


This remarkable image by Glenn Campbell appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The rumours and whispers have grown so strong, so convincing, that now even the Australian Treasurer, Peter Costello, has been forced to publicly state Australia did not play a r0le in overthrowing the government of East Timor.

"It's absolutely false that Australia has intervened in any way in the political line-up in East Timor," he said on Channel 9.

"Australia, by the way, has troops that are serving, in difficult conditions, the East Timorese people, keeping law and order on the streets.

"Those troops are there at the invitation of the president and the then prime minister Mr Alkatiri. So they were asked to be there."

Well, that's not quite true now is it Mr Treasurer?

Australian ships and helicopters and ground vehicles and troops were sent to East Timor with the expectation that the Prime Minister Alkatiri would ask for Australian troops to come in and help out, at the height of the rioting, the burning and the killings last month. But he refused to commit for days, unsure of what the role of foreign peacekeepers should be in East Timor.

Alkatiri feared a coup back then, and warned his supporters that this might happen. Now he has been forced to quit, his supporters believe his prediction has come true.

When Australian troops entered East Timor there was still a bit of paperwork left to be signed, and the East Timorese Prime Minister Alkatiri was extremely reluctant to allow foreign troops into the country, no doubt forseeing his disposal.

Australian troops were allowed into East Timor mostly due to President Gusmao, who engaged in "shouting matches" with the Prime Minister in the days leading up to Australia's intervention.

The Australian Treasurer plays dumb when it comes to discussion of just how influence 1300 Australian troops, with gunned up trucks and Blackhawk helicopters, can have on local happenings in East Timor.

"To claim that they've engaged in domestic politics is absolutely false and I can say that for a fact."

This is a ridiculous thing to say and Costello knows it.

Any time foreign troops enter a sovereign country, and are seen to be protecting, or keeping watch over anti-government forces, as Australians did, then they are becoming involved in domestic politics.


It's not getting any better in East Timor. The government is in chaos after Alkatiri quit. and he is now being accused of arming kill squads to take out his political enemies in the early days of the current conflict.

Homes are being burned, Australian troops are having big time trouble keeping rival gangs from beating and stabbing ten kinds of hell out of each other, and even the displaced persons camps are being attacked and harassed.

Their bodies trembled with fear. They sobbed. They stared wide-eyed, heads bowed. They were mostly women and children, huddled at the gate of Dili's main wharf yesterday.

They had been chased there by anti-Alkatiri rioters who then stood on the road 20 metres away, screaming threats. "We're going to kill you all," a mob leader yelled. "You are all dead."

All that mattered to the rioters, who were frothing at the mouth and screaming incoherently, was that they believed the petrified women and children they had bailed up were from East Timor's east.

That's how far East Timor's conflict has gone: Timorese attacking strangers because of where they were born.

Australian troops are heavily restricted by their rules of engagement in East Timor. They can't open fire unless they feel their lives are directly threatened, but the rioters aren't targeting the troops. They go after women and children and the houses and businesses of those they view as their enemies.

...the soldiers must remain "neutral". Major James Baker, the spokesman for Australia's peacekeeping force in Dili, said: "Our soldiers are taught to have a measured response to defuse any situation which might arise. Our job is to make sure the feuding parties are separated."

The soldiers separate them, but then the rioters run around the block and attack each other, or innocent passers-by, all over again.

The soldiers jumped out and chased the culprits, one of them screaming "Come here, you little f---ers." The soldier ran down and grabbed the slowest by the neck before bundling him into one of the vehicles. The rest of the rioters escaped, free to terrorise elsewhere.

Australian journalist John Pilger has covered events in East Timor from the early 1970s, when Australia first refused to interfere with the ongoing Indonesian genocide that wiped out 1/3 of the entire population over the next two decades. Here's an excerpt of his take on what's happening in East Timor today :

These days Australia likes to present itself as a helpful, generous neighbor of East Timor, after public opinion forced the government of John Howard to lead a UN peacekeeping force six years ago.

East Timor is now an independent state, thanks to the courage of its people and a tenacious resistance led by the liberation movement Fretilin, which in 2001 swept to political power in the first democratic elections. In regional elections last year, 80 percent of votes went to Fretilin, led by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, a convinced "economic nationalist," who opposes privatization and interference by the World Bank.

Barely three days after Prime Minister Alkatiri stepped down, the World Bank has made it known that it "stands ready to assist in any way we can."

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz was one of the most insidious of all the NeoCons who lied their country into the brutal 'War On Iraq', later admitting that the story of Saddam's WMDs was just a cover story to help sell the war.

Wolfowitz has now got his World Bank sights well and truly set on East Timor, after being denied extensive exploitation rights by Alkatiri for the past six years. Not anymore. Says Wolfowitz :

"This chance for a united approach to peace and recovery may not come again."

That almost sounds like a threat.

Go Here For Extensive Coverage From May 28, When Australian Troops Had Just Entered East Timor

Go To 'Your New Reality' Blog For Coverage On How The Current Troubles In East Timor Began And Quickly Spiralled Out Of Control.

Another Slab of Coverage Here

The Most Influential Australian Of All Time Is....An American

By Darryl Mason

It just makes your heart swell with Australian pride to discover that 'The Most Influential Australian Of All Time' actually turns out to be an American.

The Bulletin Magazine has oh-so-pomously decided that some ex-Australian media mogul named Rupert Murdoch deserves to be called 'The Most Influential Australian', despite the fact that he didn't think being an Australian citizen was worth as much as owning a few American television stations.

That Murdoch is ranked above deeply patriotic, committed, passionate Australians like Fred Hollows, Manning Clark, Jack Lang, Henry Lawson, Damien Parar and Banjo Patterson makes this Australian icon branding of Murdoch all the more absurd.

Murdoch gave up his Australian citizenship for the benefit of no-one but himself. It wasn't an act of charity or generosity, and he didn't do it for love. He did it for money and power and his own prestige.

He was told he couldn't own TV stations in the US unless he became an American citizen, and so he very quickly dumped his right to be called an Australian like it was a smelly old coat he could now afford to replace.

People risk their lives to try and get to this country to become Australian citizens, and often have to spend a few years in a detention centre before they are extended this honour. They swear allegiance to Australia and expect nothing but the right to call themselves Australian in return.

But Rupert Murdoch thought his Australian citizenship was worth LESS than....Fox News.

"I think that we're on the cusp of a better world," Murdoch said during a speech in Sydney yesterday. "A world of certainly very fast change, change which we can't all foresee except we know it's going to be tremendous."

The Murdoch News media empire were the chief cheerleaders of the War On Iraq, and his television network, newspapers, book publishers and radio shows were the loudest promoters of the 'Saddam's Got Nukes' myth.

His media empire has profited to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars from the 'War On Iraq' and are now whipping up further distrust and hatred of Muslims in anticipation of more big dollars coming from a War On Iran. It should come as no suprise that Murdoch's media attack dogs are now claiming 'Iran's Got/Wants Nukes'.

According to the Australian Prime Minister and the Australian Treasurer, Rupert Murdoch is also "a great Australian', a claim they've both made numerous times, knowing full well that Murdoch sold out his nationality simply to make more money.

Murdoch is neither "A Great Australian" or 'The Most Influential Australian Of All Time'.

He is an ex-Australian, by choice, and there's nothing more insidiously un-Australian than that.


The Full List Of The 100 Most Influential Australians

The Sydney Morning Herald decided to run the list, as it should have been run in The Bulletin - in alphabetical order.

We'll come back to discuss some of the people on this list later. Rupert Murdoch is certainly not the most controversial choice on the list, particularly when it includes an Australian serial killer and a colonial-era armed robber and cop slayer.

Dennis Altman sexual theorist

John Anderson philosopher

Eric Ansell rubber manufacturer

J.F. Archibald journalist and editor

Faith Bandler political activist

Lewis Bandt ute designer

Geoffrey Bardon art teacher

C.E.W. Bean journalist and war historian

Geoffrey Blainey historian

Thomas Blamey military commander

J.J.C. Bradfield civil engineer

Donald Bradman cricketer

Martin Bryant mass murderer

Arthur Calwell federal politician

Manning Clark historian

H.C. "Nugget" Coombs public servant

Alfred Deakin prime minister

Owen Dixon High Court judge

Peter Dombrovskis wilderness photographer

Don Dunstan state premier

Michael Durack cattle pioneer

Sydney Einfeld advocate

Elizabeth Evatt jurist

William Farrer wheat breeder

Howard Florey pathologist

John Flynn missionary

Margaret Fulton cookery writer

Eugene Goossens conductor

Al Grassby federal politician

Germaine Greer feminist

Reg Grundy television producer

Michael Gudinski music entrepreneur

Pauline Hanson federal politician

Henry Higgins industrial relations judge

Fred Hollows eye surgeon

Donald Horne journalist and academic

John Howard prime minister

William Hudson dam builder

Robert Hughes art critic

A.V. Jennings home builder

Peter Jensen Anglican archbishop

Fletcher Jones clothing manufacturer

Susannah Kable First Fleet convict

Paul Keating prime minister

Ned Kelly bushranger

Allan Kendall children's TV producer

Graham Kennedy television personality

Michael Kirby High Court judge

Jack Lang state premier

Henry Lawson poet and writer

Essington Lewis industrialist

Ben Lexcen yacht designer

Norman Lindsay artist and writer

Frank Lowy business leader

John Macarthur wool pioneer

Jean MacNamara health campaigner

Daniel Mannix Catholic archbishop

William McBride medical researcher

Robert Menzies prime minister

Kylie Minogue entertainer

John Monash general

Allan Moss banker

Jack Mundey environmentalist and unionist

Glenn Murcutt architect

Rupert Murdoch business leader

Sidney Myer retailer and philanthropist

Albert Namatjira painter

Garth Nettheim legal theorist

Sidney Nolan painter

Gustav Nossal medical institute director

Kerry Packer business leader

Damien Parer war photographer

Ruth Park writer

Henry Parkes politician

Banjo Paterson poet

Noel Pearson Aboriginal activist and lawyer

Charles Perkins Aboriginal activist

George Robertson bookseller and publisher

W.S. Robinson industrialist and mining financier

Eric Rudd oil explorer

B.A. Santamaria Catholic activist

James Scullin prime minister

Peter Sculthorpe composer

Peter Singer philosopher

John Singleton advertising guru

Dick Smith businessman and adventurer

W.E.H. Stanner anthropologist

Jessie Street suffragette

Charles Todd meteorologist and electrical engineer

Bertram Wainer abortion campaigner

Edna Walling garden designer

Shane Warne cricketer

Peter Weir filmmaker

WIlliam Wentworth explorer and politician

Patrick White writer

Gough Whitlam prime minister

Alec Wickham swimmer

David Williamson playwright

Tom Wills football code creator

Tim Winton writer