The Moral Of The Story

Thanks to John Richardson

Arrakis and Iraq- From Dune To The Dunes

Regime Change on the planet Arrakis... ring any bells? When the news about the President Bush's failure to control Iraq after the occupation came about, any reader of Frank Herbert's novel Dune would not be suprised. Herbert explained the ethical nobility implied in the Islamic approach to battle. His freedom fighters, the Feydakin, believed that sacrificing one life to ensure the deaths of many of the enemy was an extremely sensible and honourable way to fight a war. The higher the number of enemy deaths taken in an attack, the greater was the revererance bestowed on the self-sacrificing soldier

The similarities between Arrakis and Iraq in Herbert's are many. A desert only of value for what lay beneath its soil, which was a commodity considered a necessity by many civilisations, ruled by puppet regimes whose primary function was to maximise product output, ravaged by a failed change in ruler.

In the book, assisted by his sister, the Abomination Aliah (I kid you not) , deposed ruler Paul Atreides is assimilated into the indigenous culture, amd utilises his knowledge of both invading and local philosophies to successfully organise a revolution. He forces a society reliant on a precious commodity to become subservient in order to continue to function.

The homeland succes results in a massive Jihad that reshapes human existance to conform with the social mores of those who control the oil... er, I mean spice.

The fact that Frank Herbert wrote all this in the 1960's makes the similarites between the current situation in Iraq and the cirucmstances of the novel all the more impressive. I've wondered, right from the day of September 11 2001 whether any of the Bush Administration advisors had read the novel. Anybody who had would have an idea of what to expect when they invaded Iraq.

Nuclear Reactor For South Australia's Spaceport

Who's involved in an unexpected consortium proposal for a nuclear reactor at Woomera?

Australian foundation member of the International Nuclear Energy Acaa demy Professor Leslie Kememy has spearheaded a push for a reactor near South Australia's Spaceport, and a feasibility study for a three billion dollar reactor was being conducted.

Leslie, who told Adelaide's Advertiser that he had been hired by a consortium as a technical consultant, but declined to give their name

By any chance could this be relevant to using nuclear propulsion in extraterristrial excursions?

Acting Premier Foley rejected the proposal last night, but as the decision will no doubt be made at Federal level, he's piddling into the wind.

Portents

I'm concerned that Rupert Murdoch's mass market association of the date 6/6/06 to the antichrist may create an environment in which a psychological aberration might occur.

Lured by the advertising, here's what the moviegoer will see:
[from Wikipedia]

The premise of The Omen comes from the end times prophecies of fundamentalist Christianity. Unlike the Left Behind series, this movie had no obvious evangelistic intent and its reading of the prophecies is fairly superficial, using them only as a premise from which to build the larger plot. The story tells of the childhood of Damien Thorn, who was switched at birth with the murdered child of a wealthy American diplomat. Damien's family is unaware that he is actually the offspring of Satan and destined to become the Antichrist.

The Salem Statesman-Journal is reporting another high school threat.
[extract]

Classes are continuing as usual at Sprague High School after a note containing threatening language was found in a classroom at the school more than a week ago.

The note contained "disjointed words referring to the date 6/6/06 and made reference to the upcoming movie 'The Omen,'" said Salem police Lt. Dave Okada.

Law enforcement officials were called in to investigate after staff at the high school found the note in a classroom May 12.

Last week, principal Cheryl Bower sent a letter to parents alerting them of the handwritten note.

The note "made a threat against our school on June 6, 2006," Bower wrote in the letter.

"As with any threat, we are taking this note seriously," Bower wrote.

A Tale Of Two Cities

[from ABC South East SA]

With the headline “We’ll Join the Nuke Race,” the article in today’s paper reports that the mayor of Mount Gambier City, Steve Perryman, wants the city “considered in any debate on suitable sites for proposed nuclear power plants”.

But Perryman is fuming about the report.

“I won’t take credit for starting all this,” he told ABC South East this morning. “This is a case of a newspaper journalist wanting to make the news rather than report the facts.

“The context of the conversation was…that Portland appeared on a list of suitable sites and I was asked by the journalist at the Advertiser what my thoughts on nuclear power were for Mt Gambier.

“I iterated a number of times that I’m not advocating that Mt Gambier put its hand up and I’m not entitled to do that. I wouldn’t do that without first consulting with my council and also the community.

The Port of Portland is currently seeking a new CEO and a new Marketing Manager.

6/6/06: Denver Officials Totally Unconcerned

I can't think of any other rationale for this story having been written but that a reporter was briefed to "write anything about the date" Or is the author accusing city officials of complacency?

"666" sense: Date marked with caution While some say June 6, 2006, is a day to fear for its biblical significance, officials see little to dread. By Howard Pankratz Denver Post Staff Writer

With June 6, 2006, rapidly approaching, authorities in Colorado and elsewhere are carefully watching to see if that date - 6/6/06 - spurs demonstrations or violent activity. They are aware that 666 signifies the Mark of the Beast or the Antichrist to some organizations and believe June 6 is a date that could trigger problems. "It's been a conscious question among some of our folks, so they've been on the lookout for something," said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety. "But they haven't seen anything." Even so, some local police are being vigilant. "The bottom line is that our intelligence unit is familiar with 666 and its significance, but we don't have any information about anything taking place in Colorado Springs," said Lt. Rafael Cintron of the Colorado Springs Police Department. "However, we are certainly keeping our feelers out to see if anything is happening." Some dates and anniversaries can be calls to action for white supremacists, racists, and conspiracy and prophecy theorists. April 19, for example, is the anniversary of the raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas; the Oklahoma City bombing; and the raid on white separatist Randy Weaver's home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The Number of the Beast, 666, is mentioned in the Bible's book of Revelation and is believed by some to be when the Antichrist will exercise power over Earth. The Internet is full of websites that predict terrible things could happen June 6. One website warns that the "Bible Code says 2006 A.D. is the Year of the Beast" and predicts that the Antichrist will reveal himself. It also says there may be a holy war against Israel and that the United States and Russia would be drawn into a dangerous conflict as a result. Several major law enforcement agencies in the Denver metro area have seen no signs of trouble and aren't planning to beef up manpower. Since 1970, there have been 60 terrorist attacks on June 6, with just one in the U.S., according to the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism in Oklahoma City. Do you think the Denver Post article might have been used to "create evidence?" Note the last paragraph in the piece below: 6/6/6 – a devil of a day Those who look over their shoulders with trepidation every Friday the 13th might want to stay in bed on June 6, otherwise known as 6/6/06 - or 666, the Biblical number of the Beast. Hellish things are supposed to happen on this most auspiciously evil day: expect comets, earthquakes, war - well, more war - and the appearance of the Antichrist himself. Hokum? Certainly. But some people are taking it seriously. In the UK, according to religionnewsblog.com, some expectant mothers whose babies are due on June 6 have asked for caesareans and inductions beforehand. In America, authorities are aware of the potential of public disorder. "We are keeping our feelers out to see if anything is happening," said Lt Rafael Cintron of the Colorado Springs Police Department in The Denver Post.

The Rapture Index- A Barometer For Armageddon?

Froom the website:

The Rapture Index has two functions: one is to factor together a number of related end time components into a cohesive indicator, and the other is to standardize those components to eliminate the wide variance that currently exists with prophecy reporting.

The Rapture Index is by no means meant to predict the rapture, however, the index is designed to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture.

You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture.

Rapture Index of 85 and Below:  Slow prophetic activity
Rapture Index of 85 to 110:     Moderate prophetic activity
Rapture Index of 110 to 145:    Heavy prophetic activity
Rapture Index above 145:        Fasten your seat belts

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first ad in the automated Google box, when I first saw the site, was headed "Australian Terrorism Laws" . I kid you not !

Price Attack Attack

Not a slur on the chain, just the Arndale franchise operators. My ex-partner worked there as a hairdressfor a few weeks short of seven years, and was due for a pro-rata payment. Suddenly she's not sacked.. just has no more work.

You rotten bastards.

S.A. Gets Cosgrove Endorsement

It's a smart man that gets paid to sent defence construction to South Australia and then stays in Sydney.

[ABC]

The former head of the Australian military, General Peter Cosgrove, will lead South Australia's bidding for multi-million dollar defence contracts.

Premier Mike Rann has announced General Cosgrove as the new chairman of the state's Defence Advisory Board.

General Cosgrove helped restore order in East Timor in 1999 and named Australian of the Year in 2001.

He will remain based in Sydney but will visit South Australia regularly.

Speaking this morning from England, Mr Rann says General Cosgrove is an ideal choice for the role.

"We want to grow our defence jobs in South Australia from about 16,000 jobs up to 28,000 jobs within 10 years," he said.

"I can't think of anyone better than General Cosgrove to lead the push for South Australia."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This announcement from the Premier is not available from his website. The site has been closed for reconstruction since the election.

Dixie Chicked

When I first saw the Dixie Chicks at the Dallas State Fair in '96 I was in love. Ten years later, when they apologised for coming from the same state as George W Bush I was in love again.

These local gals, playing fiddle, banjo and tin whistle to their own country-based lyrics, caused a suprising tide of opinion. It probably wouldn't have been so dramatic if their record label, Columbia hadn't publically distanced itself from the girls' comments.

The public reacted differently than expected. Suddenly you couldn't get a ticket to a Dixie Chicks show. Then their song Travellin' Soldier, about a young girl mourning a Vietnam soldier, became, for a while, the most downloaded song on the internet.

The expression "to be Dixe Chicked" has entered the U.S. political lexicon as a fable of how not to take public opinion for granted.

The band has just announced the commencement of its "Accidents And Accusations" world tour, and I hope they're coming to Australia. Then we'll apologise to them for electing John Howard to give President Bush a hand

Austalia-India Uranium Trade Tied To Reactor Construction Contracts

I've highlighted the last sentence of this extract because it seems of particular signifigance to activity in Australia.

[from the Financial Express, poste 20/5/05]

MAY 19: Seeking to meet its rising energy demands, India may pay suppliers, including General Electric (GE) Co, Rs 1.8 trillion ($40 billion) to build nuclear reactors over the next 14 years, a government official said.

France’s Areva SA, Electricite de France and US-based Westinghouse Electric Co are among the possible providers of 25 to 28 reactors by 2020, chairman Nuclear Power Corporation of India, SK Jain said.

US President George Bush is seeking an end to the three-decade-old international ban on nuclear technology sales to India, prompted by its atomic bomb test in 1974.

India and China are leading a worldwide revival in atomic energy after oil and coal prices rose to record levels. Russia and Japan are among the nations that may lift sanctions on India and enter the contest for contracts to install 40,000 megawatts (mw) of capacity. This would be enough to supply electricity to four cities the size of New York.

‘‘We are very confident the deal and all agreements will go through,’’ Mr Jain said in an interview in Mumbai on Tuesday. ‘‘As an outcome of that, India will have access to the global nuclear technology market.’’

President Bush has asked the US Congress to end nuclear sanctions against India. US and other members of the so-called nuclear suppliers group, including France, Russia, Japan and Australia, are debating whether to lift their ban on exports of equipment and materials for atomic use to India.

India is turning to overseas nuclear-reactor builders after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh doubled the nation’s 2020 capacity target from an initial 20,000 mw. India’s homegrown atomic power programme won’t cope with the stepped-up construction plan, Mr Jain said.He addedthe programme was also limited because of a uranium shortage caused by the international embargo on sales of the reactor fuel. Once sanctions end, supplies of enriched uranium will be included in contracts to install reactors.

While at this stage having no evidence to authenticate the last claim, let's assume for now, even though this might not be the case, that international reactor constructors are including whole-of-life (that's 20,000-plus in uranium years) supervision and/or ownership of fission-fuel used on Indian soil.

If such were the case, placing of the waste in a repository would be on the agenda, which would be more difficult for a company that didn't already have a pre-arranged site when it made a tender to the Indian Government.

No matter which company wins I bet Halliburton will make a fortune in environmental impact assessments.

Who were the "officials' that Downer was relying on for his information last week? They need to be identified sooner rather than later

Kovco - Wrong Body Halliburton Contractor

The body sent to Australia in the place of a fallen soldier was that of a Halliburton contractor from Bosnia. The Kellogg, Brown and Root employee was finally buried last Friday, a month after he died.

Halliburton have indicated that they will pay compensation to the family of Juso Sunanovic, who the company claims died of a brain hemorrage while playing table tennis in Iraq.

The revelation is the latest in a situation filled with procedural errors. Pte Jake Kovco's body was moved from the scene of death before MP inspection on orders from the commander of Australian armed forces in Iraq despite an MP command that the location remain undisturbed for investigation purposes. After being ceremonially escorted to a waiting plaine, his body was accidentally substituted with that of the Halliburton employee.

A report of the incident was accidentally left by an Australian Brigadier at Melbourne airport, from where it felll into the hands of a local journalist.

A relative of the fallen Australian soldier, who works in the funeral industry, took care of the contractor's body until he was returned to his homeland.

Kovco's mother-in-law and father-in-law and Sunanovic's daughter have shared condolences this week on a Melbourne community radio station. Melbournes Radio for the Print Handicapped arranged for the two to talk.

We have thought of you a lot over the time and we know you're feeling the same way we are," David Small told Jasmina Sunanovic.

"And I think your Dad would just want you to get on with it. You know, do what you have to do and the same with your mother.

"Shelley (Pte Kovco's widow) will be all right and her two kids will be all right, but we just hope it doesn't happen to anyone again."

Up And Atom, It's Johnny Howard

It was extremely caring and sharing of the Bush Administration to wait till PM John Howard left U.S. airspace before introducing U.S.-India nuclear power legislation.

While the PM's been away, members of his cabinet have been loose in their talking, enough speculation to make journalists and bloggers realise that a scheme was a foot. Within 48 hours of the story breaking Mr Howard had released a repudiation of the concept that Australia would import nuclear waste.

In the U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair has pre-empted the announcement of a government nuclear inquiry's findings by endorsing an increase in the UK's generating capabilites by upgrading existing atomic energy plants

No Fitting Epitath: The New Kovco Bungles

I've gotten into lots of trouble over the Kovco scandal. Days before his body went missing I wrote that I beleived a cover-up was occurring. Everything I wrote after that landed me in more trouble. In spite of this I need to write down what follows:

Right now I cant' believe that not one but two officials, including the person who compiled the "accidentally leaked" the report weren't, at the very least, carrying out their actions with subconsiously compelled deliberateness.

Here's the timeline: Kovco is killied by a bullet. The body is moved before an MP investigation at the order of the commander in chief of Australian armed forces in Iraq. Kovco's body goes missing, the wrong coffin sent to Ausralia. The official version of his death is changed, and though we're told that he didn't die cleaning his gun, no other explanation is offered. Then the bullet (or maybe just its casing) goes missing and isn't provded with Kovco's remains to be examined by the NSW coroner.

Now we learn that a laptop containing the ADF's draft report into the farce has been left unattended at Sydney airport , and a CD that was left at Melbourne airport that eventually found its way to journalist Derryn Hinch.

When an extended member of the Kovco family (Shelley Kovco"s brother-in-law said tonight how you would not believe the situation if you saw it in episode of Fawlty Towers, I felt the edge of bitterness in his voice. It's been bungle after bungle after bungle.

It's not a fitting epitath to somebody who has faithfully served his country.

The fact that the ADF were so quick to apologise today totally changes my mind about many things. It now appears that everything that has transpired since the discovery of Kovco's death has been a total comedy of errors.

The ADF's speed in disclosing such self-damaging information is to be commended. However the loss of esteem within the Australian public that the latest revelations will create might be the final catalyst for our society beginning to question why our soldiers are engaged in the debacle of the invasion of Iraq

Goodbye Dubai, Hello Hobart

I've just heard that Michael Jackson has decided to move to Tasmania. Apparently he heard something on the news about freed miners.

(Chip, this one's your fault)

Rumours: A 6/6/06 Fable

PART ONE
By Chris Keegan - The Sun Staff

WOOD RIVER JCT. - Rumblings of a threat set to occur at Chariho schools on June 6 are the product of a "rumor mill," regional school officials said Wednesday.

During a morning press conference at Superintendent Barry J. Ricci's Switch Road office, district officials spoke candidly about the rumors in an effort to ease tension among parents and students.

The rumors revolve around a potential threat that could happen on the sixth day of June - a date that, when written as 6/6/06, indicates the number "666," a numeral associated with Satanic worship and the Antichrist.

About a month ago, Ricci said a parent contacted a social worker at the school campus with concerns that her child was having thoughts about demons and the meaning of the date.

"The call had nothing to do with violence, a gun or weapons," he said. "...The concerns were about the date and the fact that these elements might somehow appear in school."

But in the weeks that followed, Ricci said the rumors began to take on a life of their own. They began to involve firearms and stories that students could possibly do harm to themselves at school, he said.

Some high school students told The Sun on Tuesday that they thought the threat could potentially involve a bomb.

"It's gotten to the point where we need to clarify what's going on," Ricci said.

Ricci said all of the accounts, which first originated at Chariho High School, were investigated by administrators and by the Richmond Police Department. Student Resource Officer Jeff Vaughn - who is a Richmond patrolman - interviewed 17 high and middle school students related to concerns voiced by parents.

To date, not one rumor has been corroborated and no specific threats have been made, Ricci said.

"There has been no threat to a building or to staff that has been found to be credible," he said.

The Antichrist, by Lucas Cranach the Elder - 1521. During the time Cranach was under protestant Lutheran influence and therefore portrayed the Antichrist with the papal tiara. From Wikipedia

On Tuesday morning, first-period teachers at both Chariho Middle School and the high school read a statement to students addressing the rumors.

"Our school is committed to keeping all students and staff safe everyday," the statement reads. "Unfortunately, there have been rumors that might make students and staff feel unsafe. It is important that you know that these are simply rumors; there has been no threat to anyone's safety. Working with the police, we have investigated the rumors and will continue to investigate new information."

"If you have specific concerns or information, you should immediately report these to a trusted adult at school. In this way, you will be helping to keep our school safe for all."

High School Principal Robert A. Mitchell said the significance of June 6 is analogous to the hysteria that surrounds Adolf Hitler's birthday or the anniversary of the Columbine school shooting tragedy.

PART TWO (Website Ad)

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Make your voice heard: contact your Senator!

Leaders from Baptist, Jewish, Episcopalian, Catholic, Evangelical, Presbyterian, Orthodox, Latter Day Saints, Church Of God in Christ, and Lutheran traditions have all joined in one voice to call upon our representatives to protect marriage

Another Alexander Downer Fraud

When Australia announces that it will lease uranium to India, the deceptiveness and misleading nature of our Foreign Minister will again be revealed

Mr Downer appeared to be sticking to his principles last week when he issued a statement that Australia would not be selling uranium to India. In attempting to repudiate a story in the Australian claiming that a nuclear transaction would take place regardless of whether India signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. "Officials have told me that that's not correct" Mr Downer intoned.

In a way Downer was correct. The supply of nuclear fuel India will not be a sale. It will be a lease, and when the Indians have finished using the ore for peaceful purposes, the leftovers will be shipped back to Australia.

Days after Mr Downer made the denial of a sale our Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaille appeared on national television to introduce the concept of uranium leasing. Mr Vaille said that Australia had not yet been caled upon to make such arrangements.

Such abstract concepts would seem relatively meaningless were it not for the fact that they were made at a time when our Prime Minister was walking the halls of the White House. On Saturday Mr Howard met with Dick Cheney, the US Vice President who still receives two hundred thousand dollars a year from the company to which he gave a signifigant amount of privatised government jobs, including caring for the U.S. miltary wherever in the world they go. On Sunday our PM planted trees with President Bush in a public demonstration of mutuality in what Bush called "The Liberty War"

I'm going to risk the speculation that, by the end of this week, President Bush will make the request of Prime Minister Howard that Australia assists India in meeting its energy needs by allowing her to access our fourty per cent of known global uranium reserves. Mr Bush will also ask Mr Howard, in the name of peace, to safeguard the nuclear waste from possible use in warfare by bringing it home to Australia

The Australian Greens have been the first to notice what's about to happen Senator Christine Milne has suggested today that the Government should tell the truth.

[from The Age]

Greens senator Christine Milne said turning Australia into a dumping ground for spent nuclear fuel from India was unacceptable.

"If there is no safe disposal, there is no justification for mining in the first place," Senator Milne said in a statement.

She challenged the government to name where in Australia it intended to store any spent nuclear fuel from India, China, or elsewhere.

"(Mr) Howard and (Mr) Vaile should stop talking in code and admit that the motivation behind discussions with the US on the lease proposal is pure and simply to circumvent the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which prevents the export of uranium and nuclear technology to India,"
Senator Milne said.

"As such Australians should reject it."

Senator Milne went on to say that the Greens had campaigned for a
"cradle-to-grave" Australian responsibility for its uranium, adding
that "That is why, when there is no safe disposal for nuclear waste, it
is irresponsible to generate the product in the first place,"

"The world is already beset by terrorism. Nuclear waste on the high seas is a frightening prospect."

Senator Milne also said that Australia should respect the existing policy of a
nuclear free Pacific adopted by countries within the region.

Coming back to Minister Downer's comments last week, would it be fair to suggest that, in his position as representative of foreign affairs, Alex might have had more than an inkling of the topics that his leader was intending to discuss in Washington? In "telegraphing" the possibility of uranium leasing, Mr Vaille's words indicate that he at least knew what was going on. Two possibilities exist. The first is that Mr Downer has no idea of how his boss will be sorting out this important foreign policy issue. The second is that Downer knows exactly what is going on and is yet again attempting to mislead the Australian public.

Note the carefullness of Downers words of "officials have told me..." If this isn't the pre-creation of an escape clause I'll eat my (tin) hat. If Mr D is called a liar all he has to do is, in the same manner as his treatment of the AWB fiasco, claim that he was incorrectly advised. It astounds me that any Australian can still possess any shred of trust for the words of this man.

How would Mr Downer fare if interviewed duing a lie detector test. In March of this year the head of Australian Polygraph Services and the boss of Australian company The Podcast Service issued a public invitation to Alex for a free lie detector test.

Poly the Pollie” was launched in Melbourne today with the aim of
inviting Australian MPs to sit a policy-based lie detector test, conducted by Steve Van Aperen, Australian’s leading polygraph expert. Van Aperen is known throughoutAustralia as an expert in the field of interviewing and detecting deception. He has received extensive training from the world’s leading international investigative authorities in how and why people deceive
and has been affectionately named the “Human Lie Detector”.

[from Poly The Pollie]

Reilly said polythepollie.com on The Podcast Network would track responses from MPs and publish results.

“From time to time, we all suspect that politicians may not be
telling us the complete truth. In the past, we shrugged our shoulders
and accepted that lying was part of politics and that there was little
we could do about it. Well now we can,” he said.

“If I have a choice to vote for a politician who is prepared to
submit him or herself to a polygraph and one who is not, then I know
which one I will be voting for, and I think a lot of people will feel
the same way.

”Downer’s admission of knowledge about the Australian Wheat Board’s
dealings in Iraq is just one example. It’s time politicians were held
accountable for their actions.”

Long before the AWB inquiry there was a scare in the Australian media. Korean missiles might strike Sydney. A very quick response by those in the know showed the allegations to be baseless. However, this hasn't seemed to faze their author, Mr Guess Who.

We've been grumbling for years now about lack of ministerial accountablility, to no avail. How do we enforce our elected leaders to tell us the truth?

Australia To Become Nuclear Waste Dump- Now For Inda..

One of the main reasons for the Halliburton-built Adelaide to Darwin Railway now becomes apparent. If the Australian Government's mooted plans come to fruition, trains of imported nuclear waste trundling to repositories in the Australian outback will soon become a reality.

Halliburton have had a dual role in Australia, creating the tracks and providing environmental impact date for nuclear waste facilities.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard is expected this week to discuss "uranium leasing" with US President Bush. Under the plan, Australia's 40% of global uranium supplies would not be sold, but "hired out" to users, the waste returning to the Australian point of origin.

I believe that the plan will be used as a loophole for the problem of selling Aussie uranium to India. As that country is not a signatory to the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty, India cannot acquire Australian nuclear fuel for fear that it it might be used in atomic weaponry against Pakistan. However if India doesn't actually own the stuff, and the militariliy-useful waste is taken out of their hands, a fuel trade will no doubt be possible.

Any announcement will follow the visits to India of both President Bush and PM Howard, and discussions of the Indian dilemma between US Secretary of State Condileeza Rice and Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer.

Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaille said today that Australia had not yet been asked to utilise the uranium leasing concept. My bet is that Howard will receive a request from Bush later in the week.

A good puppeteer can do anythng with the right strings in his hands

Beyond the "Halliburton SurviviBall"

Beyond The "Halliburton SurvivaBall"

So. First of all, let's define our words: what do we mean when we say
"safety"? Well, for us in the corporate world, the most essential form
of safety is simply the safety to achieve what we need, as we need it, and how we need it.

Whether I'm in reconstruction, energy, manufacturing, or insurance, if
I'm taking a risk, I want the government's hand to be pulling me safely
over the obstacles, not laying obstacles in my way. I want to be safe
to minimize the risk to my investments as I see fit, without being told
what's right and what's wrong.

Insurance firms are also concerned with safety, another form of it, a special-case definition: the safety of people. Because their own safety depends so much on that special form
of safety, insurance has become quite worried about some grave new
dangers to people that we're seeing in the world around us. I'm talking
about climate change and the "natural" disasters it brings.

Indeed, the numbers could look frightening. In the 1950s insurance had to pay 4 billion dollars per year for disasters. Now it pays about 40 times that, or $150 billion
each year. And it's getting worse; Munich Reinsurance has written that "climatic
change will lead to natural catastrophes of hitherto unknown force and
frequency" triggering losses of "many hundreds of billions of dollars
per year."

To make things worse, there are some who believe that this is only the
start. In nature, things often change very suddenly, and scientists
feel that the things we've seen so far may be minor compared to what could happen.

For example, Arctic melt has slowed the Gulf Stream by 30% in just the
last decade; if the Gulf Stream stops, Europe will become just as cold
as Alaska.

Or it could go the other way - methane released from melting permafrost
could cause a heating cycle making human life unliveable outside
air-conditioned hotels like this one.

Or, as the oceans heat up and expand, ice sheets could slip off Antarctica - meaning most of the earth's major cities will flood!

Even if none of this happens, some scientists tell us the changes we're
likely to see could greatly increase disease and migration, and could
exacerbate growing tensions within our societies possibly to the point
of civic unrest or even war.

This sort of thinking has even influenced some insurers. Lloyd's of
London has stated that climate change could easily bankrupt the entire
insurance industry, and Munich Re suggests it could topple global
capital markets as a consequence. [*]

Given the science, these worries cannot be called unreasonable. But panicking isn't the answer.

If we panic and try to stop climate change, 70% of carbon emissions will have to stop. That'll be a huge blow to our way of doing business: government intervention will become the rule, and we'll have thrown out the baby with the bathwater.

To remain profitable in a macroscopic loss situation, we must integrate disaster into our global business vision, and not allow immediate dangers to interfere with our general, longer-term concept of safety.

We at Halliburton, for example, assure our safety not despite, but via the ambient danger - in reconstruction, relocation of refugees,
peacekeeping. These arenas are synergistic: where there's conflict,
there's reconstruction; where there are refugees, there's conflict;
where there's conflict or reconstruction, there are bound to be
refugees.

Sometimes danger presents broad new opportunities. In New Orleans, for example,
Katrina pruned the city, removing people from economic black holes and allowing a redevelopment process that's gratifying for all of us.
Although real estate values plummeted immediately following the
disaster, much commercial real estate is already over its pre-storm values.

While we don't suggest that everyone make climate change the core of their business plan, I can personally guarantee you that level heads will always be able to turn lemons into lemonade.

Consider the Black Plague, an unspeakably rotten event in which one third of Europe's population died in great agony. No one would wish such a thing on any civilization. Yet without the Black Plague, the
old business models of medieval Europe would never have been overturned by the entrepreneurs of the Renaissance. What would the world be without the Mona Lisa?

Or closer to home, how about the Great Deluge? This world-ending disaster was surely seen as a terrible catastrophe by Noah's contemporaries, and even by Noah
himself. Yet Noah was ready to seize the day, and at the end of that day, not only was there a whole new world, but Noah found himself with a monopoly of the animals. Not a bad deal!

Unfortunately, things aren't as simple for us as they were for Noah. God isn't telling us what kind of an ark we should build, nor how to deploy it - but luckily Science can fill in the blanks, and Science tells us that what
we're doing in the world today will lead to much more flooding,
drought, hurricanes, tornadoes, or even worse, with consequences
including epidemics, human migration, civic unrest and even war.

But as Warren Buffet, the oracle of Omaha, so astutely said: you must
follow “the Noah rule: predicting rain doesn't count, building arks
does.

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The above words are from an otherwise fairly accurat copy of Halliburton's website. The presentation speech was given as the introduction of a new concept in corporate survival, the "Halliburton SurvivaBall"........

"The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no
matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way," said Fred Wolf, a
Halliburton representative who spoke today at the Catastrophic Loss
conference held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island, Florida.
"This technology is the only rational response to abrupt climate
change," he said to an attentive and appreciative audience.

Most scientists believe global warming is certain to cause an
accelerating onslaught of hurricanes, floods, droughts, tornadoes,
etc. and that a world-destroying disaster is increasingly possible.
For example, Arctic melt has slowed the Gulf Stream by 30% in just
the last decade; if the Gulf Stream stops, Europe will suddenly
become just as cold as Alaska. Global heat and flooding events are
also increasingly possible.

In order to head off such catastrophic scenarios, scientists agree we
must reduce our carbon emissions by 70% within the next few years.
Doing that would seriously undermine corporate profits, however, and so
a more forward-thinking solution is needed.

At today's conference, Wolf and a colleague demonstrated three
SurvivaBall mockups, and described how the units will sustainably
protect managers from natural or cultural disturbances of any
intensity or duration. The devices - looking like huge inflatable
orbs - will include sophisticated communications systems, nutrient
gathering capacities, onboard medical facilities, and a daunting
defense infrastructure to ensure that the corporate mission will not
go unfulfilled even when most human life is rendered impossible by
catastrophes or the consequent epidemics and armed conflicts.

"It's essentially a gated community for one," said Wolf.

Dr. Northrop Goody, the head of Halliburton's Emergency Products
Development Unit, showed diagrams and videos describing the
SurvivaBall's many features. "Much as amoebas link up into slime
molds when threatened, SurvivaBalls also fulfill a community
function. After all, people need people," noted Goody as he showed an
artist's rendition of numerous SurvivaBalls linking up to form a
managerial aggregate with functional differentiation, metaphorically
dancing through the streets of Houston, Texas.

The conference attendees peppered the duo with questions. One asked
how the device would fare against terrorism, another whether the
array of embedded technologies might make the unit too cumbersome; a
third brought up the issue of the unit's cost feasibility. Wolf and
Goody assured the audience that these problems and others were being
addressed.

"The SurvivaBall builds on Halliburton's reputation as a disaster and
conflict industry innovator," said Wolf. "Just as the Black Plague
led to the Renaissance and the Great Deluge gave Noah a monopoly of
the animals, so tomorrow's catastrophes could well lead to good - and
industry must be ready to seize that good."

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The site and the presentation were concocted by notorious"identity correctors" and media activists The Yes Men

Doctor Who Wins UK Best Drama Award

Doctor Who is Bafta award winner

What I like to do on Saturday nights

The BBC's Doctor Who and Bleak House have triumphed at the British Academy Television Awards.

They each won two awards at the London ceremony, including best drama series for Doctor Who, and best drama serial.

Doctor Who's Billie Piper, who plays the Time Lord's sidekick Rose Tyler, accepted the award for best drama series on stage with a dalek.

The BBC One programme also took the Pioneer Audience Award, which was voted for by TV viewers, which Piper described as "a treat".

Source: BBC News

Downer The Film Censor

From News.com.au

FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer has admitted he was a behind a decision to withdraw funds from an Indonesia film festival, leaving organisers in the lurch on the eve of its opening night.

Last December, the government pulled funding from the Jakarta International Film Festival because it objected to the screening of some movies.

On the eve of the festival, organisers were told they would not be receiving the $16,000 promised by the Australia-Indonesia Institute (AII).

The AII, a government-funded body set up to promote friendship between the two countries, had sponsored the festival in previous years.

In response to a question on notice asking who made the decision to withdraw funding at the last minute, Mr Downer said: "I did."

Mr Downer demonstrates his new karake technique

The World Socialist Web Site reported last December that:

The Australian films in question are: The President versus David Hicks, which exposes the illegal detention of Australian citizen David Hicks in Guantánamo Bay; Garuda’s Deadly Upgrade, about the murder of Indonesian human rights campaigner Munir Said Thalib; Dhakiyarr versus the King, a documentary on the murder trial and subsequent disappearance of Aboriginal leader Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda over 70 years ago; and We Have Decided Not To Die, an 11-minute short about three individuals who escape death in a number of different and unusual ways. Indonesian censors had cleared all four films for the festival.

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It's a bloody good thing that Downer doesn't watch Doctor Who....

Hicks' UK Citizen Rights Upheld

He's a step closer.. David Hicks right to British citizenship has been upheld by the UK courts.

A final appeal against Hick's eligibility has been rejected, clearing all legal barriers against Hicks claim.

The application for UK citizenship was made after a chance remark made by the Adelaide-resident Guantanemo inmate to his military lawyer, while discussing the Ashes cricket game in London, that his mother was British.

David's father Terry said from Adelaide today that the only real barrier for his son now was that it would be difficult for him to take the citizenship oath while being held in Guantanemo.

The UK Government successfully asked for all of its citizens to be removed from the Halliburton-constructed detention facility and returned to their own land. If Hicks is granted UK citizenship it is expected that his case would fall into the same category.

This would give the Bush Administration no other option but to let their prisoner go.

It's a crying shame that Australia hasn't lifted a finger to help him.

A President Against War

This piece is an edited and reordered version of Nine New's David Brent's account of an interview with the President of Costa Rica, a country with no army and, according to Brent, " one of the highest levels of literacy and healthcare in the world. There is much more to read here- I edited only to emphasise certain points, endeavouring nott to change the piece's sentiment.

Australia and the world could soon be hearing a lot more from Oscar Arias because he says he'll intensify his fight against nations increasing their defence budgets when he is inaugurated as his country's president next week.

"This is about doing what is right. While we have countries continuing to spend on wars, it will be impossible to eradicate poverty," he says.

In an interview, he explains that to the country he'll soon be caretaker of again, people are more important than arms. "All the money that would have gone to maintaining an army, which we have not had since 1949, is spent on education and health. When we talk about national security in our country, we talk about public health. That is the essence of security."

Oscar Arias says it's also important to look at the big picture because the 'war on terrorism' should be put in the context of human security. "War is not just an evil act of destruction, it is a missed opportunity for humanitarian investment. It is a crime against every child who calls out for good rather than for guns. Military spending represents the single most significant perversion of global priorities known today, claiming more than 780 billion dollars. If we channelled just five percent of that figure over the next 10 years into anti-poverty programs, all of the world's population would enjoy basic social services. Another five percent, or 40 billion dollars, over 10 years would provide all the people on this planet with an income above the poverty line for their country."

He is now 65 and only a bit greyer than when he won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for brokering a plan which brought an end to wars raging throughout Central America, including civil war in Nicaragua. At the time he was president of Costa Rica and won peace through dialogue, not weapons.

Fourteen countries have now followed Costa Rica's example and demilitarised through constitutional amendments. Twenty-eight nations now have no armies. When presented with our defence and education figures, Oscar Arias isn't impressed.

Agonies Of A "Conspiracy Theorist"

I'm having an ethical crisis. Over the last couple of years I've been looking in shadows for details, and now I'm wondering if it's a current-affairs equivalent of a meerschacht test.. you know, when a pychologist shows a patient ink-blobs and analyses their interpretaion. I'd read, seen and heard things and added them to pieces of information I knew, and become convinced that the answer I came up with was correct. In blind faith I've looked for proof of my "deductions" and broadcast my fears to the best of my ablities.

When I started looking at Halliburton I became pretty lonely. I'd been shocked to learn, at the time of the Adelaide-Darwin railway that the same company doing so much work in Australia was also involved in such a global levels of U.S. military support, from troop support in Iraq to global provision of support and provision for American bases. I couldn't understand why I felt like the only person in the world to be worried. I concluded that Australia had undergone it's own invasion and regime change by corporate means in order to propagate U.S. necessities I started to collect an overview to prove that I was right. That was a year ago. I invite you to skim the glossary I've gathered under the heading of "Halliburton Down Under, Above And Beyond."

When the U.S. gave as one of its prime motives for invading Iraq the fact that Saddam was creating Weapons Of Mass Destruction to use against the West, I assumed that this was propaganda to support the philosophies of the neocon think-tank Project For A New American Century.

When the London transport bombings violated a city population's sense of safety, the combination of UK Foregn Secretary Jack Straw repeating the phrase that the attack bore "all the hallmarks of Al Qaeda" first used by Tony Blair in the wake the Twin Towers Attack I assumed it was a hoax, along the lines of Operation Northwood (the US military's plan to entice American support of an invasion of Cuba by using American snipers to kill Cuban nationals in Florida and blame Castro) that had been instigated by the "West" to fuel a war with the military objective of creating profit for US corporations.

Then President Bush, in response to a question on whether the rise in terrorism and the war in Iraq where signs of the oncoming of the Apocalypes, launched into a speech on how he would "use military might to protect our ally, Israel" from Iran. I automatically assumed that Bush, on behalf of Western society, was planning to "damage control" Armageddon by precipitating a controlled version of the prophecies.

More recently, after an Australian-resident University Of Baghdad Professor Of Agriculture was gunned down while attempting to re-enter the Green Zone, I suggested that his death might be the silencing of someone with the potential capacity to considerably damage the Australian Government. I had as my "precedent" the death of Adelaide-based journalist/operative Paul Moran.

Yesterday an explosion ripped apart a building in Adelaide, and I naturally assumed that being so close to the Mark Of The Beast date of 6/6/06 (which FOX is using to launch a remake of "The Omen") it was the bomb that heralded Adelaide's engagement in the Apocalypse. As the day wore on and the truth of the matter evolved, I realised I was totally and utterly wrong.

I'm sitting here today wondering if I've spent the last three years in a state of paranoid delusion. Is everything I've believed and "deduced" based on self-fabricated trains of thoughts? Am I the "conspiracy theorist" that oh-so-many people believe me to be?

What if something I've written spurs someone else to find the evidence that I can't? That has always been my hope, and it now seems a wild one, yet it's been a major source of self-vindication while I've justified a gathering sense of foreboding about the situation the world finds itself in. This cornerstone of self-belief is also far from as strong as it once was.

I'd like to believe that I've been right, and seem to keep on encountering situations that "feel wrong". I know that there have been details of evidence that support my hypotheses, but these are far from any chain of proof. Does that mean that I should wait for a supportive "defence case" before I spout my beliefs and convictions? I couldn't win a high school debate with the number of proven "givens" that I've gathered, so what right do I have to attempt to convince "society-at-large" to believe me?

The Mark Of The Beast, Murdoch-Style

Cashing in on 6-6-06

By Susan Carpenter, Times Staff Writer
LA Times April 24, 2006

Anyone living and driving in L.A. the past few weeks has seen them. Looming over the city, black and ominous, the billboards and posters announce "You Have Been Warned" and "The Signs Are All Around You." Each is anchored with the date "6/6/06."
Drop the "0," and you get 666. That's "the number of the beast," according to the New Testament's Book of Revelation, just one of many interpretations though all of them are dark and frightening. For some Armageddon believers, it represents the date upon which the Antichrist will spread universal evil over the Earth.


For marketers, 666 has also become an ideal date — to launch movies, records, books and other products or events, particularly those with religious undertones. In the case of 20th Century Fox, which is responsible for the omnipresent apocalyptic ad campaign, it's a once-in-a-century opportunity to unleash the remake of "The Omen,"