Month: March 2007

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Kangaroo court gags Hicks

David Hicks gagged

Playing along with the criminal United Stupids government in order to come home to Asstralia post haste, Hicks has acquiesced to a laughable token 9 month sentence in addition to time already served, with a total 7 year sentence, provided he shuts his mouth for a year and withdraws claims he was mistreated by the torturing septics.

He will serve his time in Australia under a plea deal and must arrive in Australia before May 29, 2007.

This means he’ll be free at the end of December 07, after the next federal election. The rodent will be able to lie that he has supported a Asstralian citizen’s rights whilst protecting the infantile Whorestralian public from the Hicks menace.

Terry Hicks however pointed out that

his son was forced to undergo a plea-bargain and his case was never properly tested in court.

“Nobody will ever know what the evidence was.”

Hicks home soonAnd that’s how opaque, dictatorial regimes like it.

Greens leader, Bob Brown foresees the action to come:

“However the minute Hicks arrives in Australia, our legitimate justice system kicks into action. It may hold some nasty shocks for the Howard government which has endorsed this illegal process at Guantanamo Bay.”

Hicks is bound by the “court” orders consequent to his plea bargain which have been strongly criticised by civil rights lawyers:

They were especially critical of the order forbidding Hicks from protesting any mistreatment, saying such a requirement would be unconstitutional in a civilian US court.

“If the United States were not ashamed of its conduct, it wouldn’t hide behind a gag order,” said Ben Wizner, staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

“The agreement says he wasn’t mistreated. Why aren’t we allowed to judge for ourselves?”

David Hicks guilty of being fatTerry Hicks commented

“The Americans made David sign a paper to say he was never abused… when we knew he has been – David told us.”

…

Mr Hicks said David would have to think about whether he would want to tell his story.

“Once David’s home he’ll have time to think about that,” he said.

“Who knows, he may want to change his mind.”

We can but hope so … we can be pretty certain the rodent will attempt to capitalise on a silenced Hicks’ misfortunes to boost his woeful electoral position.

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Toxic GE corn – Monsanto

Cane Toad Dreams

Monsanto attempted to suppress test study data which when independently evaluated by a French team from the University of Caen after Greenpeace was successful in obtaining a court order to release the data, showed rats fed the GE corn experienced higher levels of liver and kidney toxicity.

The same data was available to the national regulator, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), in 2004 yet FSANZ failed to assess it, relying solely on Monsanto’s analyses which, according to Professor Seralini, “do not stand up to rigorous scrutiny”.

…

The study results were published last week in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. The study was headed by Professor Gilles Eric Seralini, a French government scientist and expert in GE technology from the University of Caen. His team of experts analysed the results of safety tests submitted by the world’s largest genetic engineering company, Monsanto. The study found that “with the present data, it cannot be concluded that GM corn MON863 is a safe product”.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) based its assessment of the GE corn on Monsanto’s advices, declaring it safe for humans.

FSANZ had access to the test data (on which the new study was based) back in 2004 and still gave this toxic corn the okay.

An historical chronology of Monsanto’s deception and subsequent revelations can be downloaded here with an indepth fact sheet here.

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Saudi King lectures the Coalition of the Gobbling

True Love of Oil, Profits and Israel

At a two day summit in Riyadh aimed at pushing the Arab peace plan for Israel and Palestine, in a significant about face, the Sauds have rounded on the incompetent Coalition of the Gobbling warmongers.

Saudi King Abdullah, whose country is a close US ally, slammed Wednesday the “illegitimate foreign occupation” of Iraq in an opening speech to the annual Arab summit in Riyadh.

“In beloved Iraq, blood is being shed among brothers in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and ugly sectarianism threatens civil war,” Abdullah said.

He also said that Arab nations, which are planning to revive a five-year-old Middle East peace plan at the summit, would not allow any foreign force to decide the future of the region.

What will be the reaction of the United States to such impudence? The original neocon plan called for the transformation of the middle east using Saudia as a pivot to democratise the region, with Egypt the eventual prize. Saudia is thus throwing a big spanner in the works by projecting its power and biting the hand that feeds it.

Saudi leaders are keen to promote the beleaguered Sunni cause in Iraq, which is presently endangered by overwhelming Shite power, including within the Shite dominated and United States’ backed puppet Iraqi government. The summit is expected to adopt a resolution calling for more power sharing with the former Sunni elite.

The Iraqi government has immediately dug in its heels, telling the Sauds they

did not need a “diktat” from the Arabs on how to amend its constitution and boost national reconciliation.

The Arab League wants to resume negotiations with Israhell, offering normalisation for acceptance of terms including withdrawal of all land occupied in 1967, the creation of a Palestinian state and return of Palestinian refugees.

Despite mutterings from Israeli officials about the Arab plan being a “starting point”, it is likely that rightwing Israeli zealots who, with the support of Doodoo bush and the Israel first lobby, will insist on retaining lands they have stolen through warfare. Acceptance of the right of return of refugees driven from their land in the Nakba catastrophe in 1948 is seen by the Israeli rightwing, religious nuts and fanatical settler movement as tantamount to destruction of their pariah apartheid state, despite the clear legal basis for such return under international law.

At the summit, Hamas is calling for an end to the western boycott of Palestine and is seeking financial support from the Arab states to the tune of $2.7b.

Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud Al Faisal projected firmness, warning Israel

not to expect any further diplomatic overtures, telling a British newspaper: “What we have the power to do in the Arab world, we think we have done.”

“If Israel refuses [the plan], that means it doesn’t want peace and it places everything back in the hands of fate. They will be putting their future not in the hands of the peacemakers, but in the hands of the lords of war.”

And that, my friends, will suit the Netanyahooites and religious zealots down to the ground, to the detriment of Israel’s future security and prosperity.

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Hicks pleads guilty to sham court

David Hicks pleads guiltyAccording to David Hicks’ dad, Terry, his son has taken the go home card offered by his jailers, pleading guilty to providing material support to terrorists “because he was desperate to escape five years of ‘hell’ in Guantanamo Bay” and return to Whorestralia.

During his Kafkesque incarceration, whilst awaiting charges to be concocted by the United Stupids military kangaroo court, Hicks has maintained his innocence.

He decided to plead guilty yesterday to one count of material support of terrorism at a late-night, unscheduled hearing of the military commission, after an apparent deal between his defence team and the prosecution.

It’s likely he will serve any sentence in a maximum security prison in South Asstralia and be home before the federal election.

The reprehensible rodent characteristically applauded Hicks’ plea as “a vindication of the military commission process”, whilst to his credit, Nat’s renegade senator Barnaby Joyce commented

“The only thing that is guilty here is the judicial process under which he was being tried.”

US war criminalsTerry and David’s sister Stephanie flew home from Guantanamo

despite being told as the aircraft was on the tarmac that Hicks was about to plead guilty. Mr Hicks had flown in earlier in the day and spent several hours with his son. They both cried. It was their first contact in more than two years.

Terry Hicks said: “He knows that John Howard and the Government is frightened that he will do something when he gets back. What the hell is he going to do? He did nothing in Afghanistan … His main aim is to come back to Australia, see his kids, and settle down.”

Blaming the Australian government for pressuring his son to plead guilty, Terry said

“They demonised him, they pre-judged him for five years. I suppose Mr Howard would be throwing his hands up with glee at the moment but as far as I’m concerned this was a way out for David regardless of whether he was guilty or innocent, we’ll never ever know now.”

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A big tree attracts the gale – old Chinese proverb

“A good heavy book holds you down. It’s an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic.” – Roy Blount, Jr.

Amandarin Grindstone comes out with more detail about her language acquisition expenditure, admitting that

taxpayers had in fact picked up a $54,000 bill for her Mandarin lessons and speech coaching.

Amandarin EconomisesThus, perhaps her interpreter costs would be $16,000 out of the original $70,000 said to be involved in her Chinese diplomatic linguistic efforts.

“If money had been spent for somebody to come in and just give me tutoring in a language so that I could order a gin and tonic, or go to a restaurant and order a meal, that would be fair enough to complain,” she told media outlets.

“But that’s not what it is, it’s helping with speech preparation and things”.

Does Amandarin enjoy her gin and tonics as much as she obviously does her tucker?

We await the discoveries of her Immigration ministry successor, Kevin Andrews, who is conducting

a full search for all receipts, bills, invoices and other documents relating to his predecessor’s training in the Chinese, or any other, language.