Australia “should not face intimidation from so-called allies under the auspices of defense cooperation,” said one advocate.
Source: ‘So Irresponsible’: US Condemned for Warning Australia Against Joining Anti-Nuclear Treaty
Category: Australian Shame
Do they know or recognize their own hypocrisy?
Last October, an Australian Zionist youth movement opened a Zoom call for its young leaders with an “Acknowledgement of Country.” The group, in which I’d been active as a teenager and which had invited me to speak about my anti-occupation activism in the U.K. and Palestine-Israel, recognized the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation as the traditional owners of the land, paid tribute to elders past and present, and affirmed that “sovereignty was never ceded.”
Source: You can’t oppose settler colonialism in Australia while endorsing it in Palestine
Australia is good at lying to itself. It’s done it for years over racism and misogyny. Are we going to kid ourselves that we are a fair, progressive, intelligent nation while allowing the manipulation of truth, as identified by George Orwell, to run rampant? How far are we willing to go? Perhaps fostering hate to the point that people feel that it is OK to kill? Allowing the entitled to destroy our democracy, as nearly happened in America over recent weeks? How far Australia, how far?
How many lies are too many lies? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Now, part of this unique environment could be developed to become one of Earth’s biggest offshore oil fields, with a string of about six Australian and international oil companies lined up to drop exploratory drills into its sea floor in search of fossil fuels.
Despite its relative obscurity, it is estimated to generate $10 billion each year for the Australian economy through fisheries and tourism. That’s about 50 per cent more than its more famous cousin, the Great Barrier Reef.
It is becoming known as the Great Southern Reef.
Australia’s Catholic church is threatening to fire teachers, nurses and other employees who marry their same-sex partner if gay marriage is legalised, in a dramatic move led by the country’s most senior Catholic.
Source: Married Sunday, fired Monday: Churches threaten to dismiss staff who wed same-sex partners
Objective facts are no longer able to influence public opinion. Look no further than Australia’s offshore detention program in post-truth terms.
Source: The era of post-truth: Look no further than Manus and Nauru
At a symposium in Brisbane this week, Indigenous activists and historians deplored the failure to recognise the lasting effects of the state’s bloody past
Nearly a year after Tony Abbott announced the additional humanitarian intake, only 2,000 have been taken in
Australia resettles only a sixth of promised Syrian refugee intake | Australia news | The Guardian
“It tastes like Venison. There are parts of the head and the neck which we sliced and fried with a bit of butter, it’s very tasty.”
I joined the Australian Army in 1994 when I had just turned 18. It was a last-minute decision, and not something I had given much thought to growing up on Gomeroi country. I was finishing High School and had very few options about what to do next – all I knew was that I didn’t want to go back to Moree. So with that, I jumped on a bus to a recruits’ training school and jumped off at Kapooka Army Barracks to the yelling and screaming of drill sergeants like a scene from ‘Full Metal Jacket’.
Source: Danny Teece-Johnson: A lesson in racism care of the Australian Army | NITV
“Australia is frozen in time,” is the view of one of the nation’s top mathematicians, Nalini Joshi.
Source: Top Sydney University mathematician Nalini Joshi laments gender discrimination
Baby Samuel’s parents earmarked him for great things, but soon he may be returned to Nauru, where the future looks bleak.
Source: The faces of the babies Australia wants to send back to ‘hell’ on Nauru
There is no place on the globe to escape the opprobrium and embarrassment generated by Australia’s uniquely hamfisted prime minister, writes IA’s French correspondent Alan Austin. Mon dieu!
SHAMELESS, insensitive, outrageous, incredibly racist, intransigent, shameful, disrespectful, lacking humanity and completely disconnected from reality. These are just some of the loathsome labels attached to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, as the world’s media again shakes its head in collective disbelief and mild abhorrence.
The Gulf News in Dubai was typically blunt:
‘Australia’s increasingly controversial Prime Minister Tony Abbott has blundered into yet another self-inflicted disaster with a deeply insensitive and racist comment about Australia’s Aboriginals when he defended his government’s decision to remove subsidies from more than 150 remote communities.’
Journals covering this latest dismal display of discrimination Downunder include top mastheads. In France Le Monde and Le Figaro ran prominent stories, as did 7sur7, Le Petit Journal and others.
Le Monde opened with this:
‘The latest outburst from Tony Abbott, already troubled by catastrophic polls, caused uproar in the country, including within the government.’
It quoted Aboriginal Affairs minister Nigel Scullion admitting Abbott’s comment was “a mistake.”
Le Petit Journal was equally direct:
‘A new blunder of the Prime Minister, criticized even in his own camp on his intransigence and lack of humanity.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vUZY4toupI0
Abbott’s consistently bad press since his multiple embarrassments at Davos in January last year continued across Europe.
Portugal’s Expresso labelled Abbott’s statements as ‘ofensivas e inapropriadas’ — offensive and inappropriate.
It noted that Australia’s Constitution
‘… does not recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait islands people as the first to inhabit the country.’
The story in Germany’s Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung claimed Abbott’s ‘outrageous’ remarks about Aboriginal Australians ‘einen Sturm der Entrüstung ausgelöst’ — triggered a storm of indignation.
Spain’s Radio Intereconomia reminded its audience of some pertinent history:
‘More than two thirds of Aborigines, representing 1.6 percent of the population of over 23 million people, live in poverty and were victims of discriminatory policies for decades. Only in 1962 was their right to vote recognized. It took many years to achieve other claims, such as the 2008 apology by the State for past official policies which separated tens of thousands of Aboriginal children from their parents.’
Switzerland’s German-language Neue Zürcher Zeitung quoted Amnesty International’s objections to the community closures on the grounds that this:
‘… was not only a breach of international law, but also counterproductive.’
Abbott’s disappointing three day week in Arnhem Land http://www.independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/tony-abbotts-three-day-week-in-arnhem-land,6924#.VCn_MIbOBG8.twitter … @IndependentAus It was all a very expensive blatant PR exercise
Tony Abbott’s disappointing three day week in Arnhem Land 
NZZ also highlighted the hypocrisy of Abbott’s public relations trips to remote communities:
‘Apparently his intent to govern Australia for one week each year in the bush, has not led to Australia’s indigenous people feeling better represented.’
Le Nouvelliste, a French-language Swiss journal, also noted that top adviser on Indigenous affairs Warren Mundine was stunned – ‘abasourdi’ – at Abbott’s call:
‘”These people live on their original lands. This is their life, their essence, their culture,” Mundine said.’
Britain’s Telegraph described Abbott’s comments as shameless and insensitive, and quoted indigenous leaders Mundine and Noel Pearson and various MPs.
It added that:
‘Mr Abbott, a London-born no-nonsense conservative, has become known for his propensity for embarrassing gaffes …’
Pearson and Mundine expressing ‘shock at the tone of Mr Abbott’s words’ appeared also in The Irish Times.
Elsewhere across the world, similar dismay was expressed loud and clear.
In Mexico, Contacto Hoy quoted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda, saying that community closures would provoke an exodus to the peripheries of cities and only worsen “the situation [which] is already bad”.
Hoy Venezuela reported ‘una ola de críticas’ – a wave of criticism – following Abbott’s comments.
It continued:
‘Australian Indigenous peoples are the poorest in the nation, with shorter life than other citizens, and who suffer disproportionate levels of incarceration and social problems such as unemployment.’
New Caledonia’s French-language Nouvelle Caledonie quoted film director Rolf de Heer saying Tony Abbott:
“… demonstrated such ignorance that he is no longer legitimate as prime minister.”
It also referred to ‘criticism in his own camp’ and Bill Shorten’s accusation that Abbott is “left in the 1950s”.
New Zealand’s media highlighted support for the remote Australian communities from Māori leaders.
Māori Television’s website quoted Māori MP Peeni Henare saying:
‘… that if Aboriginal people are ripped from their communities they will lose their identity.’
It added:
‘He says he feels for the Aboriginal people in Australia and moving them out of their communities will be detrimental for them, just as it was for the identity of many Māori who are thrust into cities and lost among the masses and eventually forgotten.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fE0wLTKRxqM
In Malaysia and Indonesia, articles pillorying the hapless Australian PM and equally inept Foreign Minister have become almost daily fare.
Malaysia’s Sin Chew Daily headed its report ‘Fury as Australia PM calls Aboriginal communities a “lifestyle choice”.’
It reported extensive criticism of the PM, ‘including that he was unfit to be leader’.
Similar pieces ran right across Asia, including in The Malaysian Insider, Free Malaysia Today, The Malaysian Digest, Indonesia’s Kompas and Viva, Tribun Pekanbaru, The Japan Times, New Delhi TV, International Business Times and elsewhere.
Following hard on widespread derision over the knighthood to Prince Philip, this confirms Tony Abbott has now replaced former Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi as the object of global media ridicule.
Even Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal in the USA felt obliged to report the
‘… furor over [Abbott’s] comments suggesting people living in remote Outback communities are making a “lifestyle choice”.’
Naturally, this piece emphasised Abbott’s admirable intentions and his wonderful history of direct involvement with the communities.
The WSJ concluded:
‘Mr Abbott, who last month survived a challenge to his leadership brought on by slumping polls and policy gaffes, said people should look at his record on indigenous rights, including a week spent last year running the country from a remote aboriginal community in the Northern Territory made famous by the Crocodile Dundee films.’
Well, of course they should.
Offend, distract, repeat: Tony Abbott’s lifestyle choice http://www.smh.com.au/comment/offend-distract-repeat-tony-abbotts-lifestyle-choice-20150313-1425l3.html … via @smh
Offend, distract, repeat: Tony Abbott’s lifestyle choice 
You can follow Alan Austin on Twitter @AlanTheAmazing.
When Kathy Jackson blew the whistle on Craig Thomson for misusing union funds, she was praised by various members of the Coalition. Tony Abbott described her as “a brave decent woman”, a “credible whistleblower” whose actions were “heroic”. Christopher Pyne labelled her a “revolutionary” who will be “remembered as a lion of the union movement.” George Brandis and Eric Abetz were similarly effusive in their praise.
Kathy’s “courageous” revelations quickly led to Thomson being arrested by five detectives accompanied by a huge media pack at his Central Coast Office. The following court cases eventually found Thomson was guilty of misappropriating a few thousand dollars. His defence has cost him over $400,000, his career and reputation. His prosecution, combined with the ensuing Royal Commission into trade unions and dedicated police task force, has cost the state tens of millions.
We also had whistleblower James Ashby choosing to reveal private text messages to accuse Peter Slipper of sexual harassment, a charge he chose not to pursue after he had achieved the goal of destroying Mr Slipper’s career and personal life.
And then there was the “unknown” whistleblower who chose to refer Peter Slipper to the police for a few hundred dollars’ worth of cab charges rather than allowing him to pay back the money, something that many members of the Coalition, including Tony Abbott and George Brandis, have been forced to do.
The prosecution of Peter Slipper once again cost the state an amount totally incommensurate with the alleged crime and he has since won his appeal.
The Coalition’s very close relationship with these two dubious characters – Abetz had Jackson on speed dial and Pyne met up for “drinks” with Ashby – shows they had a vested interest in encouraging their revelations.
But when Freya Newman chose to reveal that Tony Abbott’s daughter had been given a $60,000 scholarship that was not available to anyone else, she was immediately investigated, prosecuted and put on a good behaviour bond. The fact that Frances Abbott’s school was a Liberal Party donor who then benefitted greatly by Abbott’s decision to fund private colleges makes the whole thing smell of corruption.
Speaking of which, when a former ASIO employee chose to blow the whistle on Alexander Downer for, under the guise of foreign aid, bugging the offices of the government of Timor l’Este to gain a commercial advantage for Woodside Petroleum who subsequently employed Mr Downer, he immediately had his passport revoked so he could not testify in the case in the International Court and the office of his lawyer was raided and all documents confiscated.
When the Guardian and the ABC reported on leaked documents from Edward Snowden revealing that the Australian Government had bugged the phones of Indonesian politicians and even the President’s wife, they were labelled as traitors by Tony Abbott who apparently thought there was nothing wrong with the deed but talking about it was a crime.
Which brings me to, in my mind, the greatest travesty of all.
When ten members of the Save the Children organisation reported on cases of sexual assault and self-harm of children on Nauru, they were immediately sacked by Scott Morrison.
When the group made a submission to the AHRC’s children in detention inquiry providing evidence of sexual abuse, the Department of Immigration asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate Save The Children for potentially breaching section 70 of the Crimes Act, which bars the disclosure of Commonwealth facts or documents.
A secret report prepared by immigration detention service provider Transfield Services reveals the company was monitoring the activities of Save The Children staff, then accused them of providing evidence to the media of sexual assaults and protests in the detention centre. It reveals that Save The Children staff had compiled reports documenting evidence of sexual assault, which it said had become “increasingly emotive in recent weeks”.
“Two days ago, information report 280917 was written in such a manner by SCA employees, DE and FF, and some of the allegations regarding sexually inappropriate behaviour by security guards contained within this report have been widely reported across Australian media today. DE left Nauru yesterday and the allegations have appeared in the press today.”
The Transfield report also alleges that “It is probable there is a degree of internal and external coaching, and encouragement, to achieve evacuations to Australia through self-harm actions,” though it gives no evidence at all in support of the accusation, which did not stop Scott Morrison and the Daily Telegraph from publicly repeating it last October.
Morrison’s reaction was to announce the Moss Review to examine allegations that staff from the charity acted inappropriately at the Nauru detention centre.
The Moss review, which is due to be released tomorrow, examined why 10 Save the Children aid workers were sent home from the detention centre and whether they fabricated allegations of sexual abuse.
As with the Human Rights Commission’s Forgotten Children report, the message has been ignored and the messenger has been relentlessly pursued and vilified.
In the corporate world, the Corporations Act contains protections for certain whistleblowers, including making it unlawful to persecute a whistleblower for making a protected disclosure of information. This protection encourages people within companies, or with special connections to companies, to alert the company (through its officers), or ASIC, to illegal behaviour.
Where is the same protection for people who alert us to wrongdoing by the government or its agents? Why does Morrison accept Transfield’s report but not that of the Human Rights Commission? Will the Moss Review investigate the sexual abuse or just the people who are trying to Save the Children?
A government who is happy to destroy people’s lives for their own political ends, who silences all criticism, and who considers their own interests in front of the welfare of children in our care, is worthy of the same contempt they show for the truth.
We are being governed by a despicable group of people who have sacrificed all decency and integrity to personal ambition.
The flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge was at half-mast today. Source: News Corp Australia
US PRESIDENT Barack Obama called him courageous. A prominent UK paper has slammed him as a “tyrant”.
But Australia has joined the UK in paying tribute to this controversial leader today on our most iconic landmarks.
Flags at government buildings and official landmarks — including the Sydney Opera House and Parliament House in Canberra — flew at half-mast today as a tribute to the late Saudi Arabian King.
A Transport for NSW spokesman confirmed to news.com.au this afternoon that the flags were lowered “as a mark of respect” to Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, who died on Friday.
RELATED: Saudi King dies at 90
He died at age 90 after being admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia and a lung infection.
King Abdullah, who ascended to the throne in 2005, was one of the 45 sons of the first monarch of Saudi Arabia, Ibn Saud, and amassed a US$18billion fortune from the country’s rich oil reserves.
Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser is among those who have criticised Australia’s decision mark King Abdullah’s death in this way.
In response to a tweet from NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, Mr Fraser tweeted that the half-mast tribute “should not have happened”.
The Transport spokesman said flag notices were usually issued by the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s protocol office and that the flags were due to be returned to their normal position about 3pm today.
Similar tributes have been made on official landmarks in the UK.
The UK Government has been criticised by MPs for flying the Union Jack at half-mast at government buildings, including Whitehall and Buckingham Palace.
UK paper The Independent ran with the headline, “Britain mourns a tyrant”.
Elsewhere, UKIP MP Douglas Carwell slammed the move as an “extraordinary misjudgement” due to Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, according to The Guardian.
A picture from October 20, 1987, in Washington shows then Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia listening to then US president George Bush. Picture: AFP/Chris Wilkins Source: AFP
However, Mr Obama has released an official statement paying tribute to King Abdullah as a “candid” leader who had the “courage of his convictions”.
King Abdullah is considered a relatively liberal leader in the context of the conservative kingdom, but it is still a country in which women have been forbidden from voting, driving and being in public unaccompanied.
Recently, flags on at sites such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Anzac Bridge and Central railway station have also been flown at half-mast to commemorate the victims of the Martin Place siege, the death of cricketer Phillip Hughes in November and Remembrance Day.
A detainee on Manus Island is shown being loaded into the back of a vehicle after falling ill in this picture supplied to Guardian Australia. Photograph: Supplied
More than 100 asylum seekers are being treated for dehydration in makeshift medical centre, but minister for immigration says ‘they will never be settled in Australia’ despite protests
Ben Doherty and Helen Davidson
Protests continue on Manus Island, with detainees vowing not to give up their protest, and the government equally unbowed they must be resettled in PNG.
Some men in the detention centre have been refusing food and water since Tuesday and are dangerously unwell.
International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) staff on the island have converted the staff mess hall into an overflow emergency medical centre.
More than 100 men from Mike compound, where the hunger strike started on Tuesday, are now under medical care, most from severe dehydration.
Two men who swallowed razor blades, and four who drank detergent, are also in medical care.
In the Delta and Oscar compounds, where the protests have spread and the tension has been greatest, men not on hunger strike spent the night clapping and cheering and shouting “What do we want? Freedom?”.
Some men have spent 18 months in detention on Manus and have asked to be handed over to the care of the United Nations. Others still want to be moved to Australia, where their families live.
Video seen by Guardian Australian shows PNG riot police walking between the Delta and Oscar compounds.
Reports that riot police entered Delta and clashed with detainees in an effort to force them back into their rooms, remain unconfirmed.
Guardian Australia has obtained video footage that shows boisterous, but peaceful protests in the camp.
Detainees say they will not yield.
Manus Island unrest
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
PNG security forces enter Delta block on Friday where there were unconfirmed reports of fighting. Photograph: Supplied
They are protesting against the length of their detention, the conditions under which they are being held, and against the threat of being forcibly sent to live in the PNG community, where they fear they will be attacked.
Advertisement
Less than a year ago, Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati was murdered during riots in the centre, allegedly by PNG nationals who invaded the centre and attacked detainees.
The detainees wrote in a letter to the Australian government on Friday: “some of us are about to die, but will still continue our way [protest] and we will never change our decision”.
“Dear Mr Minister, PNG is not safe place for us and if we are supposed to die there, we will die here in the centre. Our message today is very clear to the immigration of Australia, our decision will never change. Hand us over to the UN.”
But immigration minister Peter Dutton said the government will not change its policy.
“Whilst there has been a change of minister, the absolute resolve of me as the new minister and of the government is to make sure that for those transferees, they will never arrive in Australia. They will never be settled in Australia.”
A PNG government spokesman told Guardian Australia no police had entered the detention centre but that amid the heightened tensions “security had gone in with workers”.
He had not seen the images from Manus Island, but said a senior person from there had conveyed the information.
“It wasn’t extraordinary but of course with the tension there as we know, I think it was just extra precautions.”
He said he had seen reports of locals going in with police “but it was nothing like that”.
Cuban doctors await travel to Liberia and Guinea in mid-October
The phrase “generosity of nations” is unlikely to appear in textbooks assigned to American political science and economics students. Nonetheless, the concept is visible in action in certain parts of the globe—perhaps most inspiringly in the countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia in West Africa, where the Cuban government has defined itself as a world leader by providing hundreds of doctors and health workers to combat the raging, deadly Ebola virus.
As of mid-November, the tiny island state with a population of 11 million and an economy valued at slightly more than that of Belarus has provided more health care workers in the battle against Ebola than any other nation. That’s 256 doctors and nurses with an additional 200 professionals on their way. By comparison, the U.S. sent 3,000 military troops, none of them providing medical assistance, but instead focusing primarily on building treatment centers. It also pledged $400 million in aid. An article in The Wall Street Journal noted that “nations with some of the world’s most advanced health-care systems have come too late with too little to the crisis, said leaders from Ebola-affected countries.” China and India were reported to have contributed an “underwhelming” $5 million and $13 million, respectively.
Officials put the number of deaths caused by Ebola at over 4,000, but experts say the actual figure is twice as high. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said ending the outbreak would require “at least a 20-fold surge in assistance.”
Advertisement
It is clear that money alone will not solve the problem. In mid-September, the World Health Organization issued a desperate plea for medical staff and supplies to resolve the outbreak. “Our response is running short on nearly everything from personal protective equipment to bodybags, mobile laboratories and isolation wards,” said Director-General Margaret Chan, calling for 500 to 600 foreign doctors, and at least 1,000 additional staffers. “But the thing we need most of all is people: healthcare workers. The right people, the right specialists—and specialists who are appropriately trained and know how to keep themselves safe—are most important for stopping the transmission of Ebola.” The WHO reported that all members of the first contingent of Cuban workers had more than 15 years worth of experience and had worked in other countries facing natural disasters and the outbreak of disease.For a new generation of observers, the Ebola response is helping Cuba make a name for itself as a force for global good. And the reputation is deserved. The WHO reports there are currently more than 50,000 Cuban-trained health care workers in 66 countries. By 2008 it was training 20,000 foreigners a year to be doctors, nurses and dentists, largely free of charge. The generous export is a function of the country’s publicly funded universal health care system, which was established by the Communist regime shortly after it overthrew U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and enshrined as a human right in its 1976 constitution.
The country has consistently extended this policy beyond its borders to other nations in need. Its medical missions began with a provision of aid to Chile after an earthquake in 1960. In the 1970s and ’80s it offered wartime assistance to South Africa, Algeria, Zaire, Congo and Ghana. More recently, Cuban doctors went to Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami and treated victims of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan and the 2010 quake in Haiti. In 2013, Cuba sent 4,000 doctors to remote rural areas of Brazil. The government offered assistance to the U.S. in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but the offer was apparently rejected.
Cuba’s medical tradition was partly inspired by Che Guevara, the Argentine physician-turned-revolutionary who helped foment the Communist uprising. The medical workers have been nicknamed the “ejército de batas blancas”—the “army of white coats.” The contingent in West Africa is known as The Henry Reeve Brigade. It was founded in 2005 and named after a Cuban soldier in the country’s first war of independence. The doctors take their mission seriously. A wall in Cuba’s most prestigious medical school, the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina, bears a quote by dictator Fidel Castro: “This will be a battle of solidarity against selfishness.” The workers are reported to be eager to risk their lives for what they regard as an obligation to people everywhere. Before departing for Liberia, 63-year-old doctor Leonardo Fernandez expressed resolve in the face of danger and uncertainty in an interview with Reuters. “We know that we are fighting against something that we don’t totally understand,” he is quoted as saying. “But it is our duty. That’s how we’ve been educated.”
And the doctors are suffering too. While consultants from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention enjoy the comfortable lodgings of a more than $200 a night resort, The Wall Street Journal reported, the Cuban medics “are living three to a room in one of Freetown’s budget hotels. The hotel’s toilets are broken. Flies buzz around soiled tablecloths where the Cubans eat in cafeteria-style shifts.”
Cuba’s efforts have received some praise from the U.S., which has maintained a destructive trade embargo against the island since 1960. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praised the country for its work. And U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power was “very grateful” to Cuba for its response. There was no question about working alongside the U.S. in the effort. “Against Ebola, we can work with anyone,” said Dr. Jorge Juan Delgado Bustillo, who has led Cuba’s response in West Africa. “The United States? Yes, we can.” In the state newspaper Granma, Fidel Castro wrote that he would be happy to put aside the country’s political differences to help nations afflicted with the virus. U.S. officials eventually confirmed they were willing to cooperate with Havana and the rest of the international community through organizations such as the WHO.
A tiny nation excluded from so many of the benefits of global trade is leading the humanitarian response to the Ebola outbreak. Cubans have every reason to glow with pride as their doctors and nurses undertake the grim work of attending the health of people of other countries that have been degraded by economic and often military aggression. Cuba’s officials and health care workers are our Truthdiggers of the Week.
Tony Abbott says he is going to “shirtfront” Vladamir Putin at the G20, but managing editor David Donovan says he may just be in for a shock.
IT WASN’T JUST WHAT HE SAID, it was also the way he said it.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott ‒ fresh from saying coal is good for humanity ‒ stood in front of an enormous coal truck in Central Queensland and, like a punch drunk pug trying to trash talk a much more highly fancied opponent, said he was going to “shirtfront” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Firstly, “shirtfront” — what does that even mean?
When I first heard Abbott say that yesterday afternoon, I thought he meant he was going to grab Putin by his shirt and not let him get away until he gave him a piece of his mind — something, I would suggest, he could ill afford to lose.
Then, however, I began hearing people from the AFL states offering their footy code’s definition — which would seem to be the act of illegally scruffing someone by the shirtfront – or laying the hip and shoulder into them – and knocking them to the ground.
Could Abbott really have just threatened assault on a foreign head of state?
Then I heard another take, which is two drunks in a bar holding onto each other’s shirtfront to stop the other from falling down so they could keep on punching. What?
Whichever one Abbott meant ‒ if any ‒ he has committed an appalling breach of diplomatic protocol in advance of a major international summit and shamed the nation.
Of course, Abbott has consistently behaved in an offensively aggressive manner toward Russia ever since he started tough-talking over Russia’s intervention in the Ukraine earlier in the year. He followed up with all manner of threats and bluster when MH17 went down in June, standing up in Parliament the next day to effectively accuse the Russians of shooting the plane down. The rashness of this statement is manifest when we consider the incident is still being investigated by Dutch authorities, who still appear be no closer to announcing the real cause. Then, of course, we were going to ban Russia from attending, and then we had to let them come and now this.
Whatever he is trying to do — it ain’t working. It is the diplomacy of the town drunk, yelling incoherent abuse into the street.
But again, it wasn’t simply what he said, it was the way he said it.
Here is a direct transcript of Abbott’s words [IA emphasis]:
“Look, I’m going to … ahh … ‘shirt front’ Mr Putin. You bet you are… ahh … you bet I am. Ahh…”
You bet you are… What?
You get the impression he had just been prepped and fired up by an advisor, perhaps his ubiquitous chief of staff Peta Credlin, who had fed him his lines and he had forgotten to personalise them.
Either way, it was a truly facepalming moment for the nation.
It must be said that Abbott is a woeful public speaker.
When he reads his remarks, he sounds like an eight year-old who has never read a book without pictures before and is still coming to grips with the written word.
When he doesn’t read his speeches and speaks off the cuff, he sounds somewhat more composed, but then usually makes some hugely embarrassing faux pas or blunder — like when he promised before the election to spend his first week as PM in Arnhem Land, for example, or this one:
But even when he is trying to parrot simple rehearsed lines, he still can’t quite get them right.
Did he even mean “shirtfront”? Who would know? One can only imagine the anxiety and distress in the prime minister’s office every time they watch him appear in front of the media.
No wonder Peta Credlin drinks.
Really, Tony Abbott should never have become Australian prime minister. John Pilger pigeonholed Abbott perfectly when he described him on IA recently as ‘aggressively weird’. He is aggressive and he is weird — and it often also appears as if all his synapses are not firing effectively.
He makes blunder after blunder and doesn’t seem to care as Australia more and more becomes a laughing stock and international pariah.
We should also note that Vladamir Putin, apart from being a former KGB agent, is reportedly an eighth dan black belt judo champion — ninth being the highest awarded and judo being the sport in which the object is to grapple or throw the other person to the ground.
Putin’s nickname is Vlad the Impaler — and after threatening violence on him, Tony Dum Dum may finally have bitten off more than he can chew.
Our values define us not our race or religion
When Muslims are threatened and mosques defaced NSW Commissioner sees it as bigotry that requires no extra effort by police. When a 14-year-old Muslim boy yells abuse and waves a black flag it’s a hate crime. A concerted effort is made and arrests follow.
Date
September 30, 2014 – 12:00AM
Tim Soutphommasane
Political philosopher and regular columnist
View more articles from Tim Soutphommasane
We must be vigilant on more than one front. We must be united in countering terror. We must not allow fear and suspicion to triumph.Nothing would please ISIL extremists more than to see Muslim Australians being alienated or ostracised. Were this to happen, ISIL’s job becomes easier – it would help them recruit disaffected Muslims to their heinous cause.
At the same time, there are xenophobic factions that see an opportunity to spread their messages of hate. Muslim communities have reported an increase in hate attacks. There has been abuse of Muslims on streets and graffiti on mosques. There have been violent threats: last week a man armed with a knife entered an Islamic college in south-west Sydney.Anti-Muslim bigotry is now contaminating community harmony at large. For example, Sikh Australians say they are becoming targets of racial abuse because people are linking turbans to terrorism.
Bigotry has no place in our society. There is no right to be a bigot. Every person in Australia should be free to live without being subjected to harassment or humiliation. As a liberal democracy we uphold the freedom to practise your religion.
Indeed, while a small number subscribe to their abhorrent ideology, the overwhelming majority of Muslim Australians do not.Why would they support a group whose actions are certain to make their life more difficult?
Earlier this month in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba I attended a community barbecue organised by Lebanese community leader Dr Jamal Rifi. Thousands from the community attended under the banner of “Muslims Love Australia”. They are evidently patriotic.The patriotism I saw in Lakemba was a particular kind. It’s the patriotism of migrants, a love of country that comes not from ancestry but from citizenship.
Such patriotism is typically a pride that lies within. But it’s the right kind of pride for a multicultural Australia – a modern Australia that has been built on immigration. We are a country that is today defined by our values, and not by race or religion.
Everyone should feel relaxed and comfortable in their own skin. Everyone should enjoy the right to express their heritage or practise their faith. Where religion or culture clashes with any of these things, the demands of citizenship must prevail. Our civic identity is paramount.
“I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey.”
Most of all, we must remember that national security can never be divorced from cultural harmony and social cohesion. And we are always better placed to combat threats when we are united rather than divided.
Tim Soutphommasane is Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner
THE WAR ON TERROR AND SPYING ON EVERYONE are both very serious matters. Indeed, the war on terror is killing people all over the world — including, sadly, here in Australia this week.
The tragic death of Abdul Numan Haidar is not a laughing matter. The confusion, misinformation and outright lies being spread about this young man are appalling. That the news media is buying into it with awful headlines and front page stories vilifying him, his friends and even random, totally unconnected young men should shame some journalists into silence.
At the same time, the rush to cut into our liberties in the name of ‘protecting’ us from a shadowy threat that kills less people than bee stings is also not something to joke about, or is it?
In the last 24 hours, a new Twitter hashtag, #HeyASIO, has burst into prominence to take the piss out of Raging Bedsore’s new surveillance powers.
Now that our security services have the right to monitor the whole of the inter-webs with just one warrant allowing them to tap into any computer ‘network’, it seems that nothing we do online is going to be private anymore.
The rightwing trolls don’t like it and curmudgeonly columnists like Andrew Bolt complain (without even having a Twitter account) that social media is dominated by “the left”, but for those of us who:
- don’t like the Abbott Government;
- think the terror threat is overblown;
- don’t like the idea of ASIO snooping on us around the clock and, more importantly;
- have a sense of humour…
… then It’s a great way to get your message across while having a bit of fun.
ious 
Previous
Like many things our prime minister says, it is simply a convenient lie.These are not good laws. They are not even laws to make Australia safer.These are cynical, opportunistic laws. Laws barrelled through under the spurious guise of protecting us against a fanatical foreign Islamic beheading cult with apparent links to Muslims in this country.
They are appalling laws, built on a lie.
There has never been an act of domestic terror in Australia. And no, a lone teenager committing a seemingly unplanned act of violence is neither a terror attack nor a retrospective justification for foreign military intervention and ramped up “counter-terrorism” powers.The so-called Islamic State ‒ a ragtag bunch of rebels occupying a chunk of land about the size of Tasmania half a world away, is hardly a threat to anyone — except if you happen to live in Iraq or Syria. American Homeland Security are quite clear on that
Yes, there may indeed be 50 or 60 Australians fighting with them, but that doesn’t make them a threat here in Australia — particularly after ASIO summarily cancelled their passports. Any supporters these foreign fighters have in this country ‒ a miniscule number at most ‒ are surely able to be easily monitored using existing laws and, if they commit a criminal act, arrested and prosecuted under the existing criminal law.
The real reason for these new powers has got nothing to do with Islamic State, or ISIL, or ISIS ‒ or whatever they are called this week ‒ but they are to do with closing down scrutiny of Australia’s spies and the Government unpublicised activities.
ASIO have been caught with their pants down on two majorly embarrassing occasions since the Abbott Government took power last year.
The first occurred when the ABC and Guardian Australia published leaks from former U.S. intelligence operative whistleblower Edward Snowden that our spies had tapped then Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s mobile phone for 15 days in 2009. These revelations caused a major rift with Indonesia and is still a lingering source of tension.
It was not long after this event, on January 28, that Abbott first used his famous “team” epithet, while denouncing the ABC in an interview with on 2GB with his friend, right wing Sydney shock jock Ray Hadley [IA emphasis]:
“It dismays Australians when the national broadcaster appears to take everyone’s side but our own and I think it is a problem.
“You would like the national broadcaster to have a rigorous commitment to truth and at least some basic affection for the home team, so to speak.”
Abbott went on to call Snowden a “traitor”, saying the ABC “seemed to delight” in publishing his information:
“And of course, the ABC didn’t just report what he said, they took the lead in advertising what he said. That was a deep concern.”
Abbott reaffirmed his position in a subsequent doorstep, going on to condemn the ABC for working with the Guardian, or as he put it:
“… touting for a left wing British newspaper.”
There were no surprises when the vindictive Abbott left it for his broken former rival Malcolm Turnbull to announce an efficiency review of the ABC a couple of days later. This review has now called for the ABC’s budget to be slashed with some important investigative news programs, such as Lateline, in the firing line. Turnbull has also flagged cutting $200 million from as ABC budget already cut deeply in the May Budget, blatantly breaking a clear election promise.
These terror laws will stop whistleblowers exposing the Government’s undercover operations through the media.
The problem with this is that the Coalition ‒ under Tony Abbott, avowedly “open for business” ‒ is seemingly not above using the security services in an improper way to assist private individuals and corporations. Under the new laws, any whistleblower seeking to expose the security services, for instance, helping an Australian big business on the behest of a cabinet minister looking for a cosy post-parliamentary sinecure will now be shut down and any journalists assisting locked up for a long time.
These security laws, therefore, can be seen as the next stage in the Abbott programme to hamstring the ABC as an effective source of scrutiny of Government activities.
But, even more importantly, they will make Australian journalism generally reluctant to expose the Government’s undercover activities, as this could lead to them being sent to prison for a decade.
Australia’s spy network was again in the spotlight in December last year after Attorney General George Brandis ordered ASIO to raid the Canberra offices and home of barrister Bernard Colleary, a former ACT deputy chief minister, who was representing East Timor against Australia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague.
This is not democracy. No wonder they don’t want a Federal ICAC.
The Islamic State is a mirage as far as we are concerned here in Australia. It is not an existential threat to us. The grave threat, in truth, is new security laws that stifle freedom of speech, remove privacy protections, gaol journalists and serve, in the end, to limit scrutiny of the Government and its operatives.
Moreover, providing new powers to secret agents, which also provides them with civil and criminal immunity is an outright danger and threat to us as citizens. It makes these shadowy figures immune to prosecution and therefore, effectively, unaccountable for their actions. Under these laws, frankly, spies can kill us and fear no recourse.
Under these laws, there is no-one to watch the watchers. Now that is truly terrifying.
In truth, we probably expect our extreme right wing Government to implement these sorts of outrageous and unwarranted laws; certainly we can see why they are doing so. It is, however, the weak acquiescence by their so-called Opposition that is most criminal part of this affaor.
We know the ALP under Bill Shorten do not want not a cigarette paper between themselves and the Government on immigration and security matters. This is the exact small target strategy using so brilliantly and effectively by former Opposition leader Kim Beazley during such events as the Tampa Affair and Children Overboard.
However, politicians who unnecessarily sacrifice the rights of the people in the interests of popularity and power show themselves up as unsuitable for high office.
By supporting these so-called “anti-terror” laws ‒ which have nothing to do with preventing terrorism ‒ the ALP, under their current milquetoast leader, have followed the Coalition so far to the right, they are no longer truly a progressive Opposition.
And now more than ever, as the Government shuts down scrutiny and proposes gaoling journalists, Australia needs a progressive Opposition
No’ chatter’ when it comes to threatening Muslims, vandalizing their property, abusing their presence on the street. Threatening to set a woman in hijab alight isn’t regarded as serious. The racist bogans are only up to mischief are they? Korans shredded, shock jocks vilifying a whole community. Andrew Bolt’s daily sling that’s just good old Aussie banter is it. But when Muslim kids open their mouths you jump on them with a totalitarian fist. How about some consistency in the application of your laws. How unbalanced is Team Australia?
Those Muslim kids you caught who you admit knew they were being watched may just have been pulling your agencies chain. If I was 19 and I and my mates knew somebody was trying to eavesdrop we certainly would. Because our first reaction would be to give you the symbolic finger
No 
http://media.theage.com.au/national/selections/terrorism-raids-spark-muslim-protest-5789086.html
ASIO officers raided homes across Sydney and Brisbane arresting 15 people some as young as 17 or 19 who were later released…..The AGE
The raids were conducted on kids however the papers really made it sound as if it was a very organized gang if so why were all released and no charges laid?
Azari 22 was charged was charged Thursday with conspiracy to prepare for a terrorist attack. A second Sydneyman 24 from Merrylands was charged late on Thursday on fire-arms and ammunition charges. He was released on bail….The AGE
Azari has legal Aid and doesn’t have the funds to be bailed he has been arrested on the basis of one phone call.
‘It is understood Barylei knew one of the men arrested from school’….The AGE
If knowing Barylei in school is an indictable offense why hasn’t the school been arrested the reporter has nothing to write about and is throwing things in for the sake of the story
“They would use things like public phone boxes. They would avoid talking in cars all that sort of stuff”….The AGE
“while beheading was not specifically mentioned in the alleged phone call on Tuesday- one of several believed to have taken place between Baryalei and Azari- it is assumed that this would have been the method of killing” The…AGE
This is the most salient piece of news why is beheading playing such a large role in the reporting when it was never specifically mentioned. It has been the central feature of the police and media reports and has never had a place.
“the Commonwealth Prosecutor said the charges were very very serious and involved an unusual level of fanaticism”…one intercepted phone call between May8 and September 18 to which Mr Azari was party”
The only thing the Prosecutor is saying is the charges he’s drawn up are very serious the evidence however seems very very weak
“There has been immediate reaction to a clear and imperative danger”
“Mr Boland hired by Legal Aid NSW for Mr Azari did not apply for bail …. the allegation is based on one phone call of very limited compass the federal police have put foward”
One phone call and he is the only sucker who isn’t rich enough to apply for bail
Australians will have absorbed the news of planned beheadings of random citizens with many feelings. All will be grateful ASIO with state and Federal Police appears to have prevented an attack……even in Australia fanatical sectarianism poses a clear and present danger”
There was no news of beheadings but Mark Kenny is not going tell you that it would spoil an otherwise good story.
The Australian Defense League ” Let’s make our presence known and get there (Lakemba) in force against these bastard terrorists
The Australian KKK is itching to come out an play. Jesus want’s them to nail a Muslim to a cross
A woman was man handled and beaten to the face her 14 year old son saw this tried to help. He was pushe into the wall he all most passed out
Nothing but this about police violence on a 14 year old they just recruited to ISIS
The whole saga is disgusting and has put a target on the back of Australians traveling through Muslim countries. Indonesia is our nearest neighbor thank you TEAM ABBOTT
They are home grown and taught by Americans, and us, how to fight with imported weaponry.Some were tortured in Abu Ghraib; many were sacked, outlawed, and persecuted by Jerry Bremer and Nouri al-Maliki; many saw brothers, cousins, gassed by Assad. They have lived through Shock and Awe, and Surge, the Phased Withdrawal. They have seen the corrupt, incompetent Maliki military thieving billions owed to bureaucrats and soldiers.
It is worth asking too if the Americans, who killed 40,000 of their children, where the current Malakite ‘coalition’ killed 15,000 more of their children (my estimate), and 20,000 more of their women, and, in war and peace, 60,000 of their young men – more than all the Australian dead in World War I – will be welcomed back as allies and saviours.And if Australians, who look like Americans, will be welcomed also.
The Baghdadis well knew their middle class jobs and pensions, under Bremer, would be gone soon, and their mortgages would not be paid and they would be out on the streets fighting other beggars for shelter in cardboard boxes. And that, under Maliki, neighbourhoods of Sunnis would be slaughtered, and their mosques burned.
They could see the future and the Americans could not.
The same people can see the future, now, too, and the same Americans cannot. Neither can Tony Abbott, who believed, with Howard, the WMD would soon be found, beneath a sandhill somewhere, and all would be well.
He’s as big a lunatic as that.
‘It’s almost like the Thought Police’: Grandmother, 60, CHARGED by Australian police after she allegedly placed THIS tiny G20 sticker on a pole in Cairns
- Cairns grandma Myra Gold charged over allegedly placing a sticker on a pole
- Four police officers raided Ms Gold’s home over the sticker
- She was charged with wilful damage to public property
- Sticker protested G20 meeting in Cairns at the weekend
- The sticker said ‘G20 benefits the 1%’
- ‘It’s almost like the Thought Police’, Ms Gold said
A Cairns grandmother was charged with wilful damage to property after she allegedly placed a sticker on a pole.
Four police officers raided the home of Myra Gold, 60, on August 24.
The sticker, which was found by police on a pole at Raintree Shopping Centre, said ‘G20 benefits the 1%’.
Ms Gold told Daily Mail Australia the raid was an attack on freedom of speech.
‘It’s almost like the Thought Police,’ she said.
Myra Gold (left), pictured with a climate change poster, and the G20 stickers she was charged over.
As many as 800 extra police are being sent to Cairns to guard the G20 finance ministers’ meeting, held on September 20 and 21 at the city’s Convention Centre.
The finance ministers of the G20 – an influential international body – will hold a meeting in Cairns at the weekend.
As many as 800 extra police are set to arrive in Cairns early this week.
‘Over in Europe when they have things like this, they have thousands of people turn up to protest,’ she said.
‘They’re allowed to protest. They understand people have a different different view.’
Ms Gold said she has no memory of placing the sticker on the pole.
She said she never expected this could happen to her.
‘(It) was quite stunning,’ she said.
Ms Gold is scheduled to appear in court on October 1.
A spokeswoman for Queensland police refused to comment further because the matter is before a court.
Fools rush in: Tony Abbott joins a war without definition
Date
September 15, 2014
Committing of forces gathers pace
US Secretary of State John Kerry says countries inside and outside the Middle East have pledged military support against IS militants with some nations offering ground troops
The smart thing for Western leaders in the wake of John Kerry’s session with Arab leaders in Jeddah on Thursday last, would have been to bide their time. But Tony Abbott leapt straight in – committing 600 Australian military personnel and more aircraft to the conflict, thereby giving the Arab leaders good reason to believe that if they sit on their hands for long enough, the West will fight their war for them.
Either collectively in Jeddah or in one-on-one meetings with Kerry as in Cairo, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Lebanon all have baulked at making explicit military commitments to confront a force that they all see as a direct threat to their thrones, bunkers and, in one or two cases, tissue-thin democracies. With the exception of Iraq, which has no option because it is under attack at home, none has publicly committed military support.
Conversely, Abbott was coy in claiming that this new deployment did not mean that Australia was at war??? Australia has been at war since its first airlift of weapons and ammunition to the Kurdish Peshmerga in the north of Iraq last week.
Because they are on the ground in the UAE doing logistics and maintenance or in Baghdad and Irbil as military advisers certainly would not absolve any of them from being a target if IS fighters contrived to get access to them. It’s also a dramatic instance of mission-creep in a conflict bedevilled by uncertainty and missing any clear sense of a timeline or even the vague contours of what “victory” might look like.
US President Barack Obama demanded that Iraq form an inclusive, representative government before he would commit. But just three days after the new prime minister said he would behave himself, Obama had aircraft over Iraq, and we still know nothing about how different this Iraqi leadership will be from the last. There is no certainty that it will win the confidence of the Iraqi Sunni tribes.
An air war cannot succeed without a substantial boots-on-the-ground accompaniment – and that part of what Obama calls a strategy is very much on a wing and a prayer.
The Kurdish Peshmerga can fight, but they can’t defend all of Iraq. The Iraqi army, trained and equipped by Washington at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, is erratic and more likely to cut and run than to stand and fight. Next door in Syria, Obama is banking of the ranks of the Free Syrian Army – which for years he has complained could not be counted on, and which Washington now tries to convince us can be taken to Saudi Arabia, retrained and sent home to win the war.
Abbott must have had his hands over his ears last week as Obama spoke to the US nation and analysts around the globe distilled his words to mean a conflict that will last for years.Oddly, the Prime Minister warned Australians to prepare for a fight that might last “months rather than weeks, perhaps many, many months indeed…” Seems he’s in as much of a hurry to get into this war, as he seemingly thinks he will get out of it. He’s simply hides from the truth.
It’s not clear why. This “we must do something right now” response is likely to create a bigger mess than already exists in the region. Consider: the death of 200,000 locals in Syria failed to rouse much of a reaction in the West; but the deaths of two Americans – and now a Briton – has raised a crescendo for international war when it might have made more sense to tackle regional politicking and feuding first.
Islamic State: Australia to deploy military force to UAE to prepare for international action against militants in Iraq
Updated
The Federal Government is sending 600 Australian troops to the Middle East in preparation for military action against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the United States had specifically requested Australia contribute to an international strike against the militants, who have captured large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
Mr Abbott said around 200 troops would be sent to the United Arab Emirates shortly, including a Special Forces contingent “that could act as military advisers to the Iraqi armed forces or to the Peshmerga”.
They would be followed by around 400 Air Force personnel, up to eight super hornets, an early warning and control aircraft and an aerial refuelling aircraft.
Mr Abbott said Australia was “not deploying combat troops but contributing to international efforts to prevent the humanitarian crisis from deepening”.
“Again I stress that this is essentially a humanitarian operation to protect millions of people in Iraq from the murderous rage of the ISIL movement,” he said, using an alternative name for IS.
Force deployed to combat IS
- 8 super hornet aircraft
- 1 early warning and control aircraft
- 1 aerial refuelling aircraft
- 400 personnel to support air deployment
- 200 military officers, including a Special Forces contingent to act as “military advisors”
“Again I stress that this movement is neither Islamic nor a state. It is a death cult reaching out to countries such as Australia.
“This is about taking prudent and proportionate action to protect our country and to protect the wider world against an unprecedented terrorist threat.”
Mr Abbott said Cabinet and the National Security Committee met earlier on Sunday to discuss the matter.
He said the action was part of an international coalition, “not simply something that is an American-Australian operation”.
“So far, there are a number of countries, western and Middle Eastern, that have indicated that they are prepared to contribute to military operations inside Iraq,” Mr Abbott said.
“The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Australia.”
Mr Abbott said “there are obviously further decisions to be taken” before Australian forces commit to combat action against IS militants.
“Should this extend into combat operations, it could go on for some time,” he said.
Dr Rodger Shanahan, a former Army officer who is now a non-resident fellow with the Lowy Institute, said it was hard to say how long the mission will last.
“We don’t know what the mission itself is, because it’s a precautionary deployment, but you would assume you wouldn’t deploy unless they assume they’re going to be used,” he told ABC News 24.
“We assume it’s going to be battling Islamic State. The question is how long is a piece of string? You assume this will last months at a minimum.”
Move will be a rallying cry for jihadists: Greens
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was briefed prior to the announcement and backed the Government’s actions.
“We’re all in this together. The PM and I are partners in national security,” he said.
Greens Leader Christine Milne accused the Government of “blindly [following] the United States into another war in Iraq and Syria”.
“It’s really a shocking day for Australia that after ‘all the way with LBJ’ with the Vietnam war, after John Howard and George Bush, we now have Tony Abbott throwing in his lot with the United States and risking young Australian lives,” she said.
“Tony Abbott has made an open-ended commitment to support a new war in Iraq, no limitations on the number of people who may end up deployed, or indeed the timeframe on how long they might be there.
Analysis: Michael Brissenden
Defence correspondent Michael Brissenden told ABC News 24 it is an “open-ended” commitment.
The PM says that no decision yet has been made on actually deploying them from the base at UAE but clearly they’re being deployed there with the intent to do just that.
There will be no Australian troops’ boots on the ground as such.
Although SAS personnel will be involved in training Peshmerga and Iraqi forces and advising them and, in that sense, there’ll be boots on the ground, they won’t be involved in the combat.
The interesting thing about this though is that it is a very much an open-ended commitment.
The PM said it would be months rather than weeks. He says our contribution will … continue to be monitored continuously.
She said there was no doubt in her mind that “entering a Middle East war with the United States will be a rallying cry for jihadists to try and recruit young disaffected people against what they will propose as a western imperial drive into Iraq and Syria”.
But Dr Shanahan said that was unlikely to be the case.
“The people who are that way inclined have already decided that countries like the US, the UK and Australia are all part of some conspiracy that targets Muslims throughout the world, and so us providing armed forces as part of a coalition might reaffirm in their minds this notion that they already have,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s going to make it any more of a threat than it previously was.”
The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, said the safety of troops would be foremost in his mind.
“What we’re talking about here is a highly complex operating environment in the Middle East and it continues to evolve,” he said.
“We now have a fairly substantial amount of work to do in planning to undertake this deployment and that will include very careful mission planning, force preparation and importantly force protection measures for our force.”
‘Cruelty on an extraordinary scale’
Australia has previously delivered weapons to outgunned Kurdish forces and dropped humanitarian aid to communities under siege from IS.
Mr Abbott’s announcement came after IS released a video purporting to show the beheading of captured British aid worker David Haines.
The footage, described by British prime minister David Cameron as “pure evil”, followed the same pattern as videos of showing the murder of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
Mr Abbott said he reacted to the video with “shock, horror, outrage, fury”, adding that it strengthened his resolve to defeat IS.
He said IS militants were responsible for “cruelty on an extraordinary scale”.
“We’ve seen beheadings, crucifixions, we’ve seen mass executions, we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people driven from their homes, we’ve had women forced into sexual slavery, we’ve had the deaths of very young children, we’ve had tens of thousands of people besieged on Mount Sinjar,” Mr Abbott said.
“What we have seen is an exaltation in atrocity unparalleled since the Middle Ages. All I know is that decent people everywhere regardless of their religion, regardless of their culture, should unite against it.”
Mr Abbott will visit New York on September 24 and 25 to participate in the high-level UN Security Council meeting which is to be convened by US president Barack Obama.
Last week, in a speech broadcast live to the nation, Mr Obama said he would not send US combat troops to fight IS, and that the US would act in concert with a broad coalition including Western allies and Arab states.
“Our objective is clear: we will degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” the president said.
Mr Obama outlined a four-pronged strategy which included expanded air strikes and sending another 475 troops to train local forc
ADOLF EICHMAN’S DEFENSE “JUST DOING MY JOB “
Scott Morrison the Minister for NO INFORMATION says AHRC allegations of self harm and sick children on Christmas Island are “sensational”. Yet his department head confirmed 128 recorded instances in the past 15 months. Martin Bowles said improvements had been made. I’m sure those improvements are more about information suppression and ridiculing attending doctors should they be found to reveal restricted information. International Health and Medical Services were explicitly told to withdraw figures showing children were suffering high levels of mental illness by the Immigration Department.
Scott Morrison who consistently refused to attend the AHRC inquiry is quite open to run it down as he is the report by nine major Christian Churches which labelled the detention of unaccompanied children in processing camps and centres as state sponsored child abuse.The church task force report contains remarkably strong language invoking the holocaust in its critique of Australia’s detention policy.
The Immigration Minister’s office says Scott Morrison hasn’t seen the final report but says claims of state-sponsored child abuse are shocking and offensive and categorically rejected by him. Morrison is embodiment of ministerial evil” We know that one doesn’t need to be fanatical, sadistic, or mentally ill to persecute unaccompanied children and asylum seekers in detention. It is enough to be a loyal follower eager to do one’s duty for an inhumane,insane government detention policy. Wasn’t this Adolf Eichman’s defense?
olddogthoughts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.