Critical Resistance - Sydney

Just a reminder message about the meeting this Wednesday, if any of you are able to come down after BBA meeting. Apologies about the clash of days, definitely not intended. It seems great minds think alike!

You are invited to the first meeting of Critical Resistance Sydney at 7.30 To 8.45pm, Wednesday February 5 2003, Newtown Neighbourhood Centre. Email- crsydney@cat.org.au

This new prison abolition group aims to bring together active people from diverse cultural backgrounds around a common struggle against the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) and its negative effects on our communities.

Critical Resistance Sydney is affiliated with the American organisation of the same name which was started by human rights activist Angela Davis.

People from all backgrounds and experiences are welcome at this meeting. We especially encourage former prisoners and people with direct experience with the criminal justice system. We are committed to working with the people most affected by prisons to bring about change.

This meeting will be an introduction and first discussion of ideas for activity. Things the collective may do include: á develop popular education curricula to educate ourselves and our communities about the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). á take up a local campaign to fight the PIC in our communities á hold events such as video screenings to bring attention to the effects of the PIC á plan a local or regional conference We are committed to sharing power in the group through an open participatory process.

Mission Statement Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). We do this by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. We believe that basic necessities such as food, shelter, and freedom are what really make our communities secure. As such, our work is part of global struggles against inequality and powerlessness. The success of the movement requires that it reflect communities most affected by the PIC. Because we seek to abolish the PIC, we cannot support any work that extends its life or scope.

Here is an info sheet on Critical Resistance.

CRITICAL RESISTANCE MISSION STATEMENT

Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). We do this by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. We believe that basic necessities such as food, shelter, and freedom are what really make our communities secure. As such, our work is part of global struggles against inequality and powerlessness. The success of the movement requires that it reflect communities most affected by the PIC. Because we seek to abolish the PIC, we cannot support any work that extends its life or scope.

What is Critical Resistance?

WHO WE ARE:

Critical Resistance (CR) is an International grassroots group that fights to end the prison industrial complex (PIC). CR first began in 1998 in California, U.S.A as a conference initiated by prison abolition activist

Angela Davies. Due to the large success of this conference an organisation was formed which now has 8 chapters across America. CR- Sydney is the first international chapter and has grown out of the work of Sydney based Îstop the Women1s Jail1 Campaign. CR- Sydney has been formed by community activists who focus on grassroots methods such as direct action and community education throughout the greater Sydney area.

WHAT WE DO:

Building the Movement. Since 1999, CR, as an international body, has been building relationships with individuals and grassroots organizations, providing them with support and assistance while connecting them to a growing and increasingly visible international structure that works with and through chapters on a local basis. Through our international work and ongoing local organizing, we intend to make our vision a matter of common sense. We do this not only by moving public reliance away from imprisonment, policing and the courts, but also toward just and sustainable solutions to deep social, political, and economic problems through prioritising communities most impacted by the PIC in the process.

Local Organizing. CR's local work (in Nth America) includes, for example, Critical Resistance vs. The California Department of Corrections, a lawsuit and grassroots organizing campaign aimed at stopping California from building a new maximum-security prison in the town of Delano. CR's work on the Delano campaign has been groundbreaking, because it has brought anti-prison, civil rights and environmental justice activists into apowerful and unprecedented coalition.

This work is now being replicated throughout the country. CR's local organizing across the country involves everything from providing services for prisoners' children, to developing political education curricula and trainings, to producing publications, videos, and film festivals, to on the ground grassroots organizing with local communities. Critical Resistance currently has two offices, a national office in Oakland, California, and a Northeast Regional Office in New York City and opened a Southern Regional Office in early 2002.

WHAT IS ABOLITION

* Abolition is a political vision that seeks to eliminate the need for prisons, policing, and surveillance by creating sustainable alternatives to punishment and imprisonment.* Abolition means acknowledging the devastating effects prison, policing, and surveillance have on poor communities, communities of colour and other targeted communities, and saying, "No, we won't live like this. We deserve more." * Abolitionists recognize that the kinds of wrongdoing we call "crime" do not exist in the same way everywhere and are not "human nature", but rather determined by the societies we live in.

Similarly, abolitionists do not assume that people will never hurt each other or that people won't cross the boundaries set up by their communities. We do imagine, however, that boundary crossings will happen much less often if we live in a society that combines flexibility with care to provide for, and acknowledge, people's needs. .

To do that, we must create alternatives for dealing with the injuries people inflict upon each other in ways that sustain communities and families. Keeping a community whole is impossible by routinely removing people from it.* An abolitionist vision means that we must build models today that can represent how we want to live in the future. It means developing practical strategies for taking small steps that move us toward making our dreams real and that lead the average person to believe that things really could be different. It means living this vision in our daily lives.

By Critical Resistance 5 Feb 03

Related:

Death camps looming in Victoria
A letter was received on 15 January 03 from SCS-4\320 a remand prisoner in Victoria's Barwon Prison I later found out that the prisoner was in the Acacia High Security Unit.

Jail search finds knives, syringes
Mr Brett Collins a spokesperson for Justice Action said, "It shows there is a lot of desperation in the prison system at the moment and has been for some time."

Take crime talk beyond the bars:'lobby group'
A coalition of academics, crime experts, welfare and church groups is preparing to launch an intensive pre-election campaign aimed at refocusing the attention of NSW politicians from harsh sentencing reforms to crime prevention strategies.

Six weeks, six months, six years: inmates have little chance of making fresh start More than 15,500 people are released from NSW prisons each year, twice the number of 20 years ago. But new research shows many ex-prisoners find it impossible to reintegrate into society and, months after release, are worse off than before they went to jail.

Fiona Stanley, the children's crusader
It is all about prevention. As Fiona Stanley sees it, with one in five Australian teenagers experiencing significant mental health problems, there are just not enough treatment services to cope with the demand.

Attempted thong theft costs $560
A man has been fined $500 after appearing in a northern New South Wales court charged with stealing a pair of thongs.

NSW A-G moves to stop criminals and ex-criminals selling stories
From next month criminals or ex-criminals who try to profit (earn a living for paid work, like writing a book etc..) from their crimes in New South Wales will have the proceeds confiscated.

NSW Govt criticised over criminal justice record
Key criminal justice groups have described the New South Wales Government's record on justice issues as a "disappointing performance".

APPOINTMENT OF KLOK IS: 'DECLARATION OF WAR'
The decision of the Carr government to appoint John Jacob Klok as the new Assistant Commissioner for Corrective Services in charge of security represents a statement of contempt to all those concerned about law and justice in NSW.

How NSW Dept of Corrective Services spent $800,000 dollars to rehabilitate a Sydney man sentenced to life for second murder! A spokesperson for Justice Action Mr Pro Grams said, "Well it's your money, how would you like it spent? And what do you think about rehabilitation on behalf of the Department of Corruptive Services?

Prisoners Representatives Excommunicated
Ron Woodham, Commissioner Corrective Services stated "[this Department] does not recognise Justice Action as an advocate on correctional centre issues." He has ordered a ban on all Justice Action material inside the NSW prison system. This resulted from a request for the approval of the latest edition of Framed (the Magazine of Justice Action) to be distributed throughout NSW prisons as has occurred for the past ten years.

Academic devises scheme for low income earners to pay back fines:
A professor at the Australian National University [another one of John Howard's hand picked losers like Peter Saunders the social services head-kicker has come up with a scheme which could see low income earners pay back criminal fines over a period of time.

Dept of Corrective Services: Rotten Ron Woodham on the ropes
This is The Freeedom Of Speech and The Press in a goldfish-bowl! Herr Goebells has spoken. Zieg Heil! (Which means, actually: "aim-for health!" incidentally)Apologies for not making meetings ... my first experiences with Woodham (then a -screw-gestapo-minor-with-a-friendly-dog - AND YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS WHEN EVEN HIS DOG DOESN`T LIKE HIM?)

At the Minister's Pleasure The case of Michael Kelly
Michael is caught up in a particularly cruel version of the game of Cat and Mouse. Because he is classified as a forensic patient under the Mental Heath Act of NSW, the Minister for Health is his master, not the Minister for Corrective Services. And the Minister for health will not let him go.

EX-PRISONER UNEMPLOYMENT: SENTENCED FOR LIFE
Name removed by request served time in prison decades ago. Shes still being punished today. According to commonwealth and state legislation, ex-prisoners applying for jobs must declare any conviction that fits into the following categories: less than 10 years old, more than 10 years old but served more than 30 months in prison.

ARE YOU INNOCENT?
The Australian Law Reform Commission had recommended that the Innocence Panel be independent and have the power to investigate alleged miscarriages of justice.

NSW Department of Corrective Services attack right to privacy
Corrective Services Minister Richard Amery has a problem attacking prisoners right to privacy.It seems to us that a civil society is best served when social justice laws are applied to all people regardless of their circumstances. Once government starts making exceptions which disadvantage certain groups and individuals, such laws are meaningless.

Litigants are drowning: in the High Court
There were so many self represented litigants appearing in the High Court that more than half of its registry staff's time was taken up in dealing with them. The "go it alone" litigants have to take on tasks well above their qualified league causing them stress. This growing problem cannot be left unchecked.

Everyone wants to get out of 'jail' but 'Framed' wants life: Rotten Ron on the ropes On 2 May 2002, Justice Action received a faxed letter from Manager of DCS Operations Support Branch saying that, in his view, articles in Framed edition #42 'lack balance and integrity' and he is therefore 'not prepared to recommend this issue of Framed for placement in to correctional centre libraries.' Prisoners and those concerned about prisoner issues have very few sources of information.

Methadone addicts formed within: 'NSW Prisons'
The New South Wales Opposition has accused the State Government of turning jailed heroin users into Methadone addicts.

Murder charge first for DNA data bank link, but not the same as solving the murder Mass DNA testing of prisoners has [allegedly] led to the first NSW case of a person being charged with a previously unsolved murder as a result of a controversial gene-matching data bank.

Medical Records: Alex Mitchell's lost world
Perhaps we can get your medical report and spew it around publicly so you can see how it feels. But surely we do not have to go that far. And of course we are law-abiding citizens and I should think it would be enough to remind you of your ethics to report at all.

Prisoners can prove innocence for $20?
Les Kennedy Daily Telegraph reported today that" Prisoners who believe that DNA will prove they were wrongly convicted will have the chance to prove their innocence for a mere $20 administration fee. The move comes 20 months after NSW inmates were asked to provide DNA for comparison with a databank of DNA from unsolved crime scenes for possible convictions.

NSW opposition pledges review of detention laws
A spokesperson for Justice Action Ms Anal Advice said " NSW Prisons are a sex offence if you have been raped, bashed and squatted down to be strip searched. People should be diverted from going there at all material times".

Civil libertarians condemn planned changes to prisoners' privacy rights The New South Wales Government is using a recent case involving [framed] serial killer Ivan Milat to justify its decision to remove the privacy rights of prisoners. But really just another attack on Ivan Milat from Parliament House.

RESTORING TRUE JUSTICE:
Australian prisons are fast becoming the new asylums of the third millennium. The prison industry is booming, while Australia spends far less on mental health services than similar countries.

The punishment: Is the 'crime'
The punishment is the crime according to retired chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia Justice Alistair Nicholson. "Smacking a child ought to be seen as assault".

Mr. & Mrs. Mandatory Sentencing
Well congratulations to the bride and groom. Could you please be upstanding and raise your glasses for Mr. And Mrs. Mandatory.

Just wipe your arse on Ivan again Minister?
Mr Amery Minister for Corrective services has a problem with finding a toilet roll to wipe his bottom. Justice Action is appalled at the attacks by Amery and others in parliament on Ivan Milat's right to privacy and their attacks on the Privacy Commissioner and his office.

NSW prisons - primary industry bailed up!
In many quiet regional centres around NSW there is a new primary industry shaping up. It has something to do with Bail but not with bales. The minister for Agriculture Richard Amery who also has the prisons portfolio is now committed to farming prisoners.

NSW Parliament Bitter Pills To Swallow?
One delusion pill: So people who investigate their own mistakes make sure there was no mistake or someone else made the mistake. Perhaps you're not biased and you will be honest about it.

The Government is likely to abolish the Inspector General of Corrective Services position The Mulawa inspection report recommendations below strictly illustrate how important he is.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Prison Mind Games-Do they exist?
Directives are given inside the prison system that are not consistent with the law in NSW. And not in the good interests of the health and well being of the prisoners.

Marrickville to allow prostitutes to work from home

Marrickville council has become the second council in Sydney to allow prostitutes to work out of home. The council voted in favour of the proposal at a meeting last night attended by more than 300 angry local residents.

The decision means single operator brothels will be allowed to operate in residential areas without development consent.

Independent councillor Dimitri Thanos, who voted against the proposal, says the local community will suffer. "We had a very, very small time period in order to object," he said. "We collected 1,800 signatures, over 1,800 signatures within two weeks, within five days actually. "It is tragic because we've constantly seen what is acceptable in our society being eroded."

By Rox Ann 5 Feb 03

STING: Another nail in Fred Nile's coffin and the other bigots. What is marriage? Legal Prostitution. And I didn't say anything about wife swapping!

Former attorney-general sworn in as no mercy judge

The state's newest Supreme Court judge, and former Labor attorney-general, Jeff Shaw, has issued a warning to his former political colleagues: do not allow the vagaries of politics to undermine the independence of the judiciary?

But it is a pity Jeff Shaw didn't see it that way when the Carr government attacked Gregory Wayne Kable and denied Kable his democratic and civil rights to sue the government over his 7 months of false imprisonment and assault under the guise of the Community Protection Act 1994. The (CPA) a law designed for one person when Liberal Premier John Fahey thought he was God.

In fact the Carr Government went further and arranged a conspiracy by police to undermine Kable's integrity and to deny Kable access to Parliament House Sydney to tell his story to the other 300 politicians.

The High Court ruled the CPAct ,1994 as invalid but that thwarted Carr's leverage to gain votes by having less power to exploit citizens like Kable. So Carr decided to trip Kable over while he wasn't looking in the hope that he could save face and explain that the High Court was wrong to overturn draconian legislation.

These matters are shelved because a forum cannot be found to show evidence that the Carr Government is corrupt and that Carr himself should be jailed as a criminal.

Jeff Shaw Carr's previous hatchet man retired and now on the bench Shaw must be watched very carefully because Carr slotted him on the bench and now you read about how nice the guy is.

Shaw didn't say he was fed up doing Carr's dirty work. Shaw didn't admit that he was doing Carr's dirty laundry and would now like to wash his own cloths of the stench from Carr and his cronies.

There will always be a lackey like Bob Debus who should be jailed along side Carr. Perhaps we could put them in the same Cell. How about the High Security Unit in Goulburn segregated with no air, and a television that watches you for 23 hours a day?

In a short but pointed speech at his swearing-in ceremony in the Banco Court in Sydney yesterday, Justice Shaw also quoted the American writer Alexander Hamilton, who described the judicial sphere of government as the "least dangerous branch" .

"Although some of my former colleagues in the legislature might disagree, I accept the view of Alexander Hamilton, whose 1787 commentary on the Constitution of the United States referred to the judicial sphere of government as the least dangerous branch," he said.

"It is a check and balance against possible excesses of the executive and legislature."

Surrounded by friends, family, former political staff and legal and political figures including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Jim Spiegelman, Gough Whitlam, Neville Wran and several current and former Carr Government ministers, Justice Shaw said his dual careers had provided invaluable insights.

He said working first as a barrister and then as a member of parliament and a minister had given him a clear sense of the "difficulties and pressures" faced by the court system and the government.

However, he advised there be "caution and proper consideration" before legislators circumscribed the powers of the courts in individual cases.

"I understand the vicissitudes of politics," he said. "However, nothing has diminished my profound belief that the independence of the courts and its judicial officers is utterly central to a free society."

He said that while the doctrine of the separation of powers might not apply in the strictest sense to a state parliament, judicial independence was also central to "our liberal democracy".

"This requires the fearless adjudication of matters whatever might be the criticisms that come from individuals, the media or even the executive government in relation to such decisions.

"It is important that there be understanding, knowledge and respect in the relationship between the executive government, the legislature and the courts."

Justice Shaw said that "a culture of civility" between those who made the laws - politicians - and those who enforced them - judges - was also imperative.

Judges, he said, afforded appropriate respect to the intention of legislation when applying legal provisions to particular cases before them. "Likewise, it is vital that legislators understand and respect the decisions of courts in individual cases, where the legislation is valid."

Tele Tales

Most people I know don't buy the Daily Telegraph. Why? Because of the lies and propaganda purported by them.

Partners in crime - history!

Roger Rogerson, the old hero, who never faced a result in the Warren Lanfranchi, or Sally-Anne Huckstepp murders, was let off in my opinion when the New South Wales Government rolled the legal system (deciding what evidence to give the police prosecutor) to have the jury believe the illusion they (the Government wanted to create).

By Gregory Kable 5 Feb 03 State Civil Prisoner

God: Now Soothsaying is up to me! Everyone I speak to has faith in Shaw but I tip him as the No Mercy Judge.When you put yourself beside your fellows look into the mirror and own up to your deceit only then will the true man emerge from the bench. Cross your fingers.

Related:

Australia: politicians should watch police
In Sydney yesterday the Opposition police spokesman, Andrew Tink, urged Federal Labor MPs to allow the public hearing of the claims, which include that senior police, the PIC and the Ombudsman's office were failing to investigate legitimate complaints of misconduct, including corruption in the police promotion system.

The community questions ICAC's slagging and fobbing you off?
The ICAC, Commissions, Ombudsman, Police Integrity Commission (PIC), and numerous Tribunals etc, are all arms of government set up as an insurance police for the government's 3 or 4 year election terms. In short they'll be out of office by the time you may be lucky enough to have your matter heard.

Who is bad?
Super Rat? M5? M11? K8? N2? So I trust that some people who, with the photos and guns guessed that a jury would quickly establish a case against a profiled person whom, you just had a picture and a history of. Common knowledge? The government knew their victims would take the blame. Not just chess in court, 'moving around the pieces', but 'putting false evidence, or not enough evidence before the jury."

2,500 crooked detectives? Or a corrupt Government?
Evan Whitton: Either two things occurred. If you said you didn't join the police force to extort money from working girls, your papers were marked 'not suitable for plain clothes' and you were sent back to uniform.

How to become corruption resistant in NSW
Don't trust those who cannot prove themselves with the little amounts of trust you give them. Just because they have a letter of perceived trust doesn't mean they can be trusted.

This is not how you eat 'antisocial behaviour'
Process corruption, perjury, planting of evidence, verbals, fabricated confessions, denial of suspects rights, a solicitor to induce confessions, tampering with electronic recording equipment, framing. Generally green lighting crime, and I say Murder, including the kids who overdosed on heroin. No doubt.

Black Knight - Long way to go home
In line with the current climate of police corruption and the demise of the reform unit set up by Wood, these facts ought to have been a good reason to leave Moroney out of the package as Commissioner.

Bob down and sniff my arse
These are serious invasions of privacy and draconian laws? Where are our democratic soldiers, the lawyers and the barristers who need to take on the government in the courts? Are they plastic? Or to busy feathering their nests? Or have they been cleverly purchased by this black government. Drug test police and politicians, and have the tests independently accessed.

Come in spinner? Or Come in sinner?
"You don't have, in my view very vigilant processes. I suppose it's akin to the problem of corruption within the police," he told the ABC radio. " People say there's corruption with the police (but) do you get the police to investigate problems within their own ranks?

Deeds
I am disturbed by Governments 'actions' in relation to shuffling the police service. Clive Small seconded into Parliament like a cocky in a perch. A breach of the fundamental Separation of Powers Doctrine does not in my view allow the thought of intervening, planning, or shuffling to stack the deck of our police service. The one that suppose to be autonomous according to Lord Denning. Where the Parliamentary Secretary can ask the commissioner of police to 'report' then sack him if he is not satisfied with such report.

Australia's Political Underworld...& their enforcers
The promotion of law and order means money to big business. Profits from insurance, security fixtures, patrol services and the like can only continue to grow if the perceived threat of uncontrollable crime wave escalates. In the past few months there have been many examples of the true nature of our blood thirsty politicians and their sinister attempts to spoon-feed a not so gullible public with their repetitious rhetoric.

Truth
Who is telling the truth? Well I guess Dr. Ed. Chadbourne or Mr. Peter Ryan may have the answer to that. Dr. Chadbourne sacked by Peter Ryan and more specifically in my view because he elected deputy commissioners Dave Madden and Andrew Scipione as the best men in the service in relation to his qualifications to make a recommendation in his capacity as human resources.That is if you believe that a Dr. can be corrupted.

Honesty
What is happening between the Police Service and politics is quite extraordinary at the moment. If stand over tactics don't work tell half the truth honestly and follow the example of sheep. Another word for it is sleaze, yeah. Another word for it is workplace harassment. Another word for it is bribing a Police Officer. Another word for it is misleading Parliament.

Tele Tales
Most people I know don't buy the Daily Telegraph. Why? Because of the lies and propaganda purported by them.

Lord Denning
Interesting how a member of the Police Board Mr. Tim Priest would hold grave fears for his safety from dangerous senior police but fails to name them or have them sacked. Rather Priest resigns as if he had no powers. Could that mean what he was saying is that the Governments are also corrupt?

Corrosive
Clive Small is Bob Carr's choice for the new Police Commissioner. It could only be the case considering his, Small's special appointment into Parliament House. Small who suffers from the little person syndrome is the ideal bend over boy who gets shuffled through his corrupt actions. Rolling the legal system for him after the fact, just like his predecessor Roger the dodger Rogerson.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Same boat
The Premier, Bob Carr, relies on a militia. A gang of bikies and our Police Service, to show all of us he is no murderer. He should be taken to the task along with his partners in crime like Clive Small to account for those people who like my self have been maliciously assaulted and who have complained, without any service and those who cannot speak for themselves who were murdered, like Terry Falconer. Terry murdered in custody.

Good Cop
Why have our democratic institutions broken down? It's not just the criminal justice system. The Anti-Corruption Network webmaster@anti-corruption-network.org exposes the same issues. A group of white-collar workers who say they have suffered as follows:

Dangerous
I refer to the Daily Telegraph article 22 March 2002 under the heading Priest quits advisory job.

Partners in crime - history!
Roger Rogerson, the old hero, who never faced a result in the Warren Lanfranchi, or Sally-Anne Huckstepp murders, was let off in my opinion when the New South Wales Government rolled the legal system (deciding what evidence to give the police prosecutor) to have the jury believe the illusion they (the Government wanted to create).

Police Chronology 1994-2001
View events in the NSW Police Force since the Wood Royal Commission began in 1994. 1994 May Justice James Wood is appointed Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service ('WRC').

New murder inquiry after wife jailed for decade

A woman may have been charged with trying to poison her husband before police received toxicology results, the New South Wales Supreme Court has heard.

The allegation was made during an inquiry into fresh evidence in the case of Roseanne Catt.

The state's longest-serving female prisoner, Ms Catt spent 10 years in jail convicted of attempting to murder her husband Barry.

It was claimed among other things that Ms Catt tried to poison him by putting lithium in his drinks.

The Supreme Court has now heard the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Peter Thomas, did not order any tests on the liquids in question. Instead it was a friend of Mr Catt who sent the drinks to be tested.

Counsel for Ms Catt asked the former detective how he came to charge the woman more than a month before the official test results came back. The detective replied: "I suggest the date is wrong. That's the first time that's been said to me."

By Police Corruption 4 Feb 03

THE CHICKEN: The Attorney General's office says it is considering whether to override a decision by the Legal Aid Commission to stop funding Ms Catt's battle for exoneration.

Related:

Roseanne Catt update
Since writing this letter we have learned that the Attorney General is saying that the court matter that has taken eighteen months to prepare should be adjourned. In the meantime we wait and wait and wait until they say we can proceed. This is the situation just as we prepare to go to court on Monday 3rd February 2003.

"FREE(D) ROSEANNE"
It has been brought to our attention that today Legal Aid have formally advised Brock Partners, Roseanne Catt's solicitors, that they will no longer fund the Inquiry - at this most crucial time when her hearing is set for next Monday 3rd February.

Roseanne Catt Case
The case of Roseanne Catt starts On Monday 3rd February 2003 at 10 am in the Downing Centre Sydney before Judge Davidson. Almost daily I am hearing of threats, intimidation, bashings and contracts being put on people's lives who have come forward with evidence against these people. We will make sure that this terror is no longer tolerated.

Australia: politicians should watch police
In Sydney yesterday the Opposition police spokesman, Andrew Tink, urged Federal Labor MPs to allow the public hearing of the claims, which include that senior police, the PIC and the Ombudsman's office were failing to investigate legitimate complaints of misconduct, including corruption in the police promotion system.

The community questions ICAC's slagging and fobbing you off?
The ICAC, Commissions, Ombudsman, Police Integrity Commission (PIC), and numerous Tribunals etc, are all arms of government set up as an insurance police for the government's 3 or 4 year election terms. In short they'll be out of office by the time you may be lucky enough to have your matter heard.

Who is bad?
Super Rat? M5? M11? K8? N2? So I trust that some people who, with the photos and guns guessed that a jury would quickly establish a case against a profiled person whom, you just had a picture and a history of. Common knowledge? The government knew their victims would take the blame. Not just chess in court, 'moving around the pieces', but 'putting false evidence, or not enough evidence before the jury."

2,500 crooked detectives? Or a corrupt Government?
Evan Whitton: Either two things occurred. If you said you didn't join the police force to extort money from working girls, your papers were marked 'not suitable for plain clothes' and you were sent back to uniform.

How to become corruption resistant in NSW
Don't trust those who cannot prove themselves with the little amounts of trust you give them. Just because they have a letter of perceived trust doesn't mean they can be trusted.

This is not how you eat 'antisocial behaviour'
Process corruption, perjury, planting of evidence, verbals, fabricated confessions, denial of suspects rights, a solicitor to induce confessions, tampering with electronic recording equipment, framing. Generally green lighting crime, and I say Murder, including the kids who overdosed on heroin. No doubt.

Black Knight - Long way to go home
In line with the current climate of police corruption and the demise of the reform unit set up by Wood, these facts ought to have been a good reason to leave Moroney out of the package as Commissioner.

Bob down and sniff my arse
These are serious invasions of privacy and draconian laws? Where are our democratic soldiers, the lawyers and the barristers who need to take on the government in the courts? Are they plastic? Or to busy feathering their nests? Or have they been cleverly purchased by this black government. Drug test police and politicians, and have the tests independently accessed.

Come in spinner? Or Come in sinner?
"You don't have, in my view very vigilant processes. I suppose it's akin to the problem of corruption within the police," he told the ABC radio. " People say there's corruption with the police (but) do you get the police to investigate problems within their own ranks?

Deeds
I am disturbed by Governments 'actions' in relation to shuffling the police service. Clive Small seconded into Parliament like a cocky in a perch. A breach of the fundamental Separation of Powers Doctrine does not in my view allow the thought of intervening, planning, or shuffling to stack the deck of our police service. The one that suppose to be autonomous according to Lord Denning. Where the Parliamentary Secretary can ask the commissioner of police to 'report' then sack him if he is not satisfied with such report.

Australia's Political Underworld...& their enforcers
The promotion of law and order means money to big business. Profits from insurance, security fixtures, patrol services and the like can only continue to grow if the perceived threat of uncontrollable crime wave escalates. In the past few months there have been many examples of the true nature of our blood thirsty politicians and their sinister attempts to spoon-feed a not so gullible public with their repetitious rhetoric.

Truth
Who is telling the truth? Well I guess Dr. Ed. Chadbourne or Mr. Peter Ryan may have the answer to that. Dr. Chadbourne sacked by Peter Ryan and more specifically in my view because he elected deputy commissioners Dave Madden and Andrew Scipione as the best men in the service in relation to his qualifications to make a recommendation in his capacity as human resources.That is if you believe that a Dr. can be corrupted.

Honesty
What is happening between the Police Service and politics is quite extraordinary at the moment. If stand over tactics don't work tell half the truth honestly and follow the example of sheep. Another word for it is sleaze, yeah. Another word for it is workplace harassment. Another word for it is bribing a Police Officer. Another word for it is misleading Parliament.

Tele Tales
Most people I know don't buy the Daily Telegraph. Why? Because of the lies and propaganda purported by them.

Lord Denning
Interesting how a member of the Police Board Mr. Tim Priest would hold grave fears for his safety from dangerous senior police but fails to name them or have them sacked. Rather Priest resigns as if he had no powers. Could that mean what he was saying is that the Governments are also corrupt?

Corrosive
Clive Small is Bob Carr's choice for the new Police Commissioner. It could only be the case considering his, Small's special appointment into Parliament House. Small who suffers from the little person syndrome is the ideal bend over boy who gets shuffled through his corrupt actions. Rolling the legal system for him after the fact, just like his predecessor Roger the dodger Rogerson.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Same boat
The Premier, Bob Carr, relies on a militia. A gang of bikies and our Police Service, to show all of us he is no murderer. He should be taken to the task along with his partners in crime like Clive Small to account for those people who like my self have been maliciously assaulted and who have complained, without any service and those who cannot speak for themselves who were murdered, like Terry Falconer. Terry murdered in custody.

Good Cop
Why have our democratic institutions broken down? It's not just the criminal justice system. The Anti-Corruption Network webmaster@anti-corruption-network.org exposes the same issues. A group of white-collar workers who say they have suffered as follows:

Dangerous
I refer to the Daily Telegraph article 22 March 2002 under the heading Priest quits advisory job.

Partners in crime - history!
Roger Rogerson, the old hero, who never faced a result in the Warren Lanfranchi, or Sally-Anne Huckstepp murders, was let off in my opinion when the New South Wales Government rolled the legal system (deciding what evidence to give the police prosecutor) to have the jury believe the illusion they (the Government wanted to create).

Police Chronology 1994-2001
View events in the NSW Police Force since the Wood Royal Commission began in 1994. 1994 May Justice James Wood is appointed Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service ('WRC').

Death camps looming in Victoria

A letter was received on 15 January 03 from SCS-4\320 a remand prisoner in Victoria's Barwon Prison I later found out that the prisoner was in the Acacia High Security Unit.

SCS-4\320 wrote thus "I have not eaten since 8 January 03 at 8:30 PM".

I am always concerned about receiving mail like this because it brings back memories for me about the last straw in custody.

I too had to resolve issues in jail, a place where it seemed that there was no dialog and little if any mercy to be found. The result for me is that two symbols now dominate the root of my empathy for others and they are the Heart and the Star. The stars are my brothers and sisters and the heart is mercy for them all.

The prisoner writes, "I've been held in virtual solitary confinement with a minimum of 23 hours in a cell. I'm only allowed 1 box visit for an hour per week. When I inquire as to why I'm being treated in this matter. I'm responded with it's a directive from Corrections Commissioner Mr. Roach.

I have since been held in prison and as I have not breached any prison regulations. I am presently on a Hunger Strike in protest of my treatment. As remand prisoners are not deemed to be held for punishment, merely in a means to present them to courts. I have not eaten since 8 January 03 at 8:30pm because of my treatment.

I was set up by police on 10 August 2000 by way of planting drugs at my premises. I proclaimed my innocents to legal representatives, Ethical Standards Department and Ombudsman. All to no-avail. "

As a caseworker at Justice Action I have a responsibility to follow these matters up. When I received the letter from the prisoner on 22 January 03, I contacted Mr Bernie Clements Governor at Barwon Prison. He stated, "The prisoner was at court today and that he did not look like he was on a hunger strike."

I was told to contact Mr Stephen Bachelor his wing officer tomorrow to confirm that the prisoner was still in prison. I ask why the prisoner was in solitary confinement? Mr Clements, "He is in Segregation not solitary confinement."

[Which is the same but only the name has changed.]

I was told to contact Mr Kelvin Anderson Commissioner and ask him why the prisoner is being segregated [solitary confinement] on remand? And why the only staff I was offered, who could give me an answer about the prisoner's treatment was custodial or programs staff, because there was no Welfare Staff in the Jail.

Why is there no welfare staff? Clearly program staff and custodial staff can be influenced by "Directives". In this situation one requires independent analysis.

Alarm bells rang. Kelvin Anderson's office did not answer the fax although they rang Justice Action to confirm that they had in fact received the fax. I spoke to Andria.

This new idea by government departments not answering reasonable requests are offensive and dangerous. Our request for answers fell on deaf ears.

Public Servants are there to serve and Commissioner Anderson has not offered any accountability or taken any responsibility in relation to his lack of transparency.

Shortly thereafter I was informed that men's prisons in Victoria don't have an independent Welfare Officer. Perhaps that goes hand in hand with no responsible answers from Kelvin Anderson.

I would have preferred at the very least a written letter from the prisoner telling me that he has resolved his problem and is no longer on a hunger strike. When people lack information and understanding about their predicament they lose faith and take drastic action because of the trauma they are suffering.

Black Nexus

The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Prison Mind Games-Do they exist?

Directives are given inside the prison system that are not consistent with the law in NSW. And not in the good interests of the health and well being of the prisoners.


By Noone Knows Yet 4 February 03

THE EGG: Can somebody in Victoria talk to SCS-4\320? Remains to be seen. Why is a remand prisoner in solitary confinement? Did police ensure this to cover up their alleged planting of drugs on the accused premises? Perhaps so! Solitary confinement is used to blacken the names of people framed for crimes by police in NSW!

Related:

Jail search finds knives, syringes
Mr Brett Collins a spokesperson for Justice Action said, "It shows there is a lot of desperation in the prison system at the moment and has been for some time."

Take crime talk beyond the bars:'lobby group'
A coalition of academics, crime experts, welfare and church groups is preparing to launch an intensive pre-election campaign aimed at refocusing the attention of NSW politicians from harsh sentencing reforms to crime prevention strategies.

Six weeks, six months, six years: inmates have little chance of making fresh start More than 15,500 people are released from NSW prisons each year, twice the number of 20 years ago. But new research shows many ex-prisoners find it impossible to reintegrate into society and, months after release, are worse off than before they went to jail.

Fiona Stanley, the children's crusader
It is all about prevention. As Fiona Stanley sees it, with one in five Australian teenagers experiencing significant mental health problems, there are just not enough treatment services to cope with the demand.

Attempted thong theft costs $560
A man has been fined $500 after appearing in a northern New South Wales court charged with stealing a pair of thongs.

NSW A-G moves to stop criminals and ex-criminals selling stories
From next month criminals or ex-criminals who try to profit (earn a living for paid work, like writing a book etc..) from their crimes in New South Wales will have the proceeds confiscated.

NSW Govt criticised over criminal justice record
Key criminal justice groups have described the New South Wales Government's record on justice issues as a "disappointing performance".

APPOINTMENT OF KLOK IS: 'DECLARATION OF WAR'
The decision of the Carr government to appoint John Jacob Klok as the new Assistant Commissioner for Corrective Services in charge of security represents a statement of contempt to all those concerned about law and justice in NSW.

How NSW Dept of Corrective Services spent $800,000 dollars to rehabilitate a Sydney man sentenced to life for second murder! A spokesperson for Justice Action Mr Pro Grams said, "Well it's your money, how would you like it spent? And what do you think about rehabilitation on behalf of the Department of Corruptive Services?

Prisoners Representatives Excommunicated
Ron Woodham, Commissioner Corrective Services stated "[this Department] does not recognise Justice Action as an advocate on correctional centre issues." He has ordered a ban on all Justice Action material inside the NSW prison system. This resulted from a request for the approval of the latest edition of Framed (the Magazine of Justice Action) to be distributed throughout NSW prisons as has occurred for the past ten years.

Academic devises scheme for low income earners to pay back fines:
A professor at the Australian National University [another one of John Howard's hand picked losers like Peter Saunders the social services head-kicker has come up with a scheme which could see low income earners pay back criminal fines over a period of time.

Dept of Corrective Services: Rotten Ron Woodham on the ropes
This is The Freeedom Of Speech and The Press in a goldfish-bowl! Herr Goebells has spoken. Zieg Heil! (Which means, actually: "aim-for health!" incidentally)Apologies for not making meetings ... my first experiences with Woodham (then a -screw-gestapo-minor-with-a-friendly-dog - AND YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS WHEN EVEN HIS DOG DOESN`T LIKE HIM?)

At the Minister's Pleasure The case of Michael Kelly
Michael is caught up in a particularly cruel version of the game of Cat and Mouse. Because he is classified as a forensic patient under the Mental Heath Act of NSW, the Minister for Health is his master, not the Minister for Corrective Services. And the Minister for health will not let him go.

EX-PRISONER UNEMPLOYMENT: SENTENCED FOR LIFE
Name removed by request served time in prison decades ago. Shes still being punished today. According to commonwealth and state legislation, ex-prisoners applying for jobs must declare any conviction that fits into the following categories: less than 10 years old, more than 10 years old but served more than 30 months in prison.

ARE YOU INNOCENT?
The Australian Law Reform Commission had recommended that the Innocence Panel be independent and have the power to investigate alleged miscarriages of justice.

NSW Department of Corrective Services attack right to privacy
Corrective Services Minister Richard Amery has a problem attacking prisoners right to privacy.It seems to us that a civil society is best served when social justice laws are applied to all people regardless of their circumstances. Once government starts making exceptions which disadvantage certain groups and individuals, such laws are meaningless.

Litigants are drowning: in the High Court
There were so many self represented litigants appearing in the High Court that more than half of its registry staff's time was taken up in dealing with them. The "go it alone" litigants have to take on tasks well above their qualified league causing them stress. This growing problem cannot be left unchecked.

Everyone wants to get out of 'jail' but 'Framed' wants life: Rotten Ron on the ropes On 2 May 2002, Justice Action received a faxed letter from Manager of DCS Operations Support Branch saying that, in his view, articles in Framed edition #42 'lack balance and integrity' and he is therefore 'not prepared to recommend this issue of Framed for placement in to correctional centre libraries.' Prisoners and those concerned about prisoner issues have very few sources of information.

Methadone addicts formed within: 'NSW Prisons'
The New South Wales Opposition has accused the State Government of turning jailed heroin users into Methadone addicts.

Murder charge first for DNA data bank link, but not the same as solving the murder Mass DNA testing of prisoners has [allegedly] led to the first NSW case of a person being charged with a previously unsolved murder as a result of a controversial gene-matching data bank.

Medical Records: Alex Mitchell's lost world
Perhaps we can get your medical report and spew it around publicly so you can see how it feels. But surely we do not have to go that far. And of course we are law-abiding citizens and I should think it would be enough to remind you of your ethics to report at all.

Prisoners can prove innocence for $20?
Les Kennedy Daily Telegraph reported today that" Prisoners who believe that DNA will prove they were wrongly convicted will have the chance to prove their innocence for a mere $20 administration fee. The move comes 20 months after NSW inmates were asked to provide DNA for comparison with a databank of DNA from unsolved crime scenes for possible convictions.

NSW opposition pledges review of detention laws
A spokesperson for Justice Action Ms Anal Advice said " NSW Prisons are a sex offence if you have been raped, bashed and squatted down to be strip searched. People should be diverted from going there at all material times".

Civil libertarians condemn planned changes to prisoners' privacy rights The New South Wales Government is using a recent case involving [framed] serial killer Ivan Milat to justify its decision to remove the privacy rights of prisoners. But really just another attack on Ivan Milat from Parliament House.

RESTORING TRUE JUSTICE:
Australian prisons are fast becoming the new asylums of the third millennium. The prison industry is booming, while Australia spends far less on mental health services than similar countries.

The punishment: Is the 'crime'
The punishment is the crime according to retired chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia Justice Alistair Nicholson. "Smacking a child ought to be seen as assault".

Mr. & Mrs. Mandatory Sentencing
Well congratulations to the bride and groom. Could you please be upstanding and raise your glasses for Mr. And Mrs. Mandatory.

Just wipe your arse on Ivan again Minister?
Mr Amery Minister for Corrective services has a problem with finding a toilet roll to wipe his bottom. Justice Action is appalled at the attacks by Amery and others in parliament on Ivan Milat's right to privacy and their attacks on the Privacy Commissioner and his office.

NSW prisons - primary industry bailed up!
In many quiet regional centres around NSW there is a new primary industry shaping up. It has something to do with Bail but not with bales. The minister for Agriculture Richard Amery who also has the prisons portfolio is now committed to farming prisoners.

NSW Parliament Bitter Pills To Swallow?
One delusion pill: So people who investigate their own mistakes make sure there was no mistake or someone else made the mistake. Perhaps you're not biased and you will be honest about it.

The Government is likely to abolish the Inspector General of Corrective Services position The Mulawa inspection report recommendations below strictly illustrate how important he is.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Prison Mind Games-Do they exist?
Directives are given inside the prison system that are not consistent with the law in NSW. And not in the good interests of the health and well being of the prisoners.

Masked group aids escape

ABOUT five people wearing balaclavas have helped asylum seekers escape from the Woomera detention centre, attacking and injuring two security officers. Port Augusta police inspector James Blandford said four or five people had helped six detainees break out from the South Australian complex about 1.15am (ACDT).

They then fled in two cars to McDonalds?

By Beyond Bars 3 Feb 03

The Great Australian Bite
When the Government stands by terrorism kits amid criticism and is issuing fridge door terror kit's, at $15m a 'waste' according to the critics? Perhaps critics who never went to war yet? And when masked groups are helping asylum seekers to escape and our Nuclear protesters are being arrested. Then where having our blood sucked out!

Nuclear protesters arrested

AT least three people have been arrested during a protest at the Lucas Heights nuclear facility in Sydney's south. NSW upper house Greens MP Ian Cohen, who spoke at the protest, said demonstrators sat across the road and tried to prevent construction workers from entering at the site.

About 40 police were in attendance as the protesters gathered in an attempt to halt work on a replacement nuclear rector, he said.

"The police are starting to arrest people; they've arrested about three people so far.

"I am concerned they are using wrist locks on people who are obviously peaceful, and they are working their way across the road to open the road and people are just sitting with locked arms peacefully."

A NSW police spokeswoman said about 30 protesters were on the scene and confirmed arrests had been made.

"At least three, possibly more, arrests have been made," she said.

"They will be taken to various police stations including Miranda, St George and Sutherland."

By Demon Stration 3 Feb 03

THE DOG: No charges have been laid. But bones have been broken?

The Great Australian Bite

When the Government stands by terrorism kits amid criticism and is issuing fridge door terror kit's, at $15m a 'waste' according to the critics? Perhaps critics who never went to war yet? And when masked groups are helping asylum seekers to escape and our Nuclear protesters are being arrested. Then where having our blood sucked out!

Now John Howard who did go to war without telling everyone else is to visit US for war talks with Bush again!

Mosquitos have taken over from the fly's in Australia. Bloodsuckers who take the name of ordinary Australian's in vain.

Prime Minister John Howard has defended the Federal Government's decision to send out war kits to Australian households. The government has been accused of misdirecting taxpayers' money by preparing the war kits, which include a letter from the Prime Minister, a booklet and a fridge magnet.The war kits will be sent to every Australian household and contain advice on how to prepare for a potential terrorist attack.

[Just federal government fear mongering, propaganda, at taxpayers expense. This serves to bolster support and to quell dissent for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East.]

Prime Minister John Howard says Australians are balanced savvy people, who want the government to set the tone, then hand out information?

"I think it's exactly what the public wants," Mr Howard said.

The Opposition's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, says Mr Howard should think of more constructive ways to spend $15 million protecting [fear - mongering] Australia. "I think practical things on security need to be done first," he said.

"The glossy stuff Mr Howard should save until the next election."

"Greens leader Senator Bob Brown says the kit is 'designed to incite fear to attract votes'.

[So if the Bob Brown knows that then why doesn't Kevin Rudd? Me too? What kind of opposition is that?]

The Prime Minister, John Howard, was accused yesterday of political opportunism and of wasting millions of dollars of taxpayers' money on the Government terrorism kit, [government scapegoat kit] which is being mailed to households this week.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said the $15million the Government is spending on the kit, which is to be launched by the federal Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, today, would be better spent on improving airport security.

[Better still anti-war security.]

The kit includes a fridge magnet with crisis contact numbers and tips on how to spot terrorists [scapegoats.]

Greens Senator Bob Brown accused Mr Howard of using fear as a political weapon.

"I think the Prime Minister knows that keeping people fearful is in his estimation going to keep putting votes in his ballot box and I think that's a very, very wrong ambition in politics," he said.

Mr Howard yesterday denied the terrorism kit [scapegoat kit] would cause alarm. He said it would be well received, and that it "gives people useful information".

[Useful information about war criminal John Howard.]

Senator Brown said that when Federal Parliament resumes this week he would move a motion of no confidence in the Government over its involvement of Australia in the probable US-led war in Iraq, and the deployment of Australian troops [militia].

Prominent Liberals are backing a nationwide advertising campaign and protest march in opposition to Mr Howard's strong support for the US on Iraq.

Led by former Liberal president John Valder, the "Liberals against war in Iraq" will urge conservative voters to demand an end to the war plans. A rally is planned for February 16.

Former Liberal frontbencher Peter Deakin said: "A war has to have a strong moral imperative and I don't think I've seen the imperative here. I can't see any reason ... except to please our American masters."

Asked about unrest in his own party, Mr Howard said he was a "Liberal against war" who believed in preventing greater long-term danger and suffering by "taking steps now".

[By murdering innocent people who live in the sovereign nations of Afghanistan and Iraq.]

But the PM is to visit US for war talks with Bush? War criminal Howard is likely to accept an invitation from George W. Bush to visit Washington in the next few weeks to discuss the looming [resource] war in Iraq. The President is understood to have invited the Prime Minister to visit the US capital for what would be Mr Howard's third US trip in a year.

Masked group aids escape

ABOUT five people wearing balaclavas have helped asylum seekers escape from the Woomera detention centre, attacking and injuring two security officers. Port Augusta police inspector James Blandford said four or five people had helped six detainees break out from the South Australian complex about 1.15am (ACDT). They then fled in two cars to McDonalds?

By Louis Thefly 3 Feb 03

THE SNAKE: Howard! You speak with forked tongue.

Related:

War: Part one The human cost
On the road to Basra, ITV was filming wild dogs as they tore at the corpses of the Iraqi dead. Every few seconds a ravenous beast would rip off a decaying arm and make off with it over the desert in front of us, dead fingers trailing through the sand, the remains of the burned military sleeve flapping in the wind. "Just for the record,'' the cameraman said to me. Of course. Because ITV would never show such footage.

Mandela speaks out against Bush, Blair
Former South African leader Nelson Mandela has lashed out at US President George W Bush's stance on Iraq, saying the US leader has no foresight, and cannot think properly.

All the way with (LPK) Love Peace and Kindness: Dalai Lama
Communication is a two way street. Threats and punishment solve nothing and serve none. In fact it is against the law in most countries to threaten or punish a person.

Hill defends decision to attack Iraq: Step by step?
FEDERAL Defence [War] Minister [Sinister] Robert Hill has defended the government's decision to send troops [ send militia] to the Persian Gulf [ to attack Iraq] in readiness for any [pre-emptive strike that would cause a] conflict with Iraq.

Pleas for peace ring the globe
Anti-war demonstrators turned out in their hundreds of thousands around the world on Saturday to protest against United States military preparations for an invasion of Iraq.

Not too late for Iraq peace, Blix says
But we all know that's rubbish now. The Coalition of the Killing were not seeking WMD in Iraq, they were there for their resource wars. So who gave the 'UN' and Blix the wrong information back then? War criminals!

George Bush's other poodle
John Howard, Australia's PM, is the mouse that roars for America, whipping his country into war fever and paranoia about terrorism within.

Better late than never 'Democrats'
The Democrats are confident they will win at least one seat in the upper house in the NSW election by tapping into voter unease about the Carr Government's tough anti-terrorism laws.

US prepares for trade talks with Australia but it's not worth it!
The office of the United States Trade Representative has started formally preparing its negotiating position for the first round of talks on a free trade agreement between Australia and the US.

AUSTRALIA 2002: POLICE STATE LOOMING
As we go to press (December 2002), both the Federal parliament and the NSW parliament are debating legislation that would give police and ASIO agents greater powers of search, interrogation and detention, and significantly erode the fundamental rights of citizens. In both cases, of course, the alleged purpose of the bills is to combat terrorism.

Civil and Democratic Islam websites communicating?
In other words another propaganda green light from the west to bolster support and quell dissent and to continue the Coalition of the Killings illegal and degrading resource wars in the Middle East.

Govt plays down reports of complicity to torture its own citizens
The complicit federal Government says reports there are two highly trained members of Al Qaeda operating in Australia selling GI and are consistent with information it has already released.

Alarm over terror in 'Australia'?
All of the families ASIO raided in October were believed to have attended the weekend camps, which have run for the past five years. GI cordial was on the refreshment list of drinks.

Special powers? Or political grandstanding?
In NSW, great slews of legislation over the past year have increased powers for everything from police to sniffer pups and train guards and vastly reduced the rights of individuals to engage in civil disobedience, freedom of expression and communication with each other.

First strike and you're out!
The ideology of a super loser? John Howard shocks the nation again. A nation who cannot believe Howard's stupidity following his [complicity in the CIA's false flag operation, the Bali bombing.]

UN charter doesn't reflect new self-defence needs: Hill?
The Defence [War] Minister, Robert Hill, says the United Nations' charter needs to be changed to help countries defend themselves against potential threats. [?] [Pre-emptive strikes on soveriegn nation states like Iraq and Afghanistan?]

Middle Eastern: Specific Legislation
"If there is a target person the police would have powers in relation to that type of person," Mr Costa said. Asked what he meant by "type of person", Mr Costa said: "The example that's been given is if there's a description of somebody, an identikit photograph released by Interpol or other agencies ... these powers may well be exercised on that type of person."

Suspicious police are not trusted to terrorise the community
Short memory my friends when just around the corner police were out of control and now you want to trust Police in NSW to be given extraordinary powers to search vehicles, sites and even a general "type of person" in the event of a terrorism threat or after a terrorist attack.

Howard defends terror alert
Prime Minister John Howard says the Federal Government would not have issued a terror alert if it had not come from a credible source. (America?) Speaking for the first time since the Government revealed the warning, Mr Howard says he wants people to be more careful, but not to stop living. [As long as they don't go dancing in Bali? And sure we'll all be depressed for as long as John Howard and Bob Carr say so.]

Carr backs Fed Govt's terror alert
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr has defended the Federal Government's decision to issue a warning to Australians about a possible terrorist attack in Australia.

NSW Police Force may get 'special powers'
Civil libertarians are questioning the need for further anti-terrorism laws, which will be announced in the New South Wales Parliament on Tuesday.

When Johnny comes marching home again: 'hoorah hoorah'
Posted on the Resistance web page Bronwyn Powell, an organiser of the youth-led mobilisation told Green Left weekly that "in the face of attacks on civil liberties, it is unfortunate that some union officials have felt they need to submit. It could set a negative precedent for upholding the hard-won right to demonstrate in the street."

Give peace a chance
PIERS AKERMAN DT 28 Nov 02: JUSTICE John Dowd should be removed from the bench. His crime? Stupidity. In a breath-taking display of hand-wringing sanctimonious morality, Dowd has condemned the State and Federal Governments' anti-terrorism measures, claiming they erode rights and give encouragement to oppressive regimes.

Bills, Bills and more Bills NSW Parliament deep in debt
NSW Parliament is unjustifiable creating intellectual debt, Academics, politicians, judges, lawyers and volunteers.

It is an absolute disgrace to: Undermine civil and democratic rights The event, hosted by a State MP Lee Rhiannon just a week before the meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Sydney, has enraged Police Minister Michael Costa, who said using the House for the event was appalling. Upper House Greens MP Lee Rhiannon is hosting the forum for about 60 people in State Parliament's Jubilee Room on November 8.

The scavengers of terror
The NSW Government is to introduce increased police powers bill. Legislation giving New South Wales police special powers to deal with an emergency terrorist situation [emergency scapegoat situation] will be introduced into the New South Wales Parliament today.

Greens more of a human touch
What is a real job? Writes Political Reporter Malcolm Farr Daily Tele Article 11 Nov 2002. "It would start if candidates had a CV of real jobs, such as medicine (Senator Brown), or even zoo keeping (NSW Upper House Green Lee Rhiannon ). Which leaves the type of candidate summed up by Kerry Nettle, who was elected a NSW senator at the poll a year ago.

Koch's Skoff Channel 7' Sunrise
Charming when you run some one down like Zanny Begg member of the National Executive of Resistance using the power of National Media and the presenter is opinionated to go along with it.

The Australian Flag - Burn baby burn
If John Howard is not constitutional and racist. If our obligations to human rights are not being upheld, then burn baby burn the Australian flag in protest and start it with little Lucifer like a picture of Bob Carr.

About Protesting &: Corporate media, Ben English and Rachel Morris who spell their names in capitals? [Yes too right! Ordinary people some protesting against the occupation, murder and genocide of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children. And you call yourselves reporters? You should hang your head in shame and go get jobs defending those poor innocent people. Shame on you!!!]

War: Part one The human cost

'Does Tony Blair have any idea what the flies are like that feed off the dead?'

On the road to Basra, ITV was filming wild dogs as they tore at the corpses of the Iraqi dead. Every few seconds a ravenous beast would rip off a decaying arm and make off with it over the desert in front of us, dead fingers trailing through the sand, the remains of the burned military sleeve flapping in the wind. "Just for the record,'' the cameraman said to me. Of course. Because ITV would never show such footage.

The things we see - the filth and obscenity of corpses - cannot be shown. First because it is not "appropriate" to depict such reality on breakfast-time TV. Second because, if what we saw was shown on television, no one would ever again agree to support a war.

This was an iconic illustration of a kind because it did represent what we had seen, when it was eventually published. For Iraqi casualties to appear on television during that Gulf War - there was another one between 1980 and 1988, and a third is in the offing - it was necessary for them to have died with care, to have fallen romantically on their backs, one hand over a ruined face. Like those First World War paintings of the British dead on the Somme, Iraqis had to die benignly and without obvious wounds, without any kind of squalor, without a trace of shit or mucus or congealed blood, if they wanted to make it on to the morning news programmes.

I rage at this contrivance. At Qaa in 1996, when the Israelis had shelled Lebanese refugees at the UN compound for 17 minutes, killing 106 civilians, more than half of them children, I came across a young woman holding in her arms a middle-aged man. He was dead. "My father, my father," she kept crying, cradling his face. One of his arms and one of his legs was missing - the Israelis used proximity shells which cause amputation wounds - but when that scene reached television screens in Europe and America, the camera was close up on the girl and the dead man's face. The amputations were not to be seen. The cause of death had been erased in the interests of good taste. It was as if the old man had died of tiredness, just turned his head upon his daughter's shoulder to die in peace.

Today, when I listen to the threats of George Bush against Iraq and the shrill moralistic warnings of Tony Blair, I wonder what they know of this terrible reality. Does George, who declined to serve his county in Vietnam, have any idea what these corpses smell like? Does Tony have the slightest conception of what the flies are like, the big bluebottles that feed on the dead of the Middle East, and then come to settle on our faces and our notepads? Soldiers know. I remember one British officer asking to use the BBC's satellite phone just after the liberation of Kuwait in 1991. He was talking to his family in England and I watched him carefully. "I have seen some terrible things," he said. And then he broke down, weeping and shaking and holding the phone dangling in his hand over the transmission set. Did his family have the slightest idea what he was talking about? They would not have understood by watching television.

Thus can we face the prospect of war. Our glorious, patriotic population - albeit only about 20 per cent in support of this particular Iraqi folly - has been protected from the realities of violent death. But I am much struck by the number of letters in my postbag from veterans of the Second World War, men and women, all against this new Iraqi war, with an inalienable memory of torn limbs and suffering.

I remember once a wounded man in Iran, a piece of steel in his forehead, howling like an animal - which is, of course, what we all are - before he died; and the Palestinian boy who simply collapsed in front of me when an Israeli soldier shot him dead, quite deliberately, coldly, murderously, for throwing a stone; and the Israeli with a chair leg sticking out of her stomach outside the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem after a Palestinian bomber had decided to execute the families inside; and the heaps of Iraqi dead at the Battle of Dezful in the Iran-Iraq war - the stench of their bodies wafted through our helicopter until the mullahs aboard were sickened; and the young man showing me the thick black trail of his daughter's blood outside Algiers where armed "Islamists" had cut her throat.

But George Bush and Tony Blair and Dick Cheney and Jack Straw and all the other little warriors who are bamboozling us into war will not have to think of these vile images. For them it's about surgical strikes, collateral damage and all the other examples of war's linguistic mendacity. We are going to have a just war; we are going to liberate the people of Iraq - some of whom we will obviously kill - and we are going to give them democracy and protect their oil wealth and stage war crimes trials and we are going to be ever so moral, and we are going to watch our defence "experts" on TV with their bloodless sandpits and their awesome knowledge of weapons which rip off heads.

Come to think of it, I recall the head of an Albanian refugee, chopped neatly off when the Americans, ever so accidentally, bombed a refugee convoy in Kosovo in 1999 which they thought was a Serb military unit. His head lay in the long grass, bearded, eyes open, severed as if by a Tudor executioner. Months later, I learned his name and talked to the girl who was hit by the severed head during the US air strike and who laid the head reverently in the grass where I found it.

Nato, of course, did not apologise to the family. Nor to the girl. No one says sorry after war. No one acknowledges the truth of it. No one shows you what we see. Which is how our leaders and our betters persuade us - still - to go to war.

By Robert Fisk Posted 3 Feb 03

Related:

Mandela speaks out against Bush, Blair
Former South African leader Nelson Mandela has lashed out at US President George W Bush's stance on Iraq, saying the US leader has no foresight, and cannot think properly.

All the way with (LPK) Love Peace and Kindness: Dalai Lama
Communication is a two way street. Threats and punishment solve nothing and serve none. In fact it is against the law in most countries to threaten or punish a person.

Hill defends decision to attack Iraq: Step by step?
FEDERAL Defence [War] Minister [Sinister] Robert Hill has defended the government's decision to send troops [ send militia] to the Persian Gulf [ to attack Iraq] in readiness for any [pre-emptive strike that would cause a] conflict with Iraq.

Pleas for peace ring the globe
Anti-war demonstrators turned out in their hundreds of thousands around the world on Saturday to protest against United States military preparations for an invasion of Iraq.

Not too late for Iraq peace, Blix says
But we all know that's rubbish now. The Coalition of the Killing were not seeking WMD in Iraq, they were there for their resource wars. So who gave the 'UN' and Blix the wrong information back then? War criminals!

George Bush's other poodle
John Howard, Australia's PM, is the mouse that roars for America, whipping his country into war fever and paranoia about terrorism within.

Better late than never 'Democrats'
The Democrats are confident they will win at least one seat in the upper house in the NSW election by tapping into voter unease about the Carr Government's tough anti-terrorism laws.

US prepares for trade talks with Australia but it's not worth it!
The office of the United States Trade Representative has started formally preparing its negotiating position for the first round of talks on a free trade agreement between Australia and the US.

AUSTRALIA 2002: POLICE STATE LOOMING
As we go to press (December 2002), both the Federal parliament and the NSW parliament are debating legislation that would give police and ASIO agents greater powers of search, interrogation and detention, and significantly erode the fundamental rights of citizens. In both cases, of course, the alleged purpose of the bills is to combat terrorism.

Civil and Democratic Islam websites communicating?
In other words another propaganda green light from the west to bolster support and quell dissent and to continue the Coalition of the Killings illegal and degrading resource wars in the Middle East.

Govt plays down reports of complicity to torture its own citizens
The complicit federal Government says reports there are two highly trained members of Al Qaeda operating in Australia selling GI and are consistent with information it has already released.

Alarm over terror in 'Australia'?
All of the families ASIO raided in October were believed to have attended the weekend camps, which have run for the past five years. GI cordial was on the refreshment list of drinks.

Special powers? Or political grandstanding?
In NSW, great slews of legislation over the past year have increased powers for everything from police to sniffer pups and train guards and vastly reduced the rights of individuals to engage in civil disobedience, freedom of expression and communication with each other.

First strike and you're out!
The ideology of a super loser? John Howard shocks the nation again. A nation who cannot believe Howard's stupidity following his [complicity in the CIA's false flag operation, the Bali bombing.]

UN charter doesn't reflect new self-defence needs: Hill?
The Defence [War] Minister, Robert Hill, says the United Nations' charter needs to be changed to help countries defend themselves against potential threats. [?] [Pre-emptive strikes on soveriegn nation states like Iraq and Afghanistan?]

Middle Eastern: Specific Legislation
"If there is a target person the police would have powers in relation to that type of person," Mr Costa said. Asked what he meant by "type of person", Mr Costa said: "The example that's been given is if there's a description of somebody, an identikit photograph released by Interpol or other agencies ... these powers may well be exercised on that type of person."

Suspicious police are not trusted to terrorise the community
Short memory my friends when just around the corner police were out of control and now you want to trust Police in NSW to be given extraordinary powers to search vehicles, sites and even a general "type of person" in the event of a terrorism threat or after a terrorist attack.

Howard defends terror alert
Prime Minister John Howard says the Federal Government would not have issued a terror alert if it had not come from a credible source. (America?) Speaking for the first time since the Government revealed the warning, Mr Howard says he wants people to be more careful, but not to stop living. [As long as they don't go dancing in Bali? And sure we'll all be depressed for as long as John Howard and Bob Carr say so.]

Carr backs Fed Govt's terror alert
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr has defended the Federal Government's decision to issue a warning to Australians about a possible terrorist attack in Australia.

NSW Police Force may get 'special powers'
Civil libertarians are questioning the need for further anti-terrorism laws, which will be announced in the New South Wales Parliament on Tuesday.

When Johnny comes marching home again: 'hoorah hoorah'
Posted on the Resistance web page Bronwyn Powell, an organiser of the youth-led mobilisation told Green Left weekly that "in the face of attacks on civil liberties, it is unfortunate that some union officials have felt they need to submit. It could set a negative precedent for upholding the hard-won right to demonstrate in the street."

Give peace a chance
PIERS AKERMAN DT 28 Nov 02: JUSTICE John Dowd should be removed from the bench. His crime? Stupidity. In a breath-taking display of hand-wringing sanctimonious morality, Dowd has condemned the State and Federal Governments' anti-terrorism measures, claiming they erode rights and give encouragement to oppressive regimes.

Bills, Bills and more Bills NSW Parliament deep in debt
NSW Parliament is unjustifiable creating intellectual debt, Academics, politicians, judges, lawyers and volunteers.

It is an absolute disgrace to: Undermine civil and democratic rights The event, hosted by a State MP Lee Rhiannon just a week before the meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Sydney, has enraged Police Minister Michael Costa, who said using the House for the event was appalling. Upper House Greens MP Lee Rhiannon is hosting the forum for about 60 people in State Parliament's Jubilee Room on November 8.

The scavengers of terror
The NSW Government is to introduce increased police powers bill. Legislation giving New South Wales police special powers to deal with an emergency terrorist situation [emergency scapegoat situation] will be introduced into the New South Wales Parliament today.

Greens more of a human touch
What is a real job? Writes Political Reporter Malcolm Farr Daily Tele Article 11 Nov 2002. "It would start if candidates had a CV of real jobs, such as medicine (Senator Brown), or even zoo keeping (NSW Upper House Green Lee Rhiannon ). Which leaves the type of candidate summed up by Kerry Nettle, who was elected a NSW senator at the poll a year ago.

Koch's Skoff Channel 7' Sunrise
Charming when you run some one down like Zanny Begg member of the National Executive of Resistance using the power of National Media and the presenter is opinionated to go along with it.

The Australian Flag - Burn baby burn
If John Howard is not constitutional and racist. If our obligations to human rights are not being upheld, then burn baby burn the Australian flag in protest and start it with little Lucifer like a picture of Bob Carr.

About Protesting &: Corporate media, Ben English and Rachel Morris who spell their names in capitals? [Yes too right! Ordinary people some protesting against the occupation, murder and genocide of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children. And you call yourselves reporters? You should hang your head in shame and go get jobs defending those poor innocent people. Shame on you!!!]