Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Saturday, July 9, 2005

The Principles of Socialism

Socialism must be based in natural human needs, wants, and human development.

It is natural that parents care for the needs of their children. As children grow, they develop from self centered need gratification to community connection, which is a fundamental human need. Community connection proceeds from the service of the self to the self to the service to others. Service to others may mean at one level, service to the individual's own children and family or it may extend to working in the community to meet the needs of others.

This developmental process should be the basis of socialist development because it is natural to human beings. Socialist principles should never be based on principles that are alien to the natural inclinations of human beings.

We are born with nothing but needs and if we die of old age, we die with nothing but needs. Through the process of life, we will optimally develop if we proceed through self centered need gratification and expand our perspective to the needs of others. Through self centeredness, children learn to appreciate the wants and needs of human beings. As we grow and if we have children, we learn that their needs are more important than our own. If we don't have children, we still learn that the needs of other people are more important than our own through other means besides parenting.

Human adult happiness can be achieved through one thing only. It is achieved when we genuinely place the needs, happiness and well being of other people above our own. The human individual that is stuck in selfishness is truly important from a socialist point of view because he is suffering more than more developed human beings. And from the socialist point of view, who suffers most is most important.

One problem with the capitalist stage of social development has been that those same individuals that suffer in the cage of selfishness that deserve our compassion, have taken complete control of our societies. It is as if the children have taken control of the household.

Capitalist societies must be put on notice. Legislation must be pushed through capitalist parliaments that if capitalist control of government does not serve the needs of the people, then socialist control of government will take place. In other words, the adults will take control of the household.

Criteria should be developed with this in mind. That is, criteria that measures human misery. Should human misery fall below a certain level on quantitative and qualitative measures, then socialists will replace capitalistic lawmakers on national and preferably international levels and form a revolutionary new socialist government with the following principles as its foundation.

That society functions on the bases of the needs of the community.

That the needs of the community are assessed with the most needy individual deemed as the highest priority.

The needs of the public are deemed the highest priority.

Production is based on the needs of the community.

Distribution and trade is based on the needs of the community.

Ownership and control of natural resources is in the hands of the community.

Ownership and control of the wealth created by labour rests in the hands of the community.

Ownership and control of the community rests in the hands of all members of the community.

Community leadership is based on service to the needs of the community.

Socialist societies will be fundamentally different in one single fundamental respect at first; that the ownership and control of natural resources rests in the hands of the community.

Socialist societies will evolve through achieving ownership and control of industry placed first in the hands of nation based community control. Control will devolve to the local community as expediently as is practical.

The process of transformation from the private sphere to the public sphere is accomplished through cooperation and agreement wherever possible.

Early socialist societies will maintain the same institutions, businesses, infrastructure, and liberal legal principles as late capitalist societies. The legal principles that are contrary to socialist principles will be abolished.

The institutions created through private ownership be initially maintained and assessed for value to the community.

Where capitalistic incentives are needed for under-developed individuals and communities, the community will hold strict control over production, trade, and the relationship between private bosses and workers.

Where capitalistic incentives are needed for under-developed individuals or communities, the coercive nature and threat posed by those individuals and communities is openly and frankly discussed in public forums.

Practical steps are taken to prevent those same individuals from manipulating wealth and community control for their own benefit.

In all cases where capitalist incentive mechanisms are needed, they will be on a temporary basis.

In all cases where capitalist incentive mechanisms are needed, workers will be organized in democracy based unions outside of the control of the owners.

Control of both natural resources and industry will devolve to the community where industries are located.

That trade between communities is coordinated and based on community needs.

Individuals work is not forced.

Individuals should work in accordance with the needs of the community.
Work direction is based in community needs.

Work initiative is based in crass goal achievement for those in lower stages of psychological development.

Work initiatives are based in self centered needs for youth with the recognition that self centeredness is valuable and necessary for youth to develop.

Control of work is based in the individual's willingness and ability to take initiative and ownership of the problem of community needs.

Workers that carry out, facilitate and coordinate trade between communities are included and welcomed while they are away from their home community.

Communities will assist other communities where trade or production development is difficult or slow. Trade should focus on the needs of the community but also on the needs of foreign communities.

State control of criminality will evolve toward social and community control.

State control of all institutions will evolve toward community control.

State control will evolve toward community control; community control will evolve toward family control and toward no control. Individual emancipation from state coercion is a fundamental goal of socialism.

Socialist societies will develop toward the abolition of the state.

The socialist state will adhere to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of media, and people will not require payment for information. Information will be free and unfettered.

Repressive state forces will be in formed only in the case where tyranny and oppression must be curtailed. Authority, whether it is the authority of a parent or a teacher or police, will never be abused. If it is abused, the authority will be removed by the state from the individual, the body or organization.

Discrimination against human beings will be eliminated through education and in severe cases of organized hate, through legal sanctions that are aimed against tyranny.

The education of educators and medical professionals will be a priority in all communities. These skills and resources will be shared and developed according to need.

Vital needs shall never require a charge of money. This includes and is not restricted to housing, food, medicine, medical care, or anything else where its absence may result in the death of an individual.

Technological development will be enhanced through the development of community awards and grants and through the development of incentives to individuals and communities.

The great sweep of history, from the communism of hunter gatherer societies to early tribal societies and all its developments to late tribal societies to early feudal societies and its developments to late feudal societies to early capitalist societies and through those developments we now emerge, seated within the historical context of late capitalism; aware of the sweep of history.

It has become increasingly obvious that capitalism has developed and has become not capitalism but monopolism. The state and private business are married and stand over and above societies. These powers have control of the societies and the individuals in them and together, they form an oppressive and alienating force.

The time is coming where we, the individuals that are members of various societies, must take the initiative to move from late capitalism to early socialism. Early socialism should and will look like late capitalism but at that point, we will have switched tracks. Our trajectory will have changed and we will be on the road to the abolition of the state, the complete abolition of capitalism, and the abolition of barbarism.

Left Lite

By Left Lite posted July 9 05

Monday, April 4, 2005

Why We Oppose Home Detention

NSW: Justice Action opposes the use of Home Detention (HD). It damages the family and the home for others without any consideration of the effects, or acknowledgement of the costs. It discriminates by disproportionately effecting women. Families become prison guards to their loved ones, and the home becomes an extension of the State.

While many people, including prisoners themselves, support HD, when you look at the bigger picture, the widespread use of HD is an admission of the failure of imprisonment and damages fundamental social structures.

The only approach that could create the illusion that home detention provides benefits is via comparison with the regular prison system. It is the same logic that suggests that a punch in the face is beneficial in comparison to being beaten senseless with cricket bats.

In the past 10 years, across Australia, prisoner numbers have doubled, costs of imprisonment have skyrocketed, and rates of imprisonment have increased in all states and territories. In NSW, 45% of prisoners return within 2 years. This means that the Department of Corrective Services (DCS) has failed in its responsibility to reduce offending in the community. Now the government is trying to give it's problems to the community, but without the support necessary for real, community-based solutions.

THE PROBLEMS:

1) Transfer of the costs of incarceration from the state onto families.

a) Financial costs - HD is claimed to be a cost-saving alternative to prison, however, the costs are only transferred from the state to the family. It costs the government over $60,000 per year to provide for one prisoner. If offenders are to be diverted from prison, the funds allocated to support them must also be diverted to the community.

The family must provide:

- Accommodation - The family shares their home with someone under the control of the state, and subject to surveillance. That lessens the use value of their home and compromises their privacy. Other family members are forced to accept the reluctant inhabitant with them for very sustained periods, without respite.

- Security, health, caring and counselling -To maintain their own stability the family needs to look after a person who would otherwise be in prison, supplying the needs that the state would supply.

b) Emotional & physical costs - The NSW (DCS) interviewed families about the effect of home detention.

They reported:

- their sleep and their children's sleep was disturbed by monitoring phone calls,

- their privacy invaded by searches,

- additional stress and tensions within the family relationships,

- increased burden on outside family and friends,

- increased risk of domestic violence.

c) Effect on women - There is a strong gender bias in who is affected by home detention, whether it is women or men who are on it. This is because regardless of the gender of the offender, the people who consent to having the offender living with them and having their homes turned into prisons invariably are women. Anyone who visits prisons, men's or women's will tell you that it is women who fill prison visit centres and likewise it is women who become HD 'sponsors'.

2) Families become both prisoners and prison officers.

a) Families of home detainees are responsible not only for keeping the person on HD in the house, but also keeping them off drugs and alcohol, and on whatever medications are part of the orders.

b) Families are given a choice which amounts to extortion: control the offender, or they are sent back to prison. This puts enormous pressure on the family, including young children, to tolerate offending behaviour, including domestic violence, rather than report the loved one to the authorities.

c) The same group of people who were unable to control the offender's behaviour in the past are forced to confront the problems again, in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of HD, constantly, without support.

d) If the person leaves the home, it is classed as an escape from prison.

e) Families must either explain to friends and associates about HD, or they must lie to protect the family.

3) Net widening - Prisons fill up regardless of crime rates or diversionary sentencing. This means that if one person is diverted from prison into home detention, another will be sentenced to prison who might have received a diversion.

a) The building of new prisons almost universally results in an increase in prison numbers. Old accommodation units are invariably reopened to cope with the increase in numbers. In NSW this has been proven by the reopening of old "stock" - for eg Parramatta prison (continually being re-opened), Long Bay wings, Conlon Unit at Mulawa (numerous times); Maitland; Cooma; and the Norma Parker Gaol for Women (numerous). The net widening effect of building more prisons was acknowledged in 1994 by the Department's own Women's Action Plan:

"...the provision of increased access to correctional facilities in country areas may create a net widening phenomenon resulting in the courts sending more women to prison who may otherwise have received non-custodial sentences.

There is a strong body of opinion that in spite of oft stated support for a reductionist approach to women in prison, if additional places were provided, particularly..in country areas, they would inevitably be filled."

b) A Victorian government discussion paper in 1987 said 'if we regard homes as potential prisons, capacity for all practical purposes is unlimited'. No wonder they all support HD. This philosophy removes any imperative to look at why our prisons are overflowing because prison capacity problems are rendered obsolete.

SOME SOLUTIONS:

1) Mentoring: Giving support to offenders through a person trusted by both the offender and the community. Mentoring is a long-term project to provide support to people adversely effected by the criminal justice system and prevent offending and re-offending. JA has been providing mentoring support for 20 years, to thousands of people. JA graduated 22 TAFE accredited mentors on December 5, 2003.

A digital copy of the JA Mentor's Handbook online or download the pdf here: JA Mentoring.

2) Community Service Orders: CSO's are community-based sentences for offenders to do unpaid work for non-profit agencies. The offenders are supervised by Probation & Parole or an approved supervisor from the agency. CSO's offer the same benefits promoted for home detention, but without the negative impacts discussed above, including "...more flexible sentencing construction, containment of overall correctional spending and potential social and community benefits."...CSO's also allow the offender to actively make amends to the community, and learn work skills and discipline. Justice Action works with a CSO agency, Breakout Design & Print.

Justice Action gave evidence to the NSW Standing committee on Law and Justice on 18/3/05 looking at "back-end home detention".

By Justice Action 4 April 05

Related:

WHY WE SHOULD OPPOSE HOME DETENTION

The ACT Government has drafted a new Bill to implement Home Detention This very discriminatory type of sentence also punishes the family. It is questionable that it has been successful anywhere it has been tried.

Related Links:

MORE PRISONERS LOCKDOWNS HAVE OFFICERS ON EDGE
NSW POLICE Commissioner Ken Moroney has issued an ultimatum as well, to the lawless youths holding Sydney's streets to ransom?: Learn some respect or face jail?

Tough line on crime fills jails
The tough law-and-order policies of governments around the nation are behind an explosion in the prison population by almost 80 per cent in the past two decades.

LEGAL VISITS AT PARKLEA PRISON
I am a prisoner in NSW and I am currently held in Parklea Prison. I am concerned about what is going on in NSW prisons and this is my story.

Parklea Prison: No calls for six days
The last calls that were made out of Parklea Correctional Complex by my partner, an inmate in remand at Parklea, was on Wednesday 2 February. The phone lines for the inmates have been out of service to this date.

Prison visits in crisis in NSW
The reason I am writing today is to address a difficult situation that my husband and my family are going through. My husband is currently serving a sentence at Lithgow Correctional Centre in NSW.

Prison boom will prove a social bust
Hardened criminals are not filling NSW's prisons - the mentally ill and socially disadvantaged are, writes Eileen Baldry.

The prison system requires assiduous oversight
As NSW Attorney General Bob Debus noted in 1996: "The kinds of complaints which occur in the system may seem trivial to outsiders but in the superheated world of the prison, such issues can produce explosive results."

Crime and Punishment
Mark Findlay argues that the present psychological approach to prison programs is increasing the likelihood of re-offending and the threat to community safety.

Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services
There used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.

Prison guards test positive for drugs
NSW prison visitors banned from using the toilet The visit is only for about one hour and any thing less than that is an insult. If it's proved that a visitor has broken the rules the punishment should apply to them. But collective punishment on all visitors should not be made general when others haven't broken the rules especially if it restricts all visitors from normal human needs like using a toilet.

NSW prison visitors banned from using the toilet
The New South Wales Government has introduced several initiatives to stop contraband getting into prisons they said last Friday. But under the guise of "stricter rules" the department had also introduced banning all visitors including children from using the toilet unless they terminate their visit at any NSW prison after using the toilet.

Watchdogs slaughtered in NSW
On Tuesday the Carr Government reduced transparency and accountability yet again and New South Wales is in danger of becoming entrenched with cronyism and intimidations with the Carr Labor Government that continues to slaughter the watchdogs.

Friday, February 18, 2005

UP, UP AND AWAY WITH JA THE FRIENDLY, FRIENDLY WAY...

Channel Ten reported yesterday that 80 per cent of its viewers say Mamdouh Habib is guilty of being a witch in a flawed opinion poll taken by the station.

Yet Mr Habib's harassment, kidnap and subsequent torture by the authorities both here and abroad is a crime against humanity and he and his family have suffered both directly and indirectly from that treatment.

The community suffers as well because the authorities have chosen to lower the standards of our humanity. Let Mamdouh Habib have his day in court.

Would you like to ride in our beautiful balloon? Would you like to glide in our beautiful balloon? We could flow among the stars together you and I, for we can fly...

Up, up and away with JA, the friendly, friendly way...


Up and away...


Changing What WE Control

All over the world activist groups are using the wrong ideas to take on the Old World Order (OWO). Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Animal Liberation, and many other groups are often trapped by a wrong, but dominant, idea.

The idea involves changing what governments and corporations do.

A better idea is for us to change what we do. We still have control over many of our own actions, but almost no control over the actions of federal governments and global corporations.

Governments can easily ignore our attempts to make them change. They can also use the rule of law, and their considerable legal and financial resources, to defend whatever they do. Large corporations have similar capacities to resist pressures from ordinary people. Since the mid-eighties London Greenpeace has organised an annual World Day of Action against McDonalds. The protest takes place on 16th October.

It attacks aspects such as the use of former rainforest land to graze cattle for beefburgers, the means of slaughtering chickens, the impact of fries and beefburgers on obesity, and the wages and conditions of employees.

Greenpeace asks ordinary people to "...talk to friends and family, neighbours and workmates about these issues." Two activists, Helen Morris and David Steele were sued by the McDonalds corporation in 1990, for distributing a leaflet critical of McDonalds products and business practices.

Although the pair came through the longest libel trial in British legal history with significant public support, and some favourable rulings, their leaflet did not change McDonalds products or practices at all.

Corporations like McDonalds can control what they do, and they can choose to ignore criticisms and use the legal system to silence those who speak out against perceived shortcomings in their operations and ethics. But individual citizens also have control over many aspects of their lives. You and I might not be able to travel internationally without visas, body searches, and currency restrictions, but we can still choose what we eat, what we watch, and who are friends are.

The world's a nicer place, in our beautiful balloon. It wears a nicer face, in our beautiful balloon. We can sing a song and sail along the silversky. For we can fly...

Up, up and away with JA, the friendly, friendly way...

Up and away....


Withdrawing Our Support

While we can't change governments and corporations, we can change what we ourselves control. Artificial scarcity is the bedrock of capitalism, but it is a two way street. By withdrawing our support for commercial products or government programs, we citizens can create scarcities of our own. We can cause a scarcity of consumers, a scarcity of program participants, and a scarcity of believers.

The latter form of scarcity is vital to diminishing the power and control of the Old World Order. Citizens, particularly those in the West, need to withdraw their support for official truths and the mechanisms that promulgate them. There might be good reasons to withdraw support from McDonalds products, but doing so would only harm that single corporation, and many of the people who work there.

A wide refusal to consume McDonalds meals will never damage capitalism or hasten the transition to a Level 4 Civilization. However, a widespread withdrawal of support for the misinformation and lies disseminated by government and corporate spin-doctors, and the mainstream electronic media, can do so. Such a development can help us meet Daniel Quinn's key requirement for our survival as a species. "What we must have (and nothing less) is a whole world full of people with changed minds. "

Suspended under a twilight canopy, we'll search the sky for a star to guide us. If by some chance you find yourself loving us, we'll find a cloud to hide us. Keep the moon beside us, love is waiting there in our beautiful balloon. For we can fly...

Up, up and away with JA, the friendly, friendly way.
..

Up and away....


Actions WE Can Take

There are many actions that we can take to help the transition to a Level 4 Civilization. Some actions that are well within our power are suggested below, you can undoubtedly think of more.

* Turn off TV, to reject the propaganda of the OWO.

* Become a 2nd Renaissance resident by choosing to describe your address in terms that exclude national identity.

* Establish and support the new category of Freeright, as a foil to Copyright.

* Rediscover kinship principles and establish support mechanisms that are independent of government programs.

* Widen civil scepticism and challenge the official truth - everywhere, every time.

* Expect high-level corruption and help to identify and publicise it.

* See the War on Terror in context. Spread the understanding widely.

* Reject military solutions to terrorism. Spread understanding that wars cannot prevail against non-state opponents. Work to stop support for the War on Terror, on the grounds of its poor cost-benefits potential.

* Challenge restrictions of civil freedoms. Support secessions from federal systems and democracies that are spiralling into decline.

* Learn about new science and share your understanding widely. Do the same in respect of ancient knowledge and suppressed inventions.

* Seek to understand new technologies and their impact on scarcity. Spread information about new social and economic choices that arise from abundance.

* Confront the doctrines and practices of economic scarcity. Understand and spread awareness of the flawed nature of taker philosophies, and the growing opportunity to live differently - as leaver-givers.

* Move house. Congregate in new centres of 2nd Renaissance thought. Help to develop the 2R centres. Help them break free of federalism.

* Stop voting. Stop supporting pseudo-democracies. Where voting is compulsory, vote informal. Reduce the numerical mandate of the OWO to legitimately govern states and federations of states (by creating a scarcity of voter support).

* Become involved in highlighting the failures of capitalism, federalism and nationalism. Use Freenet and whatever other channels that are available to send the messages out; across the world.

* Maintain resolve and hope, no matter what the OWO might do or say. Remain non-violent but always focused and insistent on rapid change - towards a Level 4 Civilization by 2014.

Turn Off TV

The acclaimed linguist and author, Noam Chomsky, reminds us that most of our communications technologies are exclusive to the West. He says, "The Internet is an elite organisation; most of the world has never made a phone call."

People who don't have television or access to the WWW, are both winning and losing. They are being spared the deluge of propaganda that comes from the major TV channels, but they are also missing the wealth of valid information that is available on the Internet.

We are more fortunate. If we so choose, we can keep the Internet but stop tuning into the TV propaganda of the Old World Order.

Keep your TV set for viewing rented movies if you like, continue to use the print media for sporting and other information of a non-propaganda nature, but disconnect the TV broadcast feed from the antenna or fibre-optic cable. Your children will be better off growing up without an ever-present propaganda medium in the living room.

In due course, there will be global TV broadcasts emanating from various free cities and regions, that will be unencumbered by federalist, nationalist, and capitalist doctrines.

Such transmissions will come to your home through the earth, without using existing communication cables and channels. In the meantime your family can be spared the intrusion of the OWO into the home, by the simple action of disconnecting the conventional signal feed to your TV set.

Way up in the air in our beautiful balloon, if you'll hold our hand, we'll chase your dream across the sky... For we can fly...

Up, up and away with JA, the friendly, friendly way.
..

Up and away...


Up, up and away...

Up, up and away...

Up, up and away...

Up, up and away...

Up, up and away...


2nd Renaissance -8...
The CIA's Job Applicant Screening [134]
Since its inception, in the late 1940s, the US Central Intelligence Agency has screened applicants for its own agency, and other sensitive government positions, using a structured interview process. There are questions in the interview designed to identify individuals who, by reason of their beliefs or experiences, might not have a well-developed fear of death. Such people do not get jobs in the agency. There are few Buddhists or Animists working for the CIA. Nor are there any people who are known to have had near death experiences or drug induced visions of a non-material world. Folk like that could be impossible to control through a fear of death.

By Gregory Kable & The Supremes 18 February 2005

JUSTICE ACTION
E ja@justiceaction.org.au

BREAKOUT DESIGNPRINTWEB
proudly sponsors Justice Action

Related:

Habib sacks psychiatrist over torture comments
A leading psychiatrist has been dismissed from Mamdouh Habib's legal team after publicly backing Mr Habib's claims that he was tortured while in detention at Guantanamao Bay and in the Middle East.

Australian senate accused govt of war crimes
Did you hear the one about David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib having a Barbeque in Afghanistan with Bin Laden? Yeah it was reported on Channel Seven's Sunrise this morning! But they don't know if it was a sheep or a goat, but sources say it was most likely a goat.

DPP to appeal innocent man's bail
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will seek to have an innocent Melbourne man Joseph 'Jack' Thomas, returned to isolation in custody?

Fascist Australian Govt torture exposed
The fascist Federal Government has been exposed for the torture of Australian Mamdouh Habib and the US Government's allegations against him (if they were true) would have been made under duress.

Amnesty slams Govt position on US trial system
Amnesty International has described as "absurd", the Federal Government's continued support for the United States military commission that will try Australian detainee [scapegoat] David Hicks on terrorism allegations.

Federal Police discounted Habib torture?
Mick Keelty says Habib told ASIO and AFP officers during three separate interviews that he had been tortured.

Innocent witch verballed by federal fascists!
Shame on the federal fascists. The wicked old witch is dead! A Melbourne Magistrates Court has heard that a 31-year-old innocent Victorian man was facing terrorism charges?

Lawyer blames police for Habib break-in
John HoWARd, Alexander Downer, Phillip Ruddock, Robert Hill, to name just a few....HOW DO YOU PLEAD?

No reason for Habib to sell story: Beazley?
Federal Agreement Leader Kim Beazley is a well-paid loser. A loser who supposed to be defending our democratic rights by standing up to the HoWARd Government's fascism.

Habib plans tribunal fight for passport
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib will go to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in a bid to win back his Australian passport.

Australia: a presumption of guilt......
KAREN PERCY: Two of Australia's leading barristers have seized on the return of Guantanamo Bay detainee, Mamdouh Habib, to launch an unprecedented attack on the Federal Attorney General, Philip Ruddock.

Aust Community criticises Govt for 'crimes'!
Australia: The Law Council of Australia is warning that the Federal Government must learn from its mistakes over Guantanamo Bay? Now that's a mistake!

Australian Govt Guilty of Crimes: Community
Australia: The community says federal fascists who allowed the torture of its citizenry including Mamdouh Habib may be arrested when the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal address the War Crimes Indictment set out by the community.

What they did to Habib
Mamdouh Habib was the victim of atrocities fit for a concentration camp, including being tied to the ground while a prostitute menstruated on him, his lawyer said yesterday.

Govt accused of delaying Habib's repatriation
The Australian lawyer for Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib says his client's repatriation is being delayed by the Federal Government.

US judge dismisses? Guantanamo legal challenge
A US federal judge has dismissed the cases of seven Guantanamo Bay prisoners who sought to challenge the lawfulness of their continued detention?

US 'landlord' slams! Guantanamo 'law violations'
Cuba has demanded that the United States cease its "criminal conduct" in abusing prisoners held at the base it illegally occupies on Cuba's south-eastern tip, saying procedures at Guantanamo violate international law.

FBI emails reveal Guantanamo abuse
In memos over a two year period FBI agents said they witnessed the use of torture techniques, which included the use of dogs, prisoners being shackled to the floor in foetal positions for up to 24 hours, left without food and water, left to defecate upon themselves.

Australia Sells Its Citizens Short
Australian citizens, Mamdouth Habib and David Hicks have been illegally incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay facility established by the US military as part of the War on Terror.

Downer won't press US for 'torture' report?
The Australian Government says it has tried and failed so far to get a copy of a report by the International Red Cross which claims psychological and physical coercion of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba?

UK minister criticises US over Guantanamo!
UK: Washington's policy on the legal status of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba is unacceptable, a senior British minister said.

Lawyers hail 'unlawful' ruling in Guantanamo trial
Human rights groups and lawyers for Guantanamo detainees have welcomed a US federal judge's ruling which halted as unlawful the military tribunal trial of a Guantanamo prisoner accused of being Osama bin Laden's bodyguard and driver.

Torture, the British way
Great to be British, isn't it? Time was, we were really uptight, but now we can talk about anything - sex, religion, politics. No matter how personal and complex the subject, we'll discuss it with Richard and Judy, or slap our private Polaroids of it on our websites. Which leaves me puzzled about our silence, even shyness, over this whole torture thing.

US secretly moved prisoners out of Iraq for questioning: report
The CIA has secretly transferred detainees out of Iraq for interrogation after asking the US Justice Department to write a memo justifying the practice, which violates the Geneva Conventions.

Pentagon dumps Guantanamo tribunal officers
The Pentagon has dumped three members of a military tribunal that will hear the trials of Guantanamo prisoners, including Australian David Hicks, but kept the presiding officer despite challenges to his impartiality.

Guantanamo detainees win right for private meetings
In a defeat for the US Government, a federal judge has ruled that three prisoners held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba can meet with their attorneys in private. In a defeat.

Lawyers complain about Guantanamo trials
US: Lawyers for 63 detainees at the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have complained before a US federal court at the slow pace their cases are being handled by authorities.

Judge orders US to release Guantanamo records
The United States Government must release documents within 30 days relating to the treatment of prisoners held at American overseas detention centres, including Guantanamo Bay and Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, a US federal judge ordered.

Bush team 'knew of abuse' at Guantanamo
Evidence of prisoner abuse and possible war crimes at Guantanamo Bay reached the highest levels of the Bush administration as early as autumn 2002, but Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, chose to do nothing about it, according to a new investigation.

Hicks, Habib denied a fair go: Amnesty
The secretary-general of Amnesty International has criticised the Federal Government's treatment of the two Australians detained at Guantanamo Bay.

Abu Ghraib inquiry slams Aust Government
A US inquiry into the Iraqi prison abuse scandal has been highly critical of Australian, Major George O'Kane, for glossing over early warnings about the treatment of detainees.

Australian Federal Government complicity in war crimes
Complaint to Australian law officers about Australian Federal Government complicity in war crimes.

Habib's call renews welfare concerns
Waiting: Maha Habib has spoken to her husband for the first time in two-and-a-half years.

Hicks, Habib denied natural justice: Liberal MP
A federal Liberal MP has accused the Government of not doing enough to secure a fair trial for Guantanamo Bay detainees, David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Guantanamo abuse claims prompt new inquiry calls
New claims of abuse at Guantanamo Bay Cuba have prompted fresh calls for an Australian inquiry into the treatment of detainees David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Mamdouh Habib: Taunted and Tortured!
Habib came to ASIO's notice when he fell out with the ADF obviously someone had it in for Mamdouh and the ADF tipped off ASIO and the AFP to taunt him. By the sounds of it he was declared a wog. That's Aussie slang for get the bastard he's not one of ours and we can discriminate against him he is an easy target. Aussie race hate!

Habib to face US military trial
The United States Government has given the go-ahead for the Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate, Mamdouh Habib, to go to trial for being innocent. Mr Habib could now be granted access to a military and civilian legal team.

US tortured Habib in Egypt: report
Australian terror suspect Mamdoub Habib was allegedly tortured in Egypt before being sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to the Pakistani Government.

There is no justification for torture
In the weeks since the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison were revealed, evidence continues to seep out of similar mistreatment of prisoners in other US military detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

US lawyers demand access to Habib
Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees, including Mamdouh Habib, have written to United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanding access to the men.

Guantanamo prisoners may be moved to US soil
The US authorities may move hundreds of prisoners from their controversial Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba to the United States following new Supreme Court rulings, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

Howard rejects spy agency overhaul
Prime Minister John Howard has played down the need for a major overhaul of Australia's spy agencies as a result of an inquiry by former intelligence officer Phillip Flood.

Govt urged to seek civil lawyer for Habib
The Law Council of Australia has called for the Federal Government to ensure Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib has access to a civil lawyer.

Hicks and Habib in the Melting Pot
Australia: The United States has brought three criminal charges against Australian David Hicks, accusing him of conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy, the Pentagon has said.

Rumsfeld had approved abuse
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorised hoods, the stripping of prisoners and the use of dogs to terrify inmates at Guantanamo Bay almost two years ago, documents released yesterday revealed.

How much is that doggy in the prison? Woof woof!
Did the Iraqi prisoner's get their rations while they were treated like chums?

Failure to condemn prison abuse risks lives: Kenny
The Prime Minister is morally bankrupt stay "alert and alarmed"

Prisoner's identity concealed to prevent Red Cross access
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting at the request of the CIA, ordered that a suspected Iraqi insurgent leader be detained off the books to conceal his identity from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Pentagon has confirmed.

US has secret prisons: rights group
The United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centres worldwide, about half of which operate in total secrecy, according to a new human rights report.

This won't hurt much
For some time now, I've been trying to find out where my son goes after choir practice. He simply refuses to tell me. He says it's no business of mine where he goes after choir practice and it's a free country.

Friday, December 10, 2004

HoWARd: Winner who failed to lead by example but still won?

CHRISTMAS and the lead-up have their familiar rituals. On Christmas Day there is the present giving, church going and massive lunch, followed by the big recovery sleep.

In the weeks leading up to it there is "shop 'til you drop" and the office Christmas party. Another ritual is the end of the political year column. Those of us who opine about politics and politicians look back at the year and take a stab at what the next one might look like. And what a vintage year it has been for political junkies.

On December 21, Australian Corporate Media re-elected war criminal John HoWARd 'a rodent type' fascist as Australia's worst longest serving prime minister who took us back to the dark ages with pre-emptive strikes on sovereign nations and by branding people witches in the Coalition of the Killings War on Terror from about 2001 through to 2004.

JUDGEMENT: HOWARD'S WAR CRIMES

The 'war on terror' is a war on 'dissent' and the 'liberty' of all the people from marginalised third world countries and some of the poorest nations globally. War lords, the (AMIC) American Military Industrial Complex and the Coalition of the Killing intent on maintaining their balance of power through scarcity of the worlds oil and of resources that maintain the status quo of the US Empire

HoWARd should have been taken to the Hague Criminal Court for trial but was re-elected by the corporate media he employed out of taxpayers money.

A self-serving fascist, he rose from political death to record-breaking lies. What is it that stands out about HoWARd? He is, after all, someone who is morally bankrupt, who made an art form of being a dictating fascist and who's not in the same boat as most Australians!

First, he has learned from the experiences of his loss to Bob Hawke in 1987 and from the wilderness years that came after. He did not blame anyone else. He didn't pretend that he had made no mistakes. He accepted the harsh lessons of life and changed for the worst.

The principal thing he learned was that policy and ideology can be implemented only when you get the balance of power; corporate donations, buy the media and get the politics right. Howard is, a man of the radical Right. But he has learned since the years when he wore his ideology on his sleeve that politics can be bought in the pursuit of the principles you believe even if most people think you're warped. Indeed, politics often means that you pretend that those principles are part of your past rather than the present.

If politics demands the putting aside of principle and ideology for the time being, Howard will do it and wait for better times. And now, with his majority in the Senate from July next year, he has those better times to turn Australia into a full-blown dictatorship.

The second thing about Howard is that he seemed to have bad fortune before 1995. The "Joh for Canberra" push in 1987 wrecked any chance he had of winning and continued to undermine his political position. Since 1995, it is fair to say that Howard has been the beneficiary of what Satan said was the most important ingredient for dictatorship -- he bought the media and they sold out.

He won an election in 1998 with an unprecedented low number of votes, 49 per cent. Not only the Tampa asylum-seeker stand-off but also, much more important, September 11 and the war on terror when the mainstream media obscured his political weaknesses in 2001. And this year he terrorised middle Australia with a threat on their mortgages with higher interest rates if they elected Opposition leader Mark Latham. Latham who incidentally had much the same attitudes and policies earning the Lib/Lab status.

HoWARd has had no bigger piece of luck than to inherit a reformed economy for which Hawke and Paul Keating have had to take most of the political pain and he has had most of the political gain. He has taken advantage of this by bribing the media and the community.

There is a lot of wild overstatement about Howard's political genius from his allies the corporate media giants and other investment corporations by political donations. He has made some low life strategic calls.

He resurrected his failing political fortunes in 1997 by bleeding Australian's for the GST and making Corporate Welfare greater than Social Welfare in the 1998 election. He went to war in Iraq in contravention of the UN even though opinion polls were strongly against it.

He has made plenty of blues, a couple of which demonstrate the impatient arrogance that he normally keeps under such control. His treatment of Australian Aboriginals undermining ATSIC and dictating to back-wood communities about how they should live if provided basic resources like a petrol pump.

What would persuade HoWARd to sign the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions?

Pre-emption HoWARd's ASIAN headache

Australia's continuing role at the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit may depend on Australia signing a non-aggression treaty.

And what possessed him to continue to argue with Mark Latham about the prescription medicine aspects of the US-Australia Free Raid Agreement when he could have done immediately what he eventually did so reluctantly?

But there was no question about it any way because this was Lib/Lab theatre at its very best because it didn't matter one iota whether the prescription medial aspects were part of the Free Raid Agreement with the US because they were just Global Corporations buying us out- lick, lick, lick like a tongue to a gelato ice-cream.

A bigger piece of the global pie for slaughtering 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women and children in and Illegal and degrading war on a sovereign nation in contravention of the UN for the AMIC and the US Empire. Lib/Lab were both going to be beneficiaries in any case no matter what because someone had to pay for Australia going to war and it wasn't going to be Lib or Lab.

The US even declared that it would help out only those allies who were willing to wage war and Australia had been sweating for the opportunity to open the trade gate - with the superpower - for many years prior the 'Free Raid Agreement'! HoWARd, is a loser and everyone loves a loser?

As for Lab, the corporate media circus has to agree where to go on the leadership in the next year or so but the bought out and now warped corporations like out-foxed will be rubbed out by the majority of decent people in the end because the independent media, 'propaganda solvent ' will save the day?

The mainstream media, and the professional propagandists that now influence and shape every event that is reported by such channels, make it difficult for the ordinary citizen to reason clearly, without being led along carefully contrived lines of argument.

What determines election outcomes in the end is the Plebiscites and public opinion polls that are usually bogus. When elections with candidates are held they are perverted by the power elite to get the desired result. Common methods include maintaining control of the election machinery, intimidating and disenfranchising opposition voters, destroying or disallowing legal votes, and like the last two Federal Elections buying out the media to have electors either threatened with fear or bluffed.

THE Un-AUSTRALIAN: "The second fallacy doing the rounds is that the Labor frontbench is lacking quality compared with the Labor frontbench of 1983. I was around in Labor parliamentary politics at that time and I can tell you that much of the Labor frontbench then looked ordinary in Opposition. It was only in government that they flowered and began to look like giants. My view is that this Labor frontbench looks at least as good overall as its 1983 predecessor. "

"So this year will end with Howard second only to the great god Robert Menzies. Who would have thought it?"

Answer: Satan

By Michael Costello and Propaganda Monster 10 December 04

Related:

Senate inquiry finds PM 'misled' public on children overboard
Australian navy personnel rescue asylum-seekers from a sinking boat off Christmas Island in October 2001. The government came under attack in February 2002 for suggesting that asylum seekers had thrown their children overboard in an effort to stay in Australia.

Detainees urged to abandon rooftop protest!
A refugee advocate has pleaded to a group of Baxter detainees to abandon their rooftop protest.

Vanstone defends asking Aborigines to wash for fuel
The Federal Government has defended its offer to provide a remote Indigenous community with petrol bowsers and new health programs, if it meets conditions including ensuring children shower every day.

Ruddock foreshadows new terrorism laws
The new laws will allow police to access emails and mobile phone SMS messages, enable wider use of surveillance devices, and protect sensitive national security information during terrorism trials.

Community seeks more power to interrogate ASIO suspects
Greens Senator Bob Brown does not think increased police powers are necessary. "We have enormous powers for surveillance, apprehension or punishment of people who are engaged in or intending to engage in or thinking about being engaged in terrorist acts in this country," he said.

Australia Sells Its Citizens Short
Australian citizens, Mamdouth Habib and David Hicks have been illegally incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay facility established by the US military as part of the War on Terror.

Clark crashes Indigenous affairs ministers' meeting
Aboriginal leader Geoff Clark says he gatecrashed a meeting of federal and state Aboriginal affairs ministers today to highlight the plight of Aboriginal people.

'Pre-emption' Australia's ASEAN headache
ASEAN leaders pressed HoWARd to rethink his rejection of South-East Asia's non-aggression treaty.

Govt support for uranium enrichment research alarms Greenpeace
Greenpeace has called on the Federal Government to end its support for research on uranium enrichment carried out by a private company at the Lucas Heights facility in Sydney.

US may trial dumb bombs in Australia? How smart is that?
The United States looks set to test new generation weapons, including dumb bombs, in Australia within three years?

Australia must not be subservient to US military objectives
In a speech to the Senate last night, Senator Bartlett said that the Democrats support the US-Australia alliance, the ANZUS Treaty and appropriate defence and intelligence cooperation but not subservience.

Australian leaders congratulate Bush? Shit!
War criminal John HoWARd congratulates co-offender George Dubya Bush. HoWARd can relate to that because George Dubya is his co-offender in the illegal and degrading war on Iraq and especially now after the killings in Fallujah!

Boycott companies profiting from war: peace activist
Boycott call: Roy says companies profiting from the Iraq war should be shut down. She says a group of rich nations falsely accused an impoverished Iraq of possessing powerful weapons as a pretext for invading the country to further their own economic interests.

Sydney Peace Prize winner urges Iraqi resistance!!!!!!
"One wasn't urging them to join the Medhi army [in Iraq] but to become the resistance, to become part of what ought to be a non-violent resistance against a very violent occupation," she said.

Iraqi civilian deaths put at 100,000
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in violence since the US-led invasion last year, according to public health experts who estimate there were 100,000 "excess deaths" in 18 months.

Downer floats media tip-off scenario in Baghdad blast
US Foreigner Alexander Downer says he is investigating whether the media was tipped-off ahead of yesterday's car bomb attack on an Australian military convoy in Iraq.

How Howard Won
This is a small attempt to answer how we have ended up with an increased Liberal majority in government, when they have done so much long term harm to our country.

A Call to Action: re election of John HoWARd?
I am fed up with the political apathy of the majority of Australians and depressed about the outcome of the election. I need to do something about it. Does anyone want to help me.

Govt eyes control of Senate
Prime Minister John Howard "the rodent type" has begun his fourth term in office with a quiet day in Sydney after the Coalition's victory in the federal election.

Nothing will save us from gullibility and greedy self-interest
A small book turned up last week entitled How to Kill a Country. It was written by three Sydney academics about our "free trade" deal with the United States.

HOWARD NO REMORSE!
Australian caretaker Prime Minister John Howard 'a rodent type' does not need to apologise for the illegal and degrading war in Iraq despite a new report that has found Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction at the time of the US-led invasion.

Allies 'planned' Iraq war despite denials
The United States, Australia and Britain started to plan the invasion of Iraq months before the conflict, according to a report Wednesday quoting a leaked Pentagon document.

Hill primed for war!
Australian Caretaker Defence Minister Robert Hill has announced a multi-million dollar upgrade of the Pearce Air Force base in Western Australia. Hill says $87 million would be spent on a major upgrade of the base, which is Australia's main flying training facility.

Annan tells world leaders to respect law
United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kofi Annan has made an impassioned plea to bring about the rule of law across the globe today. Mr Annan told world leaders to respect international law at home and abroad.

CO-OFFENDERS DO NOT REBUFF UN ON 'ILLEGAL WAR'
The 'coalition of the killing's' complicities - the US, Britain and Australia - have insisted that their countries' military action in Iraq was legal after they have committed war crimes against humanity.

Iraq war illegal, says Annan
United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan says the United States decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 was "illegal". Australia was a key supporter of the war on Iraq and sent troops to join the United States-led invasion last year.

Australia will not Save Your Soul
The Federal Government will not Save Australian Soul's? Even if you're an innocent bystander caught up in it. Despite a group claiming to have kidnapped two Australian security guards? The alleged group, which allegedly calls itself the Horror Brigades of the Islamic Secret Army, allegedly has given the Prime Minister John Howard 24 hours to end Australia's involvement in Iraq.

Apologise to children abused in care: report
A Senate report on children placed in institutional care has called for the Federal Government to apologise to those who were harmed by their experience.

Australian Govt human rights record 'worsening'
Community groups have given the Federal Government five out of ten for its record on human rights this year. Mr Purcell said the Government was also marked down because of the policy of holding children in immigration detention centres.

Australian Federal Government complicity in war crimes
Complaint to Australian law officers about Australian Federal Government complicity in war crimes.

Australia an unfair nation, say young and all!
Young people and older people think Australia is undemocratic and unfair. Young people cite their teachers as having the greatest influence on their political thinking, according to a provocative new national survey funded by the Government. Older people cite "injustice" amongst other things as a "bent legal system" favouring hi profiled superstars, corporations and politicians.

Downer guilty!
The agreement for going to war on Iraq carried with it and incentive and that was free trade with the US. The Howard Government knew about it and went along with it with the US under the guise of Iraq's WMDs. In criminal law this is commonly know as collusion to commit a crime.

John Howard blameworthy
General Peter Gration is the spokesman for a group of 43 ex-military leaders, diplomats and departmental heads who have criticised the Government, saying involvement in Iraq has put Australia at greater risk of a terrorist attack.

Court reserves decision on 'no war' protest appeal
Two men have asked the Court of Criminal Appeal to accept that they painted "NO WAR" on the Sydney Opera House, to defend people in Iraq and Australia from war.

PM's Fox Defence? Less the evidence?
The Fox went out on a chilly night. He prayed for the moon to give him light. For he had many a mile to go that night....

Australians to be sacrificed: Howard
Howard vowed hostages wouldn't sway policy? The Federal Government say they would not negotiate with terrorists if an Australian were taken hostage in Iraq.

PM Howard Morally Bankrupt
Prime Minister John Howard insists the war in Iraq was justified despite his British counterpart Tony Blair's concession that weapons of mass destruction might never be found.

Howard 'should be tried for war crimes'
Former Liberal Party federal president John Valder says Prime Minister John Howard should be tried and punished for war crimes over Australia's involvement in the Iraq conflict.

Troop deployment not a deepening of effort: Hill
Deploying an extra 30 troops to Iraq was not a deepening of Australia's involvement because they were being sent to protect those already there, Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday.

War on terrorism' could take a generation: Downer?
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has launched the Government's terrorism white paper, saying the "war" could take a generation.

JUDGEMENT: HOWARD'S WAR CRIMES
Howard Vs Regina in Canberra the Capital Territory of Australia- Friday January 30 2004.

'FACTOPHOBIA' HOWARD, BLAIR AND BUSH

Well think about this! Australia's intelligence agencies look set to receive a substantial funding boost in this year's Federal Budget, with the Prime Minister saying it is an obvious step to take.

Howard, where's your head at?
Australians living on the edge! Seems each time the bombs go off overseas Australians are living on the edge.

Should John Howard be locked up indefinitely?
Australian convicted mock terrorist John Howard is seriously considering appealing the precise time limit on detaining terrorist suspects.

Daily Terror rolled-over for Howard's war games
The DAILY TERROR is suspected of being the source of the news this morning that Willie Brigitte is a terrorist and that Sydney faces a bomb attack.

Friday, October 15, 2004

Police offer protection to family following gang rape allegations

New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney says that protection could be provided for a family that has spoken out about gang rape allegations.

The parents of a 14-year-old girl claim their daughter was gang-raped in Sydney earlier this year, and have raised concerns about corrupt policeman Detective Sergeant Christopher Laycock's review of the case.

They have also expressed concerns for their safety saying that they fear reprisals from the gang alleged to have been involved in the rape.

The father of the girl, Ian, says Laycock's involvement in the case could have put them at increased danger of reprisal.

"He could have done anything, we just don't want to take any chances," he said.

"This family is not going to be left at risk because of his actions."

Commissioner Moroney says officers could provide protection for the family.

"I'm happy to entertain any concerns that they may have, we have a very strong and a very viable witness protection program and if any member of the family or the alleged victim sought that level of protection then I'm happy to provide my officers for that level of service," he said.


By Starsky and Hutch 15 October 04

Bulldogs simply not the best!

It came less than 24 hours after police declined to lay charges against players over sexual assault allegations made by a young woman in the seaside resort town on February 22.

Related:

Officer planned to kidnap alleged criminals
A senior Sydney police officer who has admitted taking money for tipping off a child porn suspect had also been planning to kidnap criminals and extort money from them, the Police Integrity Commission heard yesterday.

Policeman draws blank on fake raids
A suspended Sydney policeman has told an inquiry that he has "little recollection" of the details of fake police raids he set up.

NSW police prosecutor charged with child porn possession
A New South Wales police prosecutor has been charged with the possession of child pornography. Police spokesman Sergeant Dave Rose says that in mid-August officers were called to an Internet cafe in the Sydney central business district after a man was alleged to have downloaded child pornography.

Rockspiders: Police, Teachers, Childcare Owners, and Uncle Pervy!
Police have indicated there will be hundreds more arrests as part of Australia's largest ever crackdown on child pornography even though it is some of the police themselves? Authorities have so far charged more than 190 people with a total of 2000 offences and seized more than two million pornographic images.

Police, teachers charged in child porn bust
One-hundred-and-fifty people, including police officers and teachers, have been arrested in what the Federal Police (AFP) describe as Australia's biggest Internet child pornography bust.

Whitewash over Hickey's death
The New South Wales coroner has cleared police of any responsibility for the death of Aboriginal teenager Thomas 'TJ' Hickey. State coroner John Abernethy has dismissed claims that police were chasing or pursuing TJ Hickey when he crashed his bike and became impaled on a fence.

Redfern police need education not weapons
NSW police want new offensive equipment including long-range capsicum spray guns and modified armoured vehicles capable of spraying tear gas following a damning report on the Redfern riots in Sydney earlier this year.

Fremantle police at centre of missing cannabis claims
Western Australian Police Minister Michelle Roberts says cleaning up the Fremantle Police Station will be a big test for new Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan.

Micklebergs sue senior police officer for defamation
The Mickelberg brothers are suing a senior policeman over comments he made after their convictions for the Perth Mint swindle were quashed.

Mickelbergs win 20-year fight to clear their names
A legal battle spanning more than two decades ended today when two brothers accused of stealing more than $650,000 in gold bullion from the Perth Mint had their convictions quashed.

The filthy NSW Police Integrity Commission!
Ten years after a royal commission exposed the corruption extending to the heart of the NSW Police there has been no change in police culture, and any change would be difficult to bring about because the government is the problem.

Funding undermining witness protection: Vic police?
Hodson's security camera almost certainly recorded the approach of their killer or killers, but homicide detectives could not find the camera's VHS tape. Hodson's home security system had been reviewed by the Ethical Standards Department's technical support unit.

Anti-crime watchdog needed in Victoria: Opposition
Victorian Opposition leader Robert Doyle says the latest claims of police corruption need to be investigated by an independent crime and anti-corruption commission.

Victorians want corruption commission, poll finds
Warning: This poll does not reflect Victorians who have been directly affected by police corruption and therefore it cannot be said that Victorians believe corruption in Victoria is "limited to a few bad apples". The same as the propaganda on Four Corners [Walls?] The only bad apples handpicked and dropped on Chris Masters desk. Corruption Inc...

The words out! The government is the problem
The Federal Government says it wants to establish an independent national anti-corruption body to improve accountability in organisations like the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission because they're corrupt. The body would have royal commission powers and be permitted to intercept phone calls.

Gangland target? Or police decoy? Refuses protection
Victorian Assistant Commissioner of Crime Simon Overland says the man who was the target of an alleged planned gangland killing has refused police protection.

Vic police chief moves to sack officers
The Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Christine Nixon, has moved to dismiss two police officers as part of a crackdown on corruption and says up to 20 more dismissals could follow.

Vic prosecutors to drop corruption case
The Office of Public Prosecutions in Victoria will drop drug-related charges against a suspended police officer tomorrow after an informer due to testify in the case was murdered last month.

Vic flop cop warns there's more corruption
Victorian Police Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon, says Victorians should brace themselves for more evidence of police corruption.

Vic police corruption report tabled in Parliament
The Victorian Ombudsman's report on the Ceja Taskforce and drug related corruption in Victoria police has been tabled in State Parliament.

GIVE A DOG A BONE?
When the Ombudsman investigates police in most States and Territories of Australia they set about asking the police to investigate themselves to see if there is any validity to a complaint.

Victorian Ombudsman's power boosted
The Victorian Government has reacted strongly to continuing allegations of police corruption, with the Premier announcing a big boost to the State Ombudsman's power and resources.

Police silent on witness protection breach claim
Victorian police have been forced to defended the Witness Protection Program again, after an alleged incident involving a police informer.

Former Vic drug squad head working for NSW
It has been revealed that the former head of the disgraced Victorian drug squad is now a senior investigator at the New South Wales Police Integrity Commission (PIC).

Penalty given to police officer in corruption case under fire
The Victorian Opposition has criticised the penalty handed down to a Victorian police officer who tried to find the home address of an officer investigating corruption.

Bracks crime team 'not up to job'
Steve Bracks was "fiddling while Melbourne burns", a respected senior crimefighter said yesterday, as the state Ombudsman was attacked for being ill-equipped to tackle entrenched police corruption.

Vic corruption fighter tells of intimidation
A senior Victorian police corruption investigator says fellow officers have intimidated and threatened him.

Vic police corruption 'worst ever', former judge says
A former Federal Court judge last night described corruption in the Victoria police force as the worst ever.

Bullet threat won't stop corruption probe, police say
The Victorian police force says threats against internal investigators will not stop it from weeding out corrupt police and bringing them to justice.

Police corruption linked to underworld slayings
The chairman of Victoria's Ceja police internal corruption task force has admitted there is a link between police corruption and Melbourne's gangland killings.

Redfern drug dealers: Who is Mr Big?
A senior Redfern police officer says a flourishing illegal drug trade is the main cause of problems in Redfern's Aboriginal community, known as The Block. But just like Kings Cross it doesn't get cleaned up and the Mr Big's are living like pigs. Ha ha. That's right someone supplies and someone accumulates large sums of money and someone has targeted Redfern and allows it to flourish there.

Victoria's top cop needs a watchdog?
The Bracks Government is expected to announce new powers of investigation for the Victorian Ombudsman today. So what are they trying to say? The dog never had the power?

Bulldogs simply not the best!
SIMPLY NOT THE BEST AND DEFINITELY NOT BETTER THAN ANYONE, ANYONE I'VE MET.

Why the Bulldogs rape case failed?
AFTER two months of turmoil, the rape case against six Bulldogs rugby league players has collapsed, with police saying there was insufficient evidence to press charges. IT is the moment any investigator dreads. [Just plain rubbish and a cover-up.]

NSW Police seizing assets to bolster budgets?
Seized assets to bolster police budgets is going to place crime solving into the corporate arena. Why should they go after a common criminal who is poor? Instead they'll be searching for assets and then solving crime. After all, police budgets will depend on it.

Court accuses police of planting evidence
A magistrate in the south-western New South Wales city of Wagga Wagga says police there nearly beat a man to death, fabricated evidence about him, and later lied in court about the incident.

NSW ex-Inspector Gadget claims credibility again
Just how credible is this former cop? Small's claim on Four Corners [Walls, a government propaganda machine], tonight, [that], the Government warned about Redfern problems before the riot. Like he's Mr squeaky-clean? Bad news more like it, Small was the say anything, do anything, ex-cop from hell for Bob Carr and his cronies.

Gang-rape, police, disparity and the law..
The young woman and her friend have told police they met the players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after the Bulldogs played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

Cops Leak: Bulldogs accused of rape at Coffs Harbour
Police are warning media outlets they may face criminal charges if they release confidential information about investigations. The call comes after the details of an assault on a woman at Coffs Harbour were read on a commercial radio station in Sydney yesterday morning.

Capsicum spray killed Brisbane man
Remember one "Flick" and they're gone. A 26-year-old man has died in Brisbane after a scuffle with police in the inner-city suburb of Highgate Hill. Police say they went to a unit complex just after midnight to speak to the man. Inspector Ian Robinson says police used capsicum spray and the man collapsed and died.

Clive Small, NSW Inspector Gadget
NSW Police has revived controversial plans for a specialist discriminative squad to tackle the wave of violent crime that has plagued Sydney's south-west for more than a decade.

Man wrongly imprisoned awarded $1m
A Sydney man who was acquitted of murder has won more than $1 million in damages for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. The New South Wales Supreme Court has agreed with Garry Raymond Nye's said that the charge was maliciously laid. Acting on a tip-off, [?], police arrested and charged the 51-year-old with the shooting murder of Roy Thurgar at Randwick in Sydney's east in 1991. He spent 16 months in custody before he was acquitted by a jury.

NSW Police Force: Bent cop Cribb should be treated no different
34-year-old police inspector Shane Cribb, who shot a man shouldn't be treated differently than any other person charged with the same offence. The Daily Telegraph this morning is calling for special consideration for the cop.

One arrested in random raids: Police
NSW Police said more than 200 officers raided homes in the largest operation ever conducted by Task Force Gain, set up to investigate gun crime in Sydney's south-west.

Random police raid terrorised residents
A police task Force randomly targeting gang warfare [and criminals green lighted by police themselves], is investigating nine murders and one disappearance, including a shooting death that sparked a dramatic random dawn raid in south-western Sydney yesterday.

Drive-by shootings: test your political IQ?
What if since the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption the drugs moved from Kings Cross to Cabramatta. Then since the the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Cabramatta the drugs moved to Bankstown/Greenacre. Giving police more power might just be more fuel on the fire.

NSW drug wars: family feud not responsible for shootings
New South Wales Shadow Police Minister Peter Debnam says he does not believe recent shootings in Sydney's south-west are the result of a family feud. And he's not on his own.

Police WarLords set to take over Sydney again
Police warlords are set to take over Sydney's suburbs because police are not being supervised properly.

Jailed man's conviction to be reviewed
The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal will today review the conviction of a man, after claims in the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) last year that police planted weapons and faked suspects' confessions.

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?
The Wood Royal Commission into police corruption. Where did the police learn their trade skills? Led by example perhaps?

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.

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 Lanfranchi, or 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).Similarly, Peter Ryan facing the Police Integrity Commission for questions about his involvement in the demise of the dysfunctional reform unit. Chess in the court (rolling the legal system).

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').