Howard government did know about Habib rendition

I've been waiting for stories from the Howard regime to leak out. There has to be a tonne of dirt and crap that the Howard minions swept under their skirts.

clipped from www.theaustralian.news.com.au THE Australian Defence Department has admitted it has more than 85,000 pages of documents regarding the rendition of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib to Egypt despite telling federal parliament it had no involvement in the matter. The Howard government always maintained that it did not know Mr Habib was going to be sent to Egypt or how he got there. But the latest admissions by Defence follow revelations earlier this year that the US Government told former ASIO head Dennis Richardson that it wanted to render Mr Habib to Egypt for questioning. Mr Richardson had never publicly admitted the official approach was made. It only came out after his successor, Paul O'Sullivan, was questioned in parliament. Mr O'Sullivan revealed that Mr Richardson was told of the rendition plan by a US government official weeks before the Sydney father of four was "kidnapped" and sent to Egypt, where prisoners were known to be tortured.

Amanda Vanstone helped Mafioso after mates paid thousands to the Liberal Party

Yep, according to this story in The Age, Australia's ambassador to Italy, Amanda Vanstone allowed a Mafia crime figure remain in Australia
after his supporters donated thousands of dollars to the Liberal Party.

According to the story in The Age, until Vanstone's intervention, Madafferi had spent nine years
fighting moves by Australian authorities to deport him after he
overstayed his visa. His lawyers cited mental illness and the fact that
he had an Australian wife and four young children among their arguments
for allowing him to remain.

Late last week, Ms Vanstone defended her decision, saying she had had concerns for Madafferi's mental health.

Sexualized news and the "Ins And Outs" Of Shaving Your Pubes

Rupert Murdoch's Fox is reaching the bottle of the barrel, while at the same time Rupert, according to The Economist is "investing in a vigorous expansion of its political coverage and international news".

Anyway, according to The Huffington Post, Fox News' "sexpert" Yvonne K. Fulbright in a recent column described the "ins and outs" of shaving your pubes in this article which is well worth reading (The Huffington post one that is).

The Huffington Post: Fox News - The "Ins And Outs" Of Shaving Your Pubes

Even as Bill O'Reilly bemoans that "the moral and ethical climate in America is declining," and that the "Internet and an irresponsible media have hit traditional values hard," Fox News has become a premiere purveyor of sexualized news.

See also FoxNewsPorn

Google marks ANZAC day

Good on ya Google. The google picture for http://www.google.com.au/ today.

The Pentagon, not Metallica, The Master of Puppets

The New York times today reports that a Pentagon campaign using retired officers has been used to shape terrorism coverage from inside the TV and radio networks.

I note from the screen shots Rupert Murdoch's Fox features heavily.



The Pentagon information apparatus has used these analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance.


Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration’s war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.

Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.





Source: Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand - New York Times

Address : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?hp

Jennifer Hawkins: It's completely different, it's vibey, it's great.

Nothing to do with real news, more to do with my love of Jennifer Hawkins, and some that follow my blog, I post a tasty picture of Jennifer, with the text that accompanied it. Really the story is of zero value, but the picture says more than words.

Attending ladies' Day at Sydney's Canterbury Park racecourse yesterday, Hawkins said "It's good to have the races back in Sydney and horses back on the track. You can actually feel the difference in the atmosphere here. It's completely different, it's vibey, it's great."

Fashion - Life & Style Home - smh.com.au

Condoms 'too big' for Indian men

What can you say?

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Condoms 'too big' for Indian men There is a "lack of awareness" over condom sizes A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men. The study found that more than half of the men measured had penises that were shorter than international standards for condoms. It's not size, it's what you do with it that matters Sunil Mehra The conclusion of all this scientific endeavour is that about 60% of Indian men have penises which are between three and five centimetres shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture.

On mobile and driving = bloody idiot

I couldn't agree more with the outcome of this research . Whenever I see someone weaving around, speeding up and slowing down in an unpredictable manner, I initially think they are drunk. Usually though it is someone on a mobile.

See the full article for more details.

clipped from www.theage.com.au USING a hands-free mobile phone behind the wheel could be more dangerous than drink driving, new research has shown. Motorists under the influence of alcohol performed better than those driving while talking on a hand-held or hands-free phone, the study by Britain's Transport Research Laboratory found. It also found that the risk of a crash was four times higher when the driver was on the phone. The laboratory's Nick Reed said the latest research Conversations in cars: the relative hazards of mobile phones , showed that drivers revealed a significant impairment when making mobile phone calls while driving. "In some aspects of driving behaviour, speaking on a mobile phone is worse than being at the legal alcohol limit," he said. (The limit is 0.8 in Britain). "The observed impairment was similar regardless of whether the call was made using a hand-held phone or using a hands-free kit."

Boeing / Jeppesen involved in CIA torture taxi 'rendition' flights

Stumbled on to some news this morning about my former employer, Jeppesen ( A Boeing company). This appears to have popped up 6 months ago, but from posts found in google news, it still seems to be under active litigation.

Here are some snippets, click the links to see the rest.

Boeing unit subject of refiled CIA-flight suit

Bloomberg News, Chicago Tribune

A Boeing Co. unit falsified flight plans to disguise the Central Intelligence Agency's transporting of terrorism suspects to secret prisons overseas, the American Civil Liberties Union claims in an updated lawsuit.

Jeppesen Dataplan, a provider of navigation charts, refueling plans and route planning based in Englewood, Colo., helped in more than 70 flights to move suspects to countries where they were not protected by U.S. law, the group said. The prisoners were tortured and interrogated, the ACLU said Wednesday in the suit.

The organization first sued Jeppesen in May, representing three people it said were on the flights. It refiled the case to add two others. The ACLU, citing a Council of Europe report, said Jeppesen misled European officials on the flights' destinations.

"Jeppesen falsified flight plans submitted to European air traffic control authorities to avoid public scrutiny of CIA flights," according to the suit, which was filed in federal court in San Jose. "Jeppesen intentionally submitted 'dummy flights' to various aviation authorities in order to conceal the true flight paths of the rendition planes."

It is not unusual for aircraft operators to file multiple flight plans because final destinations have not been determined or to avoid bad weather, said John Dern, a spokesman for Chicago-based Boeing.

He said the company's services are confidential. "As a matter of policy we don't comment publicly on any of the work done or services for any of our customers without their consent," Dern said, declining to say whether the CIA is a Jeppesen customer.

The ACLU sued under a law allowing non-U.S. citizens to bring claims against the government for violating the law of other nations or an American treaty. ACLU lawyer Ann Brick was not available to comment.

Address : <http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14645>

AND

The ACLU charged that the U.S. government is improperly invoking the "state secrets" privilege to avoid judicial scrutiny of this unlawful policy.

Steven Watt, an attorney with the ACLU's Human Rights Program, told IPS, "Five men have been brutally abused with the help of a U.S. corporation, and they are entitled to their day in court." He added, "Jeppesen must not be given a free pass for its profitable participation in a torture program. And the government should not be allowed to use the national security defense as a way to cover up its mistakes or, worse, its egregious abuses of human rights."

The ACLU filing comes in a lawsuit brought on behalf of five victims of the rendition program who were kidnapped and secretly transferred by the CIA to U.S.-run overseas prisons or foreign intelligence agencies where they were interrogated and tortured.

According to the lawsuit, Jeppesen knowingly provided flight planning and essential logistical support to aircraft and crew used by the CIA for the clandestine rendition flights.

After the lawsuit was filed, the U.S. government intervened to seek its dismissal, contending that further litigation of the case would be harmful to national security. But the ACLU contends that the information needed to pursue this lawsuit, including details about the rendition program, is already in the public domain.

It adds that Jeppesen's involvement in the program is also a matter of public record. It has been confirmed by extensive documentary evidence and eyewitness testimony, including the sworn declaration of a former senior Jeppesen employee, which was submitted in support of the ACLU filing.
Address : <http://www.metimes.com/Security/2007/12/21/boeings_unfriendly_skies_and_cia_prisons/6494/>

AND

A former Jeppesen employee, Sean Belcher has entered an affidavit reporting that Jeppesen executive Bob Overby bragged, "We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights," further explaining to staff that he was speaking of "the torture flights," and that they paid very well
Address : <http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=1531>

And

Boeing's Unfriendly Skies
Address : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-fisher/boeings-unfriendly-skies_b_77875.html