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Issue No. 149 | 23 August 2002 |
Our Historical Mission
Interview: Something Smells Cole-Watch: Credibility Crisis Unions: Union Cities Industrial: Lib Men Gang Up Against Working Mums History: Eureka! East Timor: Don�t Rob Their Future Review: Black Chicks Say It All Poetry: Self Regulation
Cole to Hear of Criminal Takeover Conspiracy ANZ Fined Over Freedom Of Speech Breach Qantas Union's Gorilla Tactics Shearers Black Ban Their Hall Of Fame Democrats Fire Shot for Workers Teachers Walk Out At Aust College of Technology Airport Security Worker Spat At And Assaulted CBA Workers Say Enough Is Enough Doco Dishes Dirt On Howard�s Gas Wrangle
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard Week in Review Bosswatch
Susan's Soccer Outrage
Labor Council of NSW |
Week in Review The Dogs of War
**************** "Invading Iraq: defiant Howard says he'll go it alone" the Sydney Morning Herald declares. Unfortunately, the article doesn't quite back up the headline but war, nevertheless, is high on the week's agenda. You know your claim to hawkishness has sprouted wings when Henry Kissinger and General Norman Schwarzkopf are counselling caution. That's the position Dubya, his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfield, and Howard find themselves in. Rumsfield tells Americans they don't need evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an attack. Just as well probably, because any serious attempt to adduce evidence would lead to the inescapable finding of US complicity. According to a 1994 US Senate Committee Report, between 1985 and 1989, American suppliers provided Baghdad with the core ingredients for a chemical and biological arsenal. Amongst the US "goodies" identified by the Commission were: Bacillus Anthracis (anthrax); Clostridium Botulinum (botulinum poison); Histoplasma Capsulatam (cause of disease attacking lungs, brain, heart and spinal cord); Brucella Melitensis (bacteria which attacks major organs); Clostridium Perfringens (highly toxic bacteria); E.Coli; human and bacterial DNA. Dozens of other pathogenic biological agents were shipped from the US to Iraq during the 1980s. The Senate Committee described these as "not attenuated or weakened and capable of reproduction". Despite reports that Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran and biological warfare against Iranians, Kurds, and Shi'ites, these exports continued until the end of 1989. .................... Retired US General Paul Van Riper quits the biggest war games in US history, claiming the result was "almost entirely scripted to ensure a win". Poor old Van Riper had been brought out of retirement to head enemy forces and was piqued about being denied the opportunity to probe defensive weaknesses in his opponent's game play. A real adversay, he warned, may not feel so constrained. ...................... The war on women, being conducted across much of the Islamic world, gets an airing when a pregnant Nigerian student is granted asylum in Cyprus because returning home would likely mean being stoned to death. Under one view of Sharia law that is the prescribed punishment for adultery. In reality, it is rarely, if ever, imposed on the male of the species. In northern Nigeria, a Sharia court rejects the appeal of a 21-year-old against her death sentence, ruling she will be stoned after weaning her child. .................. The war on workers being pursued by the Howard Government resumes with the Cole Royal Commission's return to Sydney. Counsels assisting see no need to introduce balance or fairness to their modus operandi, slating the CFMEU largely on the "evidence" of discredited former officials. In an opening picked up by papers, television channels and radio stations across the country, Nicholas Green doesn't even bother to acknowledge that the weight of evidence before the commission, to put it mildly, questions the credibility of those he chooses to rely on. The sublime turns ridiculous when counsel assisting and the commissioner get their maths wrong and produce wildly inflated figures for a wage claim settlement. Not that that prevents their loyal messengers at the Sydney Morning Herald running it all as fact. ...................... As for internecine war, the Democrats showed them all how do to do it - shafting each other left, right and centre until the only prize was stewardship of a rotting carcass. The little known WA gay activist Brian Greig slipped through the, eh, centre and got the nod as interim leader after Aden Ridgeway realised that being in a Gang of Four doesn't necessarily make him a pop star. One can only wonder how the Democrats would have fared if they were sticking to the salary cap. But that's another story.
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