Wikileaks Julian Assange awarded top Australian journalism prize & U.S. wants to put him in jail

go figure...

the times of india...

WikiLeaks wins Australian journalism award; Assange lashes out at 'cowardly' Julia Gillard

sydney morning herald...

US targets WikiLeaks like no other organisation

WIKILEAKS is the target of an ''unprecedented'' US government criminal investigation, Australian diplomatic cables obtained by the Herald reveal.

The cables also show the Australian government wants to be forewarned about moves to extradite Julian Assange to the United States, but that Australian diplomats raised no concerns about him being pursued by prosecutors on charges of espionage and conspiracy.

The cables, released under freedom of information to the Herald this week, show Australian diplomats have been talking to the US Justice Department for more than a year about US criminal investigations of WikiLeaks and Mr Assange.
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While the Justice Department has been reluctant to disclose details of the WikiLeaks probe, the Australian embassy in Washington reported in December 2010 that the investigation was ''unprecedented both in its scale and nature'' and that media reports that a secret grand jury had been convened in Alexandria, Virginia, were ''likely true''.

Last week the Foreign Affairs Minister, Kevin Rudd, told Parliament the government was ''not aware of any current extradition request [for Mr Assange] by US authorities'' and has ''no formal advice'' on a US grand jury investigation directed at WikiLeaks.

wouldn't it be nice if our government was as dogged about going after criminal banksters as it is those who are providing information to the citizenry...?

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An official Australian apology to indigenous peoples

history in the making...

Here is the text that the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd read to the parliament in a live broadcast across Australia today.

"Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations – this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation. For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians. A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again. A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity. A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed. A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility. A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia."

Watch the statement and reaction at the ABC online website.

i hope i live long enough to see the my country do the same thing...

(thanks to little and tunney at daily kos...)

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Pine Gap, Australia

interesting... a military base in australia dedicated to military targeting and signals acquisition...

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Lightning

i'm a great fan of thunderstorms but i've never owned a camera capable of taking a shot like this...


Lightning spread across the sky Thursday during a thunderstorm
near Albury, Australia. The camera that took the picture used a
13-second exposure, which produced the unusually large flash of light.

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Bush's perpetual confusion isn't a laughing matter

there's clearly something wrong with the man...

"Thank you for being such a fine host of the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian prime minister John Howard. He quickly corrected himself, "APEC summit," and joked Howard "invited me to the OPEC summit next year. (Such an invitation would be impossible because neither the US or Australia are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.)

Later in the speech, Bush can clearly be heard on tape thanking Howard for visiting "Austrian troops" in Iraq last year, but White House scrubbers fixed that gaffe for him, changing the official government transcript to "Australian," the Associated Press reported.

an occasional stumble or gaffe is something that happens to everyone... with this guy, however, i get the distinct impression that he's borderline dysfunctional...

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Who's running the Gitmo courts...? Why Darth, of course...!

oh, darth... you smooth operator, you...

Australian Prime Minister John Howard ... lobbied Cheney during [Cheney's] February visit for the [David Hicks] trial to “be brought on as soon as humanly possible and with no further delay.” The plea bargain itself was brokered by Susan Crawford, the top military commission official and a former Department of Defense inspector general under then-Secretary of Defense Cheney, without the knowledge or input of the lawyers prosecuting Hicks. The lead prosecutor expressed shock over the light sentence.

Given the nature of the deal, suspicions are being raised that the plea agreement may have been an orchestrated gesture by Cheney to benefit Howard in his re-election fight.

read what andrew sullivan has to say...

If you think this was in any way a legitimate court process, you’re smoking something even George Michael would pay a lot of money for. It was a political deal, revealing the circus that the alleged Gitmo court system really is.

oh, gosh and golly... why are we NOT surprised... and particularly NOT surprised at the fact that it was brokered "without the knowledge or input of the lawyers prosecuting Hicks..." how in character for darth... i'm disgusted, a chronic condition for me these days...

(thanks to think progress...)

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Cheney: don't even THINK about withdrawal

binding legislation and revocation of the aumf should have been pursued from day one, or at least in the first 100 hours, of the new congressional session...

Key lawmakers, backed by party leaders, are drafting legislation that would effectively revoke the broad authority granted to the president in the days Saddam Hussein was in power, and leave U.S. troops with a limited mission as they prepare to withdraw.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., intends to present the proposal to fellow Democrats next week, and he is expected to try to add the measure to anti-terrorism legislation scheduled to be debated later this month. Officials who described the strategy spoke only on condition of anonymity, noting that rank-and-file senators had not yet been briefed on the details.

if the dems really want to practice "bipartisanship," they would do well to reach out to every congressional r, and make a very strong case why a revocation measure should be passed... and by "reach out," i don't mean a hand on the shoulder... i'm talking about long, arduous, closed-door sessions where the dems show just how badly iraq has damaged, is damaging, and will continue to damage this country for years to come, even if it's stopped immediately... the crippling cost, the horrendous loss of life, the creation of a failed state, the sacrifices of thousands of families and friends, the social and political polarization, the destruction of the u.s. reputation in the international community, the wrecked lives of physically and mentally disabled vets, the war profiteering, and the lies that took us to war in the first place, all need to be laid on the table... timidity and inaction against the possibility that they will be accused of aiding and abetting terrorism and not supporting the troops should also be labeled for the bullshit it really is...

because, as we learned yesterday, the prediction of 10 more years in iraq (see previous post) plus the continuing pronouncements of darth (see below) and others, make it clear that, unless the brakes are forcibly put on this administration, iraq will remain a colony in the empire...

Dick Cheney on Friday warned that the United States and ally Australia "simply cannot indulge" thoughts of an early withdrawal from Iraq as it would spawn a new wave of global terror.

Cheney, launching a two-day visit to key US ally Australia, praised Prime Minister John Howard's staunch support of the US-led war and its fight against terror, saying the only option for survival was to fight back ferociously.

As Britain announced a decrease in its troop numbers in Iraq and countries such as Denmark prepare to pull out of the coalition, he linked victory in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with stemming a global tide of terrorism.

"The notion that free countries can turn our backs on what happens in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other possible safe haven for terrorists is an option we simply cannot indulge," Cheney said in a speech in Sydney.

so, don't you dare even THINK about withdrawal... cheney is friggin' unbelievable, but, like the energizer bunny, he keeps on goin'... he's gotta go... they ALL gotta go...

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