Self Serving Australian Prime Minister Tips Off Terrorists

[a_unique_person]

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/11/08/1131407639657.html

IT WAS probably the worst-kept secret in Australia that a group of alleged terrorists were close to realising their long-held plans to launch a major attack.
But it was only at the weekend that senior officers from Victoria, NSW and federal agencies gave the go-ahead for the raids that had been planned for weeks.
By Monday, the Sydney media had been tipped off and some reporters had already contacted assorted Islamic spokespeople for comment hours before the raids were conducted.
Television crews were present outside the homes of some of the suspects even before they were in custody.
But it was not the media that tipped off the targets. It was the Prime Minister who last Wednesday publicly stated that the Government had received "specific intelligence and police information this week which gives cause for serious concern about a potential terrorist threat"

I hope that if he is not the first person charged under his new anti-terrorism laws, he be nearly the first.

He is a self serving creep, who never misses an opportunity to seize a chance to boost himself. That is the habit of pretty well every politician. But at the risk of putting an anti-terrorist operation in jeopardy?

A policement was shot at and wounded because one of the terrorists was walking around armed and ready to fight back. I wonder if he was tipped off?

The same Prime Minister once wanted to greet a navy ship when it arrived back at port in Australia, after a trip to help the Tsunami victims in neighbouring Indonesia. This was after several of the crew had died in a tragic accident. The ship was made to wait several days off the coast of NSW so that the it's schedule would not clash with his. The crew was mourning the death of crew mates, but he has to get his photo-op.

 

[gtc]

A policement was shot at and wounded because one of the terrorists was walking around armed and ready to fight back. I wonder if he was tipped off?

Well, he was confronted by police a full 6 hours after the other raids so it is quite possible that he was tipped off during that interval.

John Howard had to get the legislation changed because the existing legislation required a specific target to be identified and they did not know where the alleged terrorists were planning to attack. How would you suggest he should have gone about gaining support for the ammended legislation without alerting the cell?

 

[a_unique_person]

He called a public press conference on the matter, to spread it all over the news. The opposition had already indicated it would pass the changes.

 

[Mycroft]

So...you're upset that these freedom fighters were not allowed to complete their plans to express their righteous anger at the humiliations they've suffered under the oppressive, apartheid, genocidal Aulstralian government?

I'm trying to see your angle here.

 

[a_unique_person]

Mycroft, your inabililty to understand what I say and think, while concocting fantastic alternatives, is well known to me already. Enough said.

 

[peptoabysmal]

Mr Howard recalled the Senate last week to make a minor change to terror legislation.

He did so after announcing he had received specific information about a potential terrorist threat against the nation, which he would not detail.
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,17189250-5001021,00.html

 

[a_unique_person]

That's right, he held a public press conference, with maximum exposure, to announce that that there was an immenent threat, and this legislation needed to be amended immediately so the police could act on it.

Pretty much a tip off to me, as the article indicates.

 

[Zep]

He probably thought the terrorists (1) don't watch TV or read newspapers, and (2) don't understand English anyway.

C'mon, Mycroft! In this case it happened to be (so-called) terrorist law. It could just have easily been a drug bust law. Headline: "PM BEEFS UP ANTI-ECSTASY LAWS!", followed by a press-conference: "Yes, it is necessary so our law enforcement can catch certain big-time drug makers." So what do you think those manufacturers and dealers are doing withing 10 minutes? Making cups of tea or playing with the kids? No, they are packing up, hiding the kit, and getting out ASAP before the cops bust the door in!

Howard has obviously never played poker before...

 

[Ian Osborne]

The same Prime Minister once wanted to greet a navy ship when it arrived back at port in Australia, after a trip to help the Tsunami victims in neighbouring Indonesia. This was after several of the crew had died in a tragic accident. The ship was made to wait several days off the coast of NSW so that the it's schedule would not clash with his. The crew was mourning the death of crew mates, but he has to get his photo-op.

Is this the same Australian PM that refused to allow a merchant ship to dock, and placed commandos on it to make sure it didn't try, because it had picked up drowning illegal immigrants whose boat had sunk? If so, it's high time someone shot him.

 

[gtc]

Ian, there are always two sides to the story and your call to murder the elected representative of an entire nation is unwarranted. May I remind you that the PM in question has been re-elected twice since by the Australian people. Furthermore, I doubt many Australians will welcome a Brit telling us we should or should not have as Prime Minister. That smacks of colonialism.

In this case the other side of the story is that just because the illegal immigrants wanted to come to Australia doesn't mean they should necessarily be allowed to. How do you think Tony Blair would react if the French tried to send a trainload of illegal migrants through the Chunnel just because they wanted to get to the UK?

 

[a_unique_person]

I believe the institution of Democracy is far more important than the short term and short sighted remedy of assasination. He is currently digging his own political grave with his current legislative agenda. If the opposition could just get past it's own short sighted internal conflicts, he will be out next election, guaranteed.

I don't believe that Ian literally called for his assasination. It is also an expression of contempt.

 

[gtc]

Perhaps Ian might like to indicate whether he meant what he said or not? Perhaps it is just a figure of speech.

I honestly can't see the ALP winning the next election.

As you say they need to overcome their internal squabbling but they also need to offer a compelling alternative to the Liberal Party.

At the moment the two biggest issues are terrorism and IR reform. The opposition is broadly supporting the terrorism legislation and there is not much opposition among voters either; so that is no help to them. IR reform does not seem to be damaging the governments standing too much and I think reform will be watered down if it becomes a major issue. The sale of Telstra and VSU were the other major issues in the last couple of months but the major opposition came from government backbenchers.

 

[Zep]

Is this the same Australian PM that refused to allow a merchant ship to dock, and placed commandos on it to make sure it didn't try, because it had picked up drowning illegal immigrants whose boat had sunk? If so, it's high time someone shot him.

Yes it was - the Tampa Affair. They got shipped to tent-cities in other South Pacific countries instead (and since we provide aid to them, guess how they were coerced into doing this!)

And I doubt anyone will succeed in shooting L'il Johnny anyway - he's but a slinking little lapdog, lurking in the shadows beneath the legs of other, larger tyrants. They move, and he goes where they go...

 

[Zep]

The opposition to the IR reform is gathering way currently. I suspect it will be so badly watered down eventually that it will be almost no change at all.

I agree that the ALP is currently its own worst enemy. It does not seem to have moved with the times, and has relied on the downfall of the government to assume power themselves, i.e. falling into government by someone else's accident. To be honest, there is no really viable alternative government just now...

 

[a_unique_person]

If offering a "compelling alternative to the Liberal Party" means basically offering the same policies as the Liberal party, I am all for it staying right where it is. The world has had a pretty good run over the past few years in terms of interest rates and energy prices. Both of these are now going to be under pressure, and the IR 'reform' is going to hurt a lot of people locally.

The fact that all the states have stayed with Labor governments at the same time means that the federal government is viewed with some suspicion.

 

[Ian Osborne]

Ian, there are always two sides to the story and your call to murder the elected representative of an entire nation is unwarranted. May I remind you that the PM in question has been re-elected twice since by the Australian people. Furthermore, I doubt many Australians will welcome a Brit telling us we should or should not have as Prime Minister. That smacks of colonialism.

As AUP suggested, the remark was an expression of contempt for the man rather than a literal call for his assassination. And while I agree who runs the Australian government is a matter for Australia, I reserve the right to comment on it. This is the politics forum, after all

In this case the other side of the story is that just because the illegal immigrants wanted to come to Australia doesn't mean they should necessarily be allowed to. How do you think Tony Blair would react if the French tried to send a trainload of illegal migrants through the Chunnel just because they wanted to get to the UK?

I wasn't suggesting the illegals should be allowed to stay in Australia. Only that turning back a merchant ship because it had picked up drowning shipwreck victims is contemptable. Should the ship's crew have just left them to drown?

 

[Zep]

Read up on the "Children Overboard" Affair! Another piece of our government's duplicity ultimately exposed.

ETA: Yep, go right ahead and criticise away, Ian!

 

[zenith-nadir]

Rather than lambaste Howard I think this episode should teach you something a_u_p.

Australia Says Two Cells Were Competing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051109/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_terror_arrests_24

SYDNEY, Australia - Two Islamic terrorist cells were competing to become the first to stage a major bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said Tuesday after police arrested 17 suspects in a series of coordinated pre-dawn raids in two cities.

The suspects were stockpiling the same kind of chemicals used in the deadly July 7 transit bombings in London, prosecutor Richard Maidment said at a hearing for the nine people arrested there.

Ameer Ali, president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said the country's nearly 300,000-member Muslim community was shocked at the number of arrests and that all the suspects appeared to be Muslims.

Adam Houda, a defense lawyer, said the Sydney suspects were innocent. "There's no evidence that terrorism was contemplated or being planned by any particular person at any particular time or at any particular place," he said.

No matter how great a country is and Australia's a pretty great place, no matter how fair a country is, and Australia's a pretty fair place, there are islamofascist nutcases willing to kill innocent people and wreek havoc and chaos.

These guys were stockpiling the explosives to kill Australians a_u_p...think about it. You could have been killed or someone in your family could have been killed or someone you care about could have been killed. There are people out there who WANT to terrorize you a_u_p, eventhough you personally have done nothing to them.

 

[Ian Osborne]

No matter how great a country is and Australia's a pretty great place, no matter how fair a country is, and Australia's a pretty fair place, there are islamofascist nutcases willing to kill innocent people and wreek havoc and chaos.

These guys were stockpiling the explosives to kill Australians a_u_p...think about it. You could have been killed or someone in your family could have been killed or someone you care about could have been killed. There are people out there who WANT to terrorize you a_u_p, eventhough you personally have done nothing to them.

AUP denies none of this. His point was not that the terrorists should be left to get on with it, but that Howard's lifting the lid on the affair was timed to meet his own best interests rather than that of public safety.

 

[zenith-nadir]

AUP denies none of this. His point was not that the terrorists should be left to get on with it, but that Howard's lifting the lid on the affair was timed to meet his own best interests rather than that of public safety.

I didn't preface my statement with: "Allthought you deny..."

I was making an observation that I feel a_u_p misses in other threads. That observation is there are people out there that want to terrorize innocent people - even in peaceful Australia.