ROLLS ROYCE TO BUILD NAVAL SHIP LIFT FOR HALLIBURTON CONTROLLED ADELAIDE DOCKYARD

Rolls-Royce is to provide the Government of South Australia with an A$50m shiplift which will be a key element of a major new shipbuilding and ship repair development at Techport Australia. The Syncrolift® will have capacity for ships of up to 9,300 tons, including the Royal Australian Navy’s new generation of Air Warfare Destroyers which will be built by ASC at Techport Australia in Adelaide. Rolls-Royce will team with a variety of South Australian businesses to build the 156- metre-long Syncrolift for Techport Australia, under development by the Government of South Australia. It will go into service in 2009 and will include a ship transfer system from Norwegian company TTS which will move vessels between the Syncrolift and maintenance/build berths on shore. Techport Australia will be designed to permit a future increase of the Syncrolift to 210 metres, with capacity for Panamax-size ships, which include US Armoured Task Division Carriers. Bob Moore, Rolls-Royce Chief Executive in Australia, who attended the signing ceremony today, said: “This is a significant project for both the Royal Australian Navy and also the economy of South Australia. We look forward to working with local businesses on what is one of the largest Rolls-Royce shiplift programmes for many years.” Pat Marolda, Rolls-Royce President – Naval, said: “’This contract also marks another key milestone in our own growth in Australian naval business. Last month we won a contract worth more than A$50m, in a team with Kellogg Brown & Root, from the Australian Department of Defence to support four Royal Australian Navy amphibious and afloat ships for seven years with options for a further five.” Techport Australia, the construction home for Australia's contributon to the US Missile Shield, is run by KBR's former Global Vice-President Mr Andrew Fletcher. Another Syncrolift is already in operation at ASC, next to Techport Australia, which services Collins Class submarines. The RAN operates another Syncrolift at its Darwin Naval Base. Rolls-Royce is a world-leader in shiplift and transfer systems with 230 installations operating in 68 countries. More than two million ships have been lifted by Syncrolift systems since the first was installed in 1957.

Partnership

Shining brilliantly in Rolls-Royce's online media room is the two-week-old press kit for a great story that didn't even make it to Google News, let alone into Australian print. It's how Cheney's Men and Rolls Royce have signed a A$50 million deal with the Australian Navy to service and maintain the amphibious ships HMAS Success, Tobruk, Manoora and Kanimbla (links courtesy of RR)

In the thoughtful "notes to editors" it explains how the contract is formally titled Amphibious and Afloat Support Integrated Materiel Support (AAS IMS), and that the RR/KBR team will be based at DoD premises at Garden Island and Defence Plaza in Sydney.

In the main text of the release we learn..

The Rolls-Royce and KBR team will reduce DoD ship costs through improved logistics management, total ship maintenance, faster response to day-to-day engineering issues and managing equipment obsolescence.

Pat Marolda, Rolls-Royce President – Naval, said: “The Rolls-Royce and KBR team look forward to creating an effective partnership with the Department of Defence. Rolls-Royce is committed to providing long-term support to navies worldwide, helping them manage costs and allowing them to concentrate on operating their ships at sea. The DoD is a forward-looking organisation which is leading the way in forming partnerships between private industry and government.”

Rob Hawketts, Director of KBR Government and Infrastructure Asia Pacific, said: “KBR and Rolls-Royce have the breadth of capabilities and teaming experience to deliver the world-leading integrated material support demanded by the RAN.

“We are proud to support the RAN and look forward to working with Rolls-Royce to help the DoD reduce the logistic cost of ownership for these ships.”

It turns out, going back through defence media releases that a year after requests for tenders were announced in 2002 KBR and Rolls Royce were two of the three companies short-listed for the job three years ago. You have to ask why the contract took so long to announce. You could guess that the negotiation process may have become interesting.

KBR also has a 51% ownership of the Devonport naval dockyards in England, UK pollies were questioning the yard's refitting for Trident submarines when their future was known. That was befoe UK PM Tony Blair's announcement last week of committing Britain to using the Trident nuclear deterrent plan into the middle of the 21st century.

In 2005 Halliburton's former Global Vice-President for Infrastructure was given the reins of the Warship Precinct

In Adelaide KBR have an unusually close link to naval construction. Their former Global Vice President for Infrastructure is in charge of the Naval Precinct. He runs Techport Australia, which in turn is owned by the Port Adelaide Maritime Corporation, which in turn runs thePrecinct. Fletcher told the Adelaide Advertiser in January that one of his aims was to "deliver a sustainable long-term defence industry base here at Osborne". State Treasurer Kevin Foley said at the time that the site would be suitable for companies involved in"civil or military shipbuilding, ship repair and maintenance, metal fabrication and module construction, paint and blast, warehousing and component manufacturers and suppliers".

I hope these smaller operators aren't trying the same rort that they used in the US. There the likes of Raytheon, BAE, Northrop Grunman and Carlyle were exposed as disguising themselves as little firms to get the kind of jobs that the former Halliburton VP now presides over.

Similarly the Australian end of the Joint Strike Fighter Project is fraught with nepotism. In this case Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grunman and BAE were allowed to select Australian companies to do the jobs. They chose, Halliburton Australia, Raytheon Australia, Tenix Australia, BAE Austral and some other maybe genuinely Australian companies, and subcontracted KBR Australia to gather the parts.

As a template to how small business participation in the Adelaide Naval precinct might be structured, such a scenario suggests that contract work for the Adelaide warships and submarines should be scrutinised closely. In the US. where 23% of defence contracts are legally required to go to small to medium enterprises, the Small Business Administration discovered contracts going to such little companies as Raytheon Co., BAE Systems, Northrop Grumann Corp., Carlyle Group, Electronic Data Systems Corp. I don't know what protection we have for the avoidance of such scams, but I'll bet a blind eye was turned by the Howard Cabinet "in order to get the jobs."

In the same government (Trades and Industry 2002) press release that I obtained most of the Australian "small business" info, I learned how Rolls Royce were expressing "a desire to develop Technical Assistance Agreements with some 25 Australian businesses " I'm guessing that the partnership in the amphibious ship deal was the product of such an agreement. If such is the case then KBR and Rolls Royce have, in just this one deal, rorted the Australian defence contract procurement system (as set up according to a report by Halliburton Australia architect Malcom Kinnaird) for work to the value of over 50 million dollars.

Is this why the story hasn't been printed in Australia? Are journalists digging through defence contracts having trouble differentiating between the KBRs of Australia and the rest of the world? Obviously the reason for such corporate renationalising is only to meet Australian government requirements... we all know that. However the reality, at the end of several years of defence contract signing, is that we're dealing with international corporations that only envisage Australian defence as a commodity for monetising. In this particular case there is no sense of either company being "Australian" in announcing the deal to the world. Get used to it.

The sad thing is that after falling for the sales pitch, Australia doesn't get to see what's displayed on the London Rolls Royce show room floor.

ASIO To Appeal Scott Parkin Verdict.

It is now possible that the outcome of Scott Parkin's Federal Court case will become a Federal election issue. Spook-squad ASIO have been granted leave to appeal the verdict. Should their appeal fail the Howard Government's only option will be to censor the issue on grounds of national security. Given the timespans involved this decision may be taken just before the next Great Australian Opinion Poll.

It's an amazing amount of fuss over a few peanut butter sandwiches. We know ASIO were aware of a file about them, as its existence was reported in a world-renowned US magazine. We know that ASIO would have, given that Parkin's prior activities were in the US, made its security clearance based on US intelligence. We can make a fair guess from this (as I've said before) that ASIO was at least aware of the Pentagon's Parkin file.

What we can be sure of ASIO having, however, was the looming date of September 11 2005 and a notion in their heads that a "security threat" story released on that date would have considerably added dramatic impact in highlighting the need for increasingly alert security agents.

I'm also pretty certain that many in the Australian Cabinet, particularly the Ministers for Immigration and Foreign Affairs, would have been happy to please Dick Cheney. An antagonist of the former Halliburton CEO's business interests would have been too good a target to miss. A story publishable on September 11 of security, immigration and federal agents working together to catch a dangerous activist would, you'd have to think, be too tempting a propaganda exercise not to attempt to enact. Was the apple in Parkin's eye too devilishly delightful for PM Howard's Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve to resist? Here's a good adage that works for me- it's that "if something is too good to be true, then it probably is." It might also work for senior Liberal politicians.

The lawyer representing the Director General of Security told the Federal Court that it's decision to allow Parkin to read documents leading to his adverse classification could cause irreparable.harm unless it was was set aside. Charles Gunst, QC, for ASIO boss Paul O'Sullivan, said it was expected that ASIO ransack its files and open them for scrutiny. He said the resulting identification of documents might cause harm to national security. He also told the court that its earlier decision provided a precedent in which applicants could have access to documents merely by asserting without proof that a wrong decision had been made in their security assessments. It would seem that ASIO are fairly grumpy to be on the receiving end of their own style of tactics, and the possibility of being probed without choice.

In a War On Terror with such a major propaganda front, that the co-operative efforts of US and Australian intelligence communities has lead to such inept mishandling of a single Halliburton protester would make Coalition Of The Willing information gathering once again appear incredibly incompetent. This, have no doubt, would be regarded as a scenario not in the Australian national interest. Increasingly intense legalities serve to demonstrate the perceived severity of the situation.

The fact ASIO have gone to such extraordinary lengths to protect their knowledge of Parkin implies that whatever they're concealing will not be revealed. Should they fail in their appeal they still have a final option. Attorney General Ruddock can exercise his self-ordained powers to silence the matter. It's highly likely that, if a verdict that ASIO deems inappropriate is returned, and given such publicly stressed importance of overturning the court's verdict, Ruddock might be forced to act. The Federal Court will be aware of such a possibility.

Justice Peter Heerey said the matter raised important issues about the court process and national security. In other words, this has now become the litmus-test of the relationship between the Australian legal and intelligence systems.

Given that the Parkin case has taken all of this year to get this far, there's a strong possibility that the verdict on the ASIO appeal will not be handed down till the latter part of next year, when Prime Minister Howard is expected to call an election. This could mean that the Australian Government, already facing a public that is suspicious of co-operation with the Bush Administration over the invasion of Iraq, may face a public voting after having recently seen an action of unprecedented ASIO authoritianism. On the other hand it may finally have just been informed of Government supervised deceit and negligence by the agency that is supposed to be one of our front-line champions in this war.

The ultimate choice will be our Prime Minister's. Whichever way he goes, the Australian judiciary will eagerly await his verdict to determine how much more power he will have over it in the future. If our legal system tells the public to fear its legislators on the eve of an election, Mr Howard himself may finally have something to fear... an electorate voting to protect its civil liberties.

Court quotes sourced from The Age.

AWB- Sham, Scam, Shame.

Australian government officials have bribed and lied and found themselves to be as untainted as newborns.

Our Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Trade Minister are innocent. It wasn't their fault that a government agency was paying bloody money to a dictactor that Australia was about to go to war with. Anyway, if they didn't read all the cables from everybody trying to tell them what was going on, how could they possibly know.

The first Cole Inquiry stories are bouncing around the world pretty quickly... I picked up the AP version from the Houston Chronicle. You'll find that a lot of US Farmers are going to be interested in this result. The US Democrats certainly, are. They weren't running the inquiry when the Australian ambassador asked for it to be ignored in support of Howard's re-election. They are most certainly in charge now.

Opposition leader Beazley's claims that the inquiry was rigged by it's terms of reference are correct. There was no way that this inquiry was ever going to able to find a minister or a department guilty. The talented side-stepper Attorney General Ruddock made sure of this a year ago.

Our PM has been very quick to claim the proven innocence of his ministers... do you think he's had a long weekend worrying about it?

Anyway.. over to you, US Democrats. We can't serve justice upon these charlatans while they make their own rules. I hope you have better luck

Bringing In The Sheaves

Talk about whistleblowing! In order to save his own skin (or parts thereof) the former AWB chairman has exposed our Prime and Foreign Ministers as liars of the worst kind. This is not a matter of "core or non-core" promises but of a national leader being deceitful regarding his decision to engage his country in a war.

Our leader told us that Australia had not considered invading Iraq until the UN debates that occurred not long before Coalition forces jumped the border (after the Australian SAS's head start.). Now we learn that Australia's ambassador to the UN was laying groundwork for the military action a year before the event.

If UN ambassador John Dauth had his ear to the ground he would have been aware, at least from US intelligence circles if not from the suddenly deaf ASIO, of the AWB payment system. You can guess that Dauth was concerned about that information going public. He was cetainly concerned enough to let Trevor Flugge have what could only be described as extremely sensitive and privileged information.

What Flugge did with this advance knowledge amazes me. While USAid were preparing a program to resuscitate Iraq's agriculture system. Flugge's approach to the same problem was to stuff the boot of his car with a couple of million dollars in cash to give out where he considered appropriate.

At the same time as Flugge was driving around throwing money out the window, our Foreign Minister was trying to keep the wheat boats sailing. Knowing that the boatload on it's way wouldn't be regarded as Food-for-Oil, Downer tried, to the UN's disgust and disallowance, to have it recategorised as post-war aid.

If Australia's ambassador to the UN knew about Australia's invasion plans then it is highly unlikely that our Foreign Minister and Prime Minister did not. If Messrs Howard and Downer kept this knowledge secret and gave us another story then they should hold themselves accountable for such an enourmous deception.

While we're talking about lies, I'd like to revisit a big one that Downer made last April when an Adelaide based Iraqi Professor Of Agriculture Kays Jumas was gunned down by Australian corporate military personnel. At the time Downer downplayed the death as an example of the low-calibre of CMPs when in fact Jumas was shot by an elite Australian outfit.

If Downer was deceiving again then the wheat inquires have been missing a possibly very important witness. I hope that even if Commissioner Cole has been unable to look at this aspect that the new US inquiry will examine the circumstances.

Now that we know that we were mislead by our government in both the motives and the stage-timing of this deathly plundering, a call should be made for our relevant Cabinet members to step aside until exhonorated.

I'm sick of the lies, sick of all the deaths being treated as debating points, and tired of watching our leaders spout the rhetoric without care. Whatever it takes to end this fiasco, it's time to do it.

Masters Of War- University Of Adelaide Degrees

Tired of KBR getting all the engineering jobs? Looking for a career in building Weapons Of Mass Destruction? Adelaide Uni can help. They're now training engineers for more advanced construction work, at least up to the technology level that Raytheon allows us local savages to access.

It's odd for the university to now announce that it has been been running the specialised maritime engineering program for a year already, instead of at the program's initial implementation. Given that the start of the academic year was just before the South Australian elections I wonder if the story might have been considered politically inappropriate at the time. To me it seemed that the whole concept of the Defence State, complete with number plates and BAE bus shelter ads, seemed to have been shelved in the last pre-election four weeks. In such a context I can understand a reticence for publicity.

The ASC's head explains that "The Masters degree will greatly accelerate up-skilling and, in time, strengthen Australia's indigenous naval engineering capability."

Indigenous knowledge- we seemed to be hearing a lot of that sort of thing when everybody was announcing the AWD construction deal last year, especially from Defence Minister Hill. The CEO of Raytheon Australia was a little more weasly regarding the "local knowledge" topic last year. He explained to the Australian-Israeli Chamber of Commerce that "All of our employees in Raytheon Australia are Australian, but if we need deeper specialist expertise or assistance in transferring technology to this country we can call upon any number of engineers and other experts to assist."

"We, in Raytheon Australia, use the term “Reach Back” to describe this key asset that allows us to draw upon Raytheon’s global resources."

In other words, the REAL knowdedge, the most important formulae and data pertinent to assimilating US warheads with local ships, will never be allowed near South Australian minds.

Downer's Dog Days

Poor Alexander Downer! His leash has been cut, he's about to receive the political equivalent of a snip from the vet, and everyone's trying to put him down.

It's bad enough that through the demise of the Bush Administration's power supply he's just been demoted from alsatian to poodle, but now that the the Democrats are about to control the US' own Australian Wheat Bribe investigations, he's just lost the "flea collar" of ministerial non-accountablility that he buried in Commissioner Terence Cole's terms of reference. No matter what Cole says when he hands down his findings in the next few weeks, Downer is about to be judged by the US Congress. Where Cole can't find Downer guilty of participating in one of the more heinous war crimes of the Iraq invasion. Democrat congressmen can, and probably will, banish him from the international political arena as punishment for his crimes.

Of particular interest to new inquiry chairmen is the Republican response to Australian requests to provide a smokescreen before the last Australian Federal election. Australian ambassador to the US Michael Thawley made a quiet plea that the investigation into Australian corruption be shelved to avoid any pre-poll embarrassment to PM Howard, and Bush's henchmen were happy to comply. Thawley was rewarded for his act of heroism by being made a Vice President of a mult-billion dollar pension fund.

I'll be interested to see how Thawley conducts himself in this matter. Will he fall on his sword by saying that it was his own idea to intercede, or will he reveal the chain of communication from Howard and Downer that would show the US public exactly who the war criminals are in this matter.

With another Australian election on the horizon, the likelihood of the matter being swept under the rug again is extremely negligible. Our PM may face a situation where he has to lose some of his key players in an attempt to maintain political survival. I predict there will be an empty kennel in the back yard a monogrammed bowl that is no longer licked. But late at night, when the moon is full and the wind is blowing in the right direction, perhaps you'll hear a howl.

Australian Federal Court Backs Halliburton Protester Scott Parkin



The Australian Federal Court has announcedoday that deported activist Scott Parkin does have a right to know why ASIO deported him. The court has granted Parkin access to the ASIO documentation used in his negative security classification.


On the day before Septemberr 11 last year Parkin was arrested and placed in solitary confinement amidst claims he was a violent activist. He was portrayed in Australian September 11 media as a threat to Australian security. Newsweek reported in January that the Pentagon had kept a file on Parkin handing out sandwiches as a protest for Halliburton's food charges in Iraq. It is likely Australian intelligence agency ASIO declared that Parkin was a potentially violent activist on the strength of this file's existence, though it's unknown if ASIO were allowed to read it.

Parkin told Australian ABC Radio today that he'd be "..thrilled to come back to Australia." and that he feels he has been vindicated.

Spy agency ASIO can still appeal to the High Court, and if this fails Australian Attorney General Phillip Ruddock can still have the information witheld under grounds of national security.

Why The Kovco Inquiry Findings Were Delayed

I've got a theory as to why the inquiry findings into the death of Private Jake Kovco are not being released till next year. In both Australia and the US sentiment against the war in Iraq has never been higher, and the control of US Congress may be decided on this issue, as it might in Australia next year.

The circumstances surrounding Kovco's death are being considered unfortunate by some and negligent by others. Testimonies have referred to the inappropriate cleaning up of evidence and confusion in details of evidence by comrades in close proximity. Then there's the accidental switching of bodies that led to the remains of a deceased Bosnian contractor being flown to Australia instead of the fallen soldier.

That the information has been witheld in a case such as this, in which so many people are concerned as to what might have transpired, shows the concern of our military and government that the current political climate is considered inappropriate to divulging "sensitive" data, and also that the release of information regarding events of the war in Iraq in being very carefully controlled by military and government propagandists.

South Australia- Just add (Halliburton) Water

I was suprised to find out last week that the Halliburton engineer for a major (proposed) S.A. water reclamation project had also set up a nut farm in the Murray. There's already one in Canberra, where KBR paves the paths on which the pollies slither, so why would Cheney's Men be setting up a foreign investment opportunity on the banks of a dying river?

[from ABC Australia]

Engineering and construction firm KBR had planned to start planting this month, until its financial partner pulled out due to 'overseas policy issues'.

Tony Reid from KBR says the plans have now been put on hold for a year, during which time it is hoped a pumping station can be built at the site and pipelines laid.

Mr Reid says the project had been held up at the development approval stage because of a native title issue, which forced the relocation of the pumping station.

He says the company is now looking for another financial backer and hopes to begin planting in mid 2007.

I could be wrong, and KBR engineer Tony Reid, could be merely coincidentally working on the two projects simultaneously. Given that Reid's big "baby" has been the 100km diameter Twin Lakes project in the middle of Lake Alexandrina, I was suprised to find him growing hazelnuts at Overland Corner on the U.S. Vice President's behalf. Mr Cheney, many of you will be aware, was the overseer of Halliburton/KBR for many years before running for office, and once was the Secretary for Defence.

The situation led me to this mode of thinking.

What if you had a means to supply water and knew of a lot of arid land? How about if you knew of a few industries that would flourish with the mere addition of an abundant water supply? What profits would you make on investment deals if you monetised the situation before the locals became aware of it? Would you be doing a disservice to your shareholders if you didn't capitalise on the opportunity?

Now subsitute the word "water" for "transport "and apply the questions to the Halliburton-run trans-Australian railway. There's a potential scenario being created in which large portions of Australian soil could, by ways of creating offshore investment opportunites, become totally within the control of the company whose moves were orchestrated by the Vice President of the United States. Mind you, a string of industry-hubbed cities and towns running North to South across the country could do wonders for the country's economy if (a) we can find people to live and work there and (be) the profits remain in Australia to boost the local lifestyle.

Now substitute the words "rocket transport." Now that NASA are going to use Woomera for trials of replacements for the space shuttle, we can anticipate quite a lot of spaceward voyages from S.A. as the Bush Administration pushes it's way towards Mars. Cargoes of building material launched to colonies on the moon, distribution of minerals and water found on asteroids and planets from delivery points in the SA outback might soon be fine investment options. And if we finally manage to render this planet uninhabitable, building space-cities and sending them into orbit suburb by suburt could be extremely big business, not to mention housing refugees from around the planet till we can launch them to their new homes.

Do you, like me, find these South Australian possibilities a bit scary? It could easily happen... if it isn't already.

Then again, my mind might be going nuts.

PS Investors pulling out due to "overseas policy issues" can easily be interpreted as a withdrawal of funds as a protest of Halliburton/KBR's participation in the Occupation of Iraq. Who would have thought that such thoughts occur within the minds of investors? Perhaps investing in a company that profits on death might be beyond the ethics of people placing money in pension funds? You never know your luck...

Halliburton Australian Defence stuff-up- Tanks But No Tanks

After all the trouble we\ve gone to, the whole plan's gone bung. It turns out, as some folks were warning years ago, that Australia''s new tanks, part of an mullti-nation Coalition o of the Willing fleet of M1A1 Abrams, are too heavy to ride the Halliburton railway to Darwin.

Freightlink, the consortium that Cheney set up to run the line for 50 years after KBR built it. has denied, according to today's Australian, that there's a problem, saying that they're working closely with defence on military transport issues.

The central Australian defence training scheme had included converting Adelaide's Mitsubishi car plant into a M1A1 refurbishment facility and a redesigning of the Army's Coultana training grounds into a simulated Middle East in which the vehicles could have a shakedown run, before being back to Adelaide and heading back to the war on Armoured Task Force divsion carriers.

Rumours of the railway's lack of this ability have been in circulation for two years. At least, that's how long ago I heard about the problem

That this plan could be preconceived ten years ahead and then bungled so badly further demonstrates the contempt with which Australian defence is being treated by some US Corporations. As long as they get the contracts they don't appear to give a damn if the results don't do the job required.

Follow The Yellow Cake Road

"Anybody who understands the changing character of the South Australian economy at this time will understand these transitional arrangements are an intelligent response.’’ Said Prime Minister Howard today.

The Wizards of South Oz have been busy this week, spinning straw into gold, Chinese purchase of our uranium is meant to offset Adelaide manufacturing jobs going to the land of the Great Wall? Not likely.

It was bad enough that the uranium deal, in which an Australian listed company will sell all its ore to Beijing and beyond,was announced before treaties were signed, three-mine policies officially abandoned and in general showing some responsibility and accountablitiy wth our deadly treasures. The timing of the information's release did, however, bump the Electrolux off-shoring to the day's second place story for a while, at least until the press conference. 500 whitegood jobs will be globalised into China, Poland and Mexico. The impact of the event has been softened by a joint Federal/S.A. rescue package

Meanwhile S.A. is hosting the cast and crew of, and basically paying for a huge Bollywood movie to be made,no doubt to entice workers to move here under the working conditions they receive at home. Premier Rann said recently that it was "kind of publicity money can't buy." Doesn't that make you wonder how many tax dollars are funding a sci-fi flick? There was a story out of an energy conference in Adelaide this week saying how many young Indians were attempting to better their lot in life by training for careers in energy and gas. Any guesses where they're going to end up? Probably in the flats across the road from the 5 dollars an hour, unprotected and unsuperannuated call centre workers imported from Mumbai.

Perhaps the Electrolux workers will be able to sign AWAs and work for peanuts alongside the Indians to strengthen the US's South Australian regime change?

As an afterthought, today's Advertiser has run an editorial contemplating life in the city without a Mitsubishi factory, which came to the conclusion that we can bear the brunt and retrain the carmakers into warship builders and uranium miners. Remember a couple of years back when ran suggusted the Mitsubishi plant could become an M1A! Abrahams tank refurbishment factory? An announcement of something of that ilk can't be too far away.

As the yellowcake trundles up the Halliburton railway and off to China, we're going to see a lot of changes around here. Both State and Federal governments will be busy with "birthing pains" such as this for a while

Mr Howard, while making the comment on the "transitional nature" of South Australia, added that his government was not prepared to pay Electrolux to keep the jobs in the country. To me this implies that he's probably paying a few industries to keep going until the military production lines are up and running. I wonder if the workers at the Clipsal plant around the corner from my house will be assembling circuitry for weapons guidance systems after their current jobs go to Yu No Hoo? Count on it.. Yie, Ar, San, Sz, Wu...

Censored Suicide Speech Available Here

On Wednesday S.A. MLC Sandra Kanck made a speech on assisted suiced that has been removed from the electronic version of Hansard. Read it here

What a load of bollocks.. if I reprint it I could be fined ten thousand dollars. However suicide advocate Phillip Nitschke is allowed to do so from his New Zealand website.

Sandra Kanck is right.. these laws need to be changed

Adelaide Airport Powder Quarantine

Hundreds of people remain in quarantine at Adelaide Airport in South Australia as emergency crews investigate the source of a yellow powder found over passengers' bags.
Passengers leaving from a Singapore Airlines flight just after 7.30 this morning found yellow powder over their cases on the baggage carousel.

The arrivals area was then immediately placed in quarantine

A Fire Brigade official says hazardous materials experts are going to the airport.

An airport official says passengers on other incoming international flights are also going into quarantine.

No Plans For Australian Nuclear Power Plant- Downer

In a coastal town at the shores of Mr Downer's Mayo electorate, the nuclear debate is rippling through the community.

Downer's fellow S.A. Senator Anne McEwen has cheekily suggested that the tourism city, known to many as "God's Waiting Room" would be an ideal site because of the abundance of water.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs has responded rather cattily to the suggestion, describing McEwen as a senator that nobody has heard of.

"There is no plan to build a nuclear power station anywhere in the whole of Australia, least of all in Victor Harbor." Mr Downer told the Victor Harbor Times.

Mr Downer was formerly President Bush's candidate as Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Adelaide Universities Become Military Schools

Three major defence companies yesterday signed deals with local universities to create "tailor made" defence degrees, and enable more work on defence technology to be carried out on South Australian campuses.

BAE, Tenix and ASC signed the joint agreement with Flinders University and the Universities of South Australia and Adelaide. The Universities will provide courses dedicated to the companies' contract requirements

The announcement closely follows British university Cranfield's decision to create a defence campus in Adelaide. Cranfield recently won a billion -pound contract from the UK Ministry of Defence to implement defence-based training programs.

By Richard Tonkin at 2 Jun 2006 - 2:03am |

Nuclear Denotations From Mount Gambier
[from ABC South East SA]

With the headline “We’ll Join the Nuke Race,” the article in today’s paper reports that the mayor of Mount Gambier City, Steve Perryman, wants the city “considered in any debate on suitable sites for proposed nuclear power plants”.

But Perryman is fuming about the report.

“I won’t take credit for starting all this,” he told ABC South East this morning. “This is a case of a newspaper journalist wanting to make the news rather than report the facts.

“The context of the conversation was…that Portland appeared on a list of suitable sites and I was asked by the journalist at the Advertiser what my thoughts on nuclear power were for Mt Gambier.

“I iterated a number of times that I’m not advocating that Mt Gambier put its hand up and I’m not entitled to do that. I wouldn’t do that without first consulting with my council and also the community.

The Port of Portland is currently seeking a new CEO and a new Marketing Manager.

South Aust Premier In U.K. To Sell Uranium?

South Australian Premier Mike Rann isn't known as "Media Mike" for nothing. This is why it's suprising that Rann has made a trip to England with no public fanfare. His website isn't even operative to convey his media releases!

Mr Rann usally makes great media mileage from his visits, proposing M-1 tank reconstruction facilities, visiting warship contract contenders, generally publicising his intentions from the perceived locales of "the horse's mouth" This is why it's surprising that the best our Premier has had to offer is that our defence contract bids are to be managed by a man who doesn't live in South Australia. Rann's climate change consulant, by the way, is also about to become a Sydney resident.

The editorial in today's Australian may be right in saying that Rann's just flogging our wine and tourism. But this doesn't explain the lack of publicity of the trip from a man who would open a chook raffle if it provided a photo-op.

Viewed in context with the international whirlwind of publicity surrounding international uranium sales, and in the light of UK PM Tony Blair's recently announced plans to revitalise the UK's nuclear power industry, an "unannounced" visit by the head dignitary of a uranium-rich locale could be perceived as a "shock-tactic" in nuclear salesmanship.

Think about it.. Blair says that the UK needs more uranium, and in a heartbeat Premier Rann is on his doorstep.

No doubt Mr Rann's job will be done before whatever announcement Australian PM Howard makes from Ireland.

S.A. Gets Cosgrove Endorsement

S.A. Gets Cosgrove Endorsement

It's a smart man that gets paid to sent defence construction to South Australia and then stays in Sydney.

[ABC]

The former head of the Australian military, General Peter Cosgrove, will lead South Australia's bidding for multi-million dollar defence contracts.

Premier Mike Rann has announced General Cosgrove as the new chairman of the state's Defence Advisory Board.

General Cosgrove helped restore order in East Timor in 1999 and named Australian of the Year in 2001.

He will remain based in Sydney but will visit South Australia regularly.

Speaking this morning from England, Mr Rann says General Cosgrove is an ideal choice for the role.

"We want to grow our defence jobs in South Australia from about 16,000 jobs up to 28,000 jobs within 10 years," he said.

"I can't think of anyone better than General Cosgrove to lead the push for South Australia."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This announcement from the Premier is not available from his website. The site has been closed for reconstruction since the election.

South Australia- India Uranium Trade Tied To Nuclear Reactor Construction Contracts

I've highlighted the last sentence of this extract because it seems of particular signifigance to activity in Australia.

[from the Financial Express, poste 20/5/05]

MAY 19: Seeking to meet its rising energy demands, India may pay suppliers, including General Electric (GE) Co, Rs 1.8 trillion ($40 billion) to build nuclear reactors over the next 14 years, a government official said.

France’s Areva SA, Electricite de France and US-based Westinghouse Electric Co are among the possible providers of 25 to 28 reactors by 2020, chairman Nuclear Power Corporation of India, SK Jain said.

US President George Bush is seeking an end to the three-decade-old international ban on nuclear technology sales to India, prompted by its atomic bomb test in 1974.

India and China are leading a worldwide revival in atomic energy after oil and coal prices rose to record levels. Russia and Japan are among the nations that may lift sanctions on India and enter the contest for contracts to install 40,000 megawatts (mw) of capacity. This would be enough to supply electricity to four cities the size of New York.

‘‘We are very confident the deal and all agreements will go through,’’ Mr Jain said in an interview in Mumbai on Tuesday. ‘‘As an outcome of that, India will have access to the global nuclear technology market.’’

President Bush has asked the US Congress to end nuclear sanctions against India. US and other members of the so-called nuclear suppliers group, including France, Russia, Japan and Australia, are debating whether to lift their ban on exports of equipment and materials for atomic use to India.

India is turning to overseas nuclear-reactor builders after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh doubled the nation’s 2020 capacity target from an initial 20,000 mw. India’s homegrown atomic power programme won’t cope with the stepped-up construction plan, Mr Jain said.He addedthe programme was also limited because of a uranium shortage caused by the international embargo on sales of the reactor fuel. Once sanctions end, supplies of enriched uranium will be included in contracts to install reactors.

While at this stage having no evidence to authenticate the last claim, let's assume for now, even though this might not be the case, that international reactor constructors are including whole-of-life (that's 20,000-plus in uranium years) supervision and/or ownership of fission-fuel used on Indian soil.

If such were the case, placing of the waste in a repository would be on the agenda, which would be more difficult for a company that didn't already have a pre-arranged site when it made a tender to the Indian Government.

No matter which company wins I bet Halliburton will make a fortune in environmental impact assessments.

Who were the "officials' that Downer was relying on for his information last week? They need to be identified sooner rather than later

HICKS UK CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS UPHELD

He's a step closer.. David Hicks right to British citizenship has been upheld by the UK courts.

A final appeal against Hick's eligibility has been rejected, clearing all legal barriers against Hicks claim.

The application for UK citizenship was made after a chance remark made by the Adelaide-resident Guantanemo inmate to his military lawyer, while discussing the Ashes cricket game in London, that his mother was British.

David's father Terry said from Adelaide today that the only real barrier for his son now was that it would be difficult for him to take the citizenship oath while being held in Guantanemo.

The UK Government successfully asked for all of its citizens to be removed from the Halliburton-constructed detention facility and returned to their own land. If Hicks is granted UK citizenship it is expected that his case would fall into the same category.

This would give the Bush Administration no other option but to let their prisoner go.

It's a crying shame that Australia hasn't lifted a finger to help him.

Corporate Based Killers-Why The Adelaide Professor Died In Iraq

Foreign Affairs, after gagging his family via "security issues", said that incident highlighted the extreme dangers Australians faced in Baghdad.

The fact that an Australian-based mercenary company gunned down an 72 year old Iraqi academic as he drove home from a shopping outing, for fear he might be a suicide bomber, doesn't seem to be a factor in the minds of DFAT's spin-doctors.

For three months of the year Professor Kays Juma lived in the Adelaide suburb of Flagstaff HIll, a couple of miles from a university that had never heard of him. The bulk of his life was spent teaching animal husbandry at the University of Baghdad.

Maybe if the mercenaries who ended his life didn't belong to a company that had lost lives in a car bomb explosion two years back, when they were protecting water and electricity engineers, this tragedy might not have occurred.. All these armed men saw, as they guarded a convoy of contractors, was an old Iraqi getting too close for comfort.

Acting on the policy of "better safe than sorry" they shot him.

The mercenary managers, Unity Resource Management, have as a director the Sydney Olympic's chief of athlete security. He was also head of the SAS' Counter-Terrorism Unit until 1997. Unity Resource (whose motto is "In Strength Lies Unity" appear on the U.S Embassy in Bagdad's website under "Citizen Services" They joined the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce last year, and this year are a major sponsor (second on the list only to AEGIS)) at the Iraq Security, Technology and Communications Summit being held in the UAE. No doubt part of their sponsorship will be guarding the Ministers, Deputies and Secretary Generals of the Departments of Interior, Communications, Science and Defence.

This company seems to have strong views on the ethics of the participation of Australian Government representatives. Consider this article review by one of their senior employees:

The argument and thoughts put forward in the abstract are not only interesting however prudent to the evolving question as to whether the Australian Government agencies and defence force need to utilise the
established model that exists in the US and UK with companies such as Dynocorp, Blackwater and the UK firm Control Risks Group.

There are however a number of essential core issues that need to be
estabished and the major concern is the national interest. i.e. the companies involved in Aus gov work would need to be transparent with the other contracted work so that security and conflicts of interest on
a global scale are not raised. I look forward to further reading the remainder of the article.

Regards Shane Irving Unity Resources Group Aus, Asia, Middle East, Latin America

How a company with such ideals and aspirations managed to gun down Kays Juma is an important consideration. That a "legitimate" soldier in a declared war might perpetrate such an action in defence of his life might, however abhorrent the notion, be halfway understandable. That a gun-toting warrior bearing the insignia not of a nation but of a corporation can kill an old man because it's his job to do so is can only be labelled as the epitome of everything that is wrong with Western society.

How many innocent Iraqis, unreported through lack of connection to other countries, have died at the hands of corporate employees from "democratic" nations? Do the compilers of the Rand Corporation's Terrorism Database, who provided the Incident Report for the Unity deaths, keep statistics on civilians blown away by mercenaries?

Is this the active Democracy that Western society is so proud of? We should hang our heads in shame

HALLIBURTON INVITES SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AID PROGRAM PARTICIPATION

The Department of Trade and Economic Development held a forum in Adelaide recentlyy to inform more than 70 SA businesses about multimillion-dollar opportunities in the Official Development Assistance market.

Department chief executive Raymond Garrand said the global official development market was valued at $108 billion last financial year "and still growing".

"Australia allocated $2.3 billion annually to the official development market through AusAid, and is ranked 15th amongst the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries in that market," he said.

Adelaide companies including Austraining International, Sagric International and Halliburton/KBR spoke to businesses attending the forum about their activities overseas and potential opportunities for subcontractor companies.

In September last year, while PM Howard told Iraq about how much increased aid Australia would supply, KBR were advertising internationally for a foreign aid director. At the same time Mr Howard was co-chairing a meeting withPresident Bush and the Prime Minister of India to set up a UN World Democracy Fund. Howard said at a September interview that I think the focus on the expansion of democracy and providing a democratic underpinning to policy is very welcome indeed and to many of us it seems long overdue.

How much of the aid money going to Adelaide industry will be spent according to a nation's compliance with Bush's form of Democracy .

What was the trade-off to get India to engage as a co-chair of George's plain- sale to India of South Australia's uranium, an international migration program to alleviate India's overcrowding and solve SA's population shortage? Perhaps both.

Premier Rann reiterated today that he wouldn't allow uranium sales to India unless it signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. How will Dubya force Rann's compliance.?

FOUR DIE, TWO ON SA ROADS AFTER INDYCAR EVENT

"it's a tragic day and to try and explain it, you just can't" said Elizabeth police chief Kym Zander after witnessing a car split in two by the force of impact.

What do you expect when you spend a three days pumping a culture full of high speed adrenalin. The Clipsal 500 incites the love of speed, thrills, action into the residents of Adelaide and South Australia and then disappears.

Were you suprised that so many people died the day after? Sadly some of us expected a signifigant increase in fatalities. Year after year our police advise responsible driving, and year after year we put on events that glorify high speed racing.
A big psychological difference in the Adelaide event is that it is run on public streets and roads, vindicating similar activity in city-dwellers and country commuters.

The Clipsal 500 will occur again next year. So will the following deaths. Until we match the event with a concurrent driver education campaing South Australian society can hang its head in shame- on our shoulders rests the burden of responsibility for needless death.

Everyone In Cabinet Knew Saddam Was Grabbin' It !

.Was Terence Cole's request for those with information to step forward a plea or a threat of revelation? Caroline Overington's detailing of those who received the ominous cable suggest the latter premise is worth considering.

[extract]

The scam was outlined in a diplomatic cable
dated April 10, 2001 from Bronte Moules, an official at Australia's permanent mission to the UN in New York.

It was widely distributed through the top echelons of government,
including the Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander
Downer, Trade Minister Mark Vaile and then-minister for agriculture
Warren Truss.

The warning was also circulated to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and its offshoot Austrade, the Attorney-General's Department, the Defence Department, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Bureau of
Agricultural and Resource Economics. Senior DFAT officials on the cable's distribution list include secretary Ashton Calvert and deputy secretaries Pamela Fayle, John Dauth, David Spencer and Alan Thomas.

Ms Moules's cable clearly outlined Iraq's plan to extract US dollars from AWB by demanding a levy of 50c a tonne on wheat, before it would be unloaded.

She said the issue was linked to wider concerns about corruption in the oil-for-food program and said there was "anecdotal and in some cases hard evidence of Iraqi purchasers and agents
demanding fees from suppliers, in contravention of the sanctions regime".

While the cable did not say AWB had agreed to pay bribes, it is at odds with the Howard Government's claim that it never investigated claims that AWB was funnelling money to Saddam Hussein's regime because it believed the allegations were simply rumours made up by rival wheat-selling nations.

Ms Moules's cable shows that Saddam's efforts to steal money from the oil-for-food program were well-known in Canberra, as was the fact that AWB had been asked to participate in the scam.

Our Prime Minister and his cabinet have been revealed as deceitful and untrustworthy. If they won't go voluntarily then perhaps we should be considering the legal means available to remove them from power.

HALLIBURTON AUSTRALIA IMPORTS SLAVE LABOR TO SOUTH AUSTRALIA


Halliburton Australia. has a major part of South Australi business
activities It's Adelaide office was fomerly the company's global
headquarters for infrastruture.

Under the trading name of KBR it is employed by the State government and local councils. It has been involved in construction of the Adelaide-Darwin Railway and the Port River Expressway, and has proposed a development project for Lake Alexandrina.

Halliburton is also employed by the Department Of Foreign Affairs and Trade to carry out international aid contracts on Australia's behalf, and has many defence industry contracts.

In South Australia's outback, Halliburton has been flouting Australia's Industrial Relations laws by employing foreigners at wage levels inappropriate to Australian ethics.

By referring the Advertiser's questions to it's head office in Houston it has revealed where its South Australian activities are truly conducted from.

On evidence of such a flagrant violation of Australian trust, the
ethics involved in all the company's interaction with all levels of
government in South Australia must now be called into question. If companies such as Halliburton want to play in Australia, they must learn to play by Aussie rules.

Given the Australian Government's avoidance and denial of knowledge of Australian bribes paid to the Saddam government of Iraq, it is highly unlikely there will be an
Australian probe into Halliburton's questionable activities.

As Halliburton Australia is a wholly owned US subsidiary its activities in Australia could be subjected to a probe by the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

South Australian Trade Minister Micheal Wright has promised a State Government investigation, and says that the Federal government should do the same. Mr Wright added that he would also be looking for possible violations of welfare laws.

Halliburton Takes Port Adelaide
The former global leader of Halliburton's infrastructure activities is now in control of shipbuilding in South Australia.

An expanded maritime site announce today is now owned by a corporation
controlled by ex-Halliburton/KBR chief Andrew Fletcher, who had been
recruited last November to "oversee" the warship project. Fletcher, while still in his Halliburton job, held a seat on the South Australian Economic Development Board

State Premier Mike Rann says that the newly announced shipbuilding facility,
which includes the Star Wars Ship construction, will make Adelaide a
"global hub".

A 2004 edition of Engineers Australia Magazine explains Fletcher's role two years ago:

Senior vice-president of US company KBR, with responsibilities for global infrastructure and the Asia Pacific region A civil engineer from Adelaide University, Andrew Fletcher was catapulted into his international position when KBR, the engineering and construction arm of US giant Halliburton, took over Australia’s
Kinhill Engineers in 1997.

The company now has about 3000 staff in
Australia.
One of Fletcher’s main tasks when he took over his current position was
to “forge a solid global team” from the regional groups in the
Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific including Australia.

The news of the expanded naval site has been released one day before its launching at an international expo in Sydney.

Our State premier has explained that "This new hub, into which the State Government is investing $140 million in infrastructure, will be capable of building other ships at the same time the air warfare destroyers are being built,"

He added that "There is now $55 billion worth of federal defence contracts up for grabs over the next 10 to 15 years."

State Treasurer Kevin Foley elaborated that the site would be suitable for companies involved in"in civil or
military shipbuilding, ship repair and maintenance, metal fabrication
and module construction, paint and blast, warehousing and component
manufacturers and suppliers".

Under its new name of Techport Australia, the maritime construction
precinct will be marketed today at the Pacific Maritime and Naval Expo
in Sydney.

Techport Australia is owned by the Port Adelaide Maritime Corporation, which the Adelaide Advertiser says is "under the control of" the ex-Halliburton Chief. Fletcher told the newspaper that one of his aims was to "deliver a sustainable long-term defence industry base here at Osborne".

Fletcher's previous company was previously spearheaded by the former US Defense
Secretary and current US Vice President, Dick Cheney. The company
constructed and has part-ownership of the Adelaide to Darwin Railway.
It also a major naval shipbuilder in the UK, and a part-owner of that
country's Road Management Group

KBR has recently completed construction of the Port River Expressway that
links the port to the Northern Suburbs. Roadwork construction
improving links from the port to the Southern Suburbs will commence
next year.

Until last year Adelaide was the official global headquarters of Halliburton/ KBR's infrastructure division.

SA Defence Land Acquisition approved- Hill Halliburtonises South AustraliaAs he steps down as Defence Minister, Robert Hill is completing the militarisation of his home State of South Australia

MR Hill says that said he had written to the
leaseholders and local indigenous groups indicating his approval of the
acquisition of land near the Cultana training area, near Port Augusta.

The training centre, currently used by Army units for manoeuvre and
weapons training, will triple in size, making it one of Australia's
largest military training areas.

"This project will see an expanded range ready for use by 2009 and will
increase the Army's presence in regional South Australia, providing
significant economic benefits, particularly for Port Augusta and
Whyalla," .
"An expanded all-weather training range at Cultana will provide the
Australian Defence Force with a training area that can be used during
the northern Australian wet season and support future joint training
needs."

US and Australian troops wil utilise the Adelaide-Darwin Railway, which is 40% owned by Halliburton KBR for the next 50 years

"The planned expansion will increase the scope of combined arms
training for large mechanised formations, will allow for larger joint
live firing exercises, provide a larger area to manoeuvre the new
Abrams tanks as well as the new generation of Army assets such as the
new Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter and Australian Light Armoured vehicles."

Mr Hill's quotes courtesy of news.com.au

South Australian Senator In International Bribery Scandal

The beginning of the inquiry into possible corrupt practices by the Australian Wheat Board in Iraq will be notable in hindsight as the beginning of Alexander Downer's demise as Australian Foreign Minister..

Senator for South Australian and Foreign Affairs Minister Downer was recently touted to head the International Atomic Energy Agency. His department is now known to have held knowldedge iof Australian bribes paid to the regime of Saddam Hussein.

In 1996 Downer represented the Australian Government in announcing Australian Wheat being involved in the Iraqi Oil-For-Food Program

A year Mr Downer, via former Liberal Party leader Andrew Peacock, was introduced to the then Governor of Texas. According to The Bulletin's Tony Wright, the words of the "thank you letter" hung in Downer's Adelaide office for many years:

Australia is a very important
ally of the United States, and should I ever be in the position to
reconfirm that alliance, I look forward to doing so. I hope to see you
again. Respectfully yours, George W. Bush.

Mr Downer has assisted US Foreign Policy by goading the Koreans and reintroducing Australia to fear of missile warface and and was a major proponent of the Australia/US Free Trade Agreement.

Mr Downer, having previously announced Condileeza Rice's visit to Adelaide, also announced the visit's cancellation, claiming that the visit was marred by plans by "Leftists" to protest the event.

In spite of the six million dollars a year Australian gives to the IAEA budget and all of US President Bush's pushing, the Senator for South Australia failed to gain the posting of chair of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

When the US Wheat Board banned imports of Australian wheat Mr Downer initiated diplomat dialogue that saw the decision reversed. when you protested the US banning of our wheat, available to you any more?

According to The Age, AWB witnesses at last year's inquiry into the Oil For Food deliberately mislead the United Nation's investigation. Given that the former chief of the AWB has stated awareness that several of his officials "went to Canberra to talk to DFAT" isn't anyone in the position of Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs in the centre of a cyclone of ethical breaches?

Four months ago Mr Downer was representing Australia to the United Nations. The UN is due to receive a new Australian ambassador with the strongly-tipped imminent appointment as Australian Ambassodor to the United Nations of Federal Defence Minister Robert Hill

ADELAIDE DEFENCE CONTRACTORS IN
US "SMALL BUSINESS" SCAM PROBE

US Defence Corporations are disguising themselves to manipulate US Legislation, according to a US Survey.

Defense Industry Daily reports that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ordered the U.S. Small Business Administration (USSBA) to release to the American Small Business League (ASBL) a draft report on the awarding of government contracts. The SBA report describes how large companies are improperly winning contracts in the Federal government's $60-plus billion small business contracting program.

The Small Business Act of 1953 directs that at least 23% of federal government prime contracts go to small business, but a host of abuses and loopholes have allowed large companies to pick up contracts in this category. The SBA released an edited version of the report on December 28, 2004, acknowledging that small business contracts had gone to such "small businesses" as Raytheon Co., BAE Systems, Northrop Grumann Corp., Carlyle Group, Electronic Data Systems Corp., Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Buhrmann NV.

Raytheon, BAE, Northrop Grunman and Carlyle are involved in South Australian based Missile Shield and Unmanned Air Vehicle Projects. EDS has a major headquarters in Adelaide.