I see the Light!

Reverend Billy and The Church Of Stop Shopping

TripleJ Hack intervew with Reverend Billy

PM rewrites wiki and possibly ABC News

Posted Fri Aug 24, 2007 11:25am at ABC News

PM not behind Wikipedia edits

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet says Prime Minister John Howard did not ask any of his staff to edit online public encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Staff from the department have been found to have made edits to Wikipedia entries on topics such as the "children overboard" affair.

Treasurer Peter Costello's page was also edited, removing a reference to the nickname "Captain Smirk".

The Defence Department has blocked staff from editing the open access encyclopedia, amid revelations they had made more than 5,000 changes.

An internal inquiry has been launched but the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet says the changes could have come from a number of different organisations using the same internet protocol address.

Posted about 7 hours later at ABC News

PM's Dept denies making Wikipedia changes

The head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet says changes to the internet encyclopedia Wikipedia were not made by anyone in his department or the Prime Minister's office.

A new tracking program has revealed what appeared to be more than 100 changes to the online encyclopedia by internet protocol addresses from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Topics edited included mandatory detention and the children overboard affair, leading to criticism about how public servants were being employed.

But the head of the department, Dr Peter Shergold, says the changes were not made by his staff.

He says the network address appearing next to the changes is that of another customer on the same internet service provider.

I’d like Dr Peter to explain that one in more detail, who is this other customer that shares the dpmc.gov.au network address? PM Magoo is not the only online inquisitor about though; the CIA and Vatican also invest much effort rewriting history.

Also from ABC News

Program shows CIA behind Wikipedia entries

The world according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia is in a constant state of update, as tens of thousands of contributors work to ensure the site's content is correct.

A new identification program on the site reveals that some of the most prolific contributors to Wikipedia are the CIA, the British Labour Party and the Vatican - and they are not just updating their own entries.

Seamus Byrne is the editor of online technology site Gizmodo Australia.

He says Wikipedia is just one place where government agencies are watching people.

"Obviously there's the quite large - and people in online circles certainly know about it - Echelon Project," he said.

"It's a series of surveillance systems around the world that actually monitor phone, data, all kinds of traffic that goes on, looking for keywords related to things like terrorism and all kinds of troublesome issues and they pull that out and try to sift through it to find any connections that could be made to point to a real problem."

Echelon Project - space.com

Echelon Project - fas.org

Echelon Project - jya.com

Exclusive Belligerence

There has been much publicity this week surrounding PM John Howard’s meetings with the extremist religious sect, often referred to as a cult, the Exclusive Brethren.

The radical fundamentalist group believe they are chosen by God, and they long for The Rapture - a teaching that there will be a time when all of those who are Christian and alive at a particular time will be swept up into the next life, and left behind will be those who are not pure.

Members of this sect are forbidden to socialise with those outside the fellowship or attend tertiary education. They say the Bible tells them to separate themselves from evil. Separation, they say, "is as old as time itself.” “The scriptures from beginning to end teach separation." They sure do.

Television, radio, personal computers and mobile phones are also strictly prohibited amongst members. Brethren management however seems acutely aware of every instance of bad publicity it receives through the mediums of TV, radio and the internet. Perhaps the voice of God is tipping them off.

The sect has 31 schools throughout Australia. Ex teachers have claimed that at these schools, most modern novels are banned, pages are removed even from permitted 19th-century works and entire chapters are censored from science books. It’s also claimed children are told what jobs they will do and who they will marry. Despite this, the Australian Exclusive Brethren schools receive federal funding of around $20 million yearly.

EB members have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on attack campaigns against the Greens in state elections in Australia, and New Zealand. Its members have bankrolled pro-conservative ads in the US and Canada. Its leaders are based in the Prime Minister's Sydney electorate of Bennelong - where one member's former company spent $370,000 on pro-John Howard ads at the last federal election. Interestingly sect members, while totally free to support political campaigns, are at the same time forbidden to actually vote in elections.

Regarding government meetings with the evangelists, John Howard is on record saying “I do not deny for a moment I've met representatives of the Exclusive Brethren, and why not? They're Australian citizens, it's a lawful organisation.” Treasurer Costello has added that there is nothing wrong with politicians meeting the group, this is no crime.

A lawful organisation? No crime? I’m pretty sure for the rest of us “impure” Australians, not voting is unlawful, a crime. I’m pretty sure if Australian Muslim leaders forbid their followers to vote, Howard would cry “Un Australian” and Kevin Andrews would deport them for bad character.

Nuclear Proliferation Treaty

ABC TV Tuesday 14/8/07, Minister Downer said if any deal were to be struck for Australia selling uranium to India, it will be some time off. That “some time off” turned out to be Thursday 16/8/07. PM Howard says the deal will be a major economic and strategic advantage to both Australia and India. I bet it will, note the use of the word strategic.

While Australian nuclear sales are usually permitted only to signatories of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), India (a nuclear power) has been granted exemption to this condition, due to a deal it struck with the United States.

The US-India energy deal, will allow New Delhi access to U.S. civilian nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in 30 years. Critics say the agreement will benefit India's military nuclear program and could entice other nations in the region to obtain nuclear weapons.

The pact provides India with permanent nuclear fuel supplies, but has sparked a raging debate in India over whether it enjoyed the right to test nuclear weapons. MPs from four Communist parties, who prop up the government in parliament, joined opposition law-makers in alleging that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave false information about the deal.

PM Singh told parliament that the deal would not curb India's right to test nuclear weapons, saying the government retained the "sovereign right to test and would do so if it is necessary in the national interest." The United States responded by warning that Washington reserves the right to ask for all of its fuel and technology back should India test another nuclear device.

Uproar in both the upper and lower houses of the Indian parliament forced its adjournment for the day on Thursday 16/8/07. Always the opportunist, Howard noting his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh had some down time, phoned to finalise Australia’s uranium deal. In the face of critique, Howard has allayed all of our fears by stating “there are safeguard agreements conditional on sales”, just like there are between the US and India.

ABC TV Friday 17/8/07, if my ears did not deceive me, Minister Downer exclaimed - India has no record of being a proliferator of nuclear materials, apart from having nuclear weapons. If I indeed heard correctly, the implications are startling – the first recorded instance of Alexander speaking a truth. I wonder though how many people hearing that, just said - Fair enough, they don’t proliferate apart from when they are proliferating.

The Minister of arrogance and elitism has also confirmed the Government's intentions to sign a uranium export deal with Russia. He hopes negotiations will be finalised at the APEC meeting next month when President Vladamir Putin visits Australia.

Fear APEC

The Sydney (APEC) meeting will require "maximum security," but it will be a worthwhile inconvenience says the PM. I would beg to differ, militarising part of an Australian city, subjecting its population to the oppression of martial law, is no more a “worthwhile inconvenience” than what being buggered by the rough end of a pineapple is.

The NSW Government has declared Friday 7th September of the Leaders Week as a Public Holiday, but this only applies in metropolitan Sydney, not the entire city or state. Three city train stations will be closed for three days while one bus station will be relocated for the same time period. Hospitals have been asked to cancel all elective surgery on the long weekend.

Loudspeakers and sirens have been installed in major streets in central Sydney. Police Minister David Campbell said "If there were a terrorist event or a major building fire and there were people in the streets, this is a way of giving them information" Sydney's city council has urged locals to prepare survival bags including maps, first-aid supplies, important documents, spare change and an extra set of keys in case of emergency.

Security personnel is said to include 3500 police officers and over 300 secure VIP motorcades. Police have bought a $600,000 water cannon to quell violent protesters and more than 30 buses will be used as mobile detention cells. The police Riot Squad have been issued with taser guns. Police maintain they will not be used against protestors as they are only appropriate for one on one situations. Does it not seem odd then that Riot Squad are given these weapons? How many one person riots do they attend?

Police aviation support branch staffing for APEC is numbered at 84. Police Minister David Campbell said helicopters would monitor motorcades, provide support for operational police and provide live downlink of images from onboard cameras to the Police Operations Centre. A Cessna Citation jet will be used to spot any aircraft breaching a 45 nautical mile restricted zone around the Sydney APEC conference venues.

NSW Police have been granted APEC-specific powers to detain people and subject them to random body searches in special “declared'' zones”. While visitors will be allowed to enter the areas, they will do so at the risk of personal searches and being under constant surveillance by ASIO and counter-terrorism police. One of the "declared zones'' will be an entire CBD block bordered by Macquarie St, King St and George St and Circular Quay to the north, caged by a 2.8m high reinforced concrete fence, marked with a series of policed checkpoints through which the public will have to be cleared.

APEC Task Force general manager of media and communications, Bernadette Ryan was reported saying “A letter from an employer or other credentials may be needed to prove an individual has a legitimate reason to be in APEC security zones”. The immediate surrounds of the Sydney Opera House, Government House and some areas of the Sydney Botanic Gardens will be totally locked down and off limits to the public. WTF, in Australia, we need certified legitimacy for moving about in public?

Chief executive officer of the NSW Business Chamber Kevin MacDonald said: “Given the experience of other major meetings of world leaders in recent years, I can understand why the police have decided to erect a temporary fence”. Police claim they are concerned peaceful protesters may link up with radicals and try to attack globally known businesses.

The Prime Minister's office has said that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was conducting security assessments for APEC, including "politically motivated violence checks against ASIO databases”. Police Minister David Campbell asserts antiwar demonstrators and anyone else considered “suspicious” will be arrested and detained without bail for the duration of the September 6-9 summit. “Known troublemakers” will also be denied access to restricted zones, to avoid any “embarrassment” to dignitaries.

In addition to 3500 police, 1500 ADF personnel including SAS commando troops will man checkpoints, conduct property searches, and be called on at the whim of the PM to crush protests, possible under newly enacted legislation. F/A-18 fighter jets will patrol Sydney air space along with the squadron of police choppers. Navy will also be involved, with its ships to guard against a seaborne attack. Navy divers will provide "niche security support" and be deployed around areas of Sydney Harbour.

Sydney Professor Michael Head said new powers, including expanded rights to shoot to kill, were given to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in last year's military callout legislation. Professor Head said troops have considerably wider and legally protected rights to use lethal force and their callout during APEC was yet another example of the creeping militarisation of Australia. Legislation will also allow Foreign Government security agencies to carry weapons and enforce their own security arrangements on Australian soil.

Radical protester's police fear

Peaceful protesters

 

Discrimination, the Multiple Kill Vehicle Payload System and antagonising the Russians

Multinational BAE Systems, has gone to the Equal Opportunity Tribunal seeking an exemption from anti-discrimination laws for its South Australian operations. The company wants to be allowed to discriminate against staff on the grounds of nationality, in order to continue to work with U.S. defence contractors. The US apparently says it has a legal right to exclude certain foreign nationals from access to “sensitive defence material”. There are 11 countries on a banned list which include China, Iran and North Korea.

BAE claims it could lose US contracts and be precluded from defence-related work for Australia's defence force without the exemption. Precluded from ADF related work? Did I miss something? When did the ADF become bound by US Military requirements? At the Equal Opportunity Tribunal, BAE lawyer Tim Stanley tendered a letter of support from South Australian Treasurer Kevin Foley, who said similar exemptions had been granted in all other mainland states.

Probably all for the best really, I mean it would be a bit macabre wouldn’t it, for the people assembling weapons systems to end up at a later date being targeted by the product of their own labour?

BAE boasts on their web site that they are:

• 4th largest defence company (presumably globally)
• No 1 European defence company
• Top Ten US defense company, Annual sales exceed $22 bn

Following article;

BAE Systems to develop seeker for Multiple Kill Vehicle program
from Military & Aerospace Electronics.

BAE Systems will develop and test a key component of the U.S. Missile Defence Agency's Multiple Kill Vehicle payload system.

The company will produce, test, and integrate the system's carrier vehicle seeker for the captive carry test bed under a two-year, $6.3 million contract from Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.

In the event of an enemy missile launch, an interceptor equipped with this payload will track down the target using data up linked to the BAE Systems seeker aboard the carrier vehicle. Once outside the earth's atmosphere, the seeker will acquire and track all threat objects, including the missile and any countermeasures deployed to disrupt U.S. defences. The carrier vehicle will then dispense a large number of small "kill vehicles," guiding them to destroy the targets designated by the seeker.

"Success in this key technology demonstration will keep the Multiple Kill Vehicle program on the path of delivering earliest operational capability to the war fighter," says Rick Reginato, Lockheed Martin program director in Sunnyvale, California.

In a degree of separation, Russia has deemed the planned deployment of US military bases and missile defence sites in Central and Eastern Europe, to be a threat. In response, Russia has in recent months undertaken tests of a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and a new cruise missile. Officials have repeatedly rejected US assurances that the planned missile defence installations are meant to counter a potential threat from countries such as Iran and pose no danger to Russia. President Vladimir Putin was quoted saying “They are filling eastern Europe with new weapons. A new base in Bulgaria, another one in Romania, a [missile defence] site in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic. What we are supposed to do? We can't just sit back."