Archive for the 'Terrorism' Category

Terror academics! Feud!

Published
by
Mark
2 weeks, 1 day ago
in Authoritarianism, Education, Media, Security, Terrorism and War
. 58 Comments

My colleague Terry Flew takes a look on his blog at the latest controversy over teh evils of postmodernism (and neo-Marxism!) in academia. In regard to The Australian, he writes:

In two articles (Sat and Mon) referring to the Culture Wars and ‘Terror Academics’ , it discussed claims made in the most recent edition of Quadrant by James Cook University academic Mervyn Bendle that Tony Burke was ‘pro-terrorist’, and should not hold a position at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Flew goes on to say:

Whether a new McCarthyism is too strong a word for this is a moot point. What is apparent is that The Australian has taken on a extraordinarily partisan position in relation to scholarly disagreements, and is looking like a sounding-board for Quadrant and the Young Liberals. Bendle, Donnelly and Windschuttle have received a lot of space in its opinion pages, in what looks like an orchestrated campaign to use the paper to politically shape university teaching in directions that would be at odds with assumption about academic freedom.

I think that’s right, but there’s the added dimension here of links between the security state and academia, and also of the willingness of academics to prosecute basically private (and often employment related) disputes through the pages of the public press. The latter was a significant component of the attacks former QUT academics John Hookham and Gary Maclennan launched on Michael Noonan’s PhD project on disability and humour. It doesn’t appear to have occurred to Bendle, with all his complaints about so-called breaches of “scholarly etiquette”, that he might have committed one himself by attacking Burke publicly in such risibly inquisitorial terms.

Continue reading ‘Terror academics! Feud!’

Why the hurry to arrest Benbrika’s mob?

Published
by
Robert Merkel
2 weeks, 5 days ago
in Crime and Terrorism
. 46 Comments

Well, the current round of trials for Abdul Nacer Benbrika and his followers have finally ended, after a marathon trial and three weeks of jury deliberations. Seven, including Benbrika, were found guilty of various terrorism offences; four were acquitted, and one man will face a new trial after the jury couldn’t reach a verdict. Some of the men will now face additional charges.

Out of the trial, there are a number of issues raised, including the extraordinarily harsh conditions the then-accused were kept in, and Robert McLelland not keeping his mouth shut while the jury was still deliberating on one of the cases.

Continue reading ‘Why the hurry to arrest Benbrika’s mob?’

Republicans have hijacked 9/11 remembrance and re-branded it as 9/11TM

Published
by
tigtog
3 weeks, 3 days ago
in Ethics, Foreign Elections, Language, Media, Nationalism, Terrorism, USA and War
. 18 Comments

An American tragedy made into a political commodity: top political commentator Keith Olbermann is distinctly unimpressed at the cynicism of the invocation of 9/11 at the Republican National Convention.

9/11 (TM) has made possible the greatest sleight-of-hand in our nation’s history.

The political party in office at the time of the attacks, at the local, state and national levels, the party which uniformly ignored the warnings and the presidential administration already through twenty percent of its first term and no longer wet behind the ears, have not only thus far escaped any blame for the malfeasance and criminal neglect that allowed the attacks to occur, but that presidency and that party, have managed to make it seem as if the other political party would be solely and irredeemably responsible for any similar catastrophe in the future.

The misrepresentations and manipulations of the terror of seven years ago are laid out clearly in Olberman’s analysis, starting with his contempt for the choice of Giuliani, who has no other bandwagon to ride other than 9/11, as a keynote speaker at the convention.

his childish, squealing, braying, Tourette’s-like repetition of 9/11 (TM), was greeted not as conclusive evidence that he is consumed by massive guilt - hard-earned guilt, in fact but rather as some kind of political tour-de-force, an endorsement of your Vice Presidential nominee, a rookie governor , a facile and slick con artist.

The blind endorsing the bland, to a chorus of 9/11 (TM), 9/11 (TM), 9/11 (TM.)

Your ringing mindless cheer of “We’ve Kept You Safe Since Then.” While nobody asks “doesn’t then count?”

All of this, sadistically disrespecting the dead of New York, and Washington, and Shanksville. Endorsed, Sen. McCain. Exploited, Sen. McCain. Trademarked, Sen. McCain by you.

Continue reading ‘Republicans have hijacked 9/11 remembrance and re-branded it as 9/11TM‘

Guest post by Aaron Darc: Morgan and the Multiplex

Published
by
Guest Poster
2 months ago
in Consumerism, Culture, Film, TV, Video etc, Food, Foreign policy, Life, Masculinity, Relationships, Religion, Sociology, Terrorism, USA, Urbanism and War
. 193 Comments

Aaron Darc, whose work will be familiar to LPers from his incarnation as Eye on Big Brother, recently interviewed film maker Morgan Spurlock. Spurlock came to prominence with Super Size Me and his new film Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? will be released in Australia next week. You can read more of Aaron’s writing at Pop Psychology for Beautiful People.

MORGAN & THE MULTIPLEX

From fat to fatwah, Murgon Spurlock has lost the pounds he gained for his smash-hit, Super Size Me, and hired himself a camel, for his latest film, Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? I caught up with Morgan, this week, on his press tour of Sydney.

My 20 year old brother, Glenn, lives in a distant galaxy from me, on a planet called Regional Suburbia. He likes football, easy girls and fast cars. His favourite film is The Fast & The Furious; he calls it “wicked sh*t.” It would never have dawned on me, it goes without saying, to peruse my brother’s DVD collection. I knew it would be large, and I knew it would have been entirely purchased at JB Hifi; I know probably more than I should about Revolution Plasma and its disturbing power to appeal to the working and middle classes, and replace what would once have been their lives; draining whatever connection to the real world they had, by offering their unconscious longing to escape, a glistening, mostly poisonous, apple. Here, everybody! Plug into this - you’ll find it… easier. You will have a purpose. You will own that 42″ plasma, even if you f*ck yourself up on credit to do it, and you will build thyself a DVD Tower. There, thy shall easily access The Fast & The Furious; it shall keep the company of Face Off, Rush Hour, the Terminator Trilogy and, but of course, the Die Hard Box Set. Got plasma? check. Got plasma tower? Check. Okay, then, you’re all set to waste a good deal of your life plugged right into consumer oblivion. Isn’t modernity just fabulous?!

I only neared my brother’s DVD tower, out of that familiar desperation to escape the reality of my awkward bi-monthly family visit. Somewhere, in between the time your mother has once again implicitly let it be known you’ve not amounted to what you should have, and the moment following eight meaningless remarks about the state of recent weather, you look around the room, and you think, quite simply, “What can I do, here, to pass the time without having to sincerely engage my family?” My brother’s DVD tower seemed like a pretty good idea.

Continue reading ‘Guest post by Aaron Darc: Morgan and the Multiplex’

Bilal Abdullah, Mohammed Haneef, and Mick Keelty

Published
by
Robert Merkel
2 months ago
in Crime, International and Terrorism
. 10 Comments

The AFP has claimed it can’t release any part of its submission to the Clarke Inquiry, about its investigation of Mohammed Haneef, because of “ongoing trials in the UK”. Greg Barns asked in Crikey today:

Hang on, what trials? The only connection Dr Haneef had with the UK was that he gave his SIM Card to his cousin Sabeel Ahmed when he was about to leave the UK in 2006 to return to India. Sabeel’s brother Kafeel was involved in unsuccessful terror attacks in London and Glasgow in June last year, driving a Jeep Cherokee into the doors of Glasgow airport and setting himself alight. Kafeel later died from burns to 90% of his body, and Sabeel was charged and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in April this year for refusing to disclose information about the Glasgow attack and another failed attack in London, and a month later deported to India.

The only ongoing trials from the attempted terror attacks are those of Bilal Abdullah and Mohammed Asha, who are charged with conspiracy to murder. Abdullah was arrested in the immediate aftermath of the Glasgow attack, reportedly jumping out of the burning Jeep to attack a police officer. Asha was arrested at a roadblock some time later. Both are scheduled for trial in October this year.

Continue reading ‘Bilal Abdullah, Mohammed Haneef, and Mick Keelty’

You’re the minister now, Bob

Published
by
Robert Merkel
2 months, 1 week ago
in Government, Politics, Security and Terrorism
. 15 Comments

The Clarke inquiry into the Haneef affair has revealed several interesting things. Amongst them is the statement in ASIO’s unclassified submission that they participated in “whole of government” discussions of the possible threat posed by Haneef. As the statement says:

ASIO’s consistent advice to these meetings was that, based on available information, ASIO did not assess Dr Haneef as a threat to security and did not have grounds to issue an adverse security assessment. However, in the early days of the investigation, ASIO nevertheless considered that further investigation of Dr Haneef was warranted.

So even ASIO - who presumably had everything the AFP did - didn’t think Haneef was a threat. Given that, the hypothesis that the AFP has further damning, but classified, information on Haneef that justified the continued detention is looking extremely shaky.

But the most controversy, so far, has arisen due to the AFP’s refusal to release its submission to the inquiry - or even parts of it - publicly.

Continue reading ‘You’re the minister now, Bob’

“we can’t take American assurances that they do not torture detainees at face value”

Published
by
tigtog
2 months, 2 weeks ago
in Authoritarianism, Ethics, Foreign policy, Language, Politics, Security and Terrorism
. 8 Comments

Story: British MPs raise torture concerns

So some politicians have finally noticed that when one group of people define torture so that it includes waterboarding and another group defines torture so that it excludes waterboarding, then the word torture itself becomes stripped of substance in terms of the debate over the ethical and humane treatment of prisoners (let alone which techniques are actually effective at intelligence-gathering).

Took them long enough.

Waterboarding Hitchens

Published
by
tigtog
3 months ago
in Authoritarianism, Ethics, Language, Law, Politics, Security, Sociology and Terrorism
. 34 Comments

Christopher Hitchens actually had himself waterboarded by the US Military to see whether it felt like torture to him. It did.

via Pharyngula, who has links to video.

Disarmament, the Hans Blix way

Published
by
Robert Merkel
3 months, 1 week ago
in Foreign policy, International, Nuclear, Policy, Terrorism and War
. 7 Comments

You might remember that the government recently gave Gareth Evans a new job - to lead a commission on nuclear disarmament. In that context, I happened to pick up (for the trans-Pacific plane ride) little Quarterly Essay-style book on nuclear disarmament by Hans Blix, the man who spent 2002-3 being conspicuously and inconveniently correct on the topic of Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction.

In 2005-06, Blix headed a commission, supported by the Swedish Parliament, whose final report provides the most recent comprehensive summary of the issues surrounding nuclear disarmament. Given one of the commissioners was none other than Gareth himself, it would be reasonable to expect that the content reflects the general tenor of his own thinking on the topic (and, incidentally, raises the question of what else this new commission will add). It’s quite accessible and well-written, so if you’re interested in the question I’d recommend you download the report - or at least the executive summary - and have a look.

Continue reading ‘Disarmament, the Hans Blix way’

Turkish trade unionist detained as “terrorist”

Published
by
Paul Norton
3 months, 1 week ago
in Activism, Authoritarianism, Industrial Relations, International, Middle East and Terrorism
. 1 Comment

Last year I wrote that Dr. Mohamed Haneef was an Australian Dreyfus. This year, Turkish trade unionist Meryem Özsögüt is a Turkish Mohamed Haneef.

Ms. Özsögut, a member of the management board of a Turkish public sector union, has been detained for six months allegedly in connection with “being a member of a terrorist organisation” and “for making propaganda in favour of the terrorist organisation”.

More on Ms. Ozsogut’s detention can be read here. A petition to request her release can be signed here.

P.S. The PSI, to which I’ve linked, is an international federation of public sector unions whose Australian affiliates include the Community & Public Sector Union, the Australian Services Union and the Communication, Electrical & Plumbing Union.

Issues and the 2007 election

Published
by
Mark
3 months, 2 weeks ago
in Climate change, Economics, Education, Environment, Federal Elections, Foreign policy, Health, Industrial Relations, Media, Polls, Sociology, Terrorism and War
. 16 Comments

I’ve often said that the best source for public opinion research around is the Australian Election Study. Some preliminary data has been released [link to pdf] by researchers Ian McAllister and Juliet Clark, presented in graphical form. The purpose of the paper is to enable assessments of changes in public opinion over time, with some of the questions forming a time series going back to 1969. I’ve only had a cursory look at the data, but one thing I wanted to focus on was the data from the 2007 election, particularly as it relates to issue importance and party advantage on particular issues. Basically, this is much better quality data than anything you’d get from Newspoll.

A detailed analysis isn’t possible in the absence of the raw data which would enable regressions and cross-tabs, but there are some interesting patterns in the data that are presented. The first point to make, one that’s made in the current political context ably by Possum Comitatus, is that leadership is much less important to voting intention than is usually claimed in the media. Since there have been long term declines in partisanship and therefore more votes up for grabs in any particular electoral cycle, the whole concept of party “ownership” of issues becomes much more important - hence all the attention focused last year on “economic management”. I’ve previously pointed out that the question in Newspoll on that measure was actually the wrong one - at least insofar as 2007 goes - because Labor polling found that “economic management for working families” was much more important, and it’s there that their advantage lay (as the opposition now knows well, because that’s where all their attack is focused). In this context, it’s also very significant to observe the finding that a majority of voters don’t believe anything the government does has much impact on the economy - what we might term the “globalisation effect” - something very poorly understood by political commentators, I’d suggest.

Last year, industrial relations jumped from 2% of respondents nominating it as the most important economic issue in 2004 to 16% and top position. Labor enjoyed a big advantage over the Coalition - 52 to 32, intriguingly reversing a Coalition lead (when the issue was much less important) in 2004 of 37 to 27. Continue reading ‘Issues and the 2007 election’

Howard lies episode #809798?

Published
by
Kim
3 months, 3 weeks ago
in Crime, Howardia, Immigration and Terrorism
. 22 Comments

DOCUMENTS have revealed the department of former prime minister John Howard became involved in the Mohamed Haneef affair less than 48 hours after the Indian doctor was arrested in connection with a British terrorist attack last July.

Lawyers for Dr Haneef said the early involvement of the Prime Minister’s Department raised the possibility that Mr Howard may have colluded with then immigration minister Kevin Andrews to politicise the issue.

“One can have a view whether it was to Howard’s political benefit to whip up a storm like he did with Tampa,” solicitor Rod Hodgson said in Brisbane yesterday.

Indeed one can.

Mr Howard has denied any involvement in the handling of the Haneef investigation.

This highlights the fact that the Clarke enquiry lacks the power to compel witnesses to appear, and in fact that some are being examined without being on oath, and that witnesses will not be cross-examined. Will John Howard be giving evidence? And if he does, will it turn out to have all been Kevin Andrews’ idea? That was never easy to believe, and it’s getting harder.

Test for terror

Published
by
Kim
3 months, 3 weeks ago
in Elections, Europe, Media, Politics and Terrorism
. 23 Comments

There’s an intriguing by-election coming up in Great Britain where former Tory leadership contender and shadow Home Secretary David Davis has resigned his portfolio - and his seat of Haltemprice and Howden - “in order to force a by-election over the 42 day detention issue”. Legislation is currently before the House of Lords enabling terror suspects to be held without charge for that time period. Neither the Labour nor the Liberal Democrat parties are running a candidate, and Davis faces one major opponent - former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, whose candidacy was cooked up at a birthday party for Sun editor Rebekah Wade, though some also see the hand of Downing Street in his crusade. Rupert Murdoch was at the party and MacKenzie has already stated that Murdoch would be personally funding his campaign - which would be illegal because Murdoch is not a UK citizen. British politics has been thrown into turmoil as Davis proclaims that his constituents now have a chance to vote to “save Magna Carta”.

Elsewhere: Analysis from Shiraz Socialist.

Breaking news: Guantanamo Bay prisoners have civil rights

Published
by
Kim
3 months, 3 weeks ago
in Law, Politics, Terrorism, USA and War
. 105 Comments

[Via Crooks & Liars] The US Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-4 decision that detainees in Guantanamo Bay have the right of habeas corpus and can challenge their detention in civil courts.

The decision is here [pdf].

Gordon Brown triangulates like it’s 2001

Published
by
Robert Merkel
3 months, 3 weeks ago
in Europe, Howardia, Law, Security and Terrorism
. 16 Comments

One of the most striking things about the Rudd era is the virtual disappearance of terrorism as a political issue. Aside from a passing reference in his 2020 Summit introductory speech, I have barely heard the words mentioned. While this can be partly attributed to the passing of time, it’s not the only reason. Look at what’s happening in the UK, where Gordon Brown has just bribed and blackmailed a bill authorizing 42 days of detention without charge for terrorism suspects through the Commons, despite widespread rebellion from Labour backbenchers.

The details of this grubby bill, and the tortuous process of getting it through the Commons, can be read at length at the Guardian, for those interested. In short, even the police and intelligence services (who never see an additional power they don’t like) seem remarkably unenthusiastic about the idea; the head of MI5 has even publicly stated that they haven’t requested it. The odds of it actually becoming law are not particularly high, either; the Lords will likely block it, and a court challenge is highly likely (and stands a good chance of succeeding). Regardless of the idea’s merits, however, Gordon Brown thinks he’s going to get a desperately needed win with the wider British public.. The Guardian quotes a poll with 69% of the British public approving the new measures.

It’s a moderately interesting hypothetical whether similar “tough on terrorism” laws would be a political winner in Australia at the moment. I’m very, very glad that Australian Labor don’t seem interested in finding out.