It won't be long before the show trial of the century will be staged in New York.

Yes folks, the creature from the dark side; the most evil man on the planet; America's nemesis .... no, not Usama ..... but the one & only Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Hollywood can't wait.  

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A lingering technical question about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks still haunts some, and it has political implications: How did 200,000 tons of steel disintegrate and drop in 11 seconds? A thousand architects and engineers want to know, and are calling on Congress to order a new investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7 at the World Trade Center.

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Here's a story of two countries from the Middle East. One is an ancient civilization with a rich history that goes back five thousand years.

It's a functioning democracy with free elections held at regular intervals. It's a huge country of 70 million people. It has remained within its borders & hasn't attacked any country in the last 100 years. It is pursuing a nuclear power programme, which it insists is for peaceful purposes.

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from Crikey .....

Whatever the question, Labor's answer is ASIO

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

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If someone flew an airplane into a building full of people to protest the Afghan war, it would be called a terrorist incident. However, when Mr. Joe Stack flew his plane into an IRS building and killed people, the news media calls it "the accident," and "the incident." The local Texas prosecutor and even the White House claimed specifically that Mr. Stack was not a terrorist.

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from Crikey .....

Garrett fingered over dodgy solar panels, but story 'a beat up'

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No American leader has done more to advance a clean energy future than President Obama. Nor has any American president done more to invoke a mandate for stricter workplace safety and environmental regulations.

And yet, ever since President Obama ?rst visited my native southern Illinois coal?elds in 1997 on a golf outing with a fellow state legislator, he has seemingly failed to grasp the staggering human and environmental toll of coal mining and coal burning on our coalfield communities-and ultimately, the nation.

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Let me put American life in the Age of Terror into some kind of context, and then tell me you're not ready to get on the nearest plane heading anywhere, even toward Yemen.

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Today, any who fight against or resist the invasion of the United States armed forces, whether in occupied territory or not, and even when they are defending their own homes and families, are called insurgents. But given the proper definition above, do these "insurgents" really exist?

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from Crikey .....

Tony Abbott tells us why Peter Garrett should resign his portfolio:

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Religious right leaders are making a concerted push to gain thousands of new signatures for their "Manhattan Declaration," a manifesto released late last year by about 150 conservative Christian leaders.

The document, signed by such religious-right heavy-hitters as Focus on the Family eminence James Dobson and Prison Fellowship Ministries leader Chuck Colson, compares pro-choice advocates to eugenicists (and implicitly to Nazis) and equates same-sex marriage with polygamy and a gateway to legalized incest. Its authors promise to defy any law that does not comport with their religious beliefs.

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from Crikey .....

A quarter-billion dollar rort and the media plays dead. Wonder why?

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

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The director of US national intelligence told the House Intelligence Committee the government has the right to kill Americans abroad.

Assassinating Americans is just as illegal as assassinating non-Americans.

The leap here is not to victims of a different citizenship but to the legalization of murder.

http://www.alternet.org/story/145556/top_10_problems_with_america_killing_its_own_citizens

Is it finally light at the end of the Afghan tunnel, or an oncoming express train?

Total confusion erupted last week as the US, NATO, the UN and the Kabul government all issued differing views on new plans to end the nine year Afghan war by bombarding Taliban with tens of millions in cash instead of precision bombs.

One thing is clear: the US and its NATO allies are losing the war in Afghanistan in spite of their fearsome arsenal of high-tech weapons and war chests of billions of dollars.

Lightly-armed Pashtun tribesmen are living up to their legendary reputation of making Afghanistan the graveyard of empires.

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Tony Blair was heckled today as he refused to express any regret for the Iraq war and insisted Britain would ultimately be able to look back on the conflict with 'immense pride'. 

There were cries of consternation from witnesses watching the official inquiry into the conflict as the former prime minister rejected the chance to note his sorrow at the loss of British lives.

Chairman Sir John Chilcot had to tell audience members to be quiet during Mr Blair's closing comments, in which he insisted he stood by his actions in the run-up to the 2003 war, despite the 179 British troops killed in the conflict.

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If you are in the UK the street surveillance is out of hand, does government really need a camera on every corner. The UK recently started a program enlisting covert human intelligence sources.

Children as young as eight have been recruited by councils to "snoop" on their neighbours and report petty offences such as littering, the UK Daily Telegraph disclosed.

The "covert human intelligence sources", as some local authorities describe them, are also being asked to pass on the names of neighbors they believe to be responsible, or take down their number-plates.

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Cricket Australia's decision to nominate John Howard as its candidate for the top job at the International Cricket Council is as pitiful as it is disrespectful. Howard's knowledge of cricket is more characterised by enthusiasm than depth or imagination. Plain and simple, he is not qualified for the job. Moreover, the way in which he has been plucked from the sidelines shows CA in the worst possible light.

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When President Barack Obama took office last year, he promised to "restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great." Toward that end, the president issued an executive order declaring that the extra-constitutional prison camp at Guantánamo Naval Base "shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order."

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Media images appear to be prime motivation this week in a collective, mobilized response underscored by Western guilt. Bombarded with dust-covered corpses, blood and broken bones, and bodies rotting in the hot sun, millions around the world have donated their money to various relief organizations in support of Haiti. The United States has even organized a text message campaign which allows cell phone users to donate as little as ten dollars by texting the word "Haiti" to a central national phone line.

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Over the course of his first year in office, Barack Obama has shown himself to be a skillful and savvy politician, saying the things Americans want to hear while stealthily and inexorably moving forward the government's agenda of centralized power. For example, in one breath, Obama pays lip service to the need for greater transparency in government, while in another, he issues an executive order that will result in even more government secrecy.

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