MUGABE AND SHARON – BIRDS OF A FEATHER?

by Jeremy Lee
The war drums are beating louder. It is now clear that Sharon intends to permanently re-occupy the West Bank and Gaza. The building of the concrete wall between Israel and the Territories has already started. What, then, of the hundreds of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Territories? Over 140 of these have been built – and are still being built – against all international opinion and the terms of the Oslo Accords. Over 200,000 Israelis live in fortified encampments, linked to each other and to Israel proper by fortified concrete roads. The Palestinians, balkanized by this network, live huddled in refugee townships without cohesion or economic viability. Are these settlements, which will lie outside the new wall of exclusion, to be abandoned? It is highly doubtful.

As we have shown in the June New Times Survey, the new settlements still being built are heavily subsidized and still gathering new settlers. What then is the new wall going to achieve? It appears to be Sharon's intention to sever any connection between Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories and those still resident in Israel with citizenship, even if second-class. Once the wall is built, the slightest resistance from the territories will be met with the 'scorched-earth' destruction seen in Jenin; the obliteration of the whole infrastructure, schools, hospitals, telephones, water, power, commerce, sewerage, garbage disposal, etc. – essential for the most primitive type of existence. Without a roof over their heads it is expected that the population will be forced into Jordan, which Sharon and some of his cronies have always claimed, against all the evidence, is the only legitimate Palestine. Sharon is intent on reversing the very few steps that have been made towards the idea that the West Bank and Gaza should become a Palestinian State.

BUSH BACKING AWAY
President Bush, whose Middle East policy has been a series of back-downs, has at times given an indication that a Palestinian State must be one of the ingredients of a future peace, if such is to be. But any declaration in that direction is immediately knocked on the head by the pro-Israel bridgehead in his own administration, led fiercely and implacably by Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and chairman of the Defence Policy Board Richard Perle. Both are Zionists.
It is incredible that the US could claim any sort of mediator role between two warring parties when its own policy initiatives are designed by one of the antagonists. So George Bush dithers between what he knows privately should happen and what the foreign war-lords in his administration, with their incredible lobby and media machine reinforcing them, and their enormous financial control of Congress adding to their fire-power, demand of him. As Sharon blurted out in the Knesset towards the end of last year, "Don't worry about America! We control America!" It's happening before our eyes.

TARGET IRAQ
The same duo – Wolfowitz and Perle – are at the forefront of the escalating demand for Saddam Hussein's blood. To date there is no evidence of Iraq's complicity in the events of last September 11th in America. There is plenty of evidence that most of those involved were from Saudi Arabia. But the Saudis are not targets for attack. Their oil, and the bases they have provided for American troops have given Saudi Arabia temporary immunity. There now seems little doubt of two developments over the next few months – the re-occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel and a race between the obliteration of its people and the ability of the suicide bombers to maintain their ghastly and tragic programme of attrition; and the invasion of Iraq, whether or not the rest of the world continues in its reluctant support of the US-designed "war against terror". If there is any crumb of comfort it lies in the fact that more and more are getting the picture. But it's one thing to know what's coming; it's quite another to breech the Israel/US nexus that is carrying us all inexorably towards global war and the possibility of nuclear reprisals.

ISRAELI AID TO ZIMBABWE

In Zimbabwe a megalomaniac in the form of Robert Mugabe is intent on reducing his own people to the level of the unfortunate Palestinians in Jenin. Forty percent of the population have AIDS. There is 60 percent unemployment. Compounded by drought, the destruction of white farming, the main provider of the staple diet in Zimbabwe, has been rendered impotent. With its cupboard bare, Zimbabwe is now entirely dependent on food imports. The people, with the knowledge that the recent election was rigged, show signs they have suffered enough. But Mugabe and his thugs don't intend to relinquish control.

The Zimbabwe Standard (12/5/02) reported: "In its ongoing efforts to silence its opponents, the government has acquired state-of-the-art military equipment and anti-riot gear to help crush anti-government demonstrations. Investigations by The Standard revealed that heavy riot control equipment has been purchased from Israel, a country traditionally denigrated by the ZANY PF government as a repressive Zionist regime and 'puppet' of the United States. The equipment has already arrived in Zimbabwe and includes customized anti-riot tankers, gas-masks and microscopic 'laser-guns', similar to those used by Israeli forces against the Palestinian protesters. The tankers, called Riot Control Vehicle model RCU 4500I, were supplied by the Beit Alfa Trailer Company and have been undergoing tests at the Police Support Unit Headquarters in the capital.
The anti-riot vehicles include the latest in water cannon technology based on an advanced computer-controlled jet pulse system. Highly accurate pulse firing can be done in three different modes – short pulse, long pulse and continuous stream. The water is shot up to 500 metres. The command control panel allows the operator to mix additives like scorching tear gas, pepper spray or dye to the water 'according to operational needs'. They are also equipped with surveillance cameras.

When The Standard visited Harare's Support Unite base, police officers were being trained in the use of the lethal cannons, under the watchful eye of an Israeli expert .... The deal to buy the anti-riot equipment was mooted last year when police sought authority from treasury to make a $105 million down payment to Israel's Beit Alfa Trailer Company, for the purchase of the arms to the tune of $1 billion. BAT is one of the world's leading manufacturers of riot control vehicles. However, the deal almost collapsed when the police experienced difficulty securing foreign currency to pay for the equipment. Frantic efforts by the police, including a trip to Israel by police deputy commissioner, Godwin Matanga, just before the presidential election, resulted in the deal being resuscitated ...."

(Three senior Standard personnel, including the editor, Bornwell Chakaodza, were arrested and held for reporting that story. Our acknowledgement to The Aida Parker Newsletter, PO Box 91059, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa, for this news item.)

THREATENING FREE CONSCIENCE

The Howard Government has come up with the most bizarre response to the International Criminal Court (ICC). It has designed a 'set of conditions' to be attached to its ratification of the Treaty. Australia will decide, it says, the conditions that will apply to Court action when applied to Australian citizens. Furthermore, no Australian serviceman fighting anywhere in the world will be liable for charges by the Court. The Government MUST know, surely, that such conditions will be illegal under international law. Do we really imagine that we will be the only nation among the scores that have ratified the Treaty that will be allowed to make qualifications as to how it will affect us?
But it has been enough to cow the back-benchers who had reservations into silence.

The most telling ploy by Howard in the growing dissent against a number of Bills, from the infamous "anti-terrorism" legislation to the excision of Australia's borders for refugee purposes has been the threat of a "double-dissolution". The threat is enough to quell the heart of any trouble-maker. Not only does each member have to face the possible shortening of his $100,000 a year salary (plus perks), he must consider the possible "missing out" or, at the very least, reduction of his life pension. He must remain in Parliament for 18 years to qualify for his full salary for life. His pension drops pro rata for every year he serves under this figure. The longer he can stay in Parliament with a clean nose, not rocking the boat, and doing what the Party Whip says, the better his chances of life-long benefits.

This will only change when a minority of voters rebel against such parliamentary subservience. When electors start voting honestly themselves, they will begin to receive honest voting in Parliament. When politicians know that dishonest self-serving is being watched, and will result in a drop in their vote at home, we will have a few more parliamentary heroes and statesmen. The Senate and minor parties are beginning to create the first cracks in major party blackmail.

The Democrats are still suffering from former leader Meg Lees' flirtation with 'major-party-politics' over the GST. She knew that millions of Australians were against it. But she sacheed onto the dance floor with the desire to be a power-broker instead of an independent representative. She was putty in the hands of Howard and Costello.

Whatever else is said about Green Senator Bob Brown, he looks at this stage a little more resistant to seduction by the major parties; as does Senator Len Harris. We don't seen to have heard much from Bob Katter and his two fellow independents in recent times. They could be doing much more to make a few waves. At the moment a cynical John Howard is playing all the blowfies with ease. His motto? "If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive!"

"I HAVE A VISION!"

by Betty Luks
Remember 'iron bar' Tuckey announcing the Liberal's plan ("I have a vision...,") to 'improve service deliveries to local communities' the Liberals plan to bypass State Governments and set up Local Governments to 'run police forces, hospitals and schools'? At the time, Tuckey said the "Federal Government was willing to bypass the States ..." In fact, one unnamed source was quoted as saying: "What do state governments do anyway?" ("Howard's plan gives councils wider powers" Sunday Mail, May 5th, 2002.)

In the light of the above we thought the following snippet would be of interest:
"The present financial agreement between the Commonwealth and State Governments must be replaced with a new three part agreement including local government." The speaker "called for arrangements which would make Local Government an equal partner in the Australian Federal system." In fact, "the Commonwealth should make direct revenue grants to Local Government – but on a regional basis."

Who said that? When? The speaker was none other than old Fabius Maximus himself – Fabian Socialist Gough Whitlam. When did he say it? He opened a symposium on outer suburban development at La Trobe University, November 30th, 1970. The League's On Target reported the event on December 4th, 1970!

The (contemptible) Liberals have now completed their turnaround. But try as I might, I can't quite picture little Johnny as the new Fabius Maximus – maybe Fabius Minimus, or 'fabius minimouse'? However one pictures him, the fact is he has utterly rejected the original Liberal Party's stated beliefs of 1949 and should not claim to be a Liberal.

EMINENT RESEARCHER AND AUTHOR DEAD

http://trineday.com/sutton-memorial/
June 17th, 2002, a sad day for one and all. The news has reached us of the passing of Antony Sutton, well known to Australian readers as the author of such books as "National Suicide", "Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution", "Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler" and "The Two Faces of George Bush". Antony Sutton was a technology researcher and journalist and it is said he stumbled across some strange happenings whilst at the Hoover Institute studying the Soviet Union's technological capabilities.

He learnt there were high "unofficial" technological exchanges, and the Soviets had western technology that officially they "didn't have" and the fact that much of the Russian armaments used by the North Vietnamese against American soldiers in Vietnam, were built with help from the West. He kept following the trail. He wrote his explosive Wall Street series and then came the packet about Skull and Bones. He wrote a series of small books about Skull and Bones, he couldn't get them printed in America, so they were printed in Australia by Veritas Publishing Company: "An Introduction to the Order", "The Order", "How the Order Controls Education" and "How the Order Creates War & Revolution".

Sutton's real intention for writing such books
He explained his intention was, "To generate an exploration of Hegelian influence in modern America... In great part, this can be attributed to an educational system based on a statist-Hegelian philosophy, and which has already achieved the dumbing down of America. This disastrous, destructive philosophy, the source of both Naziism and Marxism, has infected and corrupted our constitutional republic. Much of the blame for this corruption is with an elitist group of Yalie Bonesmen. Their symbol of Skull and Bones and their Hegelian philosophy, say it all, although, with typical duplicity, they would have you believe otherwise.

Hegelianism glorifies the State, the vehicle for the dissemination of statist and materialist ideas and policies in education, science, politics and economics.

His American friends wrote on the passing of Antony Sutton: "As a tribute to Tony, please let us begin to understand the reality of our situation and the Hegelian ploys used to keep our republic in chains of ignorance, greed and imbalance. 'Tis a sad day, but we who live by our actions may change the world for our children and their children. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country."

Vale Antony Sutton.

WE BELIEVE

The following is a portion of a public statement signed by 69 prominent Americans including authors William Blum, Noam Chomsky, Edward Said and also the Rev. George Webber, President Emeritus, NY Theological Seminary. A shortened version of the statement appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, June 17th, 2002.

"In our name, the Government has brought down a pall of repression over society. The President's spokesperson warns people to 'watch what they say'. Dissident artists, intellectuals and professors find their views distorted, criticised and suppressed. The so-called 'Patriotic Act' gives police sweeping new powers of search and seizure, supervised, if at all, by secret proceedings before secret courts. Groups are declared 'terrorist' at the stroke of a presidential pen. There is a deadly trajectory to the events of the past months that must be seen for what it is and resisted. Too many times in history people have waited until it was too late to resist.

Bush has declared: 'You're either with us or against us.' Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people. We refuse to be party to these wars, and we repudiate any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare. We extend a hand to those around the world suffering from these policies; we will show our solidarity in word and deed. We who sign this statement call on all Americans to join together to rise to this challenge. We applaud and support the questioning and protest now going on, even as we recognize the need for much, much more to stop this juggernaut. We draw inspiration from the Israeli reservists who, at great personal risk, declare; 'there is a limit', and refuse to serve in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Let us not allow the watching world to despair of our silence and our failure to act. Instead let the world hear our pledge: we will resist the machinery of war and repression and rally others to do everything possible to stop it."
Can we hear many, many Australians shouting in agreement: "And so say all of us!"

AND WATER : AMERICANS ARE FIGHTING BACK – ARE WE?

Article taken from: American Free Press, Washington DC, by Jack Ross
"The European Union has asked the US Trade Representative to allow Europeans to compete for public works projects provided by the federal government, most notably with the postal service and with the 'market' for water. This appeal is based on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which is meant to fill the void in most free trade agreements that mostly cover trade in goods. While most business leaders scoff at the idea that the international free trade regime threatens government trusts anywhere, there is ample reason for concern. It is mandated under GATS that foreign corporations be treated at least as well as any domestic entity. This is foreign money interests sabotaging the general welfare.

Unlike most other public works provided by the United States, the postal service is spelled out in the Constitution. Ceding it to foreign corporations would be tantamount to treason. This appeal by the EU comes with the renewal of a longstanding demand that the United States allow foreign-owned ships to ferry certain lucrative cargo between US ports. The law currently requires all such ships to be built, owned and operated by Americans, and the preservation of this law has always been achieved by a coalition of business and labor. The suggestion that the postal service sell itself to European business interests is certain to face even greater opposition. The postmaster general and the American Postal Workers Union are opposing the EU demands.

But most devastating is the attempt by these same European business interests to claim supremacy over the United States' water supply.
Fierce opposition
In six states – Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin – proposals by foreign bottling companies to pump huge amounts of water from rural areas, have been met by fierce local opposition. The most notable case is in Michigan, where Perrier is vying for the right to dry up Michigan's aquifers. Two facts make the water situation far more ominous: First, a recent article in Business Week claims water to be "the oil of the 21st century". In other words, water, the source of all life, will be of the same lofty status among commodities and carry the very same geopolitical significance that oil does today. Second, already, almost all of the world's water supply under private ownership is owned by two European corporations – Suez, which owns Perrier, and Vivendi, which is owned by the Carlyle Group, the notorious global corporate juggernaut. It is therefore of the utmost importance that all requests made under GATS are given full transparency and are heard before elected representatives.

THE ICC SODANO'S CHILD

from website Christian Order, United Kingdom
"Now that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has become a reality with the ratification of the ICC statute by more than the required 60 nations, it would be well to remember the support given to the birth of this monster by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State.

Back in 1998 Fides news agency reported: "The nations of the world have agreed to set up an International Criminal Court to judge war crimes and crimes against humanity. After a Conference attended by representatives of 160 countries, including the Holy See, 120 states signed the agreement on Friday, July 17th." It was this agreement, the Rome Statute, that has since been ratified by more than 60 countries, giving rise to the ICC as a functioning reality.

Court will comprise 18 judges with a nine-year mandate
Back then, Fides noted: "The Court comprising at least 18 judges, experts in criminal and international law, each with a nine year mandate and all of different nations, will have an independent prosecutor who can open an investigation or prosecution on his or her own initiative.... The agreement was reached only after a hard struggle. At one point there was opposition from the five member nations of the UN Security Council. There was disagreement about the scope and jurisdiction for three core crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes..."

These disagreements were well-founded, because the ICC, like all bureaucracies, will inevitably seek to expand its power and authority to try citizens of all nations for an ever-expanding list of "crimes against humanity".
Fides continues: "The Pope, on the eve of the (1998) Conference, expressed the Church's support for the setting up of a Court to defend the inalienable rights of the human person. Archbishop Renato Martino, Holy See Permanent Observer to the United Nations, said the Court's governing mandate, the Statute of Rome, 'is not perfect but was the best we could do, given the circumstances'."

Martino works for Sodano, and the Pope's expression of support for the ICC was no doubt drafted by Sodano's apparatus. Notice that Martino says that the ICC statute was the best that 'we' can do – meaning that the Vatican apparatus was directly involved in the creation of the monster, rather than opposing it. "Positive for Martino, is the exclusion of the death penalty among the sentences open to the Court, as requested by the Holy See. The Vatican had hoped that other crimes such as trafficking of drugs or arms would be included: this is still possible. "

Incredibly enough, "the Holy See" – meaning Cardinal Sodano – was seeking to add to the list of crimes subject to ICC jurisdiction even before the ICC got off the ground! What sort of madness is this?

The Fides report notes further
"The Holy See had also expressed doubts about the term 'enforced pregnancy'. In its final statement the Conference defined the term, listed under Crimes against humanity as follows: (f) 'Forced pregnancy' means the unlawful confinement, of a woman forcibly made pregnant, with the intent of affecting the ethnic composition of any population or carrying out other grave violations of international law. This definition shall not in any way be interpreted as affecting national laws relating to pregnancy." That's what the definition says now, but as we know from bitter experience, definitions are very elastic and changeable things in the hands of secular courts. What happened to the natural right to be judged by one's peers?

The real question is why the Vatican would lend its support to the creation of an international super-court from whose judgments there will be no appeal – a court composed of judges who despise the Catholic Church and hate the West. What happened to the natural right to be judged by an impartial tribunal of one's peers, as opposed to one's religious and ideological enemies? How can the Vatican apparatus be so naïve as to think that this "international", non-Christian court will be anything but a threat to the rights of Catholics – a supra-national version of the same godless judiciaries which have imposed a regime of abortion on demand and which persecute pro-life demonstrators as if they were criminals?

When the ICC court begins to encroach upon the rights of Catholics, when 'cases' calling for the indictment of the Pope and the bishops are lodged with this godless tribunal, remember one of the many Doctor Frankensteins who helped bring the monster to life: the Vatican's own Cardinal Angelo Sodano."

ACTION STATIONS

ADELAIDE CONSERVATIVE SPEAKERS' CLUB

The next meeting will be held on Monday, July 1st. Guest speaker will be Mr. Evan Trousse, of CIR for South Australia. Venue is the Public Schools' Club, 207 East Terrace (cnr. Carrington) Adelaide. Dinner from 6.30pm with the address following on at 7.30pm. All bookings must be made by Thursday, June 27th. Phone: 8395 9826.

Evan will discuss the "Peter Lewis Compact for Good Government", an agreement negotiated and ratified by Peter Lewis and the present Labor Government in South Australia. It is stated: The aim of this Compact is to provide for stable, open and accountable government, which works productively for the people of South Australia. Among the aims are the following: Improving the democratic operation of Parliament. The Government undertaking to, within six months of the commencement of the 50th Parliament; Facilitate Constitutional and Parliamentary reform by establishing a South Australian Constitutional Convention to conduct a review of the Constitution and Parliament and to report to Parliament by 30th June 2003 on the issues set out in the Annexure hereto including: Citizens Initiated Referenda Reducing the number of Parliamentarians Constituting the Legislative Council as a House of Review Ensuring the independence of certain public offices This Compact and the proposed Constitutional Convention should be of interest to all South Australians!

Make every effort to hear Evan outline what needs to be done so that South Australians have Citizens Initiated Referenda firmly embedded in their political and legal systems.

UKSA VOLUNTEERS WANTED

UKSA's ANNUAL DINNER IN MELBOURNE