I shouldn't laugh, but......

* A plague of locusts is due to hit Australia in time for the next federal election according to Bloomberg:
"Locusts are expected to hatch from August to October in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia states, according to the commission. The first-generation spring hatching alone could occur over a total area of 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres), the commission's Adriaansen said."

* One small mining company Metgasco is shooting itself in the foot. Assiduously lobbying federal government for regional infrastructure funding (which will help corporate development plans) while at the same time dissing the local MP over the new resources Super Profits Tax. Word is that Canberra is not amused.

* Someone locked a Labrador in the house - oh noes!

"MAX, the black labrador was accidentally locked inside a Daily Examiner reporter's house yesterday and decided to leave his mark in more ways than one. Not only did he wee in the master bedroom, he pooed in one of the kids' room, chewed up a nappy, raided the pantry and vomited after the debauchery."

* At least one dedicated reader of NSW State Library online offerings is threatening to cut that library card in half because it's becoming a bit of a lottery as to which webpage links actually work each day. Ah, life in rural 'n' regional Oz!

* Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata lets its slip show this month in that version of Teh Great Tax Fight:

"Mining company Xstrata Coal has revealed it will continue to buy up farmland within its Wandoan exploration lease area in Queensland despite last week suspending plans for the $6 billion project on the grounds the government's mining tax would make it uneconomic."

* Patrons at one Byron watering hole were overheard debating how long it would take a sheila to do a Corday if Tony Abbott became Australia's 27th prime minister.

* rod3000 Nothing perks you up like a 3 yr old's headbutt on the nose #wrestlemania

* The U.S. state which spawned Sarah Palin shows just how low dumb can go:

"The state of Alaska filed a lawsuit last Friday seeking to overturn the listing of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, home to the Port of Anchorage, as an endangered species."

* An oldie but a goodie from 2007 with an object lesson for Oz e-health proponents:

"An Italian woman who was mistakenly reported dead has won a yearlong battle to have her existence recognized by the government.
Pension agency INPS issued a formal apology to Maria Giuliani and reinstated her into its databank after removing her in January 2006 when another woman by the same name died, ANSA reported Thursday.
"But they only did it because the local media got hold of my case," Giuliani said of the apology.
Giuliani's removal from the databanks caused her pension rights to be revoked and she was removed from municipal and health computers.
"The first I heard about it was the following March when I went for a checkup."
"My GP fell back into his chair and said, 'But you're dead!'
"'No, I'm alive and kicking and I want to be examined,' I said. But he said he couldn't do it because officially I no longer existed."

* NSW Premier Kristina Keneally is staring down the barrel of massive electoral loss at the next state elections according to the bookies, :

"A specialist election punter from Sydney with leading bookmaker Centrebet has sounded a "death knell" for the NSW Labor government, outlaying nearly $25,000 on the Coalition at short odds to sweep to power next March! "The punter in two bets has taken just $1.15 and $1.14, with the Coalition now a red-hot $1.14 favourite to win, with Labor out to a whopping $5.35."

But she will never beat Sir Geoge Fuller's short 7 hour record as state premier.

* With all the media hoo-ha lately over Victoria Police, no-one's noticed a teeny weeny question surrounding the tale of two Garden State police commissioners having corresponded with a person convicted of serious offences.

When the Rudd Government decided that it wanted to first install and now extend ISP traffic interception, I bet it didn't factor in the possibility that some of this carefully saved info might be potentially embarrassing for future Labor governments if it 'leaked' onto the Internet.

Driver of golf buggy really blew it

NSW Police report that a man has been charged after allegedly being caught driving a golf buggy whilst intoxicated at Yamba on the state’s Far North Coast.

About 8.50pm yesterday (Friday 4 June 2010), patrolling police saw a golf buggy being driven north on Clarence Street towards the Pilot Street intersection.

It will be alleged a 51-year-old Yamba male then drove the buggy to the kerb on the road’s northern side and attempted to mount the gutter. The buggy was not equipped with head lamps, brake lights, or turn signals. The man was stopped by police and breath-tested, returning a positive reading of 0.135.

He was taken to Yamba Police Station and issued a Field Court Attendance Notice (FCAN) for drive with middle range PCA, and use unregistered vehicle on road. Police also suspended the man’s driving licence.

Source: NSW Police

Favourite word picture of 2009 and other quirks

Favourite word picture of 2009:
"just got booted out of the conference center..."
{The limp lettuce leaf in any Oz political salad, Senator Steve Fielding, tweeting at COP15}

Least favourite second incarnation on the Internetz:
The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) died years ago. This think tank had fun slogans like "American leadership is both good for America and good for the world", "a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity" and "a secure foundation on unquestioned U.S. military preeminence.
Unfortunately Kristol and Co are now up and running again at Foreign Policy Initiative which started up in 2009. The new website tells us that "The United States remains the world's indispensable nation -- indispensable to international peace, security, and stability, and indispensable to safe-guarding and advancing the ideals and principles we hold dear."

Most predictable election result:
"Preference data for the Bradfield by-election has now been published by the Australian Electoral Commission, making it possible to assess the success or otherwise of the Christian Democratic Party's tactic in nominating nine candidates for the by-election.Standing nine candidates has been costly for the CDP, as none of its candidates reached the 4% required for return of deposit or to attract public funding. In total the nine candidates received 2,524 votes or 3.58% of the vote, but 1,054 votes or 1.49% were recorded by James Whitehall who had the Number 1 position on the ballot paper and so received the donkey vote." {Antony Green's Election Blog 25th December 2009}

A quote to remember:
"As Boris said over on Stoat, "If there's something stupid to believe, there is someone on the internet who believes it." {From Rabett Run 21st December 2009}

The growing litigation pile belonga Monsanto:
"A mountain of lawsuits against Monsanto and related companies have been removed to federal court.This summer and fall, 161 lawsuits were filed in Putnam Circuit Court alleging Monsanto and related companies are responsible for causing cancer." {The West Virginia Record 23rd December 2009}

Worst OZ commercial decision of 2009:
iSnack 2.0 - nuff said!

Something for the 'Obama is the Anti-Christ' assorted nuts:
"The first family arrived on the island of Oahu and President Obama and his wife Michelle started Christmas Day with a gym workout at 6.40am, returning more than an hour later. The first couple did not exchange gifts, aides said, and did not attend church." {The Sydney Morning Herald 27th December 2009}

A little festive season hysteria:
"Police from Blacktown Local Area Command want to dispel rumours circulating on a social networking website that a man, Dennis Ferguson, is living in Doonside in Sydney’s west.The claims have been investigated by police, in consultation with the Department of Housing, and the information posted on the website is incorrect. This is a case of mistaken identity and the resident of a street in Doonside is not Dennis Ferguson as has been reported on the social networking site. Police are urging those people transmitting false information to cease immediately." {NSW Police media release 22nd December 2009}

Most disturbing statistic of the year:
"NSW Council for Civil Liberties secretary Stephen Blanks said a pattern of police shootings had emerged in the past year. Four people have been killed by NSW Police this year." {The Sydney Morning Herald 27th December 2009}
This propensity to ape a fictional vision of police machismo by using deadly force appears to have been growing steadily in recent years.
Between 1990 and 2007 87 people were shot and killed by police in Australia and the most dangerous time of day to have an aggressive confrontation with police seems to be between 4pm and 8pm.

Most likeable blog:
Still Life With Cat - Clarencegirl once told me that this was a quietly insightful, gently humorous, venom-free zone and I wholeheartedly agree!

That unwanted prediction for 2010:
"ELECTRICITY, gas, water and public transport costs will all increase in 2010, while the average grocery shop will make a bigger dent in the family budget." {The Sydney Morning Herald 27th December 2009}

Most laughable Oz politician of this any year:
Just take your pick! Abbott, Abetz, Tuckey, Minchin, Pyne, Joyce, Fielding, Keneally,............

The Arsehat of all Arsehats in 2009:
Andrew Bolt - for services to Oz's racist underbelly, the anti-science lobby and general contrariety. {See almost any post on his Herald-Sun blog}

Pic from Crikey

The information Yahoo! keeps about you

Wikileaks has published the Yahoo! COMPLIANCE GUIDE FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT which helpfully assists in identifying what information is available on its users, how to request that data storage on a particular individual be extended and how much it is willing to 'sell' this information for.

Click on image to enlarge

MySpace also has a Law Enforcement Investigators Guide, now available on Wikileaks along with Microsoft's Computer Online Forensics Evidence Extractor.

Taking Neighbourhood Watch that step too far?

Sometimes it's hard not to gasp aloud when a particular piece of local gossip comes one's way.

The latest is that a certain Neighbourhood Watch committee is tentatively considering allowing a person found guilty of criminal offences to join as a volunteer member.

A rather novel idea to say the least - stretching membership demographics so far.

I'm sure that the NSW Police Force as insurance policy holder for and active partner with Neighbourhood Watch NSW would be most impressed.

So impressed that a NSW Police Local Area Command could perhaps exercise the right to wind up any NHW group where police are satisfied that it is no longer functioning effectively?

No wonder the committee seems to feel a move like this might be explosive.

What on earth were they drinking thinking at the time?

Cartoon: Best of the Web

'Keystone' Keelty goes out on the heels of yet another bungle

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty must wonder why his last day as head of the Aussie federal police will not be remembered for praises sung in his honour, but instead for the fact that a national security breach became very public and his force was placed in the position of trying to deny that it had a surveillance plane with heat seeking technology.
It seems no-one in the AFP thought to tell Vic police that this small plane was a s-e-c-r-e-t.
Just another blunder to remind us all of the many which occurred under his watch.
Over to you, Tony Negus....

The Herald Sun has all the laughs here.

A case of the biter bit, but few are chortling over AFP intelligence fiasco

I was watching ABC Four Corners last Monday when this little comment came up:
"ANDREW FOWLER: The site was called root-you.org, and for the last two weeks the Australian Federal Police in cooperation with the South Australian Police have run the perfect sting.

TIM DAVIS, FEDERAL AGENT, HIGH TECH CRIME OPS. AFP: We've infiltrated that site and so now we've got control as well.

NEIL GAUGHAN: What we've done with that particular network is we've captured all the identities of all the people that've been using that network. We can operate in a covert activity here fairly seamlessly with no harm to our members with continual and actual significant penetration.....

ANDREW FOWLER: In the case of root-you.org, the Federal Police decided the best result was to effectively blow up the site by posting a notice that it was under law enforcement control.

TIM DAVIS, FEDERAL AGENT: Mate are you right to post that message on the forum.

MAN (on phone): Yep.

TIM DAVIS, FEDERAL AGENT: Well if you can do that now that'd be great."

I did idly wonder if there would be a cyber response and thought - "Naw, won't happen".
Then it well and truly did and F-Secure has links to this not so funny episode of counter-hacking, which was the almost inevitable result of all that televised bragging by the boys in blue (this also saw police computer files of actual bank, building society and corporate credit card details exposed to the view of at least one other hacker).

Some of the hacker chatter {A little **** covers words which offend those bluidy filters}:
"After the authorities FINALLY posted their little "ohhh, we have been monitoring this website", we finally said "Enough is enough, we are sick of these f**ks acting like they are hackers, lets see what they really know".
So After writing another FTP report yesterday.. I decided I would move on to getting control of r00t-y0u.org. See what the authorities know about server maintenance.. and how secure they can make stuff.
Lo and behold, their server was windows! I couldn't stop laughing at the sight of this, but I soon moved on. After visiting a 404 page, I instantly noticed that they were using Xampp. Those lazy f***s
can not even just install apache, and php themselves. So instead, they download some application to do it all for them.
Figures.
Now, of course.. they were just SO F***KING SMART, that they left the MYSQL password BLANK! After screwing around with their database, I dumped a vulnerable query into a php file, thus giving me full access to their servers.
After taking a look at the r00t-y0u database, lookie what we find.
User: "h1t3m" (Administrator)
Email: macrobber@gmail.com
These dipsh*ts are using an automatic digital forensics and incident response tool.
They can't do sh*t all themselves, because like I have said before, they have no skill. Anyways, after looking on their win32 machine for a while, I noticed some really awkward stuff. They have credit cards, and bank accounts all on a seperate drive (G:\)."

Four Corners transcript

Pic from Google Images

Mick Keelty: a little reminder of why he won't be missed by the ordinary punter

Mick Keelty announced that he is resigning as Australia's top cop, effective September 2009.

Let's hope he now fades into obscurity. Heaven forbid that government would offer him a consultancy or two. He was dangerous enough to the national health when he was supposedly fully accountable.

In case any Aussie company was thinking of offering this man a responsible job - a little reminder of Keelty and his inability to cope with either the job or the general public.

The Sydney Morning Herald September 2007:

"Eleven members of ABC's The Chaser have been charged and granted bail following their arrest in Sydney today.
Julian Morrow and Chas Licciardello, two of the stars of the satirical show, were among those detained by police today, after staging a fake motorcade through Sydney as part of an APEC week stunt.
They were charged under new APEC laws with entering a restricted area without justification.
The crew members were in a convoy of three cars and two motorbikes, which was reportedly ushered through two checkpoints in Sydney's APEC security zone."

* Police bungle sees Chaser charges binned

ABC News 30 January 2008:

"Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty has called for limitations on the criticism of Federal Police and government security agencies.

He had also criticised some sections of the media over its coverage of terrorism cases.
Commissioner Keelty told the Sydney Institute last night that there should be no public comment made about terrorism investigations until each matter has been finalised in court.
Commissioner Keelty says the criminal justice system should be left to operate free from ongoing public discussion.
"I understand it can be difficult to wait for the chance to freely express ourselves but I do believe to best serve the public interest and to attain the full enjoyment of all our rights we must sometimes delay that expression," he said.
He also says criticism of the AFP and other government agencies should be limited.
"We've just got to call a halt to criticising public institutions when it's the same public institutions that we rely upon to keep good governance," he said.
Journalist Hedley Thomas from The Australian won the Gold Walkley for his coverage of the Mohamed Haneef affair.
He says Commissioner Keelty's argument is contradictory.
"On the one hand he was saying that defendants and suspects deserve a much better go in the court of public opinion and that the media should treat them more kindly," he said.
"But the facts are that in the Mohamed Haneef case and others, it's been the police and security agencies and the politicians using police information that have smeared the character of the suspects before they've even been charged."

Crikey 25 March 2009:
"Keelty is remarkable in his capacity to blame others for the AFP's mistakes. After the Haneef affair, Keelty blamed everyone else  — the media (whom he proposed to prevent reporting such cases), Haneef's lawyers, Haneef himself, Scotland Yard, the DPP  — for the debacle when his own officers were the ones responsible for leaking material against Haneef, fabricating evidence and demanding he be charged without any basis. The AFP also later tried to avoid cooperating with the commission established to investigate what happened.
Not that Haneef was the only beneficiary of the AFP's particularly inept form of persecution. The false imprisonment and illegal interrogation of Izhar ul-Haque by ASIO agents  — another breach of an individual's most basic rights that has escaped appropriate redress — occurred with the concurrence and participation of the AFP.
Now there's the weekend's events at Sydney Airport.
Thankfully they were only bikies intent on attacking one of their own. Terrorists could have killed hundreds and been heading off in a Silver Service cab before Keelty's Keystone cops arrived, the only threat being those sinister chauffeurs who try to foist rental cars on you when you walk through Departures. The CCTV system wasn't even working properly."

Crime rates: who's up and who's down on the Northern Rivers

Surfing the Net this week I was greeted with a call for more police to tackle crime from Tweed Nationals MP Geoff Provest in the Far North Coaster.
At the same time The Daily Examiner had police boasting about a fall in the local crime rate and Police Minister Tony Kelly announcing a state-wide reduction in crime.
So how are we actually doing?
Well, it seems the North Coast can still preen its feathers when it comes to how we compare with the rest of NSW.
Overall we've either half the state crime rate (or are holding steady on low percentages) for robbery with any sort of weapon, stealing from a person or fraud.
Although there were low numbers of reported sexual assaults; unfortunately in the Kyogle and Richmond Valley areas sexual assaults were above the state average in 2008, with rates for all reported forms of sexual assault in the Richmond Valley at least doubling.
There were five murders last year on the North Coast (although that's one up from 2007) and our biggest incident numbers were for malicious property damage, but even that was roughly the same as last year.
And when you look at individual council areas it was obvious that malicious damage had fallen in Ballina and Coffs Harbour and assaults had fallen in the Clarence Valley and Ballina.
Break and enters did not grow last year either across the North Coast, though that doesn't lessen the shock for those who found that they'd been burgled.

The exception to this was Byron Bay - where stealing from a dwelling appears to be something of a growth industry.
As for Richmond-Tweed; its physical assault numbers were down on the previous year's figures also, but its break and enter dwelling rates were at least double the state average.
Combined with the 2008 sexual assault rate, this isn't a good look for the area.
So perhaps Geoff Provest has a case for calling on NSW Police to consider beefing up its presence there or at least reviewing local practice.
The fact remains of course that the North Coast overall crime rate hasn't really grown between 2007 and 2008.
The full gen for the whole of NSW is here.

An interesting snippet on the AFP Big Brother

Yesterday Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie wrote in The Age:

THE internet communications and websites of anti-war campaigners, environmentalists, animal rights activists and other protest groups are being secretly monitored by state and federal agencies.

A Melbourne private intelligence firm specialising in "open-source intelligence" has been engaged by Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police and the federal Attorney-General's Department to monitor and report on the protest movements' use of the internet.

Which is somewhat interesting as it was only at the beginning of this year that the Australian Federal Police granted contract number CN60721 to a Melbourne firm Global Edge Group Pty Ltd [trading as National Open Source Intelligence Centre (Australia)] for just such work worth $184,800.00.

http://www.geg.com.au/ / http://www.nosic.com.au/

So if your political or social commentary blog has a few visits from IP addresses in the range of 202.125.35.165 or 203.147.239.149, then you have possibly been visited on behalf of the powers that be in Australia.

Or perhaps you should consider yourself to be of interest if you have ever visited No Bases which was obviously on past peek list: 017 http://www.nosic.com.au/cgi-bin/iB/ikonboard.cgi 97 22 119 30-Jun-2004 21:04

Ah! The dubious joys of modern blogging - if Conroy doesn't get you then McClellan or Keelty will :-)

Graphic found at Spy Lab

Who dies from blogging? Who gets killed by Taser?

Cartoon #369 from XKCD

Now I know that The New York Times was probably the first to foster the idea that regular blogging is hazardous to health (helped along by Dr. Helen's post), but I'm willing to bet that the cartoonist at XKCD is principally responsible for the fact that at least 2, 360 mentions of people dying by blogging are currently indexed by Google. Have pencil and PC and humour will travel and travel and travel!

Unfortunately if you take the time to Google for mention of death by Taser you'll bring up around 2,870 citations and none of those are remotely funny.

This week we can add another mention or two to that score because it has been reported that NSW Police sought to conceal the fact that; "A MAN died of a heart attack after being repeatedly shot with a Taser in one of the first uses of the weapon in NSW".

Unfortunately NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipionie has seen fit to roll out a general distribution of these weapons (which have been used by specialist units since 2002) ahead of the NSW Ombudsman's report which calls for a moratorium on such weapons until an independent two-year review can be undertaken.

Scipie tells us that he was not aware that a man with serious chronic illness had been Tasered weeks before his death.
Garn! Even a police commissioner would have been aware that the vast majority of people Tasered by NSW police had to receive some form of medical treatment.

NSW Ombudsman's November 2008 report on The use of Taser weapons by New South Wales Police Force.

'Mr. Plod' of the Crime Commission gets a bollocking

"AUSTRALIAN Crime Commission chief executive Alastair Milroy says the leaking of a "secret dossier" on Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus is part of a malicious campaign to destabilise the nation's peak criminal intelligence agency."

Wrong, Alastair! The ACC is doing a good job of wrecking its own credibility without any saboteurs being involved.

But I get the feeling that your little investigation of the matter will find in favour of management and its mates.

I can see the headline now - It was a one-off!

Even though the document has internal briefing paper figuratively written all over it.

C'mon! it was written by the ACC general manager.

See what happens when John Howard's leftovers remain at the helm of an intelligence gathering agency.

Bob Debus is just discovering a similar experience to those a previous Whitlam Labor Government had to contend with during its days in office.

Pic from The Age

How convenient for Senator Conroy; media is buying the Internet sky is falling story

Net blamed as 10,000 kids turn to crime screams an article in The Age on Sunday.
An unnamed Victorian Police source said it was so in that state and never mind that there was no evidence (nor could there be) supplied to support this claim, or that named sources did not think to mention this startling fact

If this dodgy claim had any veracity it should be reflected in similar crime statistics from other states.

This would be especially true of New South Wales, which has roughly the same percentage of children under 15 years as Victoria but accounts for around 33% of all Australian internet connections .

Those NSW figures for the first quarter 2008 clearly indicate that there is not an increasing horde of juveniles turning to crime.

Over the last five years the recorded rate of juvenile involvement in crime fell in six major categories, rose in two and remained stable in the other nine.

Offence Trend Average annual percentage change
DV related assault Up 5.1%
Break and enter non-dwelling Down -5.0%
Motor vehicle theft Down -7.1%
Steal from motor vehicle Down -4.2%
Steal from retail store Down -4.1%
Steal from dwelling Down -5.1%
Steal from person Down -10.8%
Malicious damage to property Up 5.7%

Ever since the Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, announced that he was proceeding with his national ISP filtering scheme, despite the obvious technical drawbacks and censorship overtones [Full report PDF], I have been waiting for the first media story ploughing the ground ahead of the ultra-conservative senator's next move.

I suspect that The Age article will be the first of many. Most pushing the spurious claim that Conroy's censorship is all about 'protecting' the children.

Unforeseen consequences for indigenous communities from Howard/Rudd NT Intervention?

ABC News reports:
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) says there has been an increase in racial discrimination in communities since the Commonwealth Intervention was launched last year.
NAAJA and Central Australian legal group CAALAS has handed a submission to a Senate Committee Inquiry into the effectiveness of the Commonwealth intervention.
The submission described the intervention legislation and policies as inherently discriminative and says they have produced "unforseen consequences" on the ground.

Full June 2008 21 page joint submission by the NNAJA and CAALAS here.

Excerpt:
A typical example is the comment by a particular community that the "white cops are going over board" and are treating the community members as though "we’re criminals". The community members stated the problem was with the new recruits, rather than with the older police, and gave the following examples of their concerns:
· As soon as some people are seen drinking, all of the houses in the community are searched.
· Police are searching the houses without even explaining what they’re doing or finding out who owns the house or who lives in the house.
· Police have been conducting searches on houses in the community when they are in the community looking for someone on a warrant or a summons.
· When conducting searches, police have been breaking sacred items that are used for ceremonies because the police view these items only as weapons.
· Female police have been looking at sacred objects that women are not allowed to see. This is being reported back to communities, making problems for the community members in relation to witchcraft.
· Aboriginal women and their bags are being searched by male police officers.
· There have been a lot of instances in which unopened alcohol has been destroyed by the police outside the boundary of the community.
· At the local bus-stop, Aboriginal people’s bags are searched purely because they’re Aboriginal.
· Police know that taxis and mini buses are bringing alcohol into the community but taxi drivers and mini bus drivers are not being caught by the police nor having their vehicles confiscated.
· Intoxicated people are being taken into protective custody while sitting on the verandahs of their house.
· Police are refusing to give their rank number when they’re asked.

Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities
There have been 29 submissions received here. Including submissions from Amnesty International, Rio Tinto and the Minerals Council of Australia.

Crikey gives Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty a serve

Greg Barns writing in www.crikey.com.au yesterday gives Mick Keelty a well-deserved serve.

"Are there two Mick Keeltys? Last night a man calling himself Mick Keelty and claiming to be the Australian Federal Police Commissioner told a Sydney audience that he wants a black-out of all media coverage of terrorism investigations and cases. This Mr Keelty claims that police records of interviews are being leaked to the media to help the person under investigation get public sympathy. And this Mr Keelty thinks there should be a secret society of editors that he and his fellow security agency heads can brief, on an off-the-record basis, so that matters are set straight.

 

Now, let's turn to the other person who calls himself Mick Keelty and who also claims to be the nation's top cop. This is the Mick Keelty who revels in media publicity about terrorism cases, whose organisation leaks to the media and who runs a police force which wrongly accused a Gold Coast Indian doctor of terrorism offences (besmirched his name in the media in the meantime).

 

Could the real Mick Keelty please stand up? Is it the man calling for media black-outs and secret briefings, or is it the man who uses the media relentlessly to chase his quarry? The evidence suggests it's the latter."

 

"Aunty ABC" took a more measured approach which canvasses similar views.

 

"After taking sustained criticism for the Australian Federal Police's handling of the Mohamed Haneef saga, AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty has gone on the front foot to defend his organisation's handling of terrorism cases.

In a speech to the Sydney Institute last night, Mr Keelty took a swipe at media coverage of such cases, saying it is often uninformed and gives an incorrect perception that the AFP is failing in its duties.

But lawyers and journalists involved in the Mohamed Haneef case say Mr Keelty is simply shooting the messenger in what they say is a crude attempt to regain credibility for the AFP.

When Mr Keelty addressed the Sydney Institute last night, he had a few things he wanted to get off his chest.

"For most people, their sole source of knowledge regarding the AFP's counter terrorism investigations is in the mass media," he said.

"As such, it would be perfectly understandable if they mistakenly thought or held the belief that the AFP has failed the community.'-------

The Australian newspaper's Hedley Thomas won Australian journalism's highest award, the Gold Walkley, for his coverage of the Mohamed Haneef affair. He describes Mr Keelty's reasoning in the speech as strange.

"On the one hand he was saying that defendants and suspects deserve a much better go in the court of public opinion, as he described it, and that the media should treat them more kindly," he said.

"But the facts are that in the Mohamed Haneef case and others, it's been the police, the security agencies and the politicians using police information, that have smeared the character of the suspects before they have even been charged."

Dr Haneef's barrister, Stephen Keim, is equally perplexed with Mr Keelty's views about media coverage of AFP operations."

ABC News report yesterday:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/30/2149867.htm

To capsicum spray or not to capsicum spray

Is it just my imagination, or is capsicum spray being used more often these days to subdue the fractious.

There was even a case this month of NSW North Coast police letting fly with a spray in the face of one lonely, bellicose drunk. 

While the TV this week showed us all that other police patrolling the tennis were using the capsicum repellent like Aeroguard.

Whatever happened to the constables of my youth who could talk almost any situation down a level or two without blasting away.

Too many American crime shows and never-die action heroes for role models these days I guess.

Hell hath no fury like a federal police force scorned

Dr. Mohamed Haneef may have been cleared of terrorism charges and had the revocation of his work visa declared invalid by Australian courts, but he would be mad to return to Australia.

It will take more than a change in federal government to restore balance and perspective to the Australian Federal Police after a decade under far-right political masters.

It appears that the AFP is still itching to find something, anything, against this Muslim doctor.

 

"The Australian Federal Police says an investigation into former Gold Coast doctors Mohamed Haneef and Asif Ali is ongoing.

The comment comes after the Federal Government ruled out an appeal against a court decision to reinstate Dr Haneef's working visa."

ABC News yesterday:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/17/2140675.htm?section=australia

Some idle thoughts on why the Australian Federal Police Association supported a Labor win?

Within days of the federal election the Australian Federal Police Association was doing the pretty with the still to be sworn in Rudd Government.

 

"Tuesday, 27th November, 2007

The AFPA congratulates the Prime Minister elect Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party on their election victory. The AFPA has developed a close working relationship with Mr Rudd and his shadow ministry and we look forward to working with the new Government. Prior to the election we received a strong commitment from Mr Rudd to work closely with us in our efforts to ensure that the professional and personal interests of our members would be protected. Importantly, the AFPA also had a good working relationship with all major political parties and we will to continue those relationships
There are two immediate issues that impact all Australian Federal Police employees; that being Mr Rudd's commitment to merge the AFP into a larger Government agency called the Office of Homeland Security, and the AFPA's strong opposition to AWA's or any other form of secret remuneration contract in the policing environment. The AFPA has already made it clear to Mr Rudd that the independent office of constable and independent office of Commissioner is paramount within any future Homeland Security model. At a more general level Mr Rudd has formally announced that he will increase Federal Policing resources and abolish WorkChoices in its current form."

Australian Federal Police Association statement & letter to Arch Bevis:

http://www.afpa.org.au/read/322.html

 

Given that the AFPA had been successful in subverting the Howard Government's attempt to bring its members under individual AWAs, one has to wonder if federal police were becoming rather excited at the thought that they might parley the AFP into an expanded and senior role in the mooted Office of Homeland Security.

While the idea of this new all-encompassing entity has not been received with much enthusiasm by the general public, the Rudd Government has not completely hit the idea on the head.

ABC News:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/29/2104943.htm

 

Or could it be that the Australian Federal Police was rather pleased at the thought that it would now have two ministers to approach and is hoping to play one against the other to increase its own power base.

 

It is interesting to note exactly who or what takes responsibility for the biography page of the new Minister for Home Affairs, Bob Debus.

"Date Created: Friday, 30 November 2007
Last Modified: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Authorised By: Assistant Director, APEC 2007 Security Branch
Maintainer: APEC 2007 Security Branch"
Attorney General's Department:

http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Ministers_MinisterforHomeAffairs

Amateur pyrotechnicians = dangerous nuisances

Many New Year celebrations featured FIREWORKS, but most of the fireworks were unauthorised and illegal.

Responsible individuals and organisations respect lawful directions associated with fireworks displays. In NSW this involves making application to WorkCover to conduct public displays of fireworks.

WorkCover's website provides a search facility that shows listings of notified displays. The listings enable authorities and members of the public to take appropriate action in preparation for the displays. The website is http//www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/fireworks_search.htm

In addition to the nuisance factor associated with illegal fireworks, the far more important factor of PUBLIC SAFETY need addressing.

Unauthorised and illegal fireworks should not be tolerated. Contact POLICE, LOCAL COUNCIL and WORKCOVER to report incidents of such activities.
Authorised fireworks displays between 01-Nov-2007 and 31-Jan-2008 were registered with WorkCover. The list isn't very long, so obviously most fireworks are unauthorised and illegal.