rootProbiscus
rootProbiscus's JournalThai singer Tom Dundee jailed for 7½ years for offending monarchy
Source: Australian ABC
A Thai country singer who takes his nickname from Australia's Crocodile Dundee has been jailed for seven years for insulting the monarchy.
Thanat Thanawatcharanon is better known by his stage name - Tom Dundee - inspired by the cheeky tough-guy character played by Paul Hogan in the 1986 film.
Tom Dundee was arrested two years ago for a speech he made to the so-called Red Shirt side of Thai politics. It is not clear what he said and Thailand's strict lese majeste laws would likely prevent it being repeated. Mr Thanat, 58, has been in custody since his arrest and denied insulting the monarchy. But this week he confessed and was sentenced to 7.5 years in jail.
Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-01/thai-singer-tom-dundee-jailed-for-offending-monarchy/7468828
And these are the good guys!!
Malcolm Turnbull replaces Tony Abbott as Australian Prime Minister
Source: The Age
Malcolm Turnbull will become Australia's 29th prime minister after beating Tony Abbott in a dramatic leadership ballot in Canberra on Monday night.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-defeats-tony-abbott-in-liberal-leadership-spill-to-become-prime-minister-20150914-gjmhiu.html
Liberals weigh up leadership options as Prime Minister Tony Abbott faces criticism
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Nervous Liberal MPs have begun discussing alternative leadership options, and the pros and cons of switching to either Foreign Minister Julie Bishop or former leader Malcolm Turnbull are now being "actively" considered.
Fairfax Media has been told worried backbench MPs have been phoning each other in a state of agitation over the government's continuing woes.
The development is a dangerous one for Prime Minister Tony Abbott and comes as Cabinet figures closed ranks around him on Thursday in the wake of the Australia Day "knightmare" fiasco in which an Australian knighthood was awarded to Prince Philip, the Queen's husband.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/liberals-weigh-up-leadership-options-as-prime-minister-tony-abbott-faces-criticism-20150129-131f0o.html
The fat lady is not yet singing but she seems to be out the back tuning up.
Of course the metadata from the phone calls between these backbench MPs will already be in the NSA/ASIO/MI6 hands, and we know they will not abuse it??!!
Malcolm Turnbull, one contender, defended an MI6? agent Peter Wright in the spycatcher case decades ago. He really needs asking did he do it just for the money or will he be calling the dogs off Julian Assange?
Germany says rebels used Ukranian missile to down MH17 passenger plane
Source: The Age
Germany's intelligence service believes Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by pro-Russian rebels using a missile taken from a Ukraine military base, a German newspaper has reported.
The finding contradicts previous claims – including by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and US Secretary of State John Kerry – that the missile was supplied by Russia.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/prorussian-rebels-using-seized-ukrainian-missile-downed-mh17-passenger-plane-says-germany-20141020-118i9u.html
The raw prawn: Marty Natalegawa takes swipe at Tony Abbott over prawn spying claim
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Dr Natalegawa said he had “come across a statement” by the Australian government on the matter “and the reference that Australia collects intelligence to save Australian lives, to save the lives of other people and to promote Australian values". “Those are well understood … but … I find it a bit mind boggling, a little bit difficult, how I can connect or reconcile discussions about shrimps and how they impact on Australian security,” Dr Natalegawa said.
His comment was a clear reference to Prime Minister Tony Abbott's statement on ABC Radio a few hours earlier, when he said: “We don't collect intelligence for commercial purposes – we collect intelligence to save Australian lives, to save the lives of other people, to promote Australian values, to promote the universal values of humanity and to help our friends and neighbours, including Indonesia."
Dr Natalegawa said the talks which had been the subject of spying had involved “a very technical, bilateral, US-Indonesia issue”. “To suggest as if the future of shrimp exports by Indonesia to the United States has an impact on Australian security is a little bit much and begs some kind of serious question about what it's all about.” He added, as Mr Kerry looked on, that neighbours such as Australia and Indonesia should “be looking out for each other, not turning against one an other; we should be listening to each other, not listening in”.
Mr Kerry, who has spent two days in Indonesia as part of a tour of Asia, said he understood “completely” and respected Dr Natalegawa's comments, adding the spying revelations of Edward Snowden and their effect on international relations were “a challenge for all of us”. “We take this issue very seriously, which is why President Obama laid out a series of concrete and substantial reforms,” Mr Kerry said. “The United States doesn't collect intelligence for the competitive advantage of US companies, or US commercial sectors.” New reforms enacted since the Snowden revelations should ensure “transparency and accountability”.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/the-raw-prawn-marty-natalegawa-takes-swipe-at-tony-abbott-over-prawn-spying-claim-20140217-32wgq.html
No comment. I await the release on the Trans-Pacific Treaty, the one forcing all of Asia to accept unlimited, non-ending intellectual property rights. It will be a doozy.
Telstra's data 'vacuum' - records and store ALL conversations & data
Source: The Age
Australia's leading telecommunications company, Telstra, has installed highly advanced surveillance systems to "vacuum" the telephone calls, texts, social media messages and internet metadata of millions of Australians so that information can be filtered and given to intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
The Australian government's electronic espionage agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, is using the same technology to harvest data flows carried by undersea fibre-optic cables in and out of Australia.
Gigamon's hardware enables telecommunications and IT network administrators to track, inspect and analyse all data flows undetected without affecting the performance of networks.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/telstras-data-vacuum-20131205-2yucb.html
Note the "given to intelligence and law enforcement agencies" with no qualifiers regarding countries - 100% to the NSA
The mother of all bailouts
Source: The Age
Anybody keen for a loan of $380 billion at, let’s say, an interest rate of 3.4 per cent? Sounds nice eh? Well, you the taxpayer are in the process of actually making such a loan. Or at least you will soon extend, most kindly if as yet unwittingly, such a credit facility to the big banks, to be used at any time, at their discretion.
To put this in perspective, bank loans to small businesses now average 8.45 per cent. Secured by the businessperson’s residential property they are priced at 7.6 per cent. The average mortgage holder is forking out 5.65 per cent fully discounted.
Yet the biggest businesses in Australia – CBA, Westpac, National Australia and ANZ – will be able to trot down to the Reserve Bank, lodge a bunch of their own loans – car loans if they like – and march off with billions at the bargain-basement interest rate of 3.4 per cent for 12 months or more.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/mother-of-all-bailout-funds-20130306-2fkfq.html
And the problem is fixed, economy is fine, just doing this because, eh, um, the bankers eh, um, didn't ask for it, it was the unemployed who asked for it and we're simply appeasing them, the unemployed & pensioners.
Prisoner X 'arrested over leaks to ASIO'
Source: Tha Age
Suspected Australian-Israeli spy Ben Zygier is believed to have been arrested by his employer on suspicions he had informed Australia's domestic intelligence agency of his work for Mossad, reports say.
He established a communications company in Europe for Mossad, which employed two other Australian Jews, the ABC reported.
Earlier on Monday, federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said his department did not need to review what Australia's spy agencies might have known about the case of Mr Zygier.
Read more: http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/prisoner-x-arrested-over-leaks-to-asio-20130218-2enke.html
So when is Australia going to root out the Mossad agents running Australia's spy agencies and reporting back home about Australians with Australia's interests at heart!
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