An American Federal Magistrate Judge has said that al Qaeda, the Taliban and Iran are all liable to pay up to $6 billion in damages for the 9/11 attacks in New York.

So lets get this straight.

Incredible footage by the BBC’s Ian Pannell and cameraman Darren Conway, as they were trapped in a fire fight between Assad government forces and Free Syrian Army rebels in Aleppo, Syria.

Full BBC report here

An exclusive report by journo friend, Yaara Bou Melhem, with the Free Syrian Army. Yaara has managed to gain unprecedented access to the FSA along with a rare interview with its leader, Colonel Riad al-Asaad and entry into the elaborate labyrinth of secret tunnels used by the rebels.

Here is my latest musing on Australian politics, drawn by yours truly and published online at the Window Dresser’s Arms.

The US are supposedly champions of human rights, they uphold the ideals of freedom and democracy, they are beacons of light in an otherwise dark world, they reprimand others left right and centre for committing atrocities and invade other countries to bring peace and stability. Bizarrely, these champions of human rights  are not a signatory to the International Human Rights Commission Acts. Perhaps they believe in leading by example, as is clearly shown by their actions in Afghanistan below.

The list below is merely the tip of the iceberg - the rise of the digital age has made it easier for these atrocities to be documented and used to bring the perpetrators to justice.

April 18, 2012:

Photos of US troops posing with body parts of insurgent victims are released.

Soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division were supposed to inspect the body parts to try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification. Instead they posed for photos, smiling as they held up the remains of a suicide bombers severed legs.

The same platoon later posed with the remains of three insurgents who had blown them selves up. The soldiers were grinning as they held a dead man’s hand up with the middle finger raised, before placing an unofficial platoon patch that said “Zombie Hunter” next to other body parts and photographing it. The photo below shows a US soldier grinning as another soldier places the hand of a dead insurgent on his shoulder.

March 11, 2012:

The gruesome murder of 17 innocent people, nine of whom where children, by a US soldier in Afghanistan.

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales broke into the homes of innocent Afghan families, went from room to room and woke his victims before violently murdering them in their beds and then burning some of the bodies.

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales

An Afghan man weeps over the dead bodies of Bales victims

February 21, 2012:

Burning copies of the Qur’an in Afghanistan - just another day at the office for the pride of America, the US Marines.

Hundreds of angry Afghans vented their fury over the incident as violent protests around the country broke out after reports that the US Military had burned copies of the Qur’an.

Leon Panetta, the US secretary of defence said in a statement that “These actions do not represent the views of the United States military. We honour and respect the religious practices of the Afghan people, without exception.” If this is the case, the US military have a funny way of showing it.

Burnt remains of copies of the Qur’an

February 11, 2012:

US Marines in Afghanistan embrace Nazi sentiments and pose with a Nazi SS flag. The photos were taken in 2010, but only surfaced this year.

No disciplinary action will be taken against the Scout Sniper team, because apparently there was no malicious intent.

According to Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, Calif. ” The Marines mistakenly believed the “SS” in the shape of white lightning bolts on the blue flag were a nod to sniper scouts - not members of Adolf Hitler’s special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others.”

Is Nazi iconography and memorabilia really that vague? I can’t wait until US Marines brandish a swastika, to which they will have no doubt “mistakenly believed” to be an ancient Buddhist Sun sign.

Unfortunately the actions of US Marines resonate more with Nazi sentiments than that of anything remotely Buddhist.

US Soldiers pose with a Nazi SS flag in Afghanistan.

January 11, 2012:

US Marines urinate on dead Taliban insurgents.

Earlier this year footage of US soldiers urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban insurgents circulated the internet.

The soldiers can be heard laughing and saying “golden like a shower,” “Yeeeaaah,” and “have a great day, buddy!” as they stand over the dead bodies and relieve themselves.

The anonymous person who uploaded the video wrote “Scout sniper team 4with 3^rd battalion 2nd marines out of camp lejeune peeing on dead talibans.”

December 15, 2010:

In 2010 twelve US Marines, who referred to themselves as “Kill Team,” murdered at least three unarmed, innocent Afghan civilians, including Gul Mudin, a 15 year old boy. They collected their body parts as trophies and photographed themselves posing with the dead bodies immediately after they were murdered, grinning and lifting the head of Gul Mudin up by the hair.

Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, the ringleader of “Kill Team,” apparently used medical shears to sever several fingers from his victims and kept them as a form of human trophy collecting. Gibbs also gave one of these body parts to a fellow Marine involved in the killings, Pfc. Andrew Holmes, who kept it in a zip-lock bag and tried to dry it out in order to “keep the finger forever.”

Jeremy Morlock poses with the body of Gul Muddin immediately after the boy was killed.

Andrew Holmes poses with the body of Gul Mudin immediately after the boy was killed.

15 year old Gul Mudin, killed by U.S. Army Spc. Jeremy Morlock and Pfc. Andrew Holmes on 15 December 2010.

The following is from Wikipedia:

Staff Sergeant David Bram - Found guilty of assault, solicitation to commit premeditated murder, aggravated assault on Afghan civilians, failing to report crimes including murder, planting evidence and unlawfully discussing murder scenarios with subordinates. Bram was sentenced to five years in prison eligible for parole after serving about 3 years and four months of his five-year sentence.

Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs - The ringleader of the “kill team”, was the highest-ranking soldier in the case. He was charged with conspiracy and three counts of murder for plotting and killing three Afghan civilians. Gibbs apparently bragged of his exploits while serving in Iraq, saying how easily one could “toss a grenade at someone and kill them.” Prosecutors said Gibbs was found in possession of “finger bones, leg bones and a tooth taken from Afghan corpses.”

Gibbs was convicted by a military jury on 15 counts including the premeditated murder of Mudin, Agha and Adahdad as well as illegally cutting off pieces of their corpses and planting weapons to make the men appear as if they were Taliban fighters. In November 2011, Gibbs was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 years minus the 547 days of pretrial confinement.

Pfc. Andrew Holmes - In September 2011 Holmes pled guilty to murder and was sentenced to 7 years jail.

Sgt. Darren Jones - Faces charges that he beat up another soldier and fired at Afghan civilians who did not pose a threat to him. He was sentenced to seven months in prison and demotion to the rank of private.

Spc. Adam Kelly - Convicted of conspiring to harm the whistleblower Spc. Justin Stoner. He was sentenced to 60 days hard labor and discharged from the Army.

Pfc. Ashton A. Moore - Faced the fewest charges among the group.

Spc. Corey Moore - Pled guilty that he kicked a witness and stabbed one of the corpses. He was sentenced to 60 days hard labour and a bad conduct discharge.

Spc. Jeremy N. Morlock - Has been sentenced to 24 years in prison by a military tribunal after pleading guilty to three counts of premeditated murder, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and illegal drug use. He will be dishonourably discharged from the military.  During his hearing he was asked by Judge Lieutenant Colonel Kwasi Hawks “Were you going to shoot at (civilians) to scare them and it got out of hand?”. Morlock replied: “The plan was to kill people, sir.”

Spc. Emmitt Quintal - Given a bad-conduct discharge and sentenced to 90 days hard labour in a plea deal for frequently using drugs during his combat deployment, joining an assault on a comrade and keeping digital photos of Afghan casualties.

Staff Sergeant Robert Stevens - Pled guilty to four charges including shooting “in the direction of” two Afghan farmers for no reason. Stevens said Gibbs ordered him to shoot on the two farmers and that he regretted “not trying to stop Staff Sgt. Gibbs from trying to kill innocent people.”

Spc. Adam Winfield - Christopher Winfield, the father of platoon member Spc. Adam C. Winfield, attempted to alert the Army of the “kill team’s” existence when his son explained the situation from Afghanistan via a Facebook chat after the first killing.

Officials became alerted after an unnamed soldier reported hashish use by Morlock and Gibbs, and after reporting the incident to a sergeant, Spc. Winfield was accused of “snitching” and was physically assaulted. The assailants warned the private to stay silent, but he contacted investigators, and informed them about hash and alcohol use by members of his company, and further raising his suspicions that some of his fellow soldiers had slain civilians while on patrol.

On August 5, 2011, Winfield, charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder, pled guilty under a plea deal to involuntary manslaughter and use of an illegal controlled substance. Under the plea deal he didn’t admit to the killing of Mullah Adahdad. He claimed that he fired his automatic weapon away from Adahdad but that he did nothing to stop the murder. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Spc. Michael Wagnon - In 2011 Wagnon faced the following charges: possessing a human skull fragment, conspiracy to harm Afghans, premeditated murder, assaulting non-combatants, trying to destroy evidence. After pre-trial hearings an Army investigating officer twice recommended that prosecutors drop the charges and in February 2011, Lewis-McChord senior commander Maj. Gen. Lloyd Miles dismissed them ending the Army’s prosecution.

December 4, 2002:

Torture of innocent Afghans by US forces at Bagram Prison.

In 2002 Dilawar and Habibullah, two detainees at Bagram prison were victims of such repeated torture, that it resulted in their deaths.

Both men had been shackled by the wrists to the ceiling of their cells and both incurred repeated, violent beatings. So bad were the injuries sustained, that the coroner for Dilawar, Dr Elizabeth Rouse, said “I’ve seen similar injuries in an individual run over by a bus.” Dr Rouse testified that had Dilawar survived the torture, his legs would have had to be amputated.

Some US interrogators involved in the deaths of both Dilawar and Habibullah were then sent to Iraq, where they were assigned to Abu Ghraib prison where the torture continued.

Dilawar's mug shot from Bagram Prison, before he was tortured to death.

The following is from Wikipedia:

Habibullah

Habibullah died on December 4, 2002. Several U.S. soldiers hit the chained man with so-called “peroneal strikes,” or severe blows to the side of the leg above the knee. This incapacitates the leg by hitting the common peroneal nerve. According to the New York Times:


“By Dec. 3, Mr. Habibullah’s reputation for defiance seemed to make him an open target. [He had taken at least 9 peroneal strikes from two MPs for being "noncompliant and combative."]… When Sgt. James P. Boland saw Mr. Habibullah on Dec. 3, he was in one of the isolation cells, tethered to the ceiling by two sets of handcuffs and a chain around his waist. His body was slumped forward, held up by the chains. Sergeant Boland … had entered the cell with [Specialists Anthony M. Morden and Brian E. Cammack]…kneeing the prisoner sharply in the thigh, “maybe a couple” of times. Mr. Habibullah’s limp body swayed back and forth in the chains.”

When medics arrived, they found Habibullah dead.

Dilawar

Dilawar, who died on December 10, 2002, was a 22-year-old Afghan taxi driver and farmer who weighed 122 pounds and was described by his interpreters as neither violent nor aggressive.

When beaten, he repeatedly cried “Allah!” The outcry appears to have amused U.S. military personnel, as the act of striking him in order to provoke a scream of “Allah!” eventually “became a kind of running joke,” according to one of the MPs. “People kept showing up to give this detainee a common peroneal strike just to hear him scream out ‘Allah,’” he said.” It went on over a 24-hour period, and I would think that it was over 100 strikes.”

The Times reported that:

“On the day of his death, Dilawar had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days. ”A guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling. ”Leave him up,” one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying. Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar.”

By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen.

It would be many months before Army investigators learned a final horrific detail: Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.

There has been a movie created about the incident called Taxi to the Dark Side. In this movie they claim Dilawar was not captured driving past Bagram air base, but while driving through militia territory. He was stopped at a roadblock and given over to the U. S. Army for money reward, because the militia said he was a terrorist.

When innocent men, woman and children are killed, it is called murder, so why does this not translate onto the pages of what we read as we ingest our daily fill of mainstream media? Writes Reuben Brand.

The gruesome murder of 16 innocent people, nine of whom where children, by a US soldier in Afghanistan is the latest tragedy to hit the already war ravaged country.

Only weeks after US forces burned copies of the Qur’an, preceded by US Marines urinating on dead Taliban corpses and posing with a Nazi SS flag (the list sadly goes on) Afghanistan is rocked by yet another tragic event, perpetrated by those purporting to bring freedom and democracy to the region.

On Sunday night, a US soldier broke into the homes of innocent Afghan families, went from room to room and woke his victims before violently murdering them in their beds and then burning some of the bodies.

The grim facts of war are often hard to get acquainted with, especially when those who are doing the dirty work are supposed to be the ‘good’ guys, if there is such a thing.  Obviously a lot of the mainstream media find it hard to call a spade a spade and instead prefer to use terms like “allegedly shot” when it comes to recanting the details of such a gruesome crime committed by the so called ‘good’ guys in this deeply unpopular war.

In any other country, at any other time, a person who breaks into three separate houses late at night, stalks their victims and wakes them before brutally killing them would be labelled a mass murderer. According to the FBI, a mass murder is described as “a number of murders (four or more) occurring during the same incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders. These events typically involved a single location, where the killer murdered a number of victims in an ongoing incident.”

FOX News is a prime example of how the mainstream media frame stories to suit their political bent. One article in particular covering these events highlights the discriminations and bias within their reportage’.

Instead of using such, let’s say, evocative terms as ‘murder,’ the flagship of journalistic integrity, FOX News (did I say flagship? Apologies, I meant shipwreck) decided to go with a more subtle approach. In a desperately pathetic attempt to re-package the tragedy that unfolded in Afghanistan involving the US soldier, FOX News, the “Fair and Balanced” media outlet, published a piece highlighting the imminent threats and revenge attacks vowed by the Taliban.

The first paragraph reads, “The Taliban is vowing revenge against the U.S. after an American soldier allegedly shot and killed 16 Afghan civilians in a Sunday rampage.” The use of the term “allegedly shot,” is an interesting choice considering there are multiple eyewitnesses and the soldier is currently in custody after returning to base, post the bloody massacre. There is nothing “alleged” about it, a US soldier murdered 16 innocent Afghans. Pure and simple.

This language continues throughout the piece with the opening paragraphs brimming with vitriolic threats from those unseen foes, the very nemesis and threat to Western civilisation itself, the Taliban, who promise to “take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr.” Adding that “American savages” committed the “blood-soaked and inhumane crime.”

Quite the opening paragraph indeed and one that resembles a very poor attempt, by FOX News, at re-asserting in the minds of the audience that the Taliban is the real threat in this story. Which in turn numbs the pain for the fact that “one of ours” committed such a heinous crime.

The truth is a hard pill to swallow at times, but in this case it is clear that “American savages” did commit the “blood-soaked and inhumane crime.”

It is not until paragraph six that our friends over at FOX News reluctantly bring the perpetrator of these crimes into account and state that “The veteran American army staff sergeant allegedly left his base…” to carry out the killings. Again, the soldier only “allegedly left his base,” according to FOX News.

It is as absurd a statement as it would be for FOX News to report that “grass is allegedly green” and “water is allegedly wet,” although I wouldn’t put it past them.

To conclude, the article leaves the reader with Senator John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, reminding everyone how the 9/11 attacks originated in Afghanistan. Once again, re-stating the idea that somehow Afghanistan is the real threat in this issue. Oh, he also said how the “alleged incident” could not be explained.

Interesting to note how the violent deaths of 16 people have progressed in the piece to become nothing more than a mere “alleged incident.” Well heck, perhaps it didn’t even happen at all? Obviously the authors of this mess that has been passed off as journalism don’t want to leave a foul taste in the mouths of their readers as they wrap up their coverage.

The closing paragraph is a half-baked attempt at a distraction from the unpleasantly of the issue at hand and leaves no doubt in the minds of the reader that the Taliban are the real threat - and in true patriotic style, FOX News leaves their avid audience with this tasty morsel to ponder.

“Panjawi, the town where the alleged shootings occurred, is inside a rural Taliban stronghold, and is just south of the birthplace of the militant group’s senior leaders, including chief Mullah Omar…”

If the birthplace of Mullah Omar isn’t enough to distract the less discerning reader from the fact that a US soldier just killed 16 innocent people, I don’t know what is. Suddenly the Taliban are once again the “bad guys” and everything is back to normal.

Now if this is but a case of FOX News taking the high road and giving the soldier his legal right of being innocent until proven guilty when using such terms as “allegedly,” then why do they not afford the same courtesy to others when reporting on such issues?

In other FOX News articles we see the stark discrimination within their reportage.

“Two American soldiers were killed Thursday in a shooting by an Afghan soldier.”

Should this not read “…in an alleged shooting by an Afghan soldier”?

Or how about this, “Taliban suicide bombers armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked a large police station in northwest Pakistan early Friday, killing four officers.”

Where is our favourite word?  If FOX News were playing by the rules it would say “…allegedly killing four officers.”

All is not lost though, for apparently FOX News does use such evocative terms as ‘murder’ after all - but only when Americans have been killed, of course.

“Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is condemning what he calls the murder of two American military officers in Afghanistan’s capital.”

Such wonderful double standards.

To be fair, it is not only FOX News that succumb to their particular political bias when reporting, as it is prevalent in most mainstream media - but the way war is framed and the role the media play has been perfectly presented in these pieces of FOX News coverage - the undiscerning audience has no choice but to swallow the spin as it is laid out in the opening paragraphs and then re-enforced in the conclusion.

The taking of innocent life is a heinous crime, regardless of who commits it. The taking of innocent life is murder and in this particular case is also a war crime. These facts should not be skipped over or sanitised.

An Afghan man cries over the bodies of some of the victims of the shootings by a US soldier

A 718 page document that contains the names, addresses, phone numbers and activities of thousands of Syrian dissidents is being used as a hit list by the Syrian regime to systematically target its own citizens.

Mother Jones: “The infamy of Syria’s Mukhabarat intelligence service is well known. For the past year, reports of it rounding up and torturing Syrian activists have steadily trickled out of the country. “When they took me in, they put me face down on the floor, and started beating me with a cable on the soles of my feet, my legs and back,” a Syrian protester told Human Rights Watch last year. “They were asking, ‘Why did you go to the demonstration? Who paid you to go? Who made you go?’ They just wanted me to confess to something, did not matter what.”

US Marines: Not the sharpest tools in the shed, but I guess one only need a blunt object to bludgeon a country to death. Writes Reuben Brand.

Burning copies of the Qur’an in Afghanistan - just another day at the office for the pride of America, the US Marines.

Hundreds of angry Afghans have vented their fury as violent protests around the country continue after reports that the US Military had burned copies of the Qur’an.

Two US Soldiers were gunned down and killed on Thursday at a military base in Kandahar less than one week after two Senior US officers were killed at the Afghan Interior Ministry.

These killings really highlight the overt frustration of the Afghan people at the current occupation and puts further strain on Western relations in the region.

The US has since apologised for the inappropriate conduct towards the religious material and has called the incident “deeply unfortunate.”

Leon Panetta, the US secretary of defence said in a statement that “These actions do not represent the views of the United States military. We honour and respect the religious practices of the Afghan people, without exception.”

“We honour and respect the religious practices of the Afghan people,” an interesting statement indeed, considering earlier this year footage of US soldiers urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban insurgents circulated the internet.

The soldiers can be heard laughing and saying “golden like a shower,” “Yeeeaaah,” and “have a great day, buddy!” as they stand over the dead bodies and relieve themselves.

The anonymous person who uploaded the video wrote “Scout sniper team 4 with 3^rd battalion 2nd marines out of camp lejeune peeing on dead talibans.”

Was this the same Scout Sniper team that US Marines supposedly paid tribute to with the aid of a Nazi SS flag? But of course, this was yet another rookie mistake and in true US fashion, none of the soldiers were reprimanded due to the lack of malicious intent.

According to Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, Calif. ” The Marines mistakenly believed the “SS” in the shape of white lightning bolts on the blue flag were a nod to sniper scouts - not members of Adolf Hitler’s special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others.”

Is Nazi iconography and memorabilia really that vague? I can’t wait until US Marines brandish a swastika, to which they will have no doubt “mistakenly believed” to be an ancient Buddhist Sun sign.

Unfortunately the actions of US Marines resonate more with Nazi sentiments than that of anything remotely Buddhist.

In 2010 twelve US Marines, who referred to themselves as “Kill Team,” murdered at least three unarmed, innocent Afghan civilians, including Gul Mudin, a 15 year old boy. They collected their body parts as trophies and photographed themselves posing with the dead bodies immediately after they were murdered, grinning and lifting the head of Gul Mudin up by the hair.

Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, the ringleader of “Kill Team,” apparently used medical shears to sever several fingers from his victims and kept them as a form of human trophy collecting. Gibbs also gave one of these body parts to a fellow Marine involved in the killings, Pfc. Andrew Holmes, who kept it in a zip-lock bag and tried to dry it out in order to “keep the finger forever.”

Last week’s outrage at the burning of copies of the Qur’an happened in Bagram, a small town in the Parwan Province, notorious for all the wrong reasons. In 2002 Dilawar and Habibullah, two detainees at Bagram prison were victims of such repeated torture, that it resulted in their deaths.

Both men had been shackled by the wrists to the ceiling of their cells and both incurred repeated, violent beatings. So bad were the injuries sustained, that the coroner for Dilawar, Dr Elizabeth Rouse, said “I’ve seen similar injuries in an individual run over by a bus.” Dr Rouse testified that had Dilawar survived the torture, his legs would have had to be amputated.

Some US interrogators involved in the deaths of both Dilawar and Habibullah were then sent to Iraq, where they were assigned to Abu Ghraib prison where the torture continued.

To date direct and indirect civilian deaths caused since the beginning of the war in 2001 in Afghanistan is approximately 17,611 – 37,208 people, who all had names, faces and families.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) there are over three million refugees originating from Afghanistan, over three hundred and fifty thousand Internally Displaced Persons and the total population of concern is now over 4.4 million people.

Let’s also not forget the incessant drone strikes that plague the countryside and kill indiscriminately – “collateral damage” is the official term.

Is this the legacy that the West will leave for the people of Afghanistan? A legacy of torture, terror and abuse?

If this is how US forces plan to “win the hearts and minds” of the people of Afghanistan, then I think we all have a lot to fear.

Welcome to Australia - the lucky country, where white people live happily ever after.

A story in today’s Daily Telegraph, titled “Asylum seekers made to feel at home, thanks to a $10,000 welcome pack” really sums up the inherent racism that lurks beneath the façade of our so called multicultural society.

The article, written by Gemma Jones, is nothing more than a simplistic  list of goods that are given to asylum seekers whilst they wait for their refugee claims to be processed. The overall tone of the article acts as a device that stirs up blatantly racist sentiments within the Australian public.

It is accompanied by an image that looks like it is straight out of an interior designer magazine to really rub in the fact that these no good asylum seekers must be living the high life, whilst the rest of us struggle.

“A family of five in community detention is eligible for goods valued at $7100… Families of more than nine can receive up to $9850 in furnishings… Asylum seeker families in Sydney arrive to a hamper of bread, butter, milk, eggs, other essentials, and cleaning products. Families with a baby can access a $750 pack of basic supplies, while phone and electricity connections are also paid for,” Writes Jones.

“The assistance is on top of free doctors’ visits, dental care, pharmaceuticals, and education, and payments of up to $433.25 a fortnight,” she continues.

One doesn’t have to look too far in the comments section to see the desired reaction to such an article unfold.

Now if that isn’t enough to get racist tempers flying, the article is supported by another, which cannot really be called an article, as it is merely a tedious list of over 60 items which these “starter packs” include.

“Colander… Oven mits… Salad bowl… Dish cloth…” The list goes on - Oh the extravagance!

But wait, there’s more, another supporting article titled “Boat arrivals sink taxpayer” waits in the shadows to catch all those who may be wavering in their decision as the whether or not these asylum seekers deserve anything at all.

“This is a shambles, not a policy, and it is costing taxpayers billions of dollars when reopening a detention centre on Nauru and reintroducing temporary protection visas would help to deter those prepared to pay and to risk a dangerous voyage on a leaky boat.” It states.

“Australian taxpayers are also paying in economic circumstances that are causing interest rate rises and job losses.” Continues the editorial rant.

The fact that some of these asylum seekers come from countries such as Afghanistan, which the Australian Government has helped to destroy by its unequivocal support of the American invasion and occupation, doesn’t even enter into the debate. No surprises there.

Perhaps the best summery of Gemma Jones’ article is Mike Stuchbery’s translation of her appalling attempt at journalism.

“WASHING machines, microwave ovens, DVDs and plasma TVs are among a 60-item welcome gift pack for asylum seekers offered rent-free homes in the community.

Brown People get free stuff! They don’t have to pay for any of it! Doesn’t that make you mad? It should make you mad!”

One thing is certain in all this. The sale of white bed sheets will increase ten fold, as it is clear that the Australian government will be supplying asylum seekers with free beds et al and the rest of Australia will be lining up to join the KKK and become clansmen.

We live in a capitalist country, so why not indulge in some disaster capitalism?

US Soldiers pose with a Nazi SS flag in Afghanistan.

No disciplinary action will be taken against the Marines, because apparently there was no malicious intent.

According to Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, Calif. ” The Marines mistakenly believed the “SS” in the shape of white lightning bolts on the blue flag were a nod to sniper scouts - not members of Adolf Hitler’s special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others.”

An easy mistake indeed - Seems plausible, considering the US Marines are almost always mistakenly believing innocent Afghani’s to be terrorists and killing them.  Or is that still considered as collateral damage?

I guess when US Marines urinated on the bodies of dead Taliban soldiers, they must have “mistakenly believed” they were portable toilets.

I wonder when images of US Marines brandishing Nazi swastikas will surface? “Swastikas? Oh my no, we mistakenly believed  it was an ancient Buddhist Sun sign…”