Bonanza with Suits
Posted by Rex Ringschott on Friday, March 16, 2007
Michelle Grattan was speculating this morning on Fran’s Chat n’ Chew, that the fulsome confession out of Gitmo resident and terror mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed might turn the tables in Australian politics.
Ms Grattan’s theory was along the lines that having a real proven baddie hit the headlines at this time would remind the people that the global war on terror was real (and not a boardgame), and the display of a real live hairy-backed example of the genre would rekindle enthusiasm for the Howard government’s crumbling credibility on national security.
However, judging by early returns in the Organ of Freedom’s feedback forum, from where the title of this post is sourced, there’s general skepticism that the Hairy One, did everything that he’s confessing to.
Once again the faint trace of overblown Bush Administration hype is picked up by the sensitive nose of the average Aussie punter as the distinct whiff of bullshit.
It look’s like there’s no dividend in this story for Mr. Howard.
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This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 9:26 AM and filed under Uncategorised.
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I could never understand how TV series like 24 could purport to show the value of torture because, rather than extract valuable information about ‘ticking bombs’ etc, I always took it as axiomatic that if you torture someone long enough they would confess to anything. Khalid’s case suggests that if you torture someone long enough they’ll confess to everything.
And if you do take seriously the revelation of Khalid not just as a ‘real proven baddie’ but as the person responsible for just about every actual and threatened terrorist attack in the past 6 years, it doesn’t so much support Howard by showing that the War on Terror is real as suggest that the War on Terror is over. Would the last one to leave turn out the lights.
(Or should that be would the last one to leave turn on the lights?)
Posted on 16-Mar-07 at 11:30 am | PermalinkI say tyhey keep torturing Khalid until he confesses to causing the train stoppages in Sydney this week.
Posted on 16-Mar-07 at 11:48 am | PermalinkLook if you torture a middle to upper level manager to keep applying for positions, especuially their own position, then their CV or resume will end up claiming credit for every project that crossed their desk at some time. Since most projects are a team effort the resume will neither be a truth or an untruth. The questions to answers will also end up being what the interviewer wants to hear. Team player, passionate about selling mobile phone plans to centrelink customers, ” I think outside the square”, etc etc.
Clearly Khalid eventually learnt the interviewers language and shaped his CV. Clearly he had some role in the sales, service, technical and backroom teams but just how much he achieved we’ll never know.
Posted on 16-Mar-07 at 11:55 am | PermalinkIndeed Anthony, my thoughts exactly. Now we have the actual perp of every known terorist outrage in the world for over ten years, it appears that the GWOT might tquieten down a bit perhaps? Or perhaps not.
The old Australian BS detectors are right on this one. I am very happy to say this, but the whole GWOT/threat to western civilisation meme has sunk, collapsed under the wieght of its own rhetorical bombast, and a failed war of choice in Iraq.
Posted on 16-Mar-07 at 2:25 pm | PermalinkHere, hear Anthony. A more pathetic more degraded sorry sack you couldn’t hope to meet then this poor bastard.
I don’t think ’seeing’ him has done anything to help the cause, its just made us all remember what black times we’ve lived through because we voted in complete and utter arseholes and let them show the way, they were never fit to. Who’s sorry now? (collective groan). You know we oughta get smart fellow voter, make ‘em do a course or something first, before we give them the keys to the world.
Posted on 16-Mar-07 at 3:44 pm | PermalinkSure he says he masterminded 9/11 and why wouldn’t he? But Bush got it wrong right from the start, because he’s a n unevolved human being, in every possible way
Posted on 16-Mar-07 at 4:03 pm | Permalinkterified, cocky, little upstart, who now had more than one reason to go to war–’on terror’ and secretly thought it was a great adventure.We’ll Shock and Awe ‘em! a bit of Hollywood razzle dazzle. Except they weren’t shocked and awed they were fucking furious and have been ever since, and will be for a long time to come. Thanks alot. Mate. A wiser person would have gone underground and covert and got his man. Then gone onto examine real issues. Not provoke a vehement beast. It was only one or two men they needed to be after not thousands of innocent beings across two countries.Yeah, as if. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was caught in Pakistan, by Pakistani forces, who then handed him over to the US. The publication of Mohammed’s alleged confessions, 4 years after his arrest, confirms to me that it doesn’t need the invasion of a country that had nothing to do with Al Quaida to arrest one of AQ’s chiefs, it takes a vigilant and committed police force in the country where they try to hide. Terrorism is a police matter, not to be fought with B2 Stealth bombers that flatten whole villages.
To me Howard never had any credibility re national security. He only feels secure with the big brother on his side, otherwise he is a scaredy cat. The bungles in replacing and maintaining Australian military hardware are a sign of mismanagement. I also remember him using the ADF as scapegoat in the Kids overboard affair, claiming that the ADF didn’t update his department timely enough, while it turns out that it was the PM’s department that sat on its hands.
As an Australian citizen you can expect no protection from the Howard government when arrested overseas, no effort to provide any form of security. Habib, Hicks, Bali 9, doesn’t matter, having Australian nationality under Howard implies no right to government protection. So I hope that no Australian believes JH should he claim any credit for KSM’s arrest and torture confessions. I am glad this man has been captured, but I doubt that John had anything to do with it.
Posted on 17-Mar-07 at 5:29 am | Permalink