Aussie Mullah alleged 9/11 a US Conspiracy

Remember that conspiracy theory about thousands of New York Jews mysteriously disappearing (not turning up for work at Twin Towers) on 9/11? Well, here’s another one, but at least the theorist left the Jews out this time.

Melbourne bloke by the name of Sheik Mohammed Omran, a cleric of a rather radical Muslim group, the Ahlus Sunnah Wal-Jamaah Association of Australia, and editor of their newspapers Mecca News, averred that the two Boeing jetliners that crashed into the Twin Towers in fact did not destroy the two buildings.

No sir. It was the US administration who set off controlled explosions to bring them down.

Mind you, in last month's edition Mecca News stated that 9/11 was a complete hoax because the planes did not crash into the buildings, which perhaps would be more difficult to explain because even ole sleepy head KTemoc himself saw in real time (on CNN and NBC) the 2nd plane whacked right into one of those skyscrapers. At that unfortunate time I was surfing the channels and chanced upon the second of the tragic crashs.

Maybe the theorist thinks the controlled explosions (after the crashs) sound more plausible. But it would have required pre-planning and coordination between those Saudi-Egyptian kamikaze blokes and US bomb experts – like "hey buddies, you whack first, then after a short while we’ll press the plunger – so sorry you won’t be around to see the collapse"?

The controlled explosion story is Mecca News’ second part of a campaign to persuade local Muslims that the 9/11 attacks was nothing more than a US-inspired conspiracy, and that Islamic terrorists were not responsible.

The paper has promised Part III, which I will monitor for its creativity. OK, I promise to keep you ardent fans of conspiracy theory informed too.

To conclude, here is an extract of Mecca News editorial to whet your appetite:

With this in mind, AlHamdulillaah, we would like to introduce a breath of fresh air in the field of media and journalism for Muslims in Australia, the ‘Mecca News’ newspaper. A newspaper which will be educational, political, and also entertaining.

I don't know about you guys but I do certainly find it entertaining.

al Fatihah

BolehTalk & KTemoc Konsiders blogsites offer our deepest condolences to PM Abdullah Badawi for his personal loss.

Vale Endon Mahmood - Requiescat in Pace.

F**Ked to Death by a Horse

Apparently bestiality - that is, f**king with animals as in the recent case of a Kiwi having sex with rabbits - is NOT a crime in Washington state in the USA.

Thus a trucker in Seattle who sneaked into a stud farm with a couple of friends to participate in a sex romp (excuse the pun) with a horse and videotape the act, has not been charged with bestiality but trespassing instead. Furthermore, the law couldn’t charge them with cruelty to the animal because there was no evidence of any harm done to the creature.

You see, the horse was a stallion, and those men got it to f**k one of them. Yes sir, those blokes somehow spurred (excuse the pun again) the stallion to sodomise one of them, who subsequently died of internal injuries. It's so unbelievable that I need to say this again, hopefully more clearly - the stallion bonked one of those guys, and not the other way around where one of them bonked the stallion!

Whoa (sorry with that inadvertent pun again).

And do excuse me while I say ‘yes sir’ a second time because this case is truly bizarre. OK, the stallion f**ked the man, and the f**ked man died of internal juries as a result of that f**king.

BTW, this is not just a blog on the bizarre, because the above paragraph demonstrates English grammar as well, where you can see the underlined word ‘f**ked’ used both as a ‘verb’ (past tense of course) and an ‘adjective’ respectively, and 'f**king' as a 'noun', or to be more precise, a 'gerund'. Don't ever let it be said that KTemoc blogs on nonsensical stuff without any educational value ;-)

Now, what could have cause those internal injuries? Oh, please don't tell or describe the cause to me - yuck, I hate to know.

And it’s not your average sort of bloke. The f**ked-to-death man was an aeroplane engineer, which is not surprising afterall as Seattle is the home of the Boeing Company. He was an employee with Boeing.

Which reminds me of a Seattle news article titled Boeing, Boeing, Gone.

Related:
Kiwi Rabbit Fucker

Koizumi & Bush - Captives of King-Makers

When Junichiro Koizumi was campaigning for the leadership of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2001 he promised families of the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association he would visit the Yasukuni shrine each year. But recently in July the same Association had actually asked him to stop visiting the shrine, stating:

"It is important that the spirits of the war dead rest in peace. It is necessary to pay consideration to neighboring countries and win their understanding."

But Japan’s PM Koizumi has ignored the advice and wishes of the very people he claimed to visit the shrine for. He has just visited the shrine again, much to the anger of South Korea, China, Taiwan and Singapore. The anger against Koizumi's visit has been fuelled further by 100 Japanese parliamentarians who also made the provocative visits.

South Korea has stated that it may cancel a pending visit by Koizumi to Seoul to visit the South Korean President while China has cancelled a meeting between the two nations’ foreign ministers.

The Yasukuni shrine housed Japan’s war dead like Arlington does for the USA’s. The problem is that the Japanese war shrine also housed 14 Class A war criminals, who were responsible for the savage atrocities committed in Korea, China, Singapore and many Asian countries during WWII. Paying homage to those war criminals is akin to the German Chancellor paying homage at the shrine of Adolf Hitler and other leading Nazi leaders.

Many political observers wondered why, after such a resounding victory in Japan’s last general election, Koizumi sees it necessary to pay such a visit even though he claimed he did it as a private individual rather than as the PM of Japan. Indeed he seems unnecessarily obstinate and defiant after the Osaka High Court had ruled last month that his visits were official and thus breached the constitutional division between religion and state.

The reality of Japanese politics lies not in soothing the feelings of families of the war dead (for haven’t they told him to stop the visits?) but in the powerful rightwing faction of the LDP who wants Japan to stop feeling guilty about its ‘glorious and powerful’ past. The LDP rightwing faction has been guilty of historical revisionism (changing facts of WWII by erasing records of Japanese aggression and atrocities from school text books) and various other issues of Japan’s notorious wartime past.

Koizumi is beholden to these people in the same way as President Bush is beholden to the American Christian Right. Koizumi would imperil the election prospects of his LDP if he ignores the string pulling by those king-makers, in the same way as Bush would jeopardise the Republican Party’s election prospects if he doesn’t consider the agenda of the Christian Right.

Both Koizumi and Bush are captives of their ultra rightwing supporters.

Iraq's Voting Fraud

When I read about the voting for the Iraqi draft constitution going the ‘Yes’ way, and the Americans praising the Iraqis, including and especially the Sunnis, for coming to their senses in voting for it - that even the Sunnis are now tired of war, wanted peace and democratic process - I thought notwithstanding all that, it was sure strange that the Sunnis would vote for something that would disadvantage them. Ahhh well, who was I to know an Iraqi mind.

Then the TV and news online started to come out with some naughty stuff going on. For a start, I saw with my own eyes on Aussie TV an Iraqi (obviously either a Shiite or Kurd) happily voting 'Yes' right in front of the TV crew in a polling station, but several times because he held a thick sheaf of ballot papers. He was blissfully ticking the 'Yes' box, ballot paper after ballot paper.

So it shouldn't be strange that the ‘Yes’ votes were not just high but way too high. In one region it was so high that the total ‘Yes’ votes have been MORE than the number of registered voters.

Additionally, there have been accusations that the Shiite/Kurd police and soldiers took ballot boxes away from the staunch ‘No’ districts.

Oh la la - nothing like a jolly double-pronged attack.

No one was arguing about hugh ‘Yes’ votes in Kurdish or Shiite areas but the unusually high affirmative votes in ‘mixed’ areas have led to accusations of vote rigging.

The main electoral battlegrounds are provinces with mixed populations, two of which went strongly and very strangely ’Yes’, which are just not statistically possible. In these two areas, the accusations of fraud have been most strident.

The Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission has suspended any announcement of results because they too reckoned figures obtained in several governorates are too dodgy and require re-examination, comparison and verification. The results are suspiciously high compared with international averages for elections of this kind.

I am not entirely surprised as the constitution has been driven very keenly by the Americans, who unfortunately made the unmitigated mistake of marginalising 20% of the population in the post-Saddam political process. The 20% Sunnis are currently the ones sympathetic to and also providing the mainstay of the local insurgency.

But with the heavy hands of the American overlord, I expect the election results, regardless of charges of fraud and rigging, will carry through. The American exit strategy pivots around the approval of Iraq's draft constitution.

Bali - Hindu Hatred against Muslim 'Outsiders'

The religious divide in Bali widens. The Hindu Balinese want the Bali bombers (of the 1st bombing) executed straightaway - convicted bombers like Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas - while Bali police chief I Made Mangku Pastika, himself a Hindu, warned against the possibility of revenge bombings and terorisms if those convicted bombers are executed and unwittingly turned into Ialamist martyrs.

He wants to stop the cycle of killing, whether by terrorism or state-sanctioned execution.

The series of Bali bombings by the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militants, though targeted against westerners particularly Australians, had killed many local Balinese, most of whom were Hindus.

In Bali there has been a growing local resentment against Muslim ‘outsiders’, mainly from Java. The anger has been aggravated by the economic hardship that followed each bombings. Bali is dependent upon tourism, which the bombings had severely affected. The locals have been the ones suffering most, from both the murderous carnage and the economic downturns that followed.

The second bombing has broken the straw on the camel’s back. The normally peaceful Hindus are now demanding the executions of the 3 convicted bombers. There have also been rumours and SMS’s instigating local Hindus to attack Muslim 'outsiders'. The Police Chief has warned Balinese against such civil rioting.

While the Police Chief has made a very sound, constructive and clinical case against further killings, it does show up the helplessness of, or lack of real effort by, Jakarta to conduct operations against the excesses of Indonesian terrorist groups, particularly JI.

Jakarta has been reluctant to ban JI because of its wide popularity and influence in Indonesia, even among leading politicians and government ministers.

Related:
(1) Australia Fails to Persuade Indon to Ban JI
(2) Indonesia Refuses to Ban Terrorist Group
(3) Malaysian Masterminded Bali Bombing

Taliban Memo (2) to US Forces

MEMO

From: Taliban HQ - somewhere in Pa ... eh ... never mind
To: US Military Command - Kabul
Cc: Mr & Mrs Tillman - San Jose, USA
Subject: US Friendly Fire Killed Again
File Ref: Taliban Memo to US Forces

Assalamualaikum

Thanks once again buddies, as our original memo pointed out, with enemies like you, shooting away as you have done, we don't ever need to have any friends.

That's the second group of 4 policemen you have wiped out in less than 10 days. Hey, don't feel bad about it - they were only Afghans, you know, the type of people you guys had dropped all sorts of sh*t on!

Once again, keep up the good work.

Johore Royal Rumble - Gatecrashed Party & Bashed Foreigners

A certain member or members of the Johore royalty have been arrested for gate crashing a private party and bashing up the foreign guests.

A Brazilian couple had invited a hundred guests to their lavish wedding reception held at the southern Malaysian island holiday resort of Rawa. The guests were from Australia, Europe, South America and Singapore.

After gate crashing the party a member of the royalty asked a woman for a dance but she refused. At that point things went rather ugly with the Johore ‘royal’ ordering everyone to leave the resort. Naturally the attendees refused.

A fight broke out (guess who started it) and the Johoreans used golf clubs and sharp objects to bash the party people, injuring several of them. Those injured are now hospitalised which means the brawl must be fairly serious.

A Johorean royalty and 3 of his members have been arrested by police, who refused to provide names or details other than to confirm that a member of the local royalty has been apprehended.

Rumsfeld Needs a Magic Mirror

Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence, will be visiting China. He aims to ask China why the Asian country has been investing in a military buildup when she faces no enemy? Rumsfeld's Pentagon reckons that China’s military budget is the 3rd largest in the world, right behind the USA and Russia.

Can we all see the blinkered irony of Rumsfeld’s concerns? Don’t get me wrong for I am sure Rumsfeld is genuinely concerned.

But ponder for one second on this admittance by the USA: The USA has the LARGEST military budget in the world, by its own admittance, and it tells the world it worries that China is now 3rd in big spending right behind the USA and Russia.

Can anyone see the incongruity of Rumsfeld's question? What does the USA want China to be in terms of military spending?

127th in the world?

But wait, there's more comparison, or more correctly, contrast. The USA has the largest armada in the world with 12 mighty aircraft carriers in operations, each carrying an air fleet of warplanes and cruise missiles including nuclear warheads. China has none. The USA has 7 over thousand sophisticated nuclear armed ICBMs compared to China's less-than-a-hundred crude ones (and about 700 short range version).

The USA has the most exotic ultra-modern satellite network for communications, intelligence and weapons guidance among all big powers, while China has zilch. The US Navy has an armada of nuclear powered submarines with batteries of intercontinental nuclear missile while China again has none.

As an indication of its future aggressive intent, the USA wants to abandon the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) because it plans to develop tactical N-weapons with the capacity to nuke deep bunkers, like those in Iran, while China has no wish to depart from the terms of the NPT.

Everyone in the world knows that the USA today is the most (and only) belligerent of all big powers, with its military occupying foreign nations. Nelson Mandela calls the USA under President Bush the most dangerous nation in the world.

Yet the USA still wants to restrict, control and question China on the latter’s military spending. Indeed, the USA asked China as to why the East Asian nation wants such a hugh military budget when it has no known enemy?

Mr Secretary, have you ever consider that the USA and its ally Japan are the most dangerous threats to China? The USA has already shown its bellicose nature in Vietnam, Balkans, Carribean nations, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. The Americans have on several occasions identified China as its greatest future opponent.

Its ally Japan is well known throughout East Asia for the barbarism of its military during the last war, and it has recently identified China as its principal threat.

Why then shouldn’t the Chinese consider in return rich and powerful USA and Japan as its two most ominous threats?

Yes, Mr Secretary, the question you ought to ask should be:

Mirror mirror on the wall,
Who's the most belligerent of them all?

Related:
China's 700 missiles vs USA 7,000 missiles

British-American WMDs found in North Korea

British-American WMDs have been found in North Korea.

Those Wicked Murderous Drugs (WMDs) are part of the British American Tobacco (BAT) secret investment in North Korea. BAT happens to be the world's second-largest cigarette company. It has been covertly operating a cigarette producing factory in Kim’s North Korea for the past four years.

The factory produces 2 billion cigarettes a year meant for the Chinese market, though BAT denies that, stating that the production is solely for Korean consumption. Hmmm, do ordinary Korean have money to pay for foreign cigrettes?

BAT has conducted the same filthy investment in repressive Burma before it was forced to pull out by human rights campaigner and the British government. The anti-smoking group ASH said:

"It seems that there is no regime so awful and no country so repressive that BAT does not want to do business there."

One of BAT's own public relations officers in Japan was so flabbergasted about his own company's venture in North Korea, that he uttered:

"Business with North Korea? Where there are no human rights?"

What can we expect from these merchants of death?

And China better watch out. BAT’s WMDs will kill more Chinese than any US N-weapon.

No Civilian Killed, Only Suspected Insurgents

From US Military HQs, Iraq:

70 suspected militants in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi have been killed by US precision air strikes. This comprised 20 militants killed by a precision bomb dropped on them, and 50 other suspected insurgents killed by heli gunships, F-18 fighter-bombers and ground troops. There was no report of any US or civilian casualties in the operation.


From Ramadi Hospital:

Dr Bassem al-Dulaimi reported that he received 25 civilian dead and eight wounded, accompanied by relatives who informed him that the victims were hit in aerial bombardments.


Additional Report - an Update

The 20 or so blokes who were killed by the precision bomb were two dozen curious onlookers who had gathered round an American vehicle destroyed a day earlier. They died for their curiousity while the American pilot returned safely to report that he had extracted retribution - on suspected insurgents. All in all, 39 innocent civilians were slaughtered by US air strikes.

Russia warned USA off Iran

Russia under a smouldering Putin isn’t going to cop any more sh*t from the Americans. The Russians have lost big face ever since they started to dismantle their once-mighty Soviet empire and consequentially gave in to most American interventions in several countries, principally because of their own disorganized state and also because of a then urgent dependence upon American financial aid.

They lost mucho face when they couldn’t do anything as their Serbian cousins were pounded mercilessly by American air power. They did make a feeble but insignificant attempt to show Slavic solidarity by moving in on Slatina airport in the Kosovon capital of Pristina before NATO forces, but everyone knows that was just a desperate face-saving but futile gesture.

They have also regretted giving in to the Americans on Iraq.

Now Russia is sternly telling the Americans to back off on Iran. I believe there is unspoken Chinese backing for the Russian stand.

The Russians and Chinese know at some stage they had to stand up to an increasing arrogant USA, the sole global superpower. This has probably become more urgent since India has been seen to discard its traditional policy of non-alignment to move into the American camp.

China of course has had experience warring against the Americans in Korea in the ‘50s while the Russians and Chinese fought a surrogate battle against the USA in Vietnam. The 3 wars in Korea, Vietnam and now Iraq demonstrated that America, for all its military might, could be beaten and thus warned off. To make matters worse for the American administration, its public is also re-gaining its distaste for foreign wars and the consequential attrition of young American soldiers.

Related:
Deja Vu - US Accusations of Iran's Nuclear Programme

Chinese Spacecraft Returned - Ayah Pin Involved?

The manned Chinese spacecraft landed safely in Inner Mongolia this morning at around 4:30 am Malaysian time. The two astronauts were seen on television climbing out of their kettle-shaped capsule.

Kettle-shaped? That's Malaysia’s Ayah Pin and his Sky Kingdom’s teapot symbol! Surely it’s more than a coincidence ;-)

The two astronauts are safe and currently under standard medical checkup. Contrary to earlier expectations Zhai Zhigang was not one of those two astronauts. The person who went instead was Fei Junlong, with the other was Nie Haisheng as speculated.

The two who returned after a 70-orbit mission will undoubtedly be, like China’s 1st astronaut Yang Liwei, feted as national heros.

The trip had been more open than the first, with state television actually telecasting live the launch and landing and even the astronauts frolicking in space. The TV audience could see the astronauts setting bits of food floating in zero gravity as I suggested they would ;-)

I wonder whether they used their secret pairs of chopsticks to catch those pieces of food?

Ganging up on the Kurds

There are 27 million Kurds divided among 4 nations, namely Iraq, Syria, Ian and Turkey. None of these 4 wants to see any Independent Kurdish State as it would give secessionist ideas to their own Kurdish minority.

The Kurds were played out by the Anglo-French-American powers immediately after WWI, when promise of an independent homeland for them was forgotten or ignored. Then after the 1st Gulf War, principally for their own interests, the Anglo-Americans employed their air power to enforce an air curfew against Saddam's military, indirectly shielding a Kurdish province in northern Iraq where the Kurds enjoyed respite from Saddam’s persecution, grew stronger and started to assert their independence.

Now, Syria, Turkey and Iran, apart from the Arabs in Iraq are worried about a nascent independent Kurdish movement in Iraq which they know has been promoted by the USA (and Israel) for American (and Israeli) interests.

It is going to be a fairly complicated situation for the Americans as its long time ally Turkey swings into action against any Kurdish independence. I predict they will once again abandon the Kurds in favour of the Turks who have ambitions in oil-rich northern Iraq and also concerns for their Turkish kinfolk there. Any Turkish move against Iraqi Kurds will be most welcomed by the Syrians, Iranians and Iraqi Arabs. Undoubtedly these 4 will be pooling intelligence on Kurdish separatist activities.

With such a common bloc against the Kurds I feel terribly sorry for them as they would once again face disappointment. Some nations are never meant to exist.

Thai Muslim Separatists on Charges

Last week Thailand’s court in Bangkok saw 8 Islamic teachers put on trial. The 8 accused were from the southern provinces where a predominantly Muslim population has been asserting their independence from a Buddhist Thai government.

The courts were told by the prosecution that the 8 accused belonging to the separatist group BRN Coordinate, were teaching their followers to believe their race is Melayu, their religion is Islam and their motherland is Pattani and that they must fight for the liberation and independence of Pattani.

Well, there is no doubt that their religion is Islam but the rest would certainly sound like treason to Bangkok. As blogged earlier today they slaughtered a Buddhist monk and burned a Buddhist temple, which won’t look good on their independence movement resume. By conducting those unjustified atrocities, they have degenerated from insurgents into racist/religious criminals.


Related:
(1) Thai Muslim Insurgents Slaughtered Buddhist Monk
(2) Thaksin ups the Ante in South Thailand
(3) Thai PM told Hishammudin to Piss Off

Birth of Danish Prince Puts Pressure on Aussie Monarchists?

Australian Mary Donaldson met her Danish Prince Charming during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, married her dream man, became Crown Princess of Denmark, and now has given birth to a future King of Denmark.

The two countries, particularly Denmark, have gone wild with celebrations to welcome the young future Danish King, to be named Christian. Viking-types bonfires of joy were lit.

While the newly arrived royalty’s role in Denmark is clearly defined and will be well managed and planned, what does this auspicious and joyous birth holds for Australia, that is still divided by the Republican referendum just a couple of years back. Many Republicans had not been satisfied that the referendum was even-handedly conducted by an ardent monarchist PM.

The Australian republican debate cuts across political party lines as John Howard’s deputy, Federal Treasurer Peter Costello is a known Republican, as are many of the ruling Liberal Party Ministers and leaders.

In the referendum, John Howard as PM set conditions and directions in the referendum in such a manner obviously aimed to scuttle the Republican proposal, namely for Australia to be a Republic. Also, a combination of tactics by the monarchist movement ensured the republicans lost the referendum.

First there was the fear campaign - nonsensical information like Australia becoming a German Weimar Republic, or having presidents like some of the world’s worst Republican Presidents. The Aussie public were constantly reminded of draconian dictators.

Then there was the constitutional lie – monarchists claimed the Governor General was already the ‘Head of State’ which of course he wasn’t, therefore there wasn't any need to change the constitutional arrangements.

The monarchist campaign was one of the most underhanded and disgraceful ever seen in Australia polictics as they realised that a modern Australia was (almost) ready to become a Republic. Even wonderful pal, the USA, had to be reassigned (temporarily of course) to the derogatory example of a lousy republican system.

Then the tactic of making the referendum question deliberately long, meandering and convoluted was adopted. From Australian experience any referendum question that was to difficult to understand was always voted against. Instead of a simple “Do you want an Australian to be your Head of State?” the PM brought in a special writer to pen not only a long winded paragraph as a question, containing several factors designed to motivate confused voters to denote a ‘NO’, but even included a second question in the unnecessary proposed preamble to a new republican constitution, that was a giveaway it was plain sabotage.

The Republican Movement lost the referendum even before it started. Most people, except for the dreamers, knew it.

But will the fact that an Aussie lassie becoming the Crown Princess of Denmark and bearing the future King of that country reinforce the Australian monarchist movement?

In fact, no! Quite the opposite actually.

This is because the Republicans (if they can't get their republican way) and even some monarchists will now campaign for Mary Donaldson or her son to be the Queen (or King) of Australia. They will argue that if Australia has to have a constitutional royalty, then let’s have one that’s Aussie. Payback sabotage?

And the core of the Aussie monarchists will go into a tizzy and object to that, because it’s not any monarchy that’ll do but only the English one, even though the British royal family is German in bloodline now, and Greek in the future when Prince Charles ascends to the throne.

It’s more than just the question of monarchy per se – it’s the link to the “old country”, jolly good old England. In fact, when a NSW parliamentarian had proposed that Mary Donaldson be proclaimed as the Queen of Australia when she becomes Queen of Denmark, one of Australia's most ardent monarchists David Flint poo-poo-ed that suggestion away as a joke.

The pressure in fact will now be on the monarchists rather than the Republicans.

Thai Muslim Insurgents Slaughtered Buddhist Monk

While Thailand's south and its majority Muslim citizens might have been marginalised over the decades by Bangkok, and insurgency has been an inevitability, the recent brutal murder of a 76-year old Buddhist monk (and 2 teenage boys) was hardly an act of political defiance or civil rights resistance.

It has been nothing more a criminal act of religious hatred. What has a 76-old monk done to disadvantage or brutalise the Thai Muslims? There is no more peaceful religious personality than a Buddhist monk. The religious creed of Buddhist monks have been the hallmark of peace, tranquility and compassion.

In this unjustified religious brutality, the higher objective of a fight for Muslim rights or autonomy or even soujtern secession has been lost to primitive criminal violence.

PM Thaksin has already put his name on the blame list if he can't pacify Thailand's south so we may expect an geometric escalation of Bangkok's military suppression, which will in turn increase cross-border strain between Thailand and its predominantly Muslim neighbour, Malaysia.

While the Federal government of Malaysia has been at pains to demonstrate its hands-off approach to Thailand's Muslim insurgent problem, there are parties in Malaysia that have a history of supporting, morally, financially and logistically, Thailand's Islamic insurgents. The situation worsens.

Deja Vu - US Accusations of Iran's Nuclear Programme

President Bush’s war in Iraq is not going well, and with the American well known short attention and impatience his popularity is plummeting – yes, plummeting, not merely decreasing.

How does one arrest a plummeting popularity which may affect the GOP’s plan for 2008? A new attention-getter (like changing the car models every now and then), say, bash or/and even bomb Iran to divert attention from the quagmire in Iraq.

In other words, revitalise the fear of WMDs among the American public again. There's no better method to herd the public back to your support than to frighten them of new terrors.

This time, after the usual bashing and perhaps even UN endorsement, a few surgical strikes at Iran’s nuclear facilities and hey-ho, Bush and the GOP will be back on the US No 1 spot again.

So with that, US rep to the UN, John Bolton, has launched another tirade and litany of nuclear weapon accusations against Tehran. Indeed it is the same John Bolton who had been a member of the same neo-con team that had lied in their accusation of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq having WMD programme.

Deja vu?

But surely the US can do better this time. Perhaps a new Resolution 1441 with better wordings and an air strike against Iran without involvement of US ground troops?

In other words, a pure and pristine ‘shock & awe’ without the messiness of the inadequate, non-effective and disastrous Rumsfeld doctrine of the so-called highly mobile blitzkrieg-like ground forces?

Indo-Paki "War" Continues

Even in the earthquake devastated region of Pakistani Kashmir, there is still room for a war of propaganda.

The Indian Army claimed that it was invited by their opposition across the Amity Bridge, 100 kilometres from Srinagar, to help clear and repair the Pakistani military bunker, so some of their troops did just that. But the Pakistani Army spokeman denied that, averring that Indian claim was sheer fabrication and no Indian troop was on Pakistani soil.

It seems things are returning to normal.

A Tale of Two Beautiful Women

Both are beautiful Australians and single. Both were caught with drugs in Bali. Both were charged. One has been found guilty and imprisoned for 20 years. Trial of the other is yet to take place. But with that, the similarities end.

One comes from an ordinary family, worked as an ordinary salesperson, had a broken marriage, no current beau, simple and gullible, exploited by the media and unscrupulous people who saw in her, wonderful scope to raise ratings for their show or economic/business opportunities for themselves, without concerns for the consequences of their actions to exploit her predicament. Their grandstanding provocative redneck actions deeply offended the very people who had arrested and would be passing legal judgement on her. Worse, she was attended by lawyers and legal advisors who gave cause for concerns for their legal plans and tactics. And she was totally dependent financially on these very exploiting people, until her own government had to step in (reluctantly) to assist her, only because of political pressure.

The other is a high profile model, a person who has mingled in the upper echelons of the wider world, has a multi-millionaire boyfriend who cares for her, who has employed a battery of the best lawyers to attend to her case. She has been smartly advised to adopt low key and a fawning attitude towards the people who would be passing legal judgement on her. The saga of her incarceration by the authorities has been deliberately blanked out from the press - could it be her advisors included press and PR specialists.

As I mentioned above, her trial is yet to take place but we may all make some intelligent guess that her sentence will be very minimal if she isn't even released with just a mild caution.

I will provide more details later.