http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,,25884431-7582,00.html

Now we have a second defence which makes no mention of editions or timing but harps on the point that ‘no-one was endangered’ based on some apparent face saving memo from the AFP:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25887710-7582,00.html

I was going to be a bit cynical of Crikey’s vox pop anecdotes from newsagent employees, but the following comment in the second Oz article diverted my limited attention span somewhat:

“At no time was anyone from The Australian told of the exact timing of the raids conducted in Melbourne early on Tuesday morning. “

So in the space of 24 hrs the fabled 4th edition has morphed into “the day in question”. Wow. The only surprise is that the 1st article is still online for comparison without having to dig into Google’s cache.

Someone please acquire the truth out of one of the print press operators, using the same interrogation methods implictly condoned by the Murdoch press in its worship of Howard and his allies, before both became too unpalatable to support publicly.

Lets look at the facts. A group of crazy Somalis based in Melbourne planned to take up arms and “storm” an Australian army base in Sydney. Just repeat that sentence to yourself again. How far would they have got, had their “terrorist plot” actually got past the starting post?

Good on the police for stopping these nutters in their tracks, but lets not be scared of people like this. I think the army is probably quite capable of defending themselves against a group of raggle-taggle loonies with a few guns. Or at least I hope they are.

This should NOT be front page news!!!

As a bunch of journos they should have known very well that in this situation once they started trying to justify their position they automatically looked like they new they were guilty and were just trying to save face.

They should have played the straight bat (even if it wasnt the ‘right’ answer), ‘we believed this was a story in the public interest and therefore published it’. Not get into a public argument with the police.

Instead by playing the ‘he said, she said’ game (ie we were given permission to publish it by police and it didnt hit the streets until 4am; the polise say it hit the street before then and could have warned the terrorists) they are now seen as trying to wriggle their way out of a guilty situation.

The police in this situation were always going to be seen as the good guys (they wanted to protect their staff and make sure the ‘terrorists’ weren’t warned) and The Australian as the bad guys, no matter what or how they replied. Why make yourself look like you are a school kid who knows they did something wrong while making excuses to the teacher for something you know you arent gonna get away with. Just accept the detention with a bit of dignity and get it over and done with, at least you may be seen as having some integrity.

I thought there were some interesting and pertinent examinations of Chris Mitchell’s apparently unqualified counter-claims from the Australian-based Muslimvillage.com media forum yesterday:

http://muslimvillage.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=53590&view=findpost&p=836809

http://muslimvillage.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=53590&view=findpost&p=836816

cheers,

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/846201/nixon-questions-afp-silence-on-leak

But mainly it reminds me also of the image of a burnt out car in Sydney, which John Howard was accused by … the Sydney Daily Telegraph no less …. of causing with consequent loss of forensic evidence …. by tipping off the alleged terrorist arrestees with a premature presser embracing the nationalistic/war on everything tub thump.

It was about then I thought gee this PM is a real chance to skid on banana peel this federal election 2007: Suffice to say the SDT is not the GLW yet they were putting the slipper into Mr Khaki Pants. Quite counter intuitive at the time. I made sure to keep a download of the image.

The problem was in the fourth edition of the Australian. Many newsagents often do not read the Australian so many would not know. Those that do probably read an earlier edition.

Also many newsagents have little idea of the edition of the Australia that gets sold unless it is recorded on their particular computer system. It is not necessary as all they need to record is the overall numbers of each edition that gets sold.

Many newsagents also often hire managers for the early mornings so they could not know what was sold that morning.

Stolen newspapers from a bundle left in front of a shop is unfortunately a common problem.

Another point is that many people pick up newspapers on account. So many of these newsagencies this edition might have been picked up by customers on account and if so, they would not be recorded as a sale as such.

Having said all that I think it is very unlikely that the story was leaked, as it was only the fourth edition that had the story and it came out too late.

Hardly.

You pepper your ‘report’ with vague recollections of possible sales from the vague recollections of select early risers…none of which can recall with any clarity the story you push as truth.

How come none of the proprietors failed to notice only the BIGGEST STORY OF THE WEEK writ large on the front page of the only daily nationwide newspaper?

What was on the poster that went into the footpath cage?

“…According to the manager, customers at that time of the morning usually include taxi drivers from the northern suburbs…”

So what. Did they buy any newspapers?

“…Newsagents say that thefts are not uncommon. ..”

How many? Where? Of what? Pron magazines?

“…anyone could have purchased a copy…”

Did they?

“…He predicted…”

“…The owner..believes…”

“…The manager..could not recall selling any copies…”

In avoiding the sweeping generalisations and conjecture on this free kick at Rupert there are ZERO facts from any of these ‘sources’.

Hardly.

You pepper your ‘report’ with vague recollections of possible sales from

How come none of the proprietors failed to notice only the BIGGEST STORY OF THE WEEK writ large on the front pa

Remember that terrorist raid in the UK a few months back. Well what the papers didn’t spend a whole lot of time telling you was as far as I know that there were no charges laid and all were released. But the highly charged promotional piece got everyone sensitized to the terror bogey again. They (whomever they are), are of the mind that in order to ensure we the people don’t discover what’s really going on, we all need to be constantly afraid of everything purposely driven through our “neutral” media.

If I were the controlled media, I would be spending more time worrying about the fact that nobody any longer believes what they say and can’t see the point in newspapers any way. Take that that vaccines crap promoted by The Who with their masters the drug companies advocating mandatory vaccination in all of the 190 odd countries who signed up to the vaccinate for dollars scam. Has anyone done any research on the long term damage these untested vaccines might be doing to our natural immune systems? Or the toxicity of thimerosol used as a stabiliser or any of the other nasties that these things seem to contain? Or are we going to run on trust again? I mean how many times do you press the bar and get an electric shock before you work out that isn’t such a good idea! Well on a partial reinforcement schedule such that we poor bunnies are fed it could be a very long time! If you look up the controlling shareholdings in CSL you will understand why we need to be every bit as concerned here as the food folk of Baxterica or the Aventis Union.

Last time there was a swine flu outbreak in the US, 1976, the Govt launched a massive “vaccinate or die” campaign. Only one person died of the flu but 25 died of complications with the vaccine, not to mention the thousands who suffered serious side effects namely the very nasty Guillain Barre syndrome. So the US Govt had to can the vaccine and the program. Taxpayers picked up the tab as usual I guess. Now it’s time to have another go. Look out for the second wave followed by a big third wave at the bottom of the market crash.

And now we have the terrorism crap and soon we will have the collapsing US stockmarket crap again. I just hope people are finally seeing this for what it really is.
But then, I have already told you that I am a cynic..

There will often exist scope to differentiate between actions involving genuine terroristic intent and those of a separate, paramilitary nature. This case, however, appears to involve simple planning methodologies with limited means for enacting any conspiracy.

Arrive. Enter. Aim. Shoot. Die. Simple.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25886467-7582,00.html

Believe it or not.