Thankyou Steve

Down to "nitty gritty"

Sad deplorable many apathetic people don't take the time to find and read articles and then read through them and read behind the lines to come to the obvious conclusion.....which is always a question....why?

Questions to be answered which the public have a right to know.

Hence my question - maybe a Royal Commission?

Reported in the press yesterday that Singapore "may review the death penalty". This is a big move in the right direction for Human Rights and would like to think this is Van Tuong's legacy. This article can be viewed on

http://www.fairbloodydinkum.com/

Not only Van Toung but Schapelle Corby and the Bali 9 which is fast-escalating. See the news articles regarding the judgement has to be made prior to Feb 24 or thereabout or they will go scot-free. There is a lot of pressure there now. Apart from Renae Lawrence pleading for her life - and the parents of those Australians incarcerated - I might add - a direct result of the information given to Indonesian authorities by Australian Federal Police - they face the firing squad on a beach at dawn.

This is reprehensible. You will find all news articles at the above link.

It was bad enough imagining Van Tuong being hanged at 6am Singapore time.

How can we all feel with handling 4 young Australian people being sentenced to death by a firing squad on a beach early morning?

When it is the druglords who are responsible are tracked down and made accountable. It is widely reported that the drugs going into Singapore come from Burma - yet - Singapore has just allowed a major Burmese company to be registered on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

At what cost to a life? Or in this case - four lives. Because I cannot see that one life will be spared - no matter the pleading of themselves or their parents.

WHEN WILL OUR GOVERNMENT TAKE ACTION AND GET PRO-ACTIVE? RATHER THAN RE-ACTIVE.

When will there be a Royal Commission between Customs Departments and Australian Federal Police?

I invite your comments.

Liz.

I think the answer to your question about when will there be a royal commission is never. This pathetic Govt. we have will not hold an enquiry that may show they influenced the AFP and Customs.

Remember we are being “ruled” by the Lyons Forum members. Kevin Andrews, Tony Abbott, Alex Downer, Kevin Andrews, Peter Costello and many others.

I have recently read Marion Maddox's God under Howard. It lays open the role of the Lyons Forum, the "I understand" statement, and Liberal politicians' claims to Christian values.

One point of particular interest is a reference to an interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell in which the Prime Minister pointed out that he supported the Indonesian legal system in making a determination on the Bali Bomber's future. He also floated the idea that people around him had expressed their support for the death penalty.

Now, we only have his word for the fact that he and his team had worked quietly and assiduously behind the scenes to allow the Singaporean Government to save face. I might point out by not being too vocal he kept the 50% who were in favour of the death penalty in the camp. The dog whistle is operating.

Remember that David Oldfield (One Nation) was electoral secretary to Tony Abbott.

Howard is walking a political tightrope; he cannot retire as leader because the Liberal Party will split in two. I equate this to the ALP. DLP split an organisation known as "The Movement" led by B.A. Santamaria and strongly influenced by Catholic social doctrines.

They gave up on the Labor party and have infiltrated the Liberal Party, it will result in the destruction of the Liberal Party but by then how much damage will have been done.

Never mind the Lyons Forum, what about the Jakarta Lobby that controls DFAT, Department of Defence, AFP and any other policy-making organisation that can influence Indonesia policy, including the Liberal Party and the ALP. Obsensibly, their aim is to promote good relations with Indonesia. This is definitely a worthwhile aim, but it has gone crazy and now means good relations with Indonesia at any cost. Over the years, this has meant that Australia has supported the Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor in which over 100,000 people died, but its effects are greater than this. It is now established fact, thanks to the Toohey enquiry, that the Department of Defence cut off intelligence lines to our troops in Timor in 1999 - who were in harm's way - after Lieutenant-Colonel Lance Collins reported on militia links to TNI Indonesian regular forces.

It's no stretch that if they were willing to do this to their own troops, they would not be too concerned about a bogan girl from the Gold Coast or a bunch of misfits like the Bali Nine. The AFP handed over the Bali Nine to Indonesia in the hope that this would win them better cooperation on terrorism and other issues. Similarly, they actively promote the idea that Schapelle Corby is guilty by spreading false information about photos of her with drug dealers (which it has now been established were taken after she was arrested) and refuse to investigate her case out of fear that such a line of enquiry would reveal that she is innocent and hence "embarass" the Indonesians. The latter, of course, is a far more terrible outcome in their minds that sending an innocent young Australian woman to spend 15 years in a tiny Balinese cell. And this is the policy of the Liberal Party of Australia and the Lindsay Tanner's Australian Labor Party.

If Hicks was of a different ideology and had been captured by islamic nutjobs he would've long ago been the star of a decapitation video.

At least with the Yanks he's still alive and with a chance of winning his freedom.

He's got what he asked for, no sympathy for him.

"He got what he asked for". Hicks fought for another nation (as many do) which we happened to invade. He was then tortured and denied legal rights and process by the very nation that claimed it was bringing democracy to Afghanistan.

Tim.

Lindsay says:
There is another Australian rotting away in a foreign prison, who has received far less public sympathy than Schapelle Corby. His name is David Hicks. He’s been locked up without trial for four years by the Americans and is going to be tried by a kangaroo court.

Hicks has some public support, but because he’s accused of associating with terrorists, the Howard Government has made little effort to defend his rights. Schapelle Corby and Van Nguyen weren’t treated fairly, but at least they got a trial.

David Hicks has been locked up for four years and has still not been tried. He could be a dangerous terrorist, but it’s now becoming clear that some innocent people have been wrongly caught up in the American crackdown on terrorist suspects. Some have even been tortured.

Without a proper trial, we’ll never know for sure what David Hicks is guilty of, if anything. He sits rotting in a foreign prison without the most basic legal rights that even mass murderers such as Martin Bryant are accorded.

What is Lindsay doing to persuade the ALP to insist that Howard does something about this shocking state of affairs?