If you're interested, here's an investigation into several incidents involving ASIO and a book on terror, including the 'cleansing' of the hard drive (though cleansing is an awfully nice word for a task that involved sledgehammers).

This document is a parliamentary brief - not a partisan publication.

http://www.aph.gov.au/LIBRARY/pubs/RB/2005-06/06rb13.pdf

Does this concern anyone else? especially when the actual organisation these people belonged to (attorney generals office or ASIO) wasn't determined?

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/29/europe/EU_GEN_Britain_Mideast_Documents.php

This has been reported all over the world including in the Adelaide Advertiser over the weekend.

The language could be used today and mean precisely the same things. The war on "terror" is bogus because the muslims in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan who we and Israel are bombing to bits are being bombed to bits due to this knowledge that was available in 1949 and we know it.

I am reading a book called Beyond Chutzpah by a Jewish writer called Norman Finklestein - it's pretty depressing.

The problem today is that we are the terrorists and refuse to understand it as we rampage around the world.

Hmmm... sounds like Professor Williams, the erstwhile Member for Kingsford-Smith (thank goodness for Peter Garrett!) didn't get his last Australian Research Council grant!

George has a surprisingly narrow viewpoint for an academic.

"The Attorney-General has indicated he is happy to meet with academics and talk to them about their projects. But the role and obligations of academics should be clear on the face of the law. Where relevant, there should be an express exemption for their work."

George's arguments are almost a pleasure to shoot holes in:

- Why should academics enjoy special exemptions from some security laws and not other equally deserving groups eg journalists, bloggers and members of minor political parties. They are all equally interested in the truth and the publics right to know are they not?.

- How do you define "academic"? Some 18 year old BA student writing a politics essay "Bombing targets of Sydney - Conflicting choices for Lakemba jihadists"!? Or a 60 year Professor writing a book on the same topic?

- Where do visiting academics (from say Gaza or Kandahar) fit into the academic immunity suggestion? Do authorities have to accept and exempt foreign academics partial to Hamas and the Taliban respectively?

- As a lawyer George is already aware that the law evolves with case history, particularly judgements. How, in such a new area of law can laws be definite?

- Isn’t guilt or otherwise based on all matters relevant to a legal case not only upfront criteria already in written law? How can authorities possibly vet academics’ credentials and thesis/essay topics?

Ruddock's offer to talk looks genuine.

TurnRightThenLeft - thanks for the reference. I've already invited "the authorities" to read my blog and would welcome their comments if they think I'm stepping out of line :)

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com

Do you reeeeeally reeeeeeeally believe that Boaz?

if we left Afghanistan and tried to help them grow something better than opium - our failure to eradicate it is tacit consent to grow it-

Or if we admitted to the lie that is the war on Iraq - returned to them soveriegnty of their oil -

Do you reeeeeeally think they would continue to yearn to blow us up?

Or over turn every democratically elected government in the world?
- who is the master mind here? and puhleeease dont tell me it is Osama.

Countless Islamic scholars would humbly suggest your Quranic interpretations are wrong - as many biblical scholars might also suggest with equal humility your interpretation of the bible is a bit literal as well -

And if you do believe that there is a vast Islamic conspiracy - what do you propose? educate the children and youth of Australia to the truth of this horror - and then what? use the power of prayerfull persuaion to turn the wicked minds of the muslim to a path of goodness and niceness??!!

Forget the disclaimer - if the Quran is hell bent on taking over the world going easy on a few softies over here is no way forward - making them convert under punsihment of being banished from the kingdom might help -

I'm just searching for the logical conclusion here -

Perhaps you would be more at peace with the Dominionsits postion of a world wide christian theocracy? Hmmmm?

Full points for Zeal my friend but I think you've backed the wrong horse on this one ( and a few others:) )

Chris, I can’t keep up with you. First you tell us that uncle Phil has your residence under constant surveillance and you were expecting that inevitable knock on the door. Today, Chris is in a very insouciant mood telling us that the Sedition Laws are tosh.

What’s it gonna be; should I dust off my prison garb or am I free to enjoy long summer days in this lotus-eater’s paradise?