Another Night

Darkness never fully retreats in the valleys of the high Hindoo Kush. Valleys so narrow, so steeply sided that the sky is a narrow slit in the rock walls. Even in the burning, thin air of arid summer Night barely withdraws to the shadows of overhanging cliffs. Boulders and even larger pebbles have hintergrounds of cold born fungi or primeval lichen. Where men can scrape an existence they will, without joy or ease, always envious of those whose tribal lands have soil enough to anchor grass or tree roots. No grain can grow above 14,000ft and few plants apart from read more ...

World Press Freedom Day

The Australian - Freedom of speech has become a critical issue TODAY’S World Press Freedom Day is about much more than journalists being able to do their jobs unimpeded. It is about the public’s right to know the truth about how the governments they elect and the services they pay for, such as police and hospitals, operate. This year, the day comes at the end of an appalling week for press freedom. On Wednesday, armed police from the Major Fraud Squad raided the Perth office of The Sunday Times newspaper. They spent four hours trying to prise out the source read more ...

JUSTin an EVAN

Evan Whitton October 13, 2008 http://www.justinian.com.au/1229-article The Witchfinder-General We need a third verdict for people like Allan Kessing: guilty, but who cares … read more ...

walk away a free man

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/letters/general/let-customs-whistleblower-walk-away-a-free-man/1325862.aspx CanberraTimes Oct6th 2008 1:00:00 AM Let Customs whistleblower walk away a free man Every Australian citizen should be concerned for the outcome of the court appeal by Customs whistleblower Allan Kessing (''Customs case back in Court'', October 3, p9). Kessing received a suspended jail sentence after being convicted of leaking confidential Customs reports to a newspaper relating to drug trafficking by staff and lax anti-terrorism measures at Australian airports. Despite the fact that Kessing's public revelations pinpointed serious problems in Customs, and despite the fact that it led to the biggest overhaul of airport security in Australia's history, he read more ...

POLITIQUE

Politique Internationale - La Revue n°118 - HIVER - 2008 Lors des élections législatives du 24 novembre 2007, après plus de onze ans de pouvoir conservateur, l'Australie a donné la victoire aux Travaillistes et à leur dirigeant Kevin Rudd, qui succède ainsi à John Howard au poste de premier ministre. Cette victoire est nette et sans appel : les Travaillistes ont gagné vingt sièges supplémentaires dans une Chambre des Représentants qui en compte cent-cinquante et obtiennent une majorité confortable. La coalition conservatrice Parti libéral-Parti national a été victime d'un véritable raz de marée. Une demi-douzaine de ministres ont perdu leur read more ...

OZ's MERRITT et al on KESSING .

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24321246-17044,00.html The AUSTRALIAN Chris Merritt | September 10, 2008 WHEN Allan Kessing endorsed the latest plan to protect public service whistleblowers, he was almost uninterested. Even if the federal Government gives immediate legislative form to the scheme that was unveiled yesterday, it will be too late to save this former Customs officer. Whistleblower Allan Kessing at his Blue Mountains home west of Sydney. Picture: Amos Aikman Kessing has already felt the full force of what the government of Australia can do to public servants who reveal ineptitude and maladministration. He has been investigated repeatedly by the Australian Federal Police, dragged read more ...

Another VIEW

REED Democracy Disconnect Democracy in Disconnect: Joining the Dots. If we are to protect the freedoms we have in Australia it is essential that we learn from our mistakes. But to do so, we need first to acknowledge that they’ve been made, then take responsibility for what went wrong. Regardless of who holds the Treasury benches in Canberra, the art of avoiding cleaning up the mess has become dangerously refined. The media, to its credit, often draws relevant incidents to the public’s attention, though we let each one pass as if it’s isolated and not part of a worrying pattern. read more ...

KAFKA FACTS

Recommended Reading, Franz KAFKA's The Trial (Der Prozess) or at least the FIRST LINE. In 2002 and 2003 an officer with the covert Air Border Security Unit of the Customs Department, wrote two reports identifying serious breaches of security at Sydney Airport. The report documented, among other things, the employment of baggage handlers with criminal records, theft of luggage, and drug trafficking. K found that roughly 30 percent of all personnel working behind the ‘sterile line’ (airside) had questionable backgrounds – aside from workers with criminal records, there were illegal immigrants, overstays, and, in eight cases, workers with no form read more ...

APPEALING to Justices

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24438793-17044,00.html 'Kessing evidence based on hearsay' Lex Hall | October 03, 2008 A CUSTOMS whistleblower who leaked information that prompted the biggest overhaul of airport security in Australia's history was convicted on the strength of hearsay evidence, his lawyer has told an appeals court. Allan Kessing was given a nine-month suspended jail term last year by NSW District Court judge James Bennett for the 2005 leak of two confidential Australian Customs Services reports. The 60-year-old is challenging his conviction in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal. The top-secret documents outlined serious gaps in anti-terror security at Sydney airport, as well read more ...

OZ Stands

Airports left with very thin blue line Natalie O'Brien and Peter Wilson | May 02, 2008 ALMOST a quarter of the extra police promised to tighten security at Australia's major airports are still not in place, three years after a scathing review warned that security was inadequate and dysfunctional. At least two states with international airports - Western Australia and Queensland - will not have the full complement of police numbers in place until the end of the year at the earliest. Other promises that have not been met in the wake of the review by British aviation expert John read more ...