www.cryptogon.com

A reader from Australia sent in an update on the situation there.

10/16/2002

Hi Kevin,

It's refreshing to see somebody is on the ball.

Yours is the only site that has connected the recent plane crash in Hamilton Island to the spate of deaths involving personnel associated with bioterrorism/immunology etc.

And so far, yours is the only site calling the Bali bomb blast as it really is: a cruel form of coercion, and I believe that the Australian government is in this up to their necks, with a degree of complicity from the corrupt Indonesian military and of course the CIA.

The Howard government was relected by grandstanding implicitly racial border protection issues. The Howard government has allowed the Florida-based Wackenhut Corporation to manage refugee detention centers and refused UN inspections of the facilities. Only recently, investigative journalist Ross Coulthart (the Sunday programme www.sunday.ninemsn.com.au ) has uncovered federal complicity in the active scuttling of refugee boats docked in Indonesia, resulting on one occasion in the deaths of 350 men, women and children.

Within hours of the Bali explosion, al Qaida was being fingered as the likely culprit with absolutely no evidence presented. John Howard was issuing decrees that we must unify and step up our efforts in the War on Terror. The leader of the (left-wing) opposition, Simon Crean, who was recently toying with an anti-war stance due to large numbers of Labor Party voters switching to the more progressive Greens, announced that under the circumstances we must all show bi-partisan support in bringing those responsible to justice. Worst of all, we were told Australia itself was being attacked.

I have also noticed interesting developments in reporting over the last few days: Australia has a strong tradition of reporting on South East Asian affairs. Many of our journalists are experts on the region. And yet, in the mainstream media, on the web, on TV , and in print, most reports seem to be issuing from sources such as the Washington Post and CNN.

There has been a long history of covert action in this region, from the US engineered dismissal of the Whitlam government in the 70's when it was going to shut down the Pine Gap facility, to ASIO's bombing of the Sydney Hilton when it was faced with budget cuts (members of the Ananda Margha religious cult were arrested and imprisoned).

We have just seen the worst example so far.

AM