A study which cost Australian taxpayers $200,000 by way of an academic grant, was duly trounced as hysterical and misleading (inferred) by the good ‘horse sense’ of Federal Police Chief Mick Keelty. The study makes imaginative claims of local 'terrorist activity' and utilises abstract and ambiguous terminology such as, "ideological sleeper cells" – by definition everyone is an 'ideological sleeper' as we are all prone to change our minds at any given time.
Many needy causes exist in Oz where two hundred thousand dollars could have been better spent; however, the prime minister, John Howard, needs all the media hype/help he can get – Howard faces losing government to a more servile lackey than himself.
Local analysts and journos refer to the luck of the British (politicians) in reference to the latest idiotic, amateurish ‘terrorist attacks’ in Britain. Our Johnny could have used all the hysteria and alarm Gordon Brown is capitalising on in Britain but the best he could muster was an excuse for an academic study, at obvious pains to please the conservatives who paid for the service.
The “youths” to which the ‘study’ refers are mostly of Lebanese background, a demographic with which the public is extremely familiar, many are Muslim but religion exerts little influence with this demographic of mostly racist, petty criminal gang members isolated by their attitude to the general community as much as by the inherent racism of Anglo Australians. The statisticians employed by the census department provide far more useful information than this extremely transparent and thin ‘study’.
Mick Keelty rightly stated that it is impossible to determine the number of extremists in Oz – effectively hanging the study up to dry! He also stated that is was unhelpful to throw misleading figures around.
Compare the following contrasting articles from Reuters and the Murdoch press:
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=20d67beb-3a3b-4033-bd60-acaf77973449&k=96118
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22003350-5005961,00.html
John Howard is presently engaged in retracting a number of decisions/stunts in relation to the highly emotive indigenous issue, a tactic he hoped would serve his re-election interests. He has failed to realise the simple fact that his long tenure is the principal cause of his unpopularity -- Howard is now a liability to his party; however, no one in his party is willing to replace him and take the fall at the next election.
Perhaps Howard should have payed a few of his faithful supporters a fraction of the amount for the study, for a feigned attack on the Atomic Energy Commission – a guaranteed hysterical public response!
Source with pics:
http://cleaves.zapto.org/clv/story-563.html
Local analysts and journos refer to the luck of the British (politicians) in reference to the latest idiotic, amateurish ‘terrorist attacks’ in Britain. Our Johnny could have used all the hysteria and alarm Gordon Brown is capitalising on in Britain but the best he could muster was an excuse for an academic study, at obvious pains to please the conservatives who paid for the service.
The “youths” to which the ‘study’ refers are mostly of Lebanese background, a demographic with which the public is extremely familiar, many are Muslim but religion exerts little influence with this demographic of mostly racist, petty criminal gang members isolated by their attitude to the general community as much as by the inherent racism of Anglo Australians. The statisticians employed by the census department provide far more useful information than this extremely transparent and thin ‘study’.
Mick Keelty rightly stated that it is impossible to determine the number of extremists in Oz – effectively hanging the study up to dry! He also stated that is was unhelpful to throw misleading figures around.
Compare the following contrasting articles from Reuters and the Murdoch press:
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=20d67beb-3a3b-4033-bd60-acaf77973449&k=96118 http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22003350-5005961,00.html John Howard is presently engaged in retracting a number of decisions/stunts in relation to the highly emotive indigenous issue, a tactic he hoped would serve his re-election interests. He has failed to realise the simple fact that his long tenure is the principal cause of his unpopularity -- Howard is now a liability to his party; however, no one in his party is willing to replace him and take the fall at the next election.
Perhaps Howard should have payed a few of his faithful supporters a fraction of the amount for the study, for a feigned attack on the Atomic Energy Commission – a guaranteed hysterical public response!
Source with pics:
http://cleaves.zapto.org/clv/story-563.html 
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