Aus Federal Police confirm its officers trained 20 Burmese police in in­telligence gathering; Aidwatch seeks halt to co-operation

The Australian Federal Police confirmed three of its officers trained 20 Burmese police in in­telligence gathering, as the inter­national group Aidwatch warned that such co-operation should be curtailed amid the brutal sup­pression of democracy activists, wrote Craig Skehan in The Sydney Morning Herald (5/10/2007, p.6).

Almost 25 per cent of spying related to commercial secrets; spies pose as business people or academics; shared secrets and trade negotiations targeted

A former top Australian spy said there had been no let-up in global espionage despite the cessation of the Cold War, and technological advances and globalisation made the country’s military and business secrets more vulnerable, according to John Kerin reported in The Australian Financial Review (5/10/2007, p. 27).

Prosecution expert witness slams Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as “one of the most sophisticated and deadly terrorist insurgencies in the world”, but refuses to name sources

Australia had been soft on the Sri Lankan terror group the Tamil Tigers, according to a senior policy analyst with US-based think tank the Rand Corporation, according to Natasha Robinson writing in The Australian (4/10/2007, p. 8).

Infrastructure to allow operation of RAAF heavy airlift aircraft at RAAF Base Amberley and four other bases to cost $268m

The C17 heavy airlift infrastructure project would deliver the necessary permanent facilities and airfield pavements to support C17 operations at its home base, RAAF Base Amberley, and expanded infrastructure at deployment bases, RAAF bases Edinburgh, Darwin, Pearce and Townsville, to allow the large aircraft to operate effectively, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Peter McGauran said in the Commonwealth House of Representatives on 20 September 2007.

Multinational mercenaries: Iraq private-security contractors still immune from Iraqi law

Their helicopters buzzed through the Baghdad sky, their patrols bristled with the latest weaponry and their armoured vehicles carried the latest high-tech gadgets, wrote Paul Tait in The Canberra Times (22/9/2007, p.B2).

On day to review Federal Bill that gives powers to summons people without documenting reasons, force evidence, and create retrospective criminal sanction

The Law Council of Australia and the Democrats accused the Government of trying to rush through Amendments to the Australian Crime Commission Bill “The bill will abrogate a fundamental human right not to be subject to retrospective criminal sanction,” said Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja.

Echoes of Eisenhower in new ’security-industrial complex’: weak Western leaders fuelling paranoia

Commentators have ascribed the chaotically belligerent aftermath of 11 Sep­tember to weak Western leaders crav­ing popularity in the glamour of war, wrote Simon Jenkins in The Sydney Morning Herald (20/9/2007, p.13).

Innocent man killed as “terrorist”; police operation goes wrong, London jury hears

In an unprecedented health and safety pros­ecution that was launched yesterday, the Metropolitan Police were accused of overseeing a “catastrophic” operation that led to the death of the 27-year-old Brazilian electrician who had been mistaken for one of the bombers involved in failed suicide attacks on London’s subway trains on 21 July 2005, wrote Charlotte Gill in The Courier Mail (3/10/2007, p.36).

Real Canadians have touch of protest madness themselves – three Canuck police go undercover at Quebec demo in face masks and camouflage gear, one clutching a large rock in his hand

The Chaser boys’ journey towards Bush’s hotel came as a hoot of larrikin delight, and a reminder that humour can puncture the most bloated and pompous subject, according to national affairs editor Tony Wright in The Age (8/9/2007, p.3).

Media seen as a nuisance: entrenched anti-disclosure culture in government, courts issue more than a thousand suppression orders

At the commonwealth level, News Limited was still smarting from its costly two-year battle between The Australian and the Treasurer, Peter Costello, for the release of details of the effect on taxpayers of bracket creep, and the first home buyers scheme, according to News Limited’s chief executive John Hartigan reported The Australian (8/9/2007, p. 27).

Climage change to induce insurgencies, genocide, guerrilla attacks, gang warfare and global terrorism,

In the future, that battlefield was likely to be complex and hazardous, according to Thomas Homer-Dixon in The Courier Mail (24/8/2007, p.31). Climate change would help produce the kind of military challenges that were difficult for today’s conventional forces to handle: insurgencies, genocide, guerrilla attacks, gang warfare and global terrorism.

Electricity as a weapon in an unwinnable war: Sri Lanka orders blackouts, to deny Tigers visibility: home generators essential Colombo white-ware

With Lankans in front of TVs, gripped by their cricketing heroes jousting with Gilchrist in the cricket world cup final they would lose in Barbados, the Tigers’ jerry-built “air force” staged a raid on the capital. The Government ordered the power supply cut, to deny the Tigers visibility. But Lankans have long known that the Ceylon Electricity Board cannot service the national grid, so home generators are de rigueur.

Vic SOG officers wary of forced-entry raid that led to shooting death, coroner hears

Special Operations Group police officers involved in a dawn raid on a Brooklyn house in 2005 expressed misgivings about the operation before a man was fatally shot in the house, a court heard, reported The Age (13/9/2007, p.9).

Locals see British forces as ‘defeated’ in Basra, not ‘withdrawing’, says ICG Iraq analysis

Britain had 45,000 troops in Iraq during the invasion and a peak of 18,000 in the occupation, reported The Australian (4/9/2007, p.13).

Chairman of the US House of Reps Committee on Foreign Affairs writes to the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh – demands India disconnect, from Iran

Robert McClelland, Member for Barton, Australian Labor Party, House of Representatives, Commonwealth asked Alexander Downer, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Member for Mayo, Liberal Party of Australia, in the House of Representatives, Commonwealth, 11 September 2007 if the reports that the Chairman of the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Lantos, had written to the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, demanding that India cease cooperating with Iran in the military and energy spheres.