Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
GUANTANAMO
US sets terrorism trial rules
The new rules for military courts in the US allow convicted terrorists to be imprisoned or put to death using hearsay evidence or coerced testimony.
The Pentagon's manual will apply to Guantanamo Bay detainees like Australian David Hicks.
It also states a suspect's defence lawyer cannot reveal classified evidence until the Government has had a chance to review it.
The detainee may never get to see classified information. Instead he will be given an unclassified version of the case against him.
Hicks's lawyer blasts new guidelines
David Hicks's American lawyer says new guidelines for his client's military trial are unfair and do not improve on the previous flawed system.
Major Michael Mori says the guidelines released by the Pentagon still do not include fundamental rights such as habeas corpus.
He has also criticised their retrospective nature.
"A law has been passed in 2006 that is being applied retroactively to someone for conduct five years ago," he said.
"That's not acceptable.
"Even the Australian ministers have said creating legislation now and applying it to David retroactively is inappropriate, and yet that's exactly what the United States is doing to David, which we would not accept for Americans."
[ "Unfortunately what we've seen in the past under the illegal system is that the Attorney-General just went right along with whatever his American counterparts told him and didn't exercise any independent judgement," - Major Michael Mori]
Don't accept new rules, Opposition urges Govt
The Opposition says the Federal Government should not accept the new rules for the military trial of non-American detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The Pentagon has released the guidelines, which allow hearsay evidence and information gathered under coercion to be admitted.
Lawyers say the only significant change in the new rules is the removal of the detainees' rights to habeas corpus - that is the right to challenge the nature of their detention.
["The United States' Military Commission Act expressly stipulates that no American citizen can be dealt with by the military commission, so if it's not good enough for an American citizen, if it's not good enough for a British citizen, why is it good enough for an Australian citizen?" - ALPs Kevin Thompson]
The new rules for military courts in the US allow convicted terrorists to be imprisoned or put to death using hearsay evidence or coerced testimony.
The Pentagon's manual will apply to Guantanamo Bay detainees like Australian David Hicks.
It also states a suspect's defence lawyer cannot reveal classified evidence until the Government has had a chance to review it.
The detainee may never get to see classified information. Instead he will be given an unclassified version of the case against him.
Hicks's lawyer blasts new guidelines
David Hicks's American lawyer says new guidelines for his client's military trial are unfair and do not improve on the previous flawed system.
Major Michael Mori says the guidelines released by the Pentagon still do not include fundamental rights such as habeas corpus.
He has also criticised their retrospective nature.
"A law has been passed in 2006 that is being applied retroactively to someone for conduct five years ago," he said.
"That's not acceptable.
"Even the Australian ministers have said creating legislation now and applying it to David retroactively is inappropriate, and yet that's exactly what the United States is doing to David, which we would not accept for Americans."
[ "Unfortunately what we've seen in the past under the illegal system is that the Attorney-General just went right along with whatever his American counterparts told him and didn't exercise any independent judgement," - Major Michael Mori]
Don't accept new rules, Opposition urges Govt
The Opposition says the Federal Government should not accept the new rules for the military trial of non-American detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The Pentagon has released the guidelines, which allow hearsay evidence and information gathered under coercion to be admitted.
Lawyers say the only significant change in the new rules is the removal of the detainees' rights to habeas corpus - that is the right to challenge the nature of their detention.
["The United States' Military Commission Act expressly stipulates that no American citizen can be dealt with by the military commission, so if it's not good enough for an American citizen, if it's not good enough for a British citizen, why is it good enough for an Australian citizen?" - ALPs Kevin Thompson]
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
CASHLESSNESS
Banking sector wants consumers to pay for online fraud
Currently, banks reimburse consumers the money they've lost in so-called email "phishing" attacks, or from mistakes made during online transactions. But the sector's now lobbying the Australian financial services watchdog, ASIC, to shift responsibility from the banks to consumers.
The Director of CARE Financial Counselling Services, David Tennant, says banks are encouraging customers towards online banking to save costs.
DAVID TENNANT: They make some significant cost savings in consumers doing that rather than physically going into branches and so on. To think that you then reverse that course of savings by passing the risk for that transaction onto consumers just seems plain unfair to me.
JENNIFER MACEY: He says banks are better equipped to protect consumers from online and internet fraud.
DAVID TENNANT: It's now almost an entire occupation in itself to try and keep up with the new problems that you face in an online environment and to expect that average consumers are going to be able to do that when industry itself is struggling with it, I think is a bit rich.
Currently, banks reimburse consumers the money they've lost in so-called email "phishing" attacks, or from mistakes made during online transactions. But the sector's now lobbying the Australian financial services watchdog, ASIC, to shift responsibility from the banks to consumers.
The Director of CARE Financial Counselling Services, David Tennant, says banks are encouraging customers towards online banking to save costs.
DAVID TENNANT: They make some significant cost savings in consumers doing that rather than physically going into branches and so on. To think that you then reverse that course of savings by passing the risk for that transaction onto consumers just seems plain unfair to me.
JENNIFER MACEY: He says banks are better equipped to protect consumers from online and internet fraud.
DAVID TENNANT: It's now almost an entire occupation in itself to try and keep up with the new problems that you face in an online environment and to expect that average consumers are going to be able to do that when industry itself is struggling with it, I think is a bit rich.
ORANGE BOILERSUITS
Graphic footage of Saddam allies' hangings released
The Iraqi Government has released graphic video footage of the execution of two of Saddam Hussein's key allies.
One was his half-brother, the former chief of the intelligence service Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, who was decapitated during the hanging.
The other man was the former boss of the Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bander.
The video first shows both men being prepared for execution, standing next to each other and dressed in orange boiler suits.
[US imperialism spreads in many and varied ways: orange boiler suits are becoming ubiquitous among prison populations and symbolise the pariah.]
Friday, January 12, 2007
SADDAM HANGED
Execution unites country
Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has said his government could review relations with any country which criticised the execution of ex-leader Saddam Hussein.
Mr Maliki said the hanging was a "domestic affair" for the benefit of Iraq's unity, adding that the former president had received a fair trial.
Execution divides country
The revulsion which was felt in the West and among Sunni Muslims has grown even greater. Yet so has the sense of triumph among Shias in Iraq and elsewhere. In death as in life, Saddam continues to divide his enemies.
His execution has acted like an explosion along the seismic fault-line between the two leading forms of Islam.
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