Whistle-blowers--Innuendo and Conspiricy--Where does Truth Lie????

[1938 Observer]

Andrew Wilkie & the Iraq War

The story of the only western intelligence officer to speak out against the presented evidence of WMDs in the lead-up to war. From the Australian series 'Law & Disorder' which looks at whistle-blowers and the consequences of their actions - on them and the public. Originally aired on the SBS.

"Whistleblowers frequently face reprisal, sometimes at the hands of the organization or group which they have accused, sometimes from related organizations, and sometimes under law".

[1938 Observer]

part 3/4







Andrew Wilkie & the Iraq War - part 4/4







Andrew Wilkie
Andrew Wilkie is the author of Axis of Deceit. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Australian Defence Force before he joined the Office of National Assessments as a senior strategic analyst. After leaving ONA, he gave evidence at the official British and Australian inquiries into the case for the Iraq war. He contested John Howard’s seat of Bennelong for the Greens in the 2004 federal election. In 2010 he stood successfully as an independent for the federal seat of Denison in Tasmania.

Books
Axis of Deceit
Andrew Wilkie.

http://www.blackincbooks.com/authors/andrew-wilkie

Andrew WilkieFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
Andrew Wilkie

Andrew Wilkie speaking at anti-pulp mill rally in 2007
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Denison
Incumbent
Assumed office
21 August 2010
Preceded by Duncan Kerr
Majority 1.2%
Personal details
Born 8 November 1961 (1961-11-08) (age 49)
Tamworth, New South Wales
Nationality Australian
Political party Independent
Residence Tasmania
Occupation Politician
Profession Soldier, Intelligence officer
Website Andrew Wilkie's website


Andrew Wilkie ran for the Australian Greens in 2007Andrew Damien Wilkie (born 8 November 1961, Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian politician and independent federal member for Denison. He was formerly an army officer and then intelligence analyst.

In 2003 Wilkie resigned from his position in the Office of National Assessments, an Australian intelligence agency, over concerns that intelligence was being misrepresented for political purposes in making the case for Australia's contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq under the Howard government.

Since then he has been active in Australian politics. He was an unsuccessful Australian Greens candidate for both the federal Division of Bennelong in the 2004 federal election and for the Senate in Tasmania at the 2007 federal election. In 2010 he ran as an independent for the state seat of Denison at the Tasmanian state election, narrowly missing out on the final vacancy. Later in the year, again as an independent, he ran for and won the federal seat of Denison at the federal election.[1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wilkie

[1938 Observer]

While searching I came across this site....................a blog compiled by "Darren West
From the beautiful to the absurd, credible to the controversial, welcome to The 33rd Floor."


Topics covered in this one include "9/11'

Guantanamo Bay

Freedom of Information (FOI)

Tower of Power [News Corp]

Plus a whole lot more, some quite serious, one or two have a lighter ("tongue in cheek") approach, such as Australian Interior Authority"......Scattered throughout Australian cities, hints of an Orwellian dystopia looms, as side streets and alleyways draped with draconian-styled posters project a somewhat ominous future, all falling under the guise known as the Australian Interior Authority.





To read,discuss,ponder or disregard..just go to the link..............


http://www.the33rdfloor.com/

[1938 Observer]

Australian Interior Authority - Curfew





Australian Interior Authority - Public Gatherings






The Museum of Australian Democracy has provoked a national debate on freedom and democracy through creating a future without it. Learn more and join the conversation here. http://ourfreedom.com.au/



Will the real George Orwell please stand up.

[Lizzie]

Wilkie has my deepest respect for his honesty and ethics and the enormous courage it took to demonstrate those traits. So few did at the time. And, when I hear the 'bobbleheads' prattle about war crimes and illegal war, I ask where were you when it mattered - when those like Wilkie stood alone. Well, the press were having their little egos stroked embedded with the troops and providing a positive slant to the invasion - I do not call it a war.

I had my own little run-in with the intimidation of the time. I happened to mention locally I was present at the protest in Manhattan three weeks prior to the military action. Well, lo and behold, the clicks started on my phone. Problems with my email were traced on two occasions to the local Sprint hub and was obviously being intercepted. I put my thumb to my nose and waggled my fingers in the direction of the suspected intimidation, sat down and made two little stickers for my vehicle - one in red, white, and blue reading BRING THEM HOME, and the other in stark black and white - THEY DIE FOR A LIE. The responses were interesting with some glares and some thumbs-up. Well, the powers-to-be seeking total dominion over the masses, had my number and what to lose! There's little doubt I am on their no-fly list alongside a million others who dared voice their disapproval. Now, I may be a bit of a terror at times but adding 'ist' to this auld Grannie is far-fetched ludicrous as I stand in my yard talking to the deer eating out of my hand and clucking at the wild turkey to come for breakfast. Such a threat!

However, I do believe it is your civic duty to stand up and be counted when there is a great wrong being perpetrated with all the young lives about to be squandered for profit and greed.

[FriedaKateM]

In regard to Lizzie's posting....I tend to become so upset & angered at our Congress of the USA, that I send emails, & sometimes call on the phone to my senators, members of Congress. Of course, voicing my disapproval of the way they're handling things in Washington, etc., etc. I address specific problems that I observe.

However, upon receiving "answers" from the above, they are answered by their underlings, & the topics that I discussed in MY emails, phonecalls, are not addressed in a personal way. In other words, they (the elected ones) do NOT even look at the emails, & the ones I get are the "form" type of letters that they send on to all of their constituents.

If I had a nickel for every time I blew up in anger, & yelled at the TV, I'd be so rich, I wouldn't worry about enough $ to live on, Soc Security, and so on. I cannot remember EVER in my life, being so fed up with the politicians in our country. Joan (whew....!!!) BOOOoooooooooo........

[Glesgalass]

Joan, I once emailed my member of parliament in Canberra about an issue. I received a reply only a couple of hours later but it was short and not sweet and I was annoyed so I emailed straight back addressed to "the member of staff who wrote this emal". Lo and behold, I nearly fell off my chair in surprise when this MP rang me from Canberra to tell me that he answers all his own emails.

Elda

[1938 Observer]

After a great deal of research and many $$$s later I have managed to isolate a group of photographs of all your favourite politicians.......


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZZnB84sd9f...e%20trough.jpg


http://www.inkcinct.com.au/web-pages...pig-trough.gif


http://www.pbs.org/now/pow/images/cartoon-blog-pigs.jpg


http://www.ihavenet.com/images/Econo...the-Trough.jpg



http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscart...s/lfon379l.jpg



The Internet is a wonderful place, , I had not realised the photogenic qualities of so many politicians when I first set about this task...


thus, I can only add one final comment..................

[1938 Observer]

Now here is another item to raise a few questions and seek definitive answers..................................



Blaming Iran for terror plot risks 'uncontrollable war'



"The World Today" Updated October 12, 2011 16:45:42.



A former US intelligence analyst is warning the Obama administration to step back from blaming Iran for the foiled assassination plot against the Saudi ambassador in Washington, saying the comments risk igniting war.




The US attorney-general says Iran is behind what would have been a blatant act of international terrorism and which investigating authorities said was intended to be a prelude to other attacks.

The Iranian regime is denying any involvement in the plot and says the allegations are US propaganda.

Former CIA analyst Robert Baer, who spent 21 years working as a CIA case officer in the Middle East, says the US may have gotten it dangerously wrong.

He said the plot did not appear to him to be driven by the Iranian government and he said the US administration must now open a direct diplomatic channel with the Iranian regime to calm tensions.

At a press conference announcing the plot and the charging of two Iranians, attorney-general Eric Holder said the US would "hold Iran accountable for its actions".

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton also warned that the US will consider ways to isolate Iran from the international community.

"This kind of action which violates international norms must be ended and other areas where we can cooperate more closely in order to send a strong message to Iran and further isolate it from the international community will also be considered," she said.

Two men originally from Iran - one a naturalised US citizen - have been charged with counts of conspiracy to murder.

The two men allegedly linked to the plot have been named as Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalised US citizen with dual Iranian and US passports, and Gholam Shakuri, said to be a member of Iran's elite Quds Force, a unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

The US State Department has since issued a worldwide travel alert for US citizens.

"The US government assesses that this Iranian-backed plan to assassinate the Saudi ambassador may indicate a more aggressive focus by the Iranian government on terrorist activity against diplomats from certain countries, to include possible attacks in the United States," the State Department said in a statement.

'Completely out of character'
But Mr Baer says it is not credible that the Iranian government is behind the plot.

"There may be a rogue element behind it. This doesn't fit their modus operandi at all. It's completely out of character; they're much better than this," he said.

"They wouldn't be sending money through an American bank; they wouldn't be going to the cartels in Mexico to do this.

"It's just not the way they work. I've followed them for 30 years and they're much more careful. They always use a proxy between them and the operation, and in this case they didn't."

Shakuri remains at large in Iran; Arbabsiar was arrested on September 29 at New York's John F Kennedy International Airport and made a brief appearance in a Manhattan courtroom where he was ordered, detained and assigned a public defender.


Audio: Ex-CIA warns US 'dangerously wrong' on Iran (The World Today)
He faces a maximum potential sentence of life in prison if convicted of all the charges.

Mr Holder described the plot as an "international murder for hire scheme" involving a plan to pay an assassin from a Mexican drug cartel $US1.5 million to carry out the killing.

"The criminal complaint unsealed today exposes a deadly plot directed by factions of the Iranian government to assassinate a foreign ambassador on US soil with explosives," he said.

But Mr Baer said he would not be surprised if the US administration back-tracked from its accusation in order to avoid its ramifications.

"If they truly believe the central government was going to launch an attack inside the United States like this, they have to do something, now that they're on the record," he said.

"There could be retaliatory attacks or... bomb a Quds Force base in Tehran, any number of things, of course, which would lead to a huge escalation."


Video: Iran backed plot to launch attacks in Washington: US (The Midday Report)

'Sitting on a volcano'
Mr Baer said if the US increases its rhetoric, "we are looking at an escalation which is uncontrollable".

"If we were to launch an embargo, there's a limited amount of troops in Iraq - would the Iranians retaliate against them?" he said.

"Would they retaliate against us in any number of places? Even in Saudi Arabia they could retaliate against American interests or Saudi Arabia itself.

"Iran truly is the third rail of American foreign policy and no one has done anything over the years to ameliorate relations with Iran."

Mr Baer said an Iranian radical could be behind the plot in an attempt to frame the government.

"We could not control the consequences of a war with Iran - it's uncontrollable," he said.

"My contention is we're sitting on a volcano in the Middle East. But that all could be ignited by this kind of tension. And people in the White House, that's exactly what they don't need going into an election," he said.

"Now is the time we should have a back channel to Iran, figure out who these people are, a red line, like we used to have with the Soviet Union, and sort this out.

"We need a direct channel to the Iranians to talk this through."

Mr Baer said if Iran really was behind the plot, it was "an act of war".

"If that bomb had gone off… if indeed this was a real plot, it had gone off it would have been an act of war and the United States would have been forced to respond with military… an attack. There would have been no question in my mind," he said.

"So were we that close to a war with Iran? I don't know."

Iran's mission to the United Nations said Iran rejected the "baseless allegations".

In a statement, Saudi Arabia branded the plot as "despicable", saying it violated "the principles of humanity".

ABC/wires

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-1...ks-war/3553800



The question now remains, who is actually behind the plot ????? How thorough is the investigative process, the powers that be seem quite adept at 'getting it wrong' at various times, will the ensuing debate cover up continuing poor governence and fiscal default...............only time will tell the jury may be out for a while on this one.