GOVT.FAIL.AU: Labor tough on whistleblowing

Labor tough on whistleblowing  - The Canberra Times   

The Labor Government is a far more ferocious prosecutor of whistleblowers and leakers than the Howard government, with Kevin Rudd overseeing a doubling of leak referrals to the Federal Police during his time as prime minister.  

New figures obtained during a Fairfax investigation into Federal Police leak probes show that while the Howard government referred 16 leaks of government material to Federal Police between 2005-07, the Rudd Government referred 32.  The surprising figures reflect a similar trend in US politics, where the more liberal Obama Administration has become known for taking a harder line on whistleblowers than the previous Bush administration.  

The Federal Police unit the investigations are run out of is a section called Special References, and most investigations are run by a Canberra-based million-dollar-a-year, 17-officer unit called Head Office Investigations.(snip)   ''If the government want us to do it, they're our masters, so we do it ,'' the source said. ''And that's not just a particular government, both Labor and Liberal and everyone in between gets the shits when their policies are undermined or their big announcements appear on the front page of the newspapers 24 hours before they announce it.''

Now we see why the Prime Minister set herself against Julian Assange and the release of Cablegate.  Without whistleblowers, our democracy is degraded as there is no other way to monitor the activities of those who we elect to govern on our behalf.  Our governments must be held accountable.

Is your ADHD teenager trafficking drugs?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0108/1224287042366.html

YOUNG PEOPLE with attention deficit disorder problems are at a significantly higher risk of misusing drugs and alcohol.

(snip)

Conference organiser Rose Kavanagh said there is still widespread ignorance over the links between the disorder and substance abuse, even among health professionals. “All the research points to this link, but there needs to be much greater awareness about the problem,” she said.

(snip)

US research indicates that at least one-fifth of 17-18-year-olds with the disorder had some form of substance abuse problem.

(snip)

Until recently it was thought sufferers outgrew the condition. But recent studies show that around 60 per cent of those diagnosed with the disorder in childhood will continue with a modified form of the condition into adulthood.

Well ... gollee! For years, I have been amazed that our health professionals could believe that a kid, after some years on Ritalan, or the alternatives, could 'grow out' of the need for legalised speed when they become adults. This has to be a contributing factor the self-destructiveness of so many of our teenagers. Road rage - and any other rages - should be evaluated to see what proportion of this behaviour could be attributed to the use of these drugs prescribed to manage ADHD in our children.

Let me tell you a story. Back in the 1990's, a fourteen year old in my care came home from school with a foil of Ritalin tablets. He had bought them from a classmate who had been prescribed them for ADHD. That kid was already a 'drug dealer' selling his tablets to his mates. Logic suggests that he didn't need the Ritalin if he was able to sell it rather than taking it. That beg's the question, how many teenagers are fakinhg ADHT to be a hero 'selling drugs' to their friends.

Starwars trumps Julian Assange

Julian Assange, in his 2006 dissertations, speculated on what it would take to bring down a conspiracy. In his latest Cablegate release, we find that the Chinese have found an answer.

• Chinese relations in deep freeze : Views and News from Norway

  • Aftenposten reported Tuesday that WikiLeaks documents it has obtained show that American officials are deeply worried over China’s newfound ability to shoot satellites out of the sky. Its first display of its ability took place in January 2007, when a rocket from the Xichang space center in Sechuan Province destroyed a US satellite and violated international agreements against exactly that.

    China since has reportedly attacked at least three satellites, in violation of international agreements, and the US has needed to alter the course of several of its own satellites, to reduce the danger of more damage.

    “The satellites are incredibly important, for surveillance, navigation or communication,” Ståle Ulriksen of foreign policy research institute NUPI told Aftenposten. “If anyone knocks them out, the entire western military concept can collapse. The US and NATO will lose their military might.”

Julian Assange - Hero or Fool?

In the mid 1980's - before the Internet and the state of the art computer was an 8286 processor with about 40 Mb hard drive - I used to attend computer swap meets where we brought our machines to a central place and swapped hardware and software.

One of our number was a blond headed, lanky teenager who became affectionately named "The Kid". He had an uncanny ability to break the license code of any proprietary software presented to him. He was already fluent in encryption mehods and was hacking into international network computers using a 1200 baud modem illegally connected to the Telecom phone system. At that time, there were no laws to be broken and it all seemed pretty harmless as he and his mates were not destructive of others networks - although they always left a message to say that they had been there to let them know that their security had been breached. I believe that kid grew up to become Julian Assange.

I have been a WikiLeaks reader for about three years and have referenced their revelations in my blog in particular the leak of the proposed banned web sites of the Australian government's Internet filtering system.

When 'Cablegate' began, I wondered if 'The Kid' was indeed Julian Assange and embarked on a research effort delving into his past.

First, I uncovered the archive of his web postings from 2001 to 2007 which give an insight into how he has developed the philosophies he espouses with WikiLeaks. Then came 'The Assange Essays' of 2006 where he searches for a way to break down conspiracies. But the daddy of them all is his development of Rubberhose an encryption method designed to withstand the torture often afforded to human rights workers who carry sensitive information on their laptops. Assange delves into the metits of the sytem when someone is being 'Rubber Hosed" or beaten into submission.

Early in the release of 'Cablegate', I suspected that Julian Assange had underestimated the might of the United States and that he will unwittingly suffer the worst of consequences. However, after researching his background, I am convinced that his life has been devoted to his cause and that he is the truest of freedom fighters. I challenge you to explore the above links. There is another good background piece, on the man himself, here.

Finally, having read No Secrets, Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency, I am totally convinced that this story parallels my own experience of 'The Kid'.