you keep on relying on Alan the Amazing.....there's an own goal if ever there was one lol

Alan the Amazing is onto Tony - roflmao

The Sri Lankan government’s human rights record is under attack, but not by The Australian’s Greg Sheridan. He travelled to the country last month on a government-funded trip.

The Australian’s foreign editor Greg Sheridan has defended accepting the Sri Lankan government’s offer of paid travel and accommodation to report on the state of the country four years after the end of a brutal civil war.

The Australian Tamil Congress has described Sheridan’s series on Sri Lanka — which painted a glowing picture of the country’s progress — as an “advertisement” for the government that ignored the continuing oppression of the country’s Tamil minority.

Sheridan produced four stories totalling 5000 words from the trip, which was the brainchild of the Sri Lankan government. These included “Sri Lanka holds back the tide” (which argued Sri Lanka is Australia’s best friend on tackling people smuggling) “Sri Lanka: a nation at peace” (in which Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa accused the Tamil diaspora of bribing Western politicians) and last Friday’s “Sri Lanka’s path to peace”.

Sheridan’s pieces carried a declaration saying he travelled as a guest of the Sri Lankan government.

Sheridan’s trip coincided with a week-long visit by Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who said:

    “I am deeply concerned that Sri Lanka, despite the opportunity provided by the end of the war to construct a new vibrant, all-embracing state, is showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction … It is important everyone realises that, although the fighting is over, the suffering is not.”

Pillay’s comments were not reported in The Australian and received little attention from other Australian media outlets.

Sam Pari, spokesperson for the Australian Tamil Congress, told Crikey: “The government is still conducting horrendous structural genocide against the Tamil people. It’s immoral and unethical for a senior journalist to be writing articles just based on one side when it’s clear that side has a vested interest. It’s embarrassing because they [the Sri Lankan government] are using an Australian media outlet to do their propaganda for them.

“It’s basically a free advertisement in the paper; instead of paying money to advertise Sri Lanka, they spend money on a journalist to advertise Sri Lanka.”

But Sheridan, who has long taken aim at the Tamil Tigers in his columns, told Crikey accepting sponsored travel did not affect his independence. ”I’m a very opinionated writer,” he said. “I certainly try to inform opinions partly through travel. I don’t think they have ever been influenced improperly by sponsorship.

“I’d say there are two obligations when taking a trip funded by a foreign government: the first is disclosure; the second is not to be intellectually corrupted by the sponsorship, that is, not to form a judgement, or write anything, which is contradictory to what you would have written had it not been for the sponsorship.”

Sheridan says it is common for governments to fund trips by journalists — including the Australian government, which brings reporters to Australia under the Special Visitors Program. Earlier this year, Sheridan visited China as a guest of Chinese telco giant Huawei.

Human Rights Watch last year claimed the Sri Lankan government has:

    “… continued its assault on democratic space and failed to take any meaningful steps towards providing accountability for war crimes committed by either side during the internal armed conflict that ended in 2009. The government targeted civil society through threats, surveillance and clampdowns on activities and free speech.”

Earlier this year Reporters Without Borders placed Sri Lanka 162nd out of 179 nations in a press freedom index.

journalists from the left ... and journalists from right ... are just that ... journos

paul (who does write well) is an open supporter of Hamas ... but does that make him correct or just giving an opinion like everybody else



either way is war and war is hell

this ISIS thing is probably gonna get big and probably blow

what we do have in Australia is major party bi-partisan political support over ISIS so it ain't going away

the real issues of course are how it all affects Syria, Russia and China


and love it or hate it ... if things got tricky in our local backyard in asia we'll need the yanks (a bit far for the UK to come and help us out maybe )

plus of course we've got the US Military already deployed in Darwin

It's nice to agree with Thebas - "war is war and war is hell"

Surely there are enough people in the region that can get this sorted without us, or the west, getting involved - we shouldn't be there and we shouldn't be picking winners.  Well other that being against IS/ISIS/ISIL

Arming groups that have their own agendas at heart longer term will come back to bite us imo

http://www.smh.com.au/world/is-australia-arming-terrorist-pkk-fighters-20140915-10h8cc.html

perhaps the white house has determined that sunnis and shia don't actually like fighting and wars. perhaps throwing your automatic into the sand and running doesn't cut it for the white house. those oil fields need to be protected by real warriors i suppose..... send in the australians

yeah, i love watching comedians taking the p..ss out of newscorp. media watch also a must when possible.

How to make Isis fall on its own sword

Degrade and destroy? The west should try to disrupt the canny militants into self-destruction, because bombs will only backfire

Chelsea E Manning in Fort Leavenworth
theguardian.com, Wednesday 17 September 2014

If properly contained, Isis will not be able to sustain itself on rapid growth alone, and will begin to fracture internally.

The Islamic State (Isis) is without question a very brutal extremist group with origins in the insurgency of the United States occupation of Iraq. It has rapidly ascended to global attention by taking control of swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq, including Mosul and other major cities.

Based on my experience as an all-source analyst in Iraq during the organization’s relative infancy, Isis cannot be defeated by bombs and bullets – even as the fight is taken to Syria, even if it is conducted by non-Western forces with air support.

I believe that Isis is fueled precisely by the operational and tactical successes of European and American military force that would be – and have been – used to defeat them. I believe that Isis strategically feeds off the mistakes and vulnerabilities of the very democratic western states they decry. The Islamic State’s center of gravity is, in many ways, the United States, the United Kingdom and those aligned with them in the region.

When it comes to regional insurgency with global implications, Isis leaders are canny strategists. It’s clear to me that they have a solid and complete understanding of the strengths and, more importantly, the weaknesses of the west. They know how we tick in America and Europe – and they know what pushes us toward intervention and overreach. This understanding is particularly clear considering the Islamic State’s astonishing success in recruiting numbers of Americans, Britons, Belgians, Danes and other Europeans in their call to arms.

Attacking Isis directly, by air strikes or special operations forces, is a very tempting option available to policymakers, with immediate (but not always good) results. Unfortunately, when the west fights fire with fire, we feed into a cycle of outrage, recruitment, organizing and even more fighting that goes back decades. This is exactly what happened in Iraq during the height of a civil war in 2006 and 2007, and it can only be expected to occur again.

And avoiding direct action with Isis can be successful. For instance, in 2009 and 2010, forerunners to the Isis group attacked civilians in suicide and car bombings in downtown Baghdad to try and provoke American intervention and sectarian unrest. But they were often not effective in their recruiting efforts when American and Iraqi forces refused (or were unable) to respond, because the barbarity and brutality of their attacks worked against them. When we did respond, however, the attacks were sold to the Sunni minority in Iraq as a justified response to an occupying government favoring the Shia government led by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Based on my intelligence work in Iraq during that period, I believe that only a very focused and consistent strategy of containment can be effective in reducing the growth and effectiveness of Isis as a threat. And so far, Western states seem to have adopted that strategy. With very public humanitarian disasters, however, like the ones on Mount Sinjar and Irbil in northern Iraq, and the beheadings of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, this discipline gets tested and can begin to fray.

As a strategy to disrupt the growth of Isis, I suggest focusing on four arenas:

Counter the narrative in online Isis recruitment videos – including professionally made videos and amateur battle selfies – to avoid, as best as possible, the deliberate propaganda targeting of desperate and disaffected youth. This would rapidly prevent the recruitment of regional and western members.

Set clear, temporary borders in the region, publicly. This would discourage Isis from taking certain territory where humanitarian crises might be created, or humanitarian efforts impeded.

Establish an international moratorium on the payment of ransom for hostages, and work in the region to prevent Isis from stealing and taxing historical artifacts and valuable treasures as sources of income, and especially from taking over the oil reserves and refineries in Bayji, Iraq. This would disrupt and prevent Isis from maintaining stable and reliable sources of income.

Let Isis succeed in setting up a failed “state” – in a contained area and over a long enough period of time to prove itself unpopular and unable to govern. This might begin to discredit the leadership and ideology of Isis for good.

Eventually, if they are properly contained, I believe that Isis will not be able to sustain itself on rapid growth alone, and will begin to fracture internally. The organization will begin to disintegrate into several smaller, uncoordinated entities – ultimately failing in their objective of creating a strong state.

But the world just needs to be disciplined enough to let the Isis fire die out on its own, intervening carefully and avoiding the cyclic trap of “mission creep”. This is certainly a lot to ask for. But Isis is wielding a sharp, heavy and very deadly double-edged sword. Now just wait for them to fall on it.

Chelsea E Manning in Fort Leavenworth  has the inside info .....imo.

Labor party's decision has nothing to do with the right and wrong of the situation.
Like all political decisions it was made with the consideration of what the spin would be, and how would it play to the bogan masses who determine elections.

That's why all left v right arguments are irrelevant theses days.
We don't have political leaders, we have election strategists.
Decisions aren't made on the basis of what's good for the country, they're made based on how it fits with the strategy adopted to win the next election.

could that be fixed maybe by longer terms of govt (4 instead of 3) ?

the tough decisions always appear at the beginnings of a term of govt ...

with the softening & buttering up coming close to the upcoming election ... at which point i am a devout cycnic also

or odeally a co-joined govt ...

one with policy control (left) and one with budgetry control (right) would be ideal (impossible i know lol )

but then about 500+ absolute nobody hangers-on in the pig pen down the political party chain would be out of work

that wont work also .. as then those high in the pork trough will only have their best mates by their side & we're fk'd again

china haven't a relationship with Russia anymore thebus...that ended during the cold war.

Iraq has asked the world for help removing ISIS out of their country, this includes 20 arab nations the important cog in the collation forces.

BRICS Megsy

it all switched around economically = big coalition now (since both China & Russia have communist style govts BUT western style economic cartel banking systems of money movement

the political idealogy gone ie communism gone but the new money teams are in big sway

the NEW non-west economic alliance ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS

the big business ahead ...

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-breaks-ground-gas-pipeline-075311200.html

Russia launched construction Monday of a 770 billion ruble ($20.8 bn) gas pipeline that will help bring gas from the far east of Russia to China.

"We are today starting the biggest construction project in the world," President Vladimir Putin said at the ceremonial joining of the first sections of the 3,968-kilometre (2,466-mile) Siberian Strength pipeline outside the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk.

Lat comment...It would surely be logical for any government to be free to select members from the other side to be ministers, as you suggested. (I know it's possible in theory already).
It's illogical to believe that all the best and wisest sit on any one side of the chamber at any time......but it'll never happen because it would involve governing in the best interests of the country, and we wouldn't want that

http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2014/02/05/Xi-Jinping-in-Sochi-Just-how-close-are-Russia-China-ties.aspx

cheers megsy ..

very good analogy whoopi ...

Thebas you'll be happy to know Tanya was on radio this morning saying Labor hasn't said yes to Syria and sees it differently to Iraq - i.e. Iraq asked for our help.

Not that it matters much imo - it's not our war, stay out of it in both places and let the locals / neighbours sort it out

Not surprisingly raids have happened in Sydney and Brisbane today - hopefully they throw everything they can at anyone that is genuinely involved in supporting IS/ISIL/ISIS.  Crucial that the government gets on the front foot and protects the decent muslim members of the community from the inevitable backlash though

definitely, nice work feds .... the grand final comes up in a few weeks and the last thing we want is an interruption to play or any sort of distraction.