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Fifteen arrests this morning in anti-terrorist raids across Sydney and Melbourne:
The raids appear to have targeted suspects alleged to be involved in the potential terrorist threat involving the two cities that was announced by the federal government last week.
The Australian Federal Police has confirmed the arrests saying charges include intentionally being a member of a terrorist organisation and intentionally directing the activities of a terrorist organisation.
NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said 400 federal and state officers were involved in the Sydney raids alone, and they achieved a major breakthrough.
The simultaneous raids, at 2.30am (AEDT) in both cities, resulted in six arrests in Sydney and nine in Melbourne.
* The Melbourne raids involved 12 houses.
* One of the Sydney homes, according to a Danish exchange student, had been under surveillance for months.
* A pro-Osama cleric is among those arrested.
* Another cleric is to be deported.
* Search warrants are still being executed.
* Senator Barnaby Joyce: “These people were, obviously, from what we’ve heard in the news, well advanced in a plan to attack one of the train stations in Melbourne or Sydney.
“If they had been successful in that, everybody would have been asking the question ‘why didn’t we stop them?’. Well, they have been stopped.”
UPDATE. Reaction from leftoid bloggers:
Larvatus Prodeo: “I suppose the PM and Minister Ruddock had to produce something to justify the surprise railroading of the ‘just one little word’ amendment.”
wsacaucus.org: “I think it’s too early to say just yet what this all means.”
John Quiggin: “The fact that one of the suspects was armed and allegedly fired on police may have reflected advance warning.”
Gary Sauer-Thompson: nothing
Ms Fits: “I think they’re going to explode something non-specific in a fashion that is an affront to freedom and the Australian way of life!”
Daily Flute: nothing
Anonymous Lefty: “Look! A shiny penny!”
Troppo Armadillo: nothing
Tim Dunlop: “What it looks like is that a bunch of ratbags were thwarted in their attempts to kill as many of us as they could. That’s an unalloyed good, and that’s all I really care about.”
William Burroughs’ Baboon: nothing
Antony Loewenstein: “America and its allies, including Australia, are about to suffer a horrendous case of ‘blowback.’”
Andrew West: “What we appear to have is a situation where police and ASIO, acting on sound information, using beefed up operational powers, have observed all the rules of law. Habeas corpus remains intact.”
Rex Ringschott: “Let’s hope this doesn’t radicalise our Muslim community any further.”
Anyone like to make a bet Bob “the nob” Brown will be a bit subdued tody?
Gives me a biy of faith in our policing and intelligence arms. well done to anyone invollved.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2005 11 07 at 07:26 PM • permalinkOh boy, it’s great to be an Australian!
While I really do admire all the effort that the police and other special service personnel have undertaken in NY, London, Bali, Madrid, etc…it does feel especially good to be able to say that here in Oz, we got to the terrorists BEFORE they got to us.
Richard :-)
Posted by Richard_of_Oz on 2005 11 07 at 07:33 PM • permalinkBob subdued, don’t bet on it. As put by Tony Wright here on ABC radio, doubters would be going into hiding. Not so with Tim D for example, it is still a con, just a different sort of con. And rants about Howard warning the terrorists. Other than they have been checked out before, the Danish student item would make it necessary for the terrorists to be blind deaf and dumb to have missed that they were targets.
Another possibility for a con might be the story that (anonymous) police and intelligence agents rushed to tell Marian Wilkinson and Tom Allard how they were less than impressed with Howard’s announcement, and that he may have warned the terrorists. If these people actually exist we should be worried about their professionalism, political partisanship and trustworthiness. That their priority seems to have been drawing further attention to matters which they considered should have been kept discreet? in their wish to dump on the PM is a worry.
Too ridiculous, has to be a yarn by Wilkinson and others who rushed to attack the PM rather than deal with the reality of terror in Australia.
Well done to our police and intelligence agencies. Hope that the report of a possible shooting in Sydney is not at their expense.The greatest victim here is Adelaide.
After years of serial killers and weirdo murderers, finally they have weather bad enough to be of national interest, and what happens? The terrorists steal their headlines. Any other day of the week and Adelaidains would be lining up to tell the nation about their storm.
No-one’s interested in the Adelaide storm, and I feel bad for them.
Let’s all please spare a thought for SA in between our victory jigs.
Posted by heethcliff on 2005 11 07 at 07:53 PM • permalinkI wonder how Red Kerry will explain this revolting development.Last night on the 7.30 Joke he was busy working himself into a lather during his interview with the Prime Minister because the PM steadfastly refused to allow the fool to put words in his mouth.Kezza was of course pursuing his theory that terrorists in Australia do not exist and the anti-terror laws were only intended to allow the evil Government to distract attention from their cruel attack on those lovely Unions like the CFMEU.
The moonbats are out in force on ABC radio (702) this morning. So far we’ve had:
* John Howard made the police act in haste due to his comments about imminent threats.
* John Howard made the police do this to reinforce the need for his anti-terror laws.
* This is all the fault of John Howard taking us into an illegal war for oil with GWB in Iraq.
and, of course…
* The obligatory use of the terms “Jack-boots” and “Krystallnacht”Apparently when our police and security forces do their job in arresting potential murderers, this is proof that John Howard = Hitler.
Sheesh!
Keyser Trad on the Today Show (Ch.9) this morning maintained the obligatory “never criticise your own kind” approach that seems to be a feature of Muslim discourse with the Western media.
Trad was more appalled with his belief that the media had been tipped off in order to make an “event” of the arrests, than the fact that 15 of his fellow Muslim citizens were facing terrorism charges.
As for those in the media who chastised the federal government for rushing through the terror law amendment last week, these raids demonstrate that with every passing day the mainstream media alienates itself more and more from the general community….
Love the “John Howard made the police do the raids.” line. Have just watched Bracks and Iemma state explicitly how that change in wording was needed to go get these b** who for anyone with half a brain it would be clear, were getting closer to killing than the authorities could allow. Or do these dipsticks think that they should have waited and hoped that they picked up on “the” attack in the last couple of days prior.
So 2 Labour Premiers conspired with a Liberal Prime Minister to conduct unneccessary raids to save his political skin.
And it is now clear that they are not just being charged with belonging to a proscibed organisation.Catherine McGrath put it to Peter Costello on AM this morning that these raids were very convenient to create a distraction from the IR legislation before the parliament.
Costello asked her what she would have said if the police forces had put off acting until debate on the IR legislation had finished and a terrorist act had been perpetrated.
The moonbat was strangely quiet.
I breathed a sigh of relief at the news of arrests this morning - our security people were ahead of the terrorists - thankfully. I’m glad that terrorism is being taken seriously by the people who count, ie: those involved in actually preventing it.
In some respects, the “warning signs” of undesirable activities in Australia have been present for many years, spilling out in little drips which were all too easy for the commentariat and politicians to discount. For me personally, one episode comes to mind:
Rewind to the late 80’s when the fatwah was placed on Salman Rushdie - I forget the exact year, but I recall being a primary school kid still, not especially aware of political issues - I was, however, quite fiercely individualistic - and I distinctly recall feeling a kind of rage at the thought that some people (muslims) wanted to kill an author for writing ideas in a book. This was without really knowing much at all about Islam, or Christianity for that matter.
I was even more outraged when I saw an interview on a “A Current Affair” (or something like it) with an Australian Imam quite seriously and calmly proposing that Australia would be a suitable country in which to prosecute Salman Rushdie for blasphemy, because Australia is stable, with cool heads, and most likely to give him a “fair trial”. This guy was seriously suggesting that Rushdie be extradited to Australia, and a special court be put in place for his trial.
Even as a ten-year old, I remember being confused at why such sentiments were not causing more concern in the adults or wider society around me.
(Does anyone else recall this particular episode ?).
Why do we collectively ignore this trickle of information until we have a real problem on our hands ? Why can’t the Left take these people *at their word* when they say they want to kill someone for writing a book, or for being gay, or for being an infidel ? (this is also an argument against outlawing hate-speech…at least we know who holds radical views so as to better keep track of their actions).
Posted by closeapproximation on 2005 11 07 at 08:33 PM • permalinkShame on you for not respecting their culture and grievances! The Arab Street will erupt over this, just you wait and see…
(That’s the last time I borrow McGeough’s laptop…)
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 11 07 at 08:33 PM • permalinkDid anyone have the pleasure of seeing Sophie Panopoulos totally demolish Peter Garrett on Sydney morning television today? It made my day.
I predict that the same weak-kneed appeasers will still be at it tomorrow -
“Its only a very small minority in the Muslim community’, blah blah.
One wonders - somebody (excluding the would be terrorists) must have had at least an inkling that this was being planned, yet not one upstanding member of the Muslim community saw fit to report it?
Am I wrong on that?
Slightly OT, did anybody see John Safran’s program on SBS (Australia) last night ? One of his guests was a muslim of Afhgan origin, who has written several books highly critical of Islam. He appeared on the show IN DISGUISE !!! with a big silly fake moustache and a huge wig and glasses. It is scary that he has to resort to this for fear of his life here in Australian society. He was actually saying similar things to Manji (the Canadian lady) - and she has received many death threats.
Posted by closeapproximation on 2005 11 07 at 08:58 PM • permalinkWhat I find astonishing is that the police were openly watching these people, so they knew they were being watched, but in their arrogance and towering contempt for their host country, they went ahead with their plans anyway. The Muslim mind never ceases to amaze me.
Good for you, Australia! There are people who will still be alive next year thanks to this.
Isn’t it a violation of Victorian hate-speech laws to call these people terrorists? I wouldn’t want Howard to get in trouble…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 11 07 at 09:07 PM • permalinkI doubt that these events will provide a definitive response to those who doubted Howard’s good faith in rushing the amendments through parliament. That will, of course, depend upon the details of the actual evidence accumulated and the charges that will eventually be laid, but I note that Commissioner Nixon did explicitly state that the amendments were not ‘critical’ to the operation.
I’ve been listening to Neil Mitchell on 3AW all morning getting stuck into that uber-moron Senator Lyn Allison, leader (if you can call her that) of that farce the Australian Democrats after she openly stated it was likely all a stunt engineered by Howard with the agreement of the Premiers, Police Commissioners, ASIO etc etc.
Surely this clown must resign.Posted by AlphaMikeFoxtrot on 2005 11 07 at 09:18 PM • permalink#29 Richard, someone has to find you calling them terrorists offensive, then they have to write to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, who will then write to you about the complaint.
After that, you are expected to go into mediation, and if that breaks down, thence to the Cival Administration Tribunal.
*phew*
For the number of people spouting off about terrorists, that’s a bucketload of paperwork for something we all know.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2005 11 07 at 09:23 PM • permalinkSuck shit Kerry O’Brien, you tawdry peddler of conspiracy theories. If anyone watched the 7.30 Report interview with John Howard last night, they’ll know what I mean.
Posted by James Waterton on 2005 11 07 at 09:26 PM • permalink...and #31, I think you’ll find that Allison (and others) have been questioning whether the announcement of the terrorist threat was politically motivated (something which sources in the police force had questioned the wisdom of). The fact that the threat was real does little to defuse that question.
Congrats to our intelligence agencies ... good day for you (and us!). Bad, nay shocker, of a day for the Leftist intelligentsia in this country. Oh, how they would have loved to have seen Flinders Street station (or wherever) go up in smoke. How long would it have taken them to (1) warn against a “dangerous backlash against the Muslim community”; (2) link the attack to our decision to remove Saddam; (3) interrogate Howard about why he didn’t do anything to thwart it? The Adamses, Kingstons and friends will have to wait a bit longer before they can serve up that Australians-have-only-themselves-to-blame column I imagine they are itching to pen.
It’s a great job by the police, but I think they need to work on subtlety:
A Danish exchange student living in Renown Avenue, Ulrich Soerensen, 17, said he noticed police as he left home for school this morning.
He also noticed police had been watching the home for some time.
“In the last few months police cars have been driving up and down the road, stopping at the end of the road,” Mr Soerensen said.
He had also seen a policeman with binoculars looking into the house.
The next bunch of terrorists might not be as dimwitted as this lot seems to have been.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 11 07 at 09:43 PM • permalinkListening to the ABC this morning I heard a lady bemoaning the portrayal of Muslims as terrorists by John Howard. She asked why Hillsong or the Catholics weren’t under surveillance. Can you believe it?
It appeared to me that she was more concerned about the death of her multicultural dream than the death of her countrymen.When are these guys going to wake up?
The stupidity continues.
* Lyn Allison has actually come out and accused the PM of ringing the police commisioners to see if there were any raids pending that they might be able to bring forward to suit his evil plans.
* Bob (Droopy Dawg) Brown has said that the raids are a distraction and that the REAL investigation needs to be on whether or not the PM tipped off journos to the raid, again, to further his evil plot.Fu**ing C*nts!
I hope a horrible, terminal, flesh eating, arsehole infesting, fungus takes up residence in their collective clackers.
Has anyone else seen this?
POLICE have shot and wounded a suspected terrorist after he allegedly opened fire on them in Sydney’s west this morning.
NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney confirmed the shooting in Green Valley, but did not know if the incident was connected to terrorist raids.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2005 11 07 at 10:18 PM • permalinkDid anyone see Ajmid Muhammad’s piece in The Age claiming that the government was using anti-Muslim fear to control the masses? It was accompanied by a fearlessly idiotic cartoon. What priceless timing. Not that this will ever cause the Left to rethink their mindless tropes.
Posted by pierce inverarity on 2005 11 07 at 10:24 PM • permalinkNot at all, 53. If I may be so bold as to speak for the Left (though I’m not convinced there is a Left anymore) - this raid appears to have been highly effective.
Many of us will complain bitterly about the national and international mismanagement that got us into this position, but now that we’re up to necks in this mess the Right has made for us, we applaud and support emphatic action. Recall, if you will, that the governments of both Victoria and New South Wales are Labour governments. They’re more Centre than Left these days, of course, but nevertheless a long way Left of the denizens of this place.
But whatever, if attacking the Left is the only response you have to these events, you are kind of missing the point. As someone above said - we seem to have dodged a bullet here. And like I always say - don’t blame the Left, blame the terrorists. Our disunity only makes them stronger.
Artist’s conception of Antony Loewenstein.
Posted by Crispytoast on 2005 11 07 at 10:48 PM • permalinkmoonbats ...
If there is a terror attack, we deserved it because of Iraq or the failure of local government to do enough about recycling - any reason but the real one: religious hatred.
If attacks are foiled or conditions for them made too difficult, then they are a fiction conjured up by the conservatives to ‘create a climate of fear’.
Can’t a man preach racial-religious hatred and plan terrorist atrocities any more?
What has Australia come to…Posted by Honkie Hammer on 2005 11 07 at 10:56 PM • permalinkWalked onto Flinders Street Station just after midday today to be greeted by a very loud explosion. After shaking out my trousers, I noticed a troop of what appeared to be red-coats in Federation Square firing off a rifle salute. I wish they’d warn people before doing that. I actually thought terrorist attack for a few seconds.
Nice try, Nemesis. The French stayed out of the “national and international mismanagement” and they’re in far deeper trouble. According to bin Laden, we’re “in trouble” because Australia played the initiating and leading role in liberating the East Timorese. That imprisoned island was sold out, of course, by Gough Whitlam.
The bullet was dodged because a right-wing Prime Minister consulted with and gave leadership to all the State premiers on the question of terrorism.
Many of us will complain bitterly about the national and international mismanagement that got us into this position
Odds are this attack involved people who had vowed to commit terrorist acts before 9/11. It’s almost a certainty that at least one had vowed revenge for the liberation of East Timor.
Not that it matters to Emesis, of course.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2005 11 07 at 11:07 PM • permalinkYou were doing so well, Nemesis, but that one piece to the puzzle doesn’t fit:
Many of us will complain bitterly about the national and international mismanagement that got us into this position, but now that we’re up to necks in this mess the Right has made for us
If anyone got us into this mess (besides the terrorists, whom you’re happy to hold responsible when the alternative is to hold the Left responsible…no hypocrisy there, eh?), it’s a very bipartisan affair, given that everyone from Carter to Bush the elder to Clinton did little to combat the rise of Islamism.
And like I always say - don’t blame the Left, blame the terrorists. Our disunity only makes them stronger.
The problem with the Left is that they tend to do everything BUT blame the terrorist ! (forgive them, for they know not how to not overreact in their deliberate killing of innocents…)
Posted by closeapproximation on 2005 11 07 at 11:36 PM • permalinkWasn’t East Timor, technically speaking, liberated, since Indonesia invaded and annexed it 30 years ago?
Or am I missing some sarcasm here?
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 11 07 at 11:37 PM • permalinkWell done, mates! And I’m glad to see a self-styled leftist (that’s you, Nemesis, old boy) admit that we all need to unite to combat the terrorists - although, naturally, I think he is profoundly mistaken concerning the root causes. Must one point out, for the nth time, that the U.S. was attacked twice on her own soil, and at least three times abroad, before we invaded anybody? And does anybody remember Bali number one? I.e., the Islamic militants are not simply reacting like hornets whose nest has been prodded with a stick; these nutbuckets suffer from a pathological inferiority complex which has led them into the supreme folie de grandeur of re-establishing the caliphate, apparently on a mountain of severed heads. And I’m one American who’s deeply grateful to you Aussies (and not the least surprised) for the courage and self-sacrifice that you have shown in helping to meet the foe head-on.
One more thing,
Is Abu Bakr, aka Abdul Nacer Benbrika, aka whatever other nom de guerre the jihadi-bot is using, the nutcase that claimed Australia was discovered and colonized by Afghan Muslims centuries before the British, and that the Aborigines are actually Muslim?
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 11 07 at 11:43 PM • permalinkHa. PW spotted my sarcasm. Kind of. But the problem with the Left is not what they do. Rather it is what they fail to do.
The reference to France above is silly, 61. Or do you claim that Chirac is somehow of this phantom Left you so devoutly believe in?
As for Mr 66: “Odds are this attack involved people..” etc, etc. Credulity squared. Newsflash - there was no attack. The raids were not even in connection with the threat of any specific attack. Go read what the Vic and NSW Commissioners of Police are saying. Speaking of which, Mr Blair: Plans Foiled? What Plans?
Nonetheless - an effective raid. I wonder who tipped off the entire media that it was going to happen?
I think it’s a bit early to be calling out the left for not posting about this yet. After all, a lot of them are publically-employed academics, they are probably still in bed at 2pm.
I haven’t written anything myself and don’t plan to just yet. Not much point trying to analyse a developing news story.
Spiny Norman,interesting you should say that because on Four Mourners last night the programme described how Kooris(aborigines) acted up in Goulburn gaol when separated from Lebanese prisoners.Apparently because of gang violence all the groups are separated ethnically to avoid them coming to grief.
Prisons appear to be a likely setting for non arabic,non caucasian people to convert to Islam as in U.S.
Also Muslims appear to be bonding with disaffected Aboriginal groups via community health clinics etc and recently I saw a Muslim lady representing an aboriginal group as its spokesperson.There is a definite trend here and I don’t like to speculate on where it is heading but could be something to do with land rights..?France stayed aloof from Iraq, Nemesis. According to the left, that was the thing to do to win favour with, and remain at amity, with Muslims. Turns out that France’s weakness has made it the world’s blow-back capital. Le oops.
Plans Foiled? What Plans?
“They planned to kill civilians.”
TERROR suspects held in today’s massive police operation had formed a group to wage “holy war” against Australians, a court has been told.
NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said the group’s plans, if successful, would have been “catastrophic”.
As I suspected Nemesis, you’re really annoyed that many on the political left were totally wrong and you’re now telling compensatory lies to make yourself feel better.
Don’t be childish.
Lefties WOULD blame the terrorists if there was a Democrat in the Whitehouse or a Labor PM in The Lodge.
Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 2005 11 08 at 12:04 AM • permalinkNemmy it’s not that the right won’t reach out to the left-it’s that the left won’t have a bar of anyone who’s not more left than they are.Yes we all need to stick together.
Spiny,aboriginal people share a rare dna with a small group of people in India.Of course we all came from Africa via different geographic paths.#85 crash
There is a definite trend here and I don’t like to speculate on where it is heading but could be something to do with land rights..?
Funny you should mention that, because that is where I was headed: if Muslims were in Oz first, it is therefore traditional Muslim land, like Spain and Sicily, and once the Caliphate is restored and all Muslim lands recovered, non-Muslims must leave, convert or pay the jizya of the dhimmi.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 11 08 at 12:14 AM • permalinkAt the end of Four corners was the dramatically flourished,guilt inducing “summing up sermon”-about prisoners
“WHO is to blame-those who PUT them there(courts) or those who KEEP them there.”????
Radio nationals furtive Franny this morning
can think of only two options for the French..“Will these kind of GET TOUGH measures APPEASE the rioters or ENRAGE them”? Tres amusant guest French Minister tells of the discovery of a bomb making factory and how 12 and 13 year olds are used because they can’t be gaoled.
Fr- “Moslem leaders have declared a fatwa on the rioting.Are they Moslem or just disaffected youth?’
Guest -(a mix)—“There is a lack of authority in homes,lack of authority in schools where you ave—I’m sorry to say it- WOMANS -and they(kids) are very violent to them.We ave to be FIRM.
We are FED UP-FED UP” -here Fran overrides him and drowns him out lest he say stuff she might regret…
Guest Jaques-They ave to show they want to INTEGRATE.By the way there is no need to flee from France I ave a great horse track..”so, when the Caliphate returns to the world, where will the infidels go?
and, once the Caliphate is established, how long will it take, after the non-believers are exterminated, for internal hatred and tribalism to start the killing inside Islam?
I have heard that there is a very strong dislike of blacks within the RoP; it therefore amuses me that so many American blacks (or whatever the correct term is), decide to join the RoP.
#78 Nemesis
C.L. is right. Chirac knows that his cities are ringed by alienated young Muslims who have found in Islamism a handy vent and justification for their anger. He has studiously appeased despots and jihadists, berated America and turned a blind eye to anti-semitism and the increasingly ‘no-go’ status of these neighbourhoods. His appeasement, internationally and certainly internally, has earned him further contempt.
Your ‘disappearing left’ is a convenient ploy to dodge criticism. It seems to rematerialise after the dust has settled. Wasn’t that the left which was apologising for terrorists and doing their best to prevent measures to stop them - or is that the left that doesn’t exist anymore?
At least the left will have a new cause to champion- trying to get the terrorists released. Assylum seekers and Global warming are so ‘yesterday’.
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 11 08 at 12:37 AM • permalinkMargot Kingston has commented.. Her post includes the comment “... Australia’s law enforcement agencies - the one’s he’s stacked at the top with yes men and favourites ...”.
I wonder how it is that Margot thinks the Federal Liberals have been able to manage the stacking of the executive ranks of 6 state police forces, all managed by their political opponents?
I wonder also how she manages to reconcile the strong public expressions of support for the raids from Iemma and Bracks, the premiers of NSW and Victoria, people who are working assiduously to see Howard defeated??
Perhaps Margot didn’t think about such obvious facts ... or anything else ... much… at all… perhaps?
The abc hasn’t lost sight of the really vitally important topics but…
On Friday Franny hosts or hostesses a “forum” for journos who were THERE at the DISMISSAL.Mungo McCallum,Laurie Oakes and someone else who’s name escaped me.I guess they’ll serve up sour grapes for the occasion.Philip Adams promo-ed lnl tonight on the CIA and its death camps in lots of delinquent countries (who stubbornly refuse to tell lord muck who they are)and EASTERN EUROPE.Kae in the book “Sold” a young British girl tells how she and her younger sister were sold by their father to “husbands” in Yemen.
Their father felt that Westen culture was a bad influence on them.No doubt the money helped.Story was(non fiction by the way) that the young men were not favoured by their own young women.Anyway the author described at the beginning how the father absolutely forbade them to socialize with young black British youths(some of whom were schoolmates and also friends).
The author said that growing up in Britain she and her friends had no problem with people of all races cause they were all English together.No, I just wanted to write 48 Crash. I’m a simple man; humour me.
Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 2005 11 08 at 01:07 AM • permalinkAntony Loewenstein: “America and its allies, including Australia, are about to suffer a horrendous case of ‘blowback.’”
...a horrendous case of ‘blowback’?????
Try ...an horrendous case of ‘blowback’, you ignorant moron (and I’m not just referring to your inept grasp of the English language either!!).
If you are going to fire off bullets and attempt to maintain anything resembling ‘credibility’( no doubt a word that fails to make it into the Lowenstein vocabulary), make damn sure they are grammatically correct, otherwise you leave yourself open to all sorts of criticism. I know it’s pedantic to highlight such a minor error, one usually made by those attending Primary School, but Lowenstein should know better, shouldn’t he? I take it he did successfully complete this level of schooling???
* Following many proof reads, I am fairly confident that this entry contains no spelling or grammatical errors - here’s hoping anyway.
Posted by TruthHandler on 2005 11 08 at 01:29 AM • permalinkSo it’s not pronounced “orrendous” then???
I was taught (quite possibly incorrectly) that it was always “an” before an “h” whether it was silent or not. “A horrendous” just doesn’t sound right in my opinion.
Posted by TruthHandler on 2005 11 08 at 01:47 AM • permalinkSo it’s not pronounced “orrendous” then???
Not by me. :)
I was taught (quite possibly incorrectly) that it was always “an” before an “h” whether it was silent or not.
It’s not incorrect, but it’s considered outdated by some authorities. A lot of h-words come from French where the h is silent, but over time it’s become voiced in English (except by Cockneys), so the use of “an” has become redundant.
Just as long as no one says Haitch. Ooooooooo, that makes me so mad!
Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 2005 11 08 at 02:01 AM • permalinkFWIW, when I learned English some 10 years ago, it was explained that the silent h is largely on the way out in most English-speaking areas, making it more and more acceptable to just use “a” as the article. Still, in the end, it comes down to how you’re pronouncing it…obsessively using “an” when you’re actually pronouncing the h is just as wrong as never using it, even for words that indisputedly have a silent h (e.g. honest).
On the word at hand, it would never have occured to me to not pronounce the h in “horrendous”. And I seem to have the majority of people behind me on that…“a horrendous” out-googles “an horrendous” 627,000 to 35,600.
Many of us will complain bitterly about the national and international mismanagement that got us into this position, but now that we’re up to necks in this mess the Right has made for us, we applaud and support emphatic action.
Nemesis - direct question for you:
What did the Right do that led to the first Bali bombing?
54
Nice speech, Nems, about the solid front and all that, united we stand, but let’s remember that these people are committed reactionary religious fundamentalists who are bent upon destroying what they see as the infestation of the world by promiscuous western liberalism and decadent western values. Our conversion or our deaths is what they seek. In fact, our conversion then our deaths is the preferable arrangement.
It is not a mess created by the right as the left has been tootling. These people have hated us for 1000 years. If anything, the left has been more helpful in creating this situation than any other factor save the Islamics themselves by appeasing these people and allowing them to spread their hate almost without worry or fear. And I find it interesting how the left is eager to hop aboard in the name of wanting “emphatic action.” In the next few days let’s watch how the left begins to look for problems with the entire action carried out by the Federal Police. How long before the first complaint is posted about the civil rights violation of some or all of the terrorists, or the reminder that they are victims, too, etc.
Have you seen this idiot in Ants comments?
Smiths says:
“it really hit me last night whilst watching a doco on gouldburn supermax jail what it is that keeps john howard awake at night, the terror that causes him to blurt things out about threats so awful he cant articulate them,
‘aborigonal muslims’, rumours in the jails of conversions for ‘the wrong reasons’.
make no mistake, he’s heard about it, and he is pissing his pants, a cyclonic force gathering up everything he feels guilty, ashamed, ignorant and scared of”I nearly pissed my pants myself when I read that…laughing. What a maroooon!
Antony Loewenstein: “America and its allies, including Australia, are about to suffer a horrendous case of ‘blowback.’
I think they call it a snowstorm in the porno business. Methinks thats the type Mr L may be most familiar with.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2005 11 08 at 05:52 AM • permalinkPeople: why would you expect anything remotely intelligent from Loewenstein? He’s a fifth rate intellectual force blindly supporting a fifth column within our society.
Andrew West’s response is surprising, however. For a soft lefty, he has - for the first time - lived up to his eponym.
Posted by James Waterton on 2005 11 08 at 07:04 AM • permalinkgosh, there’s some frothing at margok’s joint.
someone is hollering “no proof, no proof, no proof, harmless chemicals on their own… blah, blah, blah…”
You mean like Nemesis is doing here? “There was no attack, blah, blah, blah…”
By his standard, the on July 21st, 2005, absolutely nothing happened in London.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2005 11 08 at 08:43 AM • permalinkDoes Andrew West know what ‘habeas corpus’ means?
Posted by tim maguire on 2005 11 08 at 11:48 AM • permalinkThe theory implied by Spiny Norman et al is fascinating, and I agree. It makes perfect sense for radical Muslims to attempt to convert the Indigenous community to Islam, in order to consolidate the areas under native title into a hostile Islamic state, within striking distance of Australia’s uranium reserves. I’d say this scheme is probably already in its infancy - why else would Sheikh Al-Hilaly be spreading Islamist propaganda among Aborigines and falsely telling them that their ancestors were Muslim?
If true, this diabolical plan has far more serious implications for Australia’s national security than a group of urban bomb-makers.
Posted by Steve Edwards on 2005 11 08 at 02:45 PM • permalink18 Noir
I suspect a depressingly large segment of the population would prefer a successful attack so that they could criticise the intelligence failure and blame Howard’s policies as the root cause.
Large? Or noisy? I personally suspect that the people you’re discussing are a tiny minority, possessed of massively disproportionate media resources.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 11 08 at 05:50 PM • permalink42 Scuffs
and #31, I think you’ll find that Allison (and others) have been questioning whether the announcement of the terrorist threat was politically motivated
Hm. Announcing the threat is of course sheer political opportunism, right? Conducting the arrests WITHOUT announcing anything, by contrast, would be insidious secrecy, right? Hmp. Looks like win/win for the lefties.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 11 08 at 06:03 PM • permalinkDoes Andrew West know what ‘habeas corpus’ means?
Yes:
The police used search warrants approved in the traditional manner—by a judicial officer—and the suspects will be charged immediately. They are not being held in long-term detention without charge and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has said the suspects will have the presumption of innocence.
That’s the paragraph preceding the comment that Habeas corpus remains intact.
His readers, however, are loons.
78 Nem
Nonetheless - an effective raid. I wonder who tipped off the entire media that it was going to happen?
Isn’t kind of like THEIR JOB to find out about shit like that?
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 11 08 at 06:12 PM • permalink95 Kywong does Margo
Her post includes the comment “... Australia’s law enforcement agencies - the one’s he’s stacked at the top with yes men and favourites ...”.
That would be the Australian law enforcement agencies that just now achieved BRILLIANT results, right? Good thing she’s here to complain about their staffing policies.
(sigh) What would we do without Margo?Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 11 08 at 06:18 PM • permalink107
I was taught (quite possibly incorrectly) that it was always “an” before an “h” whether it was silent or not. “A horrendous” just doesn’t sound right in my opinion.
Here in Murrika, we treat “h” as a consonant and precede it with a “a.” Damn. Precede it with AN “a.” But Ant the Lowlife, he be Aus, yesno? So I theeeeenk TruthHandler was right to call him on this.
And pedantry in the cause of Liberty is no vice!Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 11 08 at 06:25 PM • permalinkAnd another thing: This success (and it’s looking better and better as more info emerges) surely demonstrates once and for all that the only effective way to stop the crazies is good old fashioned police work.
Terror - it’s not a war, it’s a crime. The enemy are crims, not warriors. They don’t deserve that label. The sooner we recognise this, the sooner we can stop charging off on irrelevant military adventures in irrelevant countries and get the terrorists where they live. Which, it appears, is a suburb near you.
Our coppers seem to have done more in this one operation to prevent terrorism than GWB and his flunkies will do in their lifetimes. Great work, guys.
And another thing: This success (and it’s looking better and better as more info emerges) surely demonstrates once and for all that the only effective way to stop the crazies is good old fashioned police work.
I guess we should have sent some cops to Afghanistan.
The sooner we recognise this, the sooner we can stop charging off on irrelevant military adventures in irrelevant countries and get the terrorists where they live. Which, it appears, is a suburb near you.
Ah, so there were no terrorists in Afghanistan. My bad. We haven’t been able to find Osama because he’s in Falmouth, Maine.
Our coppers seem to have done more in this one operation to prevent terrorism than GWB and his flunkies will do in their lifetimes. Great work, guys.
Well, can’t argue with empiricism that rigorous. Snort.
BTW, you still haven’t answered my question in #118.
Nemmy, you dingbat, the liberations of Afghanistan and Iraq are police actions. Compare the policies in effect in those operations with, say, WWII.
War: Destroy the enemy’s industrial base.
Police action: Minimise civilian casualties and damage to property.War: Take the fight to the enemy.
Police action: Concentrate on protecting civilians from enemy combatants.The fact that the Army and Marines are carrying out police roles has caused some difficulty as it is not their normal duty, but that is indeed what they are doing.
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Defence lawyer says they’ve been charged only with membership in a proscribed group, not with planning a terrorist act.