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Bearing Arms
by ryall Tuesday, Feb 15 2011, 8:14am
international /
prose/poetry /
literature
We hang or free OUR OWN, Ms Gillard. Your actions in relation to Oz citizen Julian Assange will seal your fate, one way or the other.
a bull shark hangs dead on Clark Island
its jagged jaw gapes grotesquely
for public view;
the shark they say, the same as took the leg
of a young Navy diver
it followed a cruise ship into the harbour
but the [Navy] instructor was oblivious
to the present danger of sharks --
frantic from the constant smell
of jettisoned food -- it circled waiting
for a fix like some homicidal junkie
but none was forthcoming -- the passengers had
disembarked,
the abundant waste/food abruptly
ended but not the demands
of a shark’s desire.
the incompetence of the RAN
training in close proximity to the anchored liner
is only matched by the shameless subservience
of our politicians -- they imagine Washington
has all the answers and do as instructed
by men less competent than themselves
but it's an Oz tradition
to kowtow to colonial powers, I am told.
successive governments have allowed our defences to wither;
they send our brave military to fight in criminal wars
and deliver them to their deaths without honour or justice;
only platitudes from incompetent superiors are offered,
they attempt to invoke the ghosts of our fighting ANZACS
to justify our losses in criminal American wars.
the lesson learnt at ANZAC cove was NOT to
deliver out precious troops to foreign commanders
to be sacrificed in needless, unjust wars -- EVER AGAIN!
would we – a SOVEREIGN NATION -- expect our brave
service men and women to die
for COWARDS, traitors, lackeys and thoroughly incompetent
superiors who do not understand
the basics of the sea?
Solitary Clark Island
is decorated with an
after-thought today
a delayed response,
a lost leg and hand.
I gazed from Darling Point wharf
jagged teeth seen easily
from the mainland.
how many more
limbs and young lives would be lost to
cowardice, incompetence and traitorous
lackey politicians?
I recall our brave, rebellious past
when young Australia viewed corrupt colonial masters
with contempt and the traitorous scum that supported them
with deserved disdain.
the shark turns slowly as it hangs
dead
in the wind,
a jagged, jutting reminder.
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Australia appeals to Sweden over Assange
by satff report via stele - The Local (Sweden) Thursday, Feb 17 2011, 7:28pm
A good start, Ms Gillard, but a little more American style active representation is required to ensure fair treatment and that justice is done in the event of a trial.
Australia's ambassador in Stockholm has written an appeal to Sweden's justice minister for assurances that Julian Assange, an Australian national, will be treated fairly should the WikiLeaks founder be extradited to Sweden.
* Assange made to wait on extradition decision (11 Feb 11)
* Assange 'offered to come to Sweden': lawyer (9 Feb 11)
* Assange case triggers rape debate in Sweden (9 Feb 11)
In a letter sent to Justice Minister Beatrice Ask last week, Australian ambassador Paul Stephens took up Assange's case, which the ambassador termed as "high profile".
"I am writing in relation to the situation concerning Mr. Julian Assange, an Australian citizen who is facing extradition to Sweden from the United Kingdom under the terms of a European Arrest Warrant," Stephens wrote to Ask last Friday.
Stephens explained that Assange "has been detained in his absence" by a Swedish court on suspicions of having committed "a criminal offence".
"I wish to convey the Australian Government's expectation that, should Mr. Assange be brought into Swedish jurisdiction, his case would proceed in accordance with due process and the provisions prescribed under Swedish law," the Australian ambassador.
He emphasised as well that he expected Assange's case to adhere to "applicable European and international laws, including relevant human rights norms".
The letter was written on the same day as Assange's last court appearance at the end of three days of legal arguments in his extradition trial.
He has been ordered to return to a London court next Thursday to learn if he will be extradited to Sweden to face questioning over sex crime allegations.
Last week, his lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson launched a scathing attack against Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt after he made comments saying that Sweden does not take women's rights lightly.
Ask's press secretary Martin Valfridsson told The Local that Sweden's justice minister is legally prohibited from interfering in the legal process.
"The minister of justice is not involved in the trial, nor did she ask for the arrest warrant that has been submitted by the Swedish prosecutors," he told The Local.
"She can't give any comment on it, but I can confirm that the letter has arrived. We can't comment on the ongoing process. She is forbidden by the Swedish constitution to have any influence on the ongoing case."
Assange's mother Christine has previously appealed to the Australian government for assistance since her son's arrest.
"Julian did not even get the laptop you had publicly promised him which he needed to prepare for his case while he was in Wandsworth Prison," she wrote to former Australian prime minister and current Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.
Attempts by The Local on Thursday to reach a representative at the Australian embassy in Stockholm for comment were unsuccessful.
Copyright applies.
http://www.thelocal.se/32112/20110217/
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