Peanut Butter and Ports

The Halliburton Peanut Butter Files

Afterthis week's revelations that the Pentagon, on behalf of Halliburton, has been spying on a US protest organiser
"in the national interest" I would like to know, as an Australian
Halliburton "activist", how much the Australian Government has been
spying on me.

I would also like to know how our Government can
continue to rely upon, in matters of national security and
international invasion, an intelligence system that can make such a
stupid mistake.

Every "conspiracy theorist" looks in shadows for
faces but perhaps some have greater cause for concern than others.
Looking at what's happenned to Parkin I reckon that I qualify for an
extra dose of paranoia.

Scott Parkin has assisted orchestrating,
from public ground, events that draw media attention to the ethically
questionable and financially corrupt activities of a company installed
in its "pole position" by the Vice President of the United States.

The U.S. Army kept files on the fact that he handed out peanut butter
sandwiches in front of a Halliburton office. The Australian Government
arrested and deported Parkin because the US Army had files on him.
Does this mean that Parkin was kicked out of Australia for serving
sandwiches in Texas? Sadly the answer is most likely "yes". Our Prime Minister says he won't be allowed to return.

Parkin' legal efforts to retrieve information
pertaining to his deportation resume in a fortnight. Will the
Australian Government continue to protect the internationally sensitive
information, or confess that they accepted the word of the US Army
without opening the manilla folder for a read? Will our spy network
confess that it "leaked" false information to journalist to protect the
"Peanut Butter Files"

Aside a couple of thing not in Newsweek

Newsweek did not comment on Parkin's deportation, or make
any assumption that the Australian Government used the fact that the US
Army had a file on him as the reason for deporting him. They don't say
that the Howard cabinet was so eager to please the Bush White House by
kicking out a Halliburton protester that they might have, being aware
that such a file existed, not bothered to check what was in it.

Newsweek doesn't say that if ASIO had tried to protect non-existant information by leaking a lie then they would be perceived as extremely incompetent by the international intelligence community.

Newsweek also doesn't say that if Kim Beazley was briefed that the US Army had a file on Parkin as a possible terrorist, but didn't ask about the currency and accuracy of the information, he would also appear to be a twit.

On the same Houston Indymedia
that the US Army were monitoring appears the name of a certain
Australian from time to time.. he's even currently linked their from
the front page of international watchdog Halliburton Watch's website. He has been shown on Australian national television putting up placards on KBR land (while
standing on the public footpath) and his blogs and emails have been
read by state and national politicians of many political persuasions.
His postings have been creating ripples of concern in Australia for two years now, and he shows no signs of stopping.

Who is recording my activities? When I walk with my daughter to school is
there a car in the street recording the event? Are phone calls to my
friends and family monitored. When those military base files were
found in a bin very close to my house, was this to serve as possible
grounds for my arrest? Do my emails go through a computer in
Canberra? These questions may have been laughable a week ago, but
look what they've done to Scott !

If ASIO have been protecting
those files then they've surely got a good one on me. After, during
the Rumsfeld protests, helping hang the No War banner on the pillars of
Adelaide's Parliament House I'll have one in America too. However, I
can't be arrested and deported.

If somebody wanted to bring me in for questioning it probably wouldn't be hard to find a reason. When
my family, friends and supporters ask the Government why, will the Prime Minister, the Attorney General, the Foreign Minister and the Defence Minster say that the fact that the Americans have a file on me was sufficient grounds to put me into a Detention Centre?

In using the files that Newsweek has uncovered, the integrity and
reliability of Australia's intelligence system, and our politicians'
unswerving response to its information, have been shattered. If ASIO
can be so wrong about something so simple, how can they be trusted in
evaluating more complex matters. such as the status quo if
international terrorism in Australia? On the merits of their conduct
in the Parkin Incident, it can be perceived that ASIO are a conduit for
the US Government to manipulate the Australian political system,
dispensing disinformation that Howard and his Henchmen can use without
need to question.

The Australian Government can, in any
situation, no longer claim innocence in their activities by claiming
belief that their information was irrefutable. In the hindsight of
this comparitively minor event, basing any judgement or activity on
faith in ASIO could only be classified as negligence, and guilt of
creating any death and/or destruction brought about in this way can now
be laid at the doorstep of Parliament House in Canberra.

Earlier statements that Australia entered into the invasion of Iraq based on
assessments of our own espionage must also now be reconsidered.

If an agency that considers a man with some sandwiches an international
terrorist threat has lead us into war, and brought about the creating
of anti-terrorist hysteria on the basis of its information, we should
withdraw from that war until we are once again certain we can rely on
our knowledge

In the meantime..to any of you ASIO twits who
might be in my neighbourhood, be warned.... I am known to be prone to
violins (and accordions) my attack cat is guarding the door, and my
dog doesn't care who feeds her.

I'm happy to give you an extra
piece of infomation that you might not have... I'm particularly fond of
peanut butter. You won't know this unless you have a camera in my
kitchen.

After the revelations this week regarding how you and
your US counterparts have been violating Parkins' civil liberties, I
wouldn't be the least bit suprised.

Halliburton Takes Port Adelaide

The former global leader of Halliburton's infrastructure activities is now in control of shipbuilding in South Australia.

An expanded maritime site announce today is now owned by a corporation
controlled by ex-Halliburton/KBR chief Andrew Fletcher, who had been
recruited last November to "oversee" the warship project. Fletcher, while still in his Halliburton job, held a seat on the South Australian Economic Development Board

State Premier Mike Rann says that the newly announced shipbuilding facility,
which includes the Star Wars Ship construction, will make Adelaide a
"global hub".

A 2004 edition of Engineers Australia Magazine explains Fletcher's role two years ago:

Senior vice-president of US company KBR, with responsibilities for global infrastructure and the Asia Pacific region A civil engineer from Adelaide University, Andrew Fletcher was catapulted into his international position when KBR, the engineering and construction arm of US giant Halliburton, took over Australia’s
Kinhill Engineers in 1997.

The company now has about 3000 staff in
Australia.
One of Fletcher’s main tasks when he took over his current position was
to “forge a solid global team” from the regional groups in the
Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific including Australia.

The news of the expanded naval site has been released one day before its launching at an international expo in Sydney.

Our State premier has explained that "This new hub, into which the State Government is investing $140 million in infrastructure, will be capable of building other ships at the same time the air warfare destroyers are being built,"

He added that "There is now $55 billion worth of federal defence contracts up for grabs over the next 10 to 15 years."

State Treasurer Kevin Foley elaborated that the site would be suitable for companies involved in"in civil or
military shipbuilding, ship repair and maintenance, metal fabrication
and module construction, paint and blast, warehousing and component
manufacturers and suppliers".

Under its new name of Techport Australia, the maritime construction
precinct will be marketed today at the Pacific Maritime and Naval Expo
in Sydney.

Techport Australia is owned by the Port Adelaide Maritime Corporation, which the Adelaide Advertiser says is "under the control of" the ex-Halliburton Chief. Fletcher told the newspaper that one of his aims was to "deliver a sustainable long-term defence industry base here at Osborne".

Fletcher's previous company was previously spearheaded by the former US Defense
Secretary and current US Vice President, Dick Cheney. The company
constructed and has part-ownership of the Adelaide to Darwin Railway.
It also a major naval shipbuilder in the UK, and a part-owner of that
country's Road Management Group

KBR has recently completed construction of the Port River Expressway that
links the port to the Northern Suburbs. Roadwork construction
improving links from the port to the Southern Suburbs will commence
next year.

Until last year Adelaide was the official global headquarters of Halliburton/ KBR's infrastructure division.