Editorial:

Caught again

Both Tony Blair and Alexander Downer became very petulant when 
Clare Short, a former cabinet minister in the Blair Government, 
spilt the beans over the spying by British and American 
"security" forces of the office of the UN Secretary-General Kofi 
Annan in New York. That they spied on the UN offices of the 
representatives of other countries has not been mentioned by the 
media in Australia.

The former leader of a UN weapons inspector team, the Australian 
Richard Butler, has also declared that his office was being 
bugged and that he went to the UN canteen if he wanted to have a 
confidential discussion.

Tony Blair declared that Clare Short's action was "deeply 
irresponsible" while Downer went even further declaring angrily 
that she had made a "complete fool of herself". He refused to 
confirm that international law had been breached claiming it was 
an "operational matter".

These foremost leaders of the capitalist world repeatedly declare 
that they stand for the "rule of law", yet in this matter and in 
the invasion of Iraq they violated the international rule of law. 
The offices of the United Nations are inviolable and this has 
been accepted by all countries that are members of the UN. Yet 
with complete contempt for their obligations and commitments they 
have invaded the privacy of UN offices when it suited them.

The feeble and dishonest defence of both Blair and Downer was to 
declare that they never comment on "security" operations, 
disregarding the fact that in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq 
and on many occasions since then, Bush, Blair, Howard, Downer and 
a number of others made full use of what they claimed to be the 
assertions of their security organisations about Iraq's alleged 
weapons of mass destruction. They have in fact hidden behind the 
claims of their security organisations to justify their monstrous 
and illegal invasion of Iraq.

It is now almost one year since the invasion of Iraq and no 
weapons of mass destruction have been found. The US-appointed 
weapons inspector David Kay has declared that "we all got it 
wrong", but none of the leaders of the invading nations are 
prepared to come clean.

Downer still refuses to accept what is patently obvious to any 
observer, that Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction 
at the time of the invasion and that what the Iraqi authorities 
said at the time was the truth.

But this is not all. Claims that the Bush administration had been 
warned about or actually knew about the impending attack on the 
World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001 continue to 
surface.

Some of the families of the victims of those who lost their lives 
in the WTC are now suing the US Government and are raising 
serious questions about the involvement of the Government which 
failed to act at the critical moment of the attack.

It was following the 11th of September event that the "war on 
terrorism" was launched. It is a diabolically clever devise by 
which the United States and its allies find justification for 
attacking militarily or intervening in the affairs of any country 
deemed to be a "rogue state", a "failed state" or one that is 
alleged to be harbouring "terrorists" or is run by "bad guys".

The actions of the US, Britain, Australia and some of the other 
countries that have signed up for the campaign against terrorism, 
have resulted not in less such attacks but more. The simple 
reason is that their campaign has nothing to do with overcoming 
terrorism and its causes in poverty and oppression. It is aimed 
at interfering in the affairs of other countries and imposing 
their military, economic and political control on these 
countries.

The leaders of the capitalist and imperialist countries are more 
and more resorting to gangster tactics. They are personally 
devoid of any honesty, integrity or morality. Let us say it loud 
and clear. This applies specifically to Howard, Downer, Blair, 
Bush, Powell and their hangers-on. If there is ever to be a 
peaceful world they must be thrown out, and the sooner the 
better.