MARCH 2006
-
Wednesday, 29th March,2006
MR ABRAMOFF GOES TO WASHINGTON
Now to Washington DC where a scandal involving a lobbyist, and his dodgy multimillion-dollar payments to US politicians, is beginning to engulf the Bush Administration. Many commentators are saying that the case of Jack Abramoff strikes at the very heart of representative democracy in the US where astonishingly most of what he did is not just common place, it’s perfectly legal. Here's Sophie McNeill.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 29th March,2006
SABAM SIAGIAN INTERVIEW
Do we have another East Timor on our hands here? A few years back, now, Sabam Siagian was Indonesia's man in Canberra. These days, he's back in his old journalistic life as Senior Editor at the 'Jakarta Post' newspaper and earlier today, George Negus talked with him.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 29th March,2006
WEST PAPUA - LONG BOAT TO FREEDOM
Back in mid-January, when 43 asylum seekers came ashore in far north Queensland, pretty quickly, the Howard Government found itself in a political bind. Indonesian President Yudhoyono was straight on the phone to John Howard promising in effect, "Send them back. They won't be harmed when they get here." But at the same time, the West Papuans were telling Immigration officials they feared the worst if they returned.
Read more...
Last week, when they were granted temporary visas, there were howls of outrage from Jakarta and the Indonesian Ambassador to Canberra was hastily withdrawn in protest. The fracas is now being described as the worst rift in our relations with Indonesia since Australian troops were sent to East Timor six years ago.
Late last week, Dateline's Mark Davis managed to get himself to Christmas Island, where he met with the refugees to find out just why they made their hair-raising voyage. -
Wednesday, 22nd March,2006
THAKSIN'S LAST STAND
In Thailand, the country's billionaire Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, is in deep trouble. Furious at the multibillion-dollar sale of his family company, tax free, to Singapore, thousands of demonstrators on the streets of the capital, Bangkok, are demanding Thaksin step down. And, only yesterday, the opposition, which is boycotting the poll, gave Thaksin a 48-hour ultimatum: resign or they will ask Thailand's revered King to remove him and appoint another Prime Minister. Here's Ginny Stein.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 22nd March,2006
YOSSI BEILIN INTERVIEW
With five days to go before the vote, Dateline managed to interrupt one candidate as he was filming some last-minute campaign ads. Over the years, Yossi Beilin has played a significant role in a succession of attempts to bring about peace between Israelis and the Palestinians. A Zionist, Beilin was a prime mover behind the Oslo Peace Accords, a deputy foreign minister to Shimon Peres and Israel's minister for justice from 1999 to 2001. He's been a member of the Knesset for more than a decade and, these days, leads the left-leaning Meretz-Yachad Party. George Negus spoke with him from Tel Aviv.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 22nd March,2006
ISRAEL'S BORDERLINE ELECTION
Remember the Roadmap? After many others, the American-initiated plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Well, before Ariel Sharon was incapacitated by a stroke, late last year, he decided this the much-vaunted plan was going nowhere and it was time for Israel to act on its own. After withdrawing, first, from Gaza, Sharon's successor, Ehud Olmert, now has a plan to annex as much as 40% of the West Bank and unilaterally withdrawing Jewish settlers from the rest. The effect of this redrafting of Israel's borders would be to impose a state on the Palestinians - without negotiation. Whether this plan would be a recipe for peace in the Middle East, or, as some would argue, quite the opposite - war, that's precisely the platform acting-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is taking next week's Israeli elections. And, if the opinion polls are anything to go by, Israeli voters like what they hear. Olmert's centre-right party, Kadima, created by the still-comatose Ariel Sharon, is predicted to win the most seats and probably Government. Chris Hammer's reports from what still is the most hotly disputed border in the world.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 15th March,2006
BALI GOES BUST
A couple of weeks ago, Dateline received a message from a contact in Bali, imploring Dateline to go over there and film what was described as a crisis situation. The contact is an Australian woman, who has lived in Bali for 10 years, and has her finger on the proverbial pulse of the island. She told Dateline that the impact of the terror bombings, and the recent drug busts of Australians, has really hit the place hard. Cameraman/producer David Brill went to the formerly popular resort island to meet her.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 15th March,2006
CHALABI INTERVIEW
It is three weeks ago now, with the AWB scandal swirling around the Howard Government's head, that Deputy PM Mark Vaile raced off to Baghdad. He was a man on a mission - to get the Iraqis to forget the $300 million in AWB kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, during the UN oil-for-food program, and buy wheat from this country's wheat growers anyway. He appears to have succeeded.
Read more...
He was told by his Iraqi counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, that Baghdad would, in fact, buy our wheat - but only from suppliers outside the embattled AWB Ltd. But who was Mark Vaile dealing with? Who is Ahmed Chalabi? And how much is his word worth? Well, depending on who you talk to, he's either the saviour of Iraq, who convinced the US to take out Saddam Hussein, or one of the world's greatest con-men, or both.
In his colourful past, the millionaire businessman has collaborated with the CIA, produced "irrefutable evidence" of what turned out to be non-existent weapons of mass destruction, was touted as a frontman for the Pentagon, accused of spying for the Iranians, faces 22 years hard labour in Jordan for embezzling from his own bank, was raided and eventually spurned by his one-time American sponsors, pronounced washed-up and now, despite all of this, and with no political base to speak of, has somehow emerged more powerful than ever, manoeuvring himself into the upper echelons of the new Iraqi Government. Yesterday evening George Negus spoke with Ahmed Chalabi from within Baghdad's heavily-protected Green Zone. -
Wednesday, 15th March,2006
BRAZIL'S SWEET REVOLUTION
At the risk of repeating what's become something of a global mantra of late, oil is running out and most of what's left is in what's euphemistically described as "unstable parts of the world" - code for the Gulf, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. Meanwhile, anyone with any sense is on the great search for alternative fuel sources - and one high-profile contender to have emerged is ethanol.
Read more...
That said, some nations appear to have a lot more sense than others. While ethanol production could provide a serious lifeline for Australia's struggling sugar cane industry, but a lack of political will here in Australia has prevented us from "filling 'er up," as it were, with alcohol. Brazil, by contrast, has spent decades overcoming political, scientific and economic hurdles and now, it is leading the ethanol revolution. And, as Ginny Stein found out when she went there, the Brazilians would like to export their miracle cure to the rest of the world. -
Wednesday, 8th March,2006
GIANT SQUID
According to juicy folklore and loose legend, for centuries, the inky waters of our deepest oceans have been home to that most mysterious of marine creatures - the giant squid. Well, as we speak, visitors to Melbourne's aquarium can take a gander at the real thing, a 7m-long squid, caught in New Zealand and frozen in a block of ice.
Read more...
For 30 years, almost obsessively, one real scientific character from across the Tasman has been chasing these elusive creatures and Ben Deacon caught up with him, hard at what's clearly become his life's work. -
Wednesday, 8th March,2006
JANIS KARPINSKI INTERVIEW
All this build-up of gruesome detail about events at Abu Ghraib raises, of course, the ultimate question - who bears the responsibility for what went on there? How far up the chain of command do we need to go? The commander of the US military police at Abu Ghraib at the time of the torture and abuse was Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski. It was part of her overall responsibility for 16 prisons in Iraq, but following the photo scandal, and a subsequent army inquiry, Janis Karpinski was relieved of her command and demoted. She's since left the US military and written a book, in which she claims that far from stopping with her, the buck goes all the way to the top - to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and maybe even the White House. Earlier today, George Negus spoke with now citizen Janis Karpinski, via satellite from Savannah, Georgia.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 8th March,2006
ABU GHRAIB - A TORTURER'S TALE
The latest chapter in reporter Olivia Rousset's Abu Ghraib revelations. Three weeks ago on Dateline, Olivia revealed new evidence of horrific abuse at Abu Ghraib. Her report attracted headlines, praise and condemnation right around the globe. Unsurprisingly, both the Pentagon and the US administration played down the new images that Dateline screened. Tonight, another, very human side to the Abu Ghraib story. On a recent trip to the US, Olivia managed to track down two former Abu Ghraib guards - one who served time for committing abuses against Iraqi detainees and another who witnessed those shocking events. It's no small irony that both of these former US military policemen now see themselves as being among the victims of Abu Ghraib. Here's Olivia's story. And, as you would expect with this sort of report, be warned - some of what you're about to see is not exactly pretty and could even offend.
Read more... -
Wednesday, 1st March,2006
MAHER ARAR: THE VERDICT
Regular viewers of Dateline will have heard, more than once, that curious euphemism ‘extraordinary rendition’, a controversial US policy which transports suspected terrorists to countries where the use of torture is common. Franchising out torture, some critics have called it.
Read more...
Previously Dateline has reported on a Canadian suspect of Middle Eastern origin, who was rendered to Syria, tortured and later released, but don’t think for a moment that means his story has a happy ending, as it were. Indeed his particular case is being seen as a decision with far-reaching negative consequences, for the rights of the individual in the so-called war on terror. Here’s Bronwyn Adcock with his story. -
Wednesday, 1st March,2006
MLADIC DISCUSSION WITH TANNER & GOLDSTONE
So what is this Mladic caper all about? A short while ago George Negus spoke, via satellite from Johannesburg, with Judge Richard Goldstone. Judge Goldstone was the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague and actually drew up the indictment against Mladic.
Read more...
And from London, Marcus Tanner is a correspondent with the 'Independent' newspaper, who has covered Balkan politics for years. -
Wednesday, 1st March,2006
THE HUNT FOR MLADIC
International authorities have bombed all attempts to hunt down the indicted Balkan war criminal Ratko Mladic.
Read more...
Last week the world's media reported that Mladic was about to be handed over to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. The deadline, in fact, was supposed to be yesterday but, as Dateline goes to air, Mladic is yet to be sighted with the press now reporting that the next deadline for his handover by Serbia is early April - yet another intriguing chapter in this long-running international saga that, if it wasn't so serious, would be laughable. -
Wednesday, 1st March,2006
HOW THE US LEARNED TO LOVE THE BOMB (AGAIN)
The slightly bizarre idea of 'user-friendly' nuclear weapons. On the whole score of proliferation we're always hearing plenty about the dangers posed by the Irans and North Koreas of this world but, as we're about to see, while all that has been going on the US itself has been quietly beavering away on a program aimed at completely upgrading its nuclear arsenal, including the development of tactical weapons - mini-nukes that could be used on the battlefield. Thom Cookes reports.
Read more...
