Howard's Gestapo Openly Advocate Torture: "Torture should be legalised and is a 'morally defensible' interrogation method, even if it causes the death of innocent people, according to an article by two Victorian academics.... [the authors state that] the belief that torture is always wrong is, however, misguided and symptomatic of the alarmist and reflexive responses typically emanating from social commentators. It is this type of absolutist and short-sighted rhetoric that lies at the core of many distorted moral judgements that we as a community continue to make, resulting in an enormous amount of injustice and suffering in our society and far beyond our borders."

"Professor Bagaric [one of the authors] is a part-time member of the [Howard] Government's Refugee Review Tribunal and Migration Review Tribunal."

To bring this up at this stage indicates that Professor Barbaric is not the slightest bit deterred by the mind numbing revelations that the Iraq war was a high level conspiracy sold on a lie (the 'Downing St memo'); or that the vast majority of the unfortunate inmates of Guantanamo bay were admittedly not terrorists; or the general scandal surrounding the Bush administration and its 'torture memos'.

This development illustrates how sustained government lying about important issues assists the rise of fascism and barbarism. The 'war on terror' is no such thing: it is a war against the Arabs for control of the oil (which, incidentally, is what produces the insurgency or 'terrorism' of the Arabs; and the reduction of which terrorism is not, obviously, the priority of the 'Allies'). Torture (the purpose of which is to repress and terrorise, not to acquire information) is immoral and barbaric and must remain totally banned.

As the world and the country slide ever deeper into a great global crisis of energy, ecology, economics and politics, the debate over such matters as torture, concentration camps and the loss of civil liberties is a battle for the soul of the country and the future of freedom and democracy in a new era.

Howard's Gestapo Openly Advocate Torture: "Torture should be legalised and is a 'morally defensible' interrogation method, even if it causes the death of innocent people, according to an article by two Victorian academics.... [the authors state that] the belief that torture is always wrong is, however, misguided and symptomatic of the alarmist and reflexive responses typically emanating from social commentators. It is this type of absolutist and short-sighted rhetoric that lies at the core of many distorted moral judgements that we as a community continue to make, resulting in an enormous amount of injustice and suffering in our society and far beyond our borders."

"Professor Bagaric [one of the authors] is a part-time member of the [Howard] Government's Refugee Review Tribunal and Migration Review Tribunal."

To bring this up at this stage indicates that Professor Barbaric is not the slightest bit deterred by the mind numbing revelations that the Iraq war was a high level conspiracy sold on a lie (the 'Downing St memo'); or that the vast majority of the unfortunate inmates of Guantanamo bay were admittedly not terrorists; or the general scandal surrounding the Bush administration and its 'torture memos'.

This development illustrates how sustained government lying about important issues assists the rise of fascism and barbarism. The 'war on terror' is no such thing: it is a war against the Arabs for control of the oil (which, incidentally, is what produces the insurgency or 'terrorism' of the Arabs; and the reduction of which terrorism is not, obviously, the priority of the 'Allies'). Torture (the purpose of which is to repress and terrorise, not to acquire information) is immoral and barbaric and must remain totally banned.

As the world and the country slide ever deeper into a great global crisis of energy, ecology, economics and politics, the debate over such matters as torture, concentration camps and the loss of civil liberties is a battle for the soul of the country and the future of freedom and democracy in a new era.