Newswire

By Hamish Chitts

October 7 marks eight years since the US-led coalition of imperialist powers and their client states invaded Afghanistan. Using the shock of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington as a smokescreen, the invasion of Afghanistan was the first major step in the US rulers’ “Global War on Terror” — the official name of a sustained campaign of Pentagon and CIA operations aimed at crushing all opposition in the Third World to US political and economic dominance.

A Sydney Court has sentenced a man to 12 years in jail with a minimum of 9 years for publishing an online "terrorism manual". He is the first person to be convicted on the charge of making a document connected with assistance in a terrorist act in Australia. The accused spent three days in 2003 cut and pasting the material which was already on the net into a book called "The Rules of Jihad - Short Judicial Rulings And Organisational Instructions For Fighters And Mujahideen Against Infidels."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8274119.stm

In the "land of the free" a march protesting against the G20 in Pittsburgh was declared an illegal assmebly after it wasn't given a permit. Protestors have been attacked with pepper spray, rubber bullets, sound weapons and tear gas. There has also been some property damage been committed by demonstrators. Check out the live independant coverage from the G-Infinity website, a media project of Pittsburgh Indymedia
G-Infintiy - http://indypgh.org/g20/
Pittsburgh Indymedia - http://indypgh.org/index.php

More than 30 people attended a protest outside a 7-Eleven in South Yarra on the 18th September. The action was organised by UNITE, the union campaigning against the underpayment of more than $100,000 of wages in 7-Eleven stores owned by businessman Eddie Chan. The rally was a success despite members of the riot police turning up.

The protest targeted the Domain Rd 7-Eleven store because Eddie Chan has interests in the business. Until recently Chan also owned the Moorabool Street 7-Eleven store in Geelong where he paid his workers only half of the wages they were owed.

MEDIA RELEASE September 20th, 2009

Claims made by the Queensland Premier, Ms Anna Bligh, that the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam near Gympie in the state's southeast will save threatened species like the Mary River cod, Mary River turtle and Australian lungfish from farmer-induced extinction have outraged people across Queensland.

The Save the Mary River Coordinating Group President, Glenda Pickersgill said by far the greatest threat to these species survival is building more dams and spillways.

Alice residents help Cameco move out of town!

On Wednesday 16th September over 20 Alice Springs residents said “don’t come back!” to Cameco, by offering to help them move out. With uranium exploration having finished at the Angela Pamela site last week the community decided was time for Cameco to pack up and leave town for good.

Environment East Gippsland claimed a historic victory after winning an injunction over logging of two zones of old-growth forest at Brown Mountain on September 14th. The appropriately named Supreme Court Judge, Justice Forrest, imposed the injunction until a trial can be held to assess the lawfulness of the logging and in particular whether they threaten the . Crucial evidence in the case was photos of nearby logging coupes which the Justice said showed "total obliteration" and looked like the Somme in World War One.
http://www.eastgippsland.net.au/

Eight years on and in the aftermath of Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen's 9/11 challenge to President Barack Obama, journalists of the world's media conglomerates have been slow responders to follow the trail of evidence. Sheen posed numerous questions in a YouTube video directed at the President and held a "letter" to support an argument that the 9/11 conspiracy fits an historical pattern of government-scripted attacks as pretexts to wage war.

On Sunday 13th September, after an overnight climate camp in Morwell, Victoria, five hundred protesters gathered outside Hazelwood coal fired power station. Hazelwood is one of the developed world's most polluting power stations. Among the five speakers to the rally, Dr Merryn Redenbach, a paediatric doctor and one of the protest organizers, spoke about the impacts of climate change and why the protesters were willing to risk arrest for trespass to promote the transition to renewable energy and closing down coal fired power stations.

ADDRESS TO "SWITCH OFF HAZELWOOD"