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| Down Under |
| Australian Prime Minister Apoligises To Indonesia Over Biological Attack |
| 2005-06-01 |
| PRIME Minister John Howard was forced to apologise to Indonesia yesterday after a biological attack on its embassy - and the first on Australian soil. A powder - which initial tests showed was either anthrax or one of four other lethal substances - was mailed to Indonesian Ambassador Imron Cotan and opened yesterday. The finger of blame points to Australia, with anger over the Schapelle Corby sentence behind the attack. Mr Howard labelled the attack a "reckless act of indifference to human life" and confirmed the powder was "some kind of biological agent". Mr Cotan's secretary opened the envelope just after 10.30am yesterday and white powder spilled to the floor. Although there was initial belief the powder could have been fertiliser, Mr Howard said it tested positive for a "harmful" substance. He said it would be remarkable if the attack was not related to community anger over the 20-year sentence handed down to Corby by a Bali court for drug smuggling. Police and emergency services, including hazardous materials units, were called and the embassy was immediately locked down. The powder was tested at the ACT Government analytical laboratory and found to be an unknown but potentially dangerous biological agent. Police spokesman refused to say if a note was included with the powder. Police sources said the tests were a long way from complete, and that false readings were common. A statement from the Indonesian Government last night condemned and strongly deplored what it described as a "sorry and cowardly attempt of intimidation". It also welcomed the support and assistance of Australian officials. |
| Posted by:Spavirt Pheng6042 |
| #5 The latest is there was a note in Bahasa with it. Since very few Australians speak Bahasa, its likely an Indo dissident. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-06-01 21:51 |
| #4 Zhang, All Abu G, All the Time is to the MSM's business strategy as "Gulag" is to Amnesty's fund-raising strategy. And it's not just mentioning Abu G, either; it's articles and OpEds focused on Abu G. Search the NY Times archives for articles with "Abu Ghraib" in the article or OpEd's summary since March 1 2003 and you get 337 articles, of which 322 concern US abuses. A search during the same period for articles whose summaries contain "zarqawi" yields 19 results: http://tinyurl.com/8we7r Flood the zone, indeed. This is a perfect example of the NYT's new strategy, as outlined by Bill Keller in Business Week, of catering to the Times' "most loyal readers": http://tinyurl.com/3zph6 |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-06-01 16:36 |
| #3 If it is unknown, how does one know it is dangerous? |
| Posted by: Ptah 2005-06-01 16:07 |
| #2 Hell, we don't even know that it was an Australian that carried out the attack. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-06-01 13:54 |
| #1 Article: PRIME Minister John Howard was forced to apologise to Indonesia yesterday after a biological attack on its embassy - and the first on Australian soil. Note the media spin - Howard wasn't forced to do so - he did it of his own free will. Did the Indonesian president apologize for the Bali bombing, which killed close to 200 Australians? As to this being the first bio-attack on Australian soil, note that it killed no one, whereas the Bali bombing killed close to 200 Australians. Note also that in just about every article about US officials over Iraq, there is a mention about Abu Ghraib, where prisoners were humiliated. Where is the mention of the hundreds of Australians killed by Indonesians in this article? |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-06-01 11:53 |