nuclear-news

TODAY. Absolutely fed up with Facebook and Google’s censorship of nuclear issues

I wonder how many others are experiencing this censorship from Facebook and Google?

I’ve noticed this for a long time now, but it is getting beyond a joke. On nuclear issues, when I go to post a news link to Facebook, – bingo! – up comes the message: “Content Removed – Spam”. If I spend time following this up, I am informed that my post “breached community standards”. ( You can complain to Facebook /META – but what a useless time-waster that is)

This morning it was news items about Aboriginal Australians’ success in stopping uranium mining in the beautiful Kakadu National Park – a campaign long led by the beautiful Yvonne Margarula . Nah – Facebook didn’t like that.

I could give numerous more examples – of the way in which Meta/Facebook has deemed that I “breach the (nuclear lobby) community standards.” And I’m not alone. Australia’s prestigious energy journalist Giles Parkinson is having the same experience.

As for Google – well, Google warns you about links that are likely to be malicious. So, when I send out newsletters on gmail, Google magically marks these in bright red “suspicious website”. It’s getting so that this is mark of excellence – websites that give genuine information, as opposed to the usual handouts regurgitated from the nuclear industry,

Here are a few of them:

RADIATION FREE LAKELAND (Google really hates this one)

Mongabay.

Westminster Confidential

Strategic Culture

STOP SMRS

Real Clear Wire

Fix the News (this one not even about nuclear – just environment and health)

Google also warns about websites that reveal Israeli atrocities against Palestinians, and international law about this. Human Rights Watch found that the censorship of content related to Palestine on Instagram and Facebook is systemic and global. Meta’s inconsistent enforcement of its own policies led to the erroneous removal of content about Palestine.

The Dissenter

The Cradle

When the World Wide Web, enabled by the internet, got going in 1991 as  “universal linked information system” , there were high hopes – for a real democracy in information provision. At last, anyone could have their public say – rather than just a privileged minority.

Now this has been reversed, and we are back to a privileged minority running the information show. It is probably worse. Now there are the billionaire technocrats controlling the digital media outlets. With the increasing popularity of social media, real journalism has declined. Those few journalists who still hang on to a paid job in the “mainstream media” are well aware that they’d better toe the line of the corporate owners of that media.

Independent journalism is happening, but even in the “alternative media”, writers are being monitored. So, if you step out of line – say by condemning the actions of Israel, or of the nuclear lobby, well, the moguls of social media can, and do, prevent the spread of your message.

Marshall McLuhan in pointing out that “the medium is the message” , also showed that while it seems that minority voices are free to have their say, this seeming democracy actually allows, or ensures, that those voices will be lost in the deluge of “mainstream” media.

The activities of the social media platforms – take Google’s listings for an example – ensure that the corporate voices prevail.

What is to be done about this? I don’t know. But – something – soon – I hope.

July 27, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 2 Comments

TODAY. Militarism: How NATO is co-opting women and young people – with a veneer of peace and fun

This isn’t new. It has long been a tactic of the nuclear lobby. What makes it easier now is the enormous influence of the military lobby everywhere, and the global spread of NATO.

Today I read professor Joan Roelofs’ article on NATO and realised that the tactic of using women and young people has moved from promoting the occasional young, and preferably female enthusiast, to creating institutions that cover up militarism, and make it look benign and peaceful.

The nuclear lobby has long been using “fun” young individuals to spread its message.

“Nuclear for Australia” was headed by 17 year-old William Shackel

The nuclear industry, wherever possible, gets its agenda into schools, often with a fun exercise about rockets

I now notice that it is pretty much obligatory for any military gathering to have at least one woman there, appropriately decked out in the right warlike gear.

While every survey comes up with figures about women liking weapons and war much less than men do, there seems to be a concerted effort to make it look as if there are women in charge at the top levels of the militaristic tree. At the recent NATO Summit lineup of 32 important people, there were 4 women. And of course, the very photogenic Ursula von der Leyen is prominent – often the only woman present at a NATO gathering.

Tragically, so many civilian jobs are linked with NATO – in areas like science, medical technology, information technology, academia, the arts, and even in progressive and human rights movements. So, through these connections the NATO message is spread, obscuring the reality that NATO is a militaristic institution, controlled by the USA, designed to make ready for war – originally against Russia, now against China, too.

The USA is controlled by corporations, especially weapons makers – it matters little whether Republicans or Democrats are in government.

NATO is now perfecting its veneer – spreading its influence through multiple nations, and multiple areas of society, an setting up its own cute little front groups, as named in the picture above.

The real decisions on NATO weapons, including nuclear, and their use, will be made by the same cabal of militaristic men, while NATO looks good, with its window-dressing of women and young people.

July 25, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

TODAY. The cover-up of the danger of nuclear radiation and health, but who is speaking for our grandchildren?

From the earliest days of Marie and Pierre Curie, the harm from ionising radiation was observed, but not fully acknowledged. And before long, it was enthusiastically used in medicine, as x-rays, and in the general world, in various forms, as an aid to health and beauty. When the “radium girls” who painted watch dials with the glow-in-the-dark, radium-based paint, became ill, they were diagnosed by company doctors as having poor diet, neuroses or even syphilis.

Accidents during the Manhattan Project showed the horror effects of high doses of radiation, – but with some military propaganda sleight-of-hand this seemed to be taken to show that “low level” radiation is fine.

Doctors and scientists of integrity, who researched the harm of nuclear radiation were harassed, ridiculed, and sidelined. Integrity was a career killer for DrJohn Gofman, Arthur Tamblin, Harold Knapp, Linus Pauling, Alice Stewart, Ernest Sternglass and Hermann Muller.

Despite the scientific report in 2007 – Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) stating the danger, the nuclear lobby has been successful in obscuring the truth, and putting across a general acceptance that low dose radiation is well, OK, really.

Dr. Alice Stewart and , Dr. Rosalie Bertell showed the link between x-rays in the mothers and leukemia in their children – their results were similarly rubbished, (but medical authorities quietly curtailed the widespread use of x-rays)

Epidemiology and Statistics are boring stuff, I know. But population statistics of infant deaths and child cancers have shown the increased danger to embryos, infants and children living near nuclear facilities.

Sadly, health authorities have colluded in this cover-up. Public anxiety about ionising radiation is a threat to the thriving nuclear medicine industry. How much of nuclear medicine is absolutely necessary? How many CT scans and other radiological examinations are not really called for? It’s easier for medical professionals to just go along with the view that low level radiation is OK.

After all, amongst many thousands, if only a few thousand children die as a result of exposure to low level radiation – from nuclear reactors and other nuclear facilities, that’s OK isn’t it?

As world leaders enthuse over more nuclear power, and more nuclear “deterrents” , Dr. Gordon Edwards asks the question “Who is speaking for our grandchildren?”

(My inspiration for this short article came from Dr Dale Dewar’s Ionizing Radiation and Human Health .)

July 20, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

TODAY. The NATO statement – absurdity and collective suicide?

I know that I am sounding callous, but I can’t help noticing that Trump’s close shave with an assassination attempt has been a boon for the mainstream media – taking attention away from the foolish and disastrous farce of the NATO summit in Washington

There they all were, the over-paid stuffed shirts in their suits, dutifully agreeing, as required, to a plan, led by Joe Biden who said in a recent interview  “I’m running the world. “

I don’t think that Biden has dementia. That whole interview showed him to be rational and well-informed. But it also showed his determination to be the one. (Very much the same determination as Trump’s.)

And all the stuffed shirts fell in gladly. Much easier than thinking.

Some things are just too hard to think about, when you’re keeping your focus firmly on your well-paid, prestigious job, and how important you are.

Things like mindless unquestioning agreement to the Washington Summit Declaration, which was totally obsessed with continuing and winning the war in Ukraine according to Biden’s current policy — and at a time and on terms set by Ukraine and its allies, not by Russia.

All wars end with some kind of a negotiation. However, in 1945, world War 11 ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany, after the absolute crushing of Berlin, and suicide of the Nazi leadership, – and then the unconditional surrender of Japan, after two nuclear bombs had been dropped on two Japanese cities.

Is that what Biden wants for the ending of the Ukraine war? Russia’s unconditional surrender?

Most wars end in a negotiation between the two sides – and not after that kind of devastating WW11 victory. And in those negotiations, both sides get a say. Russia has made several offers to negotiate, but no way will the USA countenance any such talks. The NATO Summit was not allowed to consider any negotiations – and not one voice was raised to question this attitude!

The NATO Summit ignored real threats to world peace and stability, the genocide in Gaza, (depicted as Israeli self-defence) – and just a bare nod to the heating climate and its effects.

The big thing seemed to be to idolise the ever-attention-seeking Zelensky in his military attire, and not to give a thought to the continuing bloodbath – as Russia loses many thousands of troops, but Ukraine with its smaller population, loses proportionately more troops and lacks the capacity to regenerate losses .

Our taxes pay these men (and the odd token woman) to strut the NATO stage, and to all happily, zombie-like, agree to the extraordinarily unwise plans of the Washington Summit Declaration

Things like:

•  Ukraine’s “irreversible path” to de jure NATO Membership
•  Military assistance to €40 billion annually to Ukraine.   Minimum baseline funding of €40 billion within the next year, and to provide sustainable levels of security assistance for Ukraine to prevail (- Russia’s unconditional surrender?)
• transfer of NATO F-16 fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands to Ukraine,  
• approval for  F-16s to attack inside Russian territory.  
• Pledge of Long-Term Security Assistance for Ukraine
• Investing in our Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear defence capabilities required to effectively operate in all environments.

Russia’s “red line” has long been the inclusion of Ukraine in NATO. Putin has warned against attacks on sites within Russia, and has threatened the use of “tactical nuclear weapons”. Zelensky has previously supported negotiation plans with Russia, but the USA wouldn’t let this happen.

If you look at the map, you can see that on its Western side , Russia is pretty well surrounded by NATO countries, where of course, there can be military bases aimed at Russia. One of the largest is Ukraine – so of course, Russia does not want a NATO military base there – with weapons, possibly nuclear, aimed at Russia.

As pointed out by Joe Lauria – “NATO leaders haven’t demonstrated a willingness to give up any of their collective or individual power, which is devolving rapidly into collective and individual madness.

They don’t want to lose their role in Biden “running the world.” Even if realists in Washington prevailed over the neocons in arguing that Ukraine can’t win this war, NATO leaders proclaim they can’t afford to lose it. Not because Putin will be at the Eiffel Tower by Christmas, but because so many political careers in the West would be ruined.

From Keir Starmer to Olaf Scholz, to Giorgia Meloni, Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden, a defeat in Ukraine would signify that they gambled their personal ambition — as well as their nations’ treasure and the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men — and lost it all. 

Instead of settling, they’re willing to drag us all into the existential crisis that could end it all.  “

July 14, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

TODAY. The insanity of rampant mindless new technology

It’s not that I’m against new technology. It has many benefits. It’s just that there can be too much of a good thing.

As an illustration, I’m looking at the plan to employ “human-like” robots to provide companionship to lonely aged people, in particular, to those with dementia. In Australia, there’s a government-encouraged plan that is developing these robots. The robots are meant to provide cheery company and entertainment, to groups of old people and to individuals. They can initiate games, blow bubbles, and provide a stream of wisecracking banter (I heard a sample of this on Australia’s ABC Radio National).

above – “Nadine” – robot, Japan

Just what a dementia person needs- NOT! The last thing that a demented person needs is smart-aleck wisecracks. What they do need is a gentle touch, a human hand leading them for a walk, very little talk, and simple talk, not stuff that will add to their confusion. What they need is empathy – and that’s one thing that a robot cannot give.

Of course, the robot gobbles up electricity. And that must cost a bit, but presumably cheaper than paying a human to do this task?

The companion robot is just one example of the useless bits of new technology that waste not only our time, but also huge amounts of electricity and water.

Consider how many trillions of unnecessary emojis, emails, digital posts of all kinds, must be increasingly stored in those dirty great steel data containers that are deceptively called “the cloud” . The big deception is that we’re supposed to think that there’s some kind of innocuous beneficial vapour, into which all our digital rubbish just fades away.

That massive dirty digital steel rubbish “cloud” bank is forever guzzling electricity and the necessary cooling water.

As artificial intelligence races away, and the squillionares like Jeff Bezos rule the world, unhindered wasteful new technology is leading us towards a collective insanity. The nuclear lobbyists must be licking their lips – as electricity usage booms with AI, the argument for nuclear energy booms, too.

There would be many ways to limit our digital use, if only there was a general acceptance of the idea of moderate use, and the motivation to be more frugal in our digital management.

Rampant energy use for completely wasteful purposes not only destroys employment for humans, but it also leads to the toxic world of nuclear power, (and of course, its twin, nuclear weapons.)

July 13, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

TODAY. Media double standards – Ukraine civilian casualties versus Gaza civilian casualties

I want to be clear. The bombing of civilians is an atrocity. On July 8th, Russian missile attacks targeted cities across Ukraine. That included  a strike that hit the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv. That is an atrocity. (27 civilians, including four children, were killed, and 117, including seven children, were injured.)

On July 9th, an Israeli airstrike targeted a school-turned-refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip,  the fourth school Israel’s military has bombed in as many days. That is an atrocity. (29 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded )

But – contrast the media coverage of these events:

For the Western media – The attack on Ukraine was first of all – a useful news item for ramping up support at the NATO meeting, for more weapons for Ukraine -“A NATO summit is getting under way in Washington, with support for Ukraine top of the agenda after a children’s hospital was hit by a Russian missile.”

Emotional coverage. Australia’s ABC News gave an emotional account: “The offensive on Monday blasted Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital, where thousands of children undergo treatment for cancer, heart problems, and severe injuries, in broad daylight. Parents holding babies walked in the street outside the hospital, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack. “

To be fair – the ABC also covered the Gaza atrocity, but in a less emotional way.

Over the past few years, the contrast in media coverage has been remarkable. This could be in Gaza, because the Western media are getting their information from Israeli sources, and not from Gaza. While for Ukraine, well the news is exclusively from Ukraine, and not at all from Russia.

Even the language of reporting has often shown the difference. For Ukraine, it has been reporting like ” Putin’s Russian mercenary soldiers have killed hundreds civilians ” For Gaza – “According to Hamas, hundreds of civilians died”. The inference is that in the case of Ukraine, the Putin’s brutal soldiers massacre civilians. But in Gaza, well the news from Hamas is not to be trusted anyway, and the civilian deaths were unfortunate collateral damage in the hunt for Hamas terrorists.

Again, to be fair, I think that media coverage of Gaza is improving. It would need to, as firsthand reports from Gaza cannot be ignored.

But finally – there’s a very clear dilemma for the West, in reporting the events in both countries, and the significance of these events.

Israel is designated as a major non-NATO ally . So is it OK by NATO and USA, for USA to keep supplying weapons for Israel’s attack on Gaza?

NATO is very upset about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, so much so, that the top priority of the current NATO summit in Washington. Apparently the Israeli genocide in Gaza is not an issue.

July 11, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Nuclear and associated news -week to 8th July

Some bits of good news.  Conservation and economic development go hand in hand, more often than expected.  Peru has protected 6,449 hectares of an endemic fog oasis that hosts hundreds of rare and threatened species.

TOP STORIES 

Trump has a strategic plan for the country: Gearing up for nuclear war. 

How do you convince someone to live next to a nuclear waste site? 

Nuclear power would put our energy security into Russian hands– ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/07/05/1-a-nuclear-power-would-put-our-energy-security-into-russian-hands/ 

Climate. Climate hazards impact more than four-fifths of cities worldwide, study finds. How record-breaking Hurricane Beryl is a sign of a warming world.

Noel’s notes. Australia further in the grip of the USA, with the Amazon data spy hub – paid for by Aussie tax-payers. The world must stop creating nuclear garbage.

AUSTRALIA. Australians being kept in the dark about Pine Gap expansion. Australia to build ‘top-secret’ cloud for intelligence agencies in $2bn deal with Amazon.    Political Mastermind: a toxic waste of everyone’s time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4HGJ42c2Kg    With its nuclear energy policy, Peter Dutton seems to have forgotten the Liberal Party’s core beliefs. See more Australian news at Australian nuclear news headlines this week.  

NUCLEAR ISSUES

POLITICS.

• Now Keir Starmer Has to Decide If He’d Use Nukes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQO6rJsVNkw . Tory accused of exaggerating chances of new nuclear plant.      SCOTTISH GREENS WILL OPPOSE ALL PLANS FOR NEW NUCLEAR ENERGY. Work to show UK nuclear ‘environmentally sustainable’ incomplete, 16 months after government announcement. ‘Letters of last resort’: deciding response to a nuclear attack among first of Starmer’s tasks.
• Trump Advisers Call for U.S. Nuclear Weapons Testing if He Is Elected. . Congressional group on nuclear arms sets July hearing for embattled missile program.
• Starmer’s role in Assange’s prosecution.
• Masoud Pezeshkian: Iranian reformer who wants to end Tehran’s nuclear stand-off.
• Public Vote on Nuclear Power Plant Sparks Debate in Kazakhstan.

July 8, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

The world must stop creating nuclear garbage.

At last a journalist has tackled the issue of nuclear waste. Yet, even Austyn Gaffney , writing in Grist, , did not dare to suggest the obvious first move to control this monstrous problem. –

Stop making nuclear waste

The nuclear lobby boasts that Finland has solved this problem.:

Great copper and cast iron casks up to two stories tall will be lowered deep into a bedrock tomb, to bury toxic nuclear wastes that will remain toxic for many thousands of years.

And Finland got that essential precious jewel – community consent. But did they, really?

Finland’s KBS-3 nuclear waste disposal system was designed by Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, SKB., but rejected by Swedish Environmental Court. “The foremost reason is that as the project was being discussed with the public, SKB’s research was found to be incomplete and, in certain cases, inaccurate.

When, in 2011, Sweden’s SKB first applied for a license to build the Forsmark repository, the KBS-3 project documentation was published, which made it possible to give the project a review that would be independent from the nuclear industry’s own evaluation.

In February 2016, a special expert group appointed by the government, called the Swedish National Council for Nuclear Waste (Kärnavfallsrådet), published a 167-page report entitled “Nuclear Waste State-of-the-Art Report 2016: Risks, uncertainties and future challenges.” Among other things, it identifies the repository project’s risks and uncertainties having to do with earthquake impacts, with the long-term prospects of financing and monitoring the site’s condition, and with the health effects of low doses of radiation.

Finland has no such expert body. The concept of the repository, under construction in Euroajoki municipality, is criticized by many Finnish scientists, but the government is not taking notice and is likewise ignoring the scientific objections coming from its neighbor Sweden.“

With the proliferation of all kinds of nuclear facilities, big and small, – what about RADIOACTIVITY AND HUMAN HEALTH, , SAFETY, ENVIRONMENT, WEAPONS PROLIFERATION, TERRORISM RISKS ?

– NAH – they don’t matter. WHAT MATTERS IS COMMUNITY CONSENT.

And, I commend Austyn Gaffney, for quietly shedding light on the salient facts here:

In the USA the Federal Government (not the nuclear companies) has the legal responsibility for the nuclear waste. And it is sort of committed to “consent-based” siting of waste dumps, since it was forced by community opposition do dump its old Nevada nuclear dump plan.

Even in Finland, a campaign to get community consent took many years, and the community got inadequate information, and Finland had a string tradition of trust in the government.

In Canada – it’s been a worse story. The government, (helped by subservient media) has had to resort to all sorts of bribery. And those pesky First Nations, who love the land, the environment, have not been all that willing to accept waste dumps, even with the bribery.

The thing is – people can be more easily conned into having a toxic nuclear waste dump nearby, if they already have nuclear facilities, and if they get the various government bribes, and of course – the perpetual promise of jobs jobs jobs.

But there would be plenty of jobs in shutting down nuclear facilities too.

Why does nobody, – not even that excellent writer, Austyn Gaffney – ever suggest that logical first step?

July 5, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Australia’s Liberal-National Party really communist – wants a NATIONALISED NUCLEAR industry!

What more can I say? I am astounded. The Liberal party – champion of free enterprise – long opponent of our taxes being used to support wasteful public projects like health, education, welfare, environment, – now makes a dramatic exception to its private enterprise philosophy.

They want a fully tax-payer built and run nuclear power industry.

I mean – I’m not here arguing that nuclear power is dirty, unhealthy, or will be too late to combat climate change, or any of those nasty, Lefty allegations. Good heavens, I’m not a communist!

But I’m wondering if Peter Dutton, esteemed Leader of this Opposition Party IS in fact a communist? He wants to set up a nuclear power industry in Australia, and has designated several sites each to host several nuclear reactors – I think Large Nuclear Reactors – but I’m not sure on this. He does want little ones, too.

What other explanation?

In my paranoia, one explanation comes to mind.

Little Australia – population under 27 million, is not well informed on nuclear issues. Many of those 27 million get their information from Murdoch media, and from Trumpian-type posts on social media. Last year, guided by the Atlas Network, those outlets just pushed a simplistic promotion – and quite miraculously changed public opinion on Aboriginal rights.

Could they do it again – converting the Australian public to wanting to have their taxes pay for the nuclear industry?

And if the nuclear lobby and its close mates the mining giants can pull this off in Australia – why not in more of the Western world?

Is Australia the nuclear lobby’s guinea pig, with Peter Dutton its glorious and well-funded hero?

July 2, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 1 Comment

The Assange case – a win for journalism? Sort of.

Sort of – because his guilty plea leaves all journalists at risk. Because this freedom at last for Julian Assange means that the U.S. government can now claim that they’ve secured a conviction against a journalist under the Espionage Act. Assange’s impending legal case appealing against extradition did not take place – then what happens if another non-USA journalist reveals U.S. military atrocities?

The mainstream media can be relied on to snidely smear Julian Assange from now on.

However, 17 federal charges against Assange were dropped. He pled guilty to a  felony charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information. It could have been a lot worse. And Julian Assange, after all these years, now gets the opportunity for a decent life in Australia. with his family.

We’ve been here before. A courageous Australian journalist – a man of integrity reveals the horrors of American military atrocities. Wilfred Burchett was the first journalist to expose the truth about the devastating after-effects of the atom bomb -going to Hiroshima and defying the USA military’s ban on journalists going to Hiroshima.

The USA made sure that Burchett was smeared as a traitor, and the Australian government comfortably complied with that view – conservative Prime Minister Robert Menzies banned Burchett, and his children, from Australia – a ban that lasted 17 years.

A different case was that of Christopher Boyce, an American, who with a friend in 1977 was sentenced to 40 years in prison, mostly solitary confinement , for acquiring classified U.S. documents and selling them to Russia. Boyce claimed that the CIA was planning to remove Australia’s Prime Minister Whitlam from office, because Whitlam opposed the huge USA secret military base Pine Gap, in central Australia. Boyce seemed to care about Australia’s loss of sovereignty to the USA military. However, unlike Burchett and Assange – Boyce went on to a colourful career in a prison escape and bank robberies. Finally released from prison in 2002, Boyce settled down, but will never speak about his revelations of CIA intrigue in the 1970s.

Well, the USA government didn’t agree to Assange’s plea deal out of the goodness of their hearts. In this tense election year for the U.S. Democratic administration – Assange’s cruel incarceration in the U.K. Belmore prison was becoming an embarrassment. And what if Assange were to win his legal appeal against extradition to he USA? A damaging precedent?

And, above all – there was the unified pressure, from Assange’s wife, his family, his legal team, and thousands of people in the UK, Europe, USA, and Australia. The Australian government was no help, early on – but Australian politicians, and dignitaries like Kevin Rudd, gradually came on board. The whole thing was becoming awkward for the USA and the UK governments.

To some extent, this legal plea deal from an innocent journalist has been a success – for people power.

June 29, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

The persecution of Wilfred Burchett and Julian Assange.

Julian Assange’s “crime” was, in 2010, to expose military abuses committed by the USA .

Assange is not a USA citizen – he’s Australian. Yet his own national government is apparently abandoning him to the cruel vindictive revenge of a foreign government – the USA.

But hey – this is nothing new! While the world remembers the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it conveniently forgets that other Australian journalist, Wilfred Burchett, who, in 1945 revealed the horrors of that bombing.

In the 1930s, Burchett took many personal risks to help rescue Jews from Hitler’s Germany.

 In August 1945, in defiance of the US army’s ban on journalists, he made his way to the devastated Japanese city of Hiroshima . He was the first journalist to expose the truth about the devastating after-effects of the atom bomb.The US military had wanted to keep radioactive contamination an official secret, concealing the death and suffering it caused for hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians.

US officials accused Burchett of being under the sway of Japanese propaganda.^[Burchett lost his press accreditation and he was ordered to leave Japan. His camera, containing photos of Hiroshima, was confiscated while he was documenting persistent illness at a Tokyo hospital. The film was sent to Washington and classified secret .

For daring to out these and later, many other important truths, Burchett was marked by Western intelligence services.

Burchett dedicated the rest of his life to exposing the lies told by Western governments.

Australian conservatives branded him a traitor and communist. the Australian Robert Menzies government illegally refused to replace his passport. He was barred from re-entering Australia, despite his citizenship. His children were also denied Australian passports. The Australian national security department, which became ASIO in 1949, opened a file on the whole Burchett family in the 1940s.

 the Australian government investigated the possibility of charging Burchett with treason. ASIO agents were despatched to Japan and Korea to collect evidence, but their investigations uncovered little. Burchett was subjected to government-backed smear campaigns and barred from Australia.

In 1969, Australian authorities refused Burchett entry to attend his father’s funeral. Only in 1972 — after 17 years of exile — was Burchett finally given an Australian passport by the incoming Whitlam government.

I guess that Australia will never again be allowed by the USA to have a government like that of Gough Whltlam. Liberal or Labor, the Australian government is determined to toe the USA line – which is to persecute any journalist who tells the truth about USA war atrocities.

June 29, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment