John Howard: Reckless, Bald-faced and Dangerous Liar

Australian PM John Howard has been caught out lying to the public (yet again) on an important terrorism-related issue. Yesterday he claimed that a white powder sent to the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra contained "some kind of biological agent." Today it is being reported that the powder is in fact harmless.

The incident - and Howard's words - were widely reported in the Australian press last night. Just for fun I am going to quote Rupert Murdoch's News Limited version:

THE biological agent sent to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra contained a bacteria, Prime Minister John Howard said tonight.

Mr Howard said he had been told the substance was a bacteria belonging to the bacillus group.

"It's still being tested ... it's not an innocent white powder, it's some kind of biological agent," Mr Howard told Channel 9.

"I'm not a scientist but they say it belongs to the bacillus group and is being tested.

"At this stage I can't tell you any more than that."

The bacillus group includes various forms of bacteria, one of which is the causative agent of anthrax.

So now we learn that the powder is harmless. Which means Howard was either ill-advised (again????) or he lied (again????)... [For a well-documented history of Howard lies, see www.JohnHowardLies.com.au.]

What I loved the most (not) was this quote:

Let me say that I'm staggered that it's happened but I'm afraid that we have to recognise that there's a dark corner in every country and you can get that kind of behaviour in every country.

So when Australians resort to terrorism, it's just a small minority in a dark corner (not Aboriginal, surely?) to blame. Whereas when citizens of other countries do such things, the whole country is liable to be nuked by a pre-emptive US/Australian/UK attack.

This quote was also very revealing:

We have to keep our heads, we have to behave ... reasonably.

Well, obviously the PM himself did not behave reasonably - or even keep his head - if he told the world it was a biological agent when it wasn't.

Unless the powdery substance really was dangerous, but after tasting the backlash of international condemnation, Howard decided to take the fall himself (well, he has lot's of "political capital", doesn't he?) so that the political danger could be minimalized. Which would mean our government is lying to us about life-threatening dangers....

Now, they would never do that, would they?

Can we expect anyone to be sacked for mis-advising the PM? Don't hold your breath...

This reminds me of a joke I thought up (all by myself!) last night:

Q: What's the difference between the Bush Administration and the Mafia?

A: The Mafia has a code of ethics.

Obviously, the joke applies equally well to the corrupt and forever unaccountable Howard government.