OFFERING TUNNEL OF HISTORY UNKNOWN PAST

Australian Daily Telegraph Friday 6^th May 2011 By: Henry Budd (Harbour Reporter)

It’s a top secret tunnel, lost in time, beneath Sydney’s garden Island naval base. These images (pictures was in the paper) reveal a hidden piece of our city’s military past.

Two separate tunnel systems were blasted out of the sandstone under garden Island during World War II.

They were to serve as air-raid shelters in case the Royal Australian Navy base was attacked.

It is not known if this latrine was ever used but the toilets form just one part of the tunnel system that remains deep below the surface, hidden from public view – until now.

One system was built at the base’s northern end, with another dug into the slope running down from Potts point.

Garden Island historian and former ADI electrical compliance co-ordinator David Stockman has been researching the tunnels for five years.

Mr Stockman believes there may be yet another tunnel – this one running from the base to the heart of the city.

People keep telling me about a tunnel to the city but I’m yet to find a record of it, he said. I don’t know if it exists but I can’t rule it out.

But if anyone is going to get to the bottom of the secrets held deep beneath the base, it is Mr Stockman.

He worked at the naval complex for 40 years and both his grandfather and father worked on the island.

But finding historical records on the tunnels was proving difficult, he said.

The National Archive recognise my login, I’ve been searching their records so much, Mr Stockman said.

I’ve only been able to find one historical photo of the tunnels.

While The Daily Telegraph was given an exclusive tour of the northern air-raid shelter this week, the southern one was off limits.

We were also requested to delete images of one of the entrances such as the secrecy surrounding them.

The northern most bunker is made up of five interconnecting tunnels that once housed back-up generators, a telephone exchange and a casualty clearing station.

Cut into the sandstone and supported with wooden struts, the original tunnel systems would have resembled a wild west mine, Mr Stockman said.

During a refurbishment in 1978, most of the tunnels were reinforced with concrete and steel. They are now only used to run communication and fuel lines across the Island.

Some tunnels were named after London landmarks, including Petticoat Lane and Saunders Corner, but details are still rough. When or who gave the tunnels their names is lost deep in history, Mr Stockman said.

JOHN HOWARD APPLAUDS DEATH OF OSAMA BIN LADEN

Sydney Daily Telegraph 3^rd May 2011: NEWS!

Former Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday the death of Osama bin Laden had delivered justice for those who died in terror attacks in the US and Bali.

Mr Howard said the death ‘removes from the world’ a man who stood for ‘unspeakable evil,’ delivering justice to his victims.

The top evil man has been taken out...and that is very good news, Mr Howard said.

Mr Howard, who was in Washington the day of the September 11 attacks, said the US should be congratulated on the operation that led to bin Laden’s death.

But he warned there would still be a ‘long fight’ ahead in the war against terror.

We have to be vigilant lest there be some kind of retaliatory attack, he said. That is the nature of the animal.

But, he said, it was ‘reminder that justice can be delivered,’ even if it takes almost a decade.

At least we can say to them, and the memory of those who died, ‘well we got the person who is the mastermind,’ Mr Howard said.

Meanwhile, former US president George W Bush congratulated President Barack Obama after learning of bin Laden’s death.

Mr Bush said he received a telephone call from Mr Obama who informed him of the successful operation.

This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.

He said the US ‘has sent an unmistakable message. No matter how long it takes, justice will be done’

For Barack Obama, battered by high fuel prices, sinking poll numbers and even questions about the legitimacy of his presidency, the killing of Osama bin Laden reverberates as a singular moment in his tenure and his quest for a second term.

As Mr Obama proclaimed yesterday, ‘the most significant achievement to date’ in the war against al-Qaeda was a triumph for the US military and intelligence personnel who hunted down and killed the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

It also was a milestone for Mr Obama, a foreign policy novice when he took office, who can now claim a national security victory that eluded his predecessor for eight years.

The development is ‘great boost for him, as it would be for any president,’ US pollster Andrew Kohut said.

This is the most symbolic victory he could have. It’s not the end of the war on terror, but it is likely to be seen as a great achievement for the US.

But more details are likely to emerge in coming days that could alter public attitudes toward the stunning event. And the unexpected news that ‘justice had been done’ after almost a decade-long hunt, may not be the turning point many Obama supporters would like it to be.

Similar developments over the years, such as the successful Persian Gulf war of the early 1990s or the apprehension of Saddam Hussein in 2003, did not prove to have lasting impact.

But the immediate result will almost certainly be a boost to Mr Obama’s sagging popularity, which had hit the lowest levels of his presidency.

As of late last night, Mr Obama could claim a military achievement of a magnitude unmatched by recent Democratic presidents. The calibre of his leadership, often the target of withering attacks by the Republican opposition, has now been bolstered in a very tangible way.

Another Democratic president, Jimmy Carter, had to break the sad news to the nation that a rescue attempt to free the US hostages in Iran had not only failed but had resulted in the loss of American lives. By contrast, Mr Obama could report no Americans were harmed in the operation to kill bin Laden.

And in his speech to America, he made clear he had been in the driver’s seat.

Tracing the roots of the mission back almost a year, Mr Obama strengthened and validated his oft-criticised reputation for caution. Bin Laden’s death will remind Americans and the world, of the might of the US military, and Mr Obama’s resolve.

  

500 TALIBAN TUNNEL FREE

Tuesday Telegraph 26^th April 2011: Sydney Australia.

KABUL: Nearly 500 Taliban prisoners dug a 360m Tunnel and escaped from Kandahar prison in southern Afghanistan, according to officials.

The Taliban said it was behind the huge jail break and that all of those who had escaped were members of the militant Islamist organisation.

A tunnel hundreds of metres long was dug from the south of the prison into the prison and 476 political prisoners escaped last night, prison director-general Ghulam Dastageer Mayar said.

The acting police chief of Kandahar, Shair Shah Yousufzai, confirmed the escape.

Last night some political prisoners broke out of the prison and escaped, he said.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahamdi said militants were responsible for the breakout.

Prisoners dug a 360-metre-long tunnel to the south of the prison. They started getting out of the prison at 11pm last night and by early morning today, 541 prisoners escaped the prison, he said.

They all have made it [safely] to our centres and there was no fighting.

Ahmadi said 106 escapees were Taliban commanders and the rest were soldiers.

The Taliban are known to exaggerate claims of their successes in relation to incidents during the insurgency.

The jail break was the second major escape from Kandahar prison in three years.

In 2008, about 1000 prisoners including Taliban militants escaped after the Taliban used a truck bomb to blow open the gates. It was also the scene of a mass hunger strike by inmates the same year.

Kandahar is seen as the birthplace of the Taliban movement and the city and surrounding area has endured some of the worst fighting of the long war.

COMIC BOOK VIGILANTES COME TO THE AID OF PROSTITUTES

Monday Telegraph Sydney Australia 25^th April 2011:

NEW YORK: Self-styled superheroes have offered their help in fighting the serial killer thought to be behind the murders of over a dozen prostitutes.

The New York Initiative – a group of vigilantes who model themselves on comic book heroes as portrayed in the hit film Kick Ass – posted an advert on classified ads  website Craigslist offering “rescue teams” for hookers whose clients turn violent.

NYI, who identify themselves as a group of “martial arts trainers,” security specialists, emergency first responders, drug counsellors, former military police and former law enforcement, are also offering martial arts and weapons training to the women.

The murderer stalking New York, dubbed the Craigslist Killer because he targets women selling sex through Craigslist, is thought to be behind the deaths, of up to 13 prostitutes.

Most of the bodies so far found had been dumped in scrub land on the southern coast of Long Island, New York, all strangled and stuffed in burlap sacks.

According to their advert, NYI have offered their help to prostitutes because “apparently the law doesn’t respect your personal choices and that means cops are slower to follow through when it comes to you.” The group is offering “a number to call and a few one-number of one-word codes you can say or text to them so that they can contact someone to assist you with a possibly violent date.”

   

LEFT IDLE BY BUS BLUE

LEFT IDLING BY BUS BLUE

Monday Telegraph Sydney Australia 25^th April 2011:By: Rhys Haynes (Transport Reporter)

Brand new public buses are sitting idle in depots while officials argue over the colour scheme of the vehicles.

The buses – worth about $500,000 each – remain off the road, while the industry urges Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian to immediately scrap the aqua blue and white colour scheme.

The blue and white livery ordered by former Opposition Leader John Robertson, was expected to last more than 20 years, with each bus to have a uniform colour scheme.

The design was intended for all public and privately-run buses on routes in Greater Sydney, Wollongong, the Central Coast and Newcastle.

About 30 vehicles have already been painted and controversial colours, but private operators are fighting to keep their own colour scheme.

And commuters will suffer, as orders for new buses are being delayed because of the paint dispute.

A government spokesman said its integrated transport authority would determine the ‘overall policy and timetable’ for the bus colour scheme.’

The Daily Telegraph last week saw five buses worth more than $2 million parked behind a shed at the Busways Glendenning depot.

Two buses were delivered before the before the state election, and the three others shortly after, but they are not being used because the colour scheme was rejected by the operator, according to an industry source.

That’s more than $2 million paid by the taxpayer just sitting there not being used because of the colour of the bus, the source said.

A Busways spokeswoman denied there was a dispute, saying the delay was caused by new technology being installed.

As it is school holidays these vehicles have not been required on the road, but it is envisaged that when school recommences they will be used on routes services, the spokeswoman said.

BusNSW, the peak industry body representing bus operators, said the paint scheme was a shambles and urged Ms Berejiklian to scrap the project.

We felt that this short-term knee-jerk reaction to advertise the [previous] government was half baked, and needed to be reversed, BusNSW executive director Darryl Mellish said.

We are very keen to try and get early clearance on this because operators and waiting on the decision to paint new vehicles.

FROM OARADISE TO BARBED-WIRE HELL

FROM PARADISE TO BARBED-WIRE HELL

(Monday Telegraph 14^th March 2011) By: Samantha Townsend. (Regional Reporter)

It once topped the list as the best town for tourists in all of Australia.

But the sleepy surfing hamlet of Yamba, a place where residents could leave the back door unlocked, has been woken from its slumber by a wave of crime.

It had become so bad that some residents have erected barbed wire on the top of their fences to deter intruders from breaking into their homes.

Other residents have resorted to partially hammering nails into fences to try to deter thieves.

The recent spate of robberies, harassment and break and enters is the last straw for many who want the State Government to provide more police to man a 24-hour police station.

The town as a shopfront station but officers have to travel 64km from Grafton to service the area.

A leaked internal police report revealed by The Daily Telegraph suggests the region needed another 49 officers.

One resident, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, said they moved to the region seven years ago because the town offered a great lifestyle.

But since they were broken into three years ago, they lived in fear and wanted more done to protect their home.

They have put barbed wire on top of the fence.

It was a great place to live but we are fed up, the resident said. Many people have moved out of our street because of the crime.

Another resident, when asked about the barbed wire, said: There is a reason for it and it’s for safety.

When The Daily Telegraph visited Yamba, there were about a dozen homes with barbed wire fencing.

A home that was let for holiday rentals had stickers throughout the property that stipulated guests should lock up and not leave personal items around.

Grafton Inspector Murray Gillett said crime was predominantly caused by young adults because of unemployment and socio-economic problems.

Yamba is also a large tourist town and tourists attract crime, Inspector Gillett said.

Clarence Valley Mayor Richie Williamson said the crime was being caused by those under 25.

In 2008, Yamba boasted it had the best climate in the world, and it beat tourist destinations Broome, Bryon Bay and Port Douglas to top the list of the best 100 towns in an Australian Traveller Magazine.

Mr Williamson backed calls for more police and said there needed to be a 24-hour police station at nearby Maclean to service the lower Clarence region including Yamba, despite the Yamba community wanting one in their town.

Police are critically understaffed, which is part of the problem but we need youth development programs like PCYC to help, Mr Williamson said.