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I thought this might be useful as a continuing thread for Australians to inform one another about interesting stuff on TV.

I'll start:

AS IT HAPPENED

Broadcast Date: Friday 8 June 2007

Channel: Free to Air / SBS

Broadcast Time: 8.30 pm

Classifications: Documentary, PG (CC) WS

Timeslot Duration: 60 mins

Umbrella Assassin - In 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident working for the BBC, was travelling to work when a man carrying an umbrella collided with him on Waterloo Bridge. Markov felt as if he had been stung by something - but thought no more about it. What seemed at first like a curious accident turned into an extraordinary detective story, when three days later Markov died. The incident, known as the Umbrella Murder became one of the most notorious stories of the Cold War. Thirty years on, the Markov murder remains unsolved and the perpetrators of the crime have never been brought to justice. The film shows how British and American scientists solved the extraordinary forensic puzzle surrounding Markov's death. (From the UK, in English, Bulgarian and French, English subtitles) (Documentary)

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CUTTING EDGE

Broadcast Date: Monday 11 June 2007

Channel: Free to Air / SBS

Broadcast Time: 1.30 pm

Classifications: Other, ® G (CC) WS

Timeslot Duration: 60 mins

Kill The Messenger - Reveals how a foreign spy ring with links to Al-Qaeda has been discovered working within the FBI. Sibel, began work at the FBI translating wire taps in an investigation into a foreign spy ring. She became suspicious of her colleagues after discovering some mistranslations. She went straight to her bosses and, rather than being hailed as a hero, was promptly sacked. After going public on 60 Minutes she has been officially gagged. This film also features an undercover CIA agent whose identity was leaked by the White House, was also involved in nuclear counter proliferation surveillance. Whistle-blowing could mean prison for Sibel but she is prepared to risk this in the interests of American national security. (From France, in English and French with English subtitles) (Documentary)

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Thank you Evan. Saw the umbrella docu. last night. Interesting.

Am watching the 'Cutting Edge' now. Highly recommended. Whistleblowers like Sibel & co. need support and coverage. The fact that they exist and receive global exposure is one reason one can feel hope and optimism. Hopefully in time, perhaps sooner than later with an eectoral defeat of the Bush dynasty and a restraint on the Mil. Industrial Complex neo cons etc will take place.

She ends the program with the apt question: (roughly) "When did the current anti-truth dogma embed itself into society?". Methinks the answer could lie in the Kennedy assassination.

Edited by John Dolva
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Guest David Guyatt

Fore those who live in the land of Oz I would've thought that the forced removal from power of Gough Whitlam would still be top of the list? That and the (to some suspicious) death of the former Prime Minister who apparently drowned while swimming who's name escapes me.

David

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Part of the reason is that during Goughs Labour Government's three wonderful years when 'the light was switched on' after decades of darkness, he quickly

-brought the boys home from Vietnam

-established free tertiary education

-established Medicare, universal free public health

-relaxed censorship

-ended the 'White Australia' policy

-set in motion the separation of OZ from the UK monarchy

-officially abolished Federally the death penalty

and many other minor revolutionary steps. In three short years. IOW australia was then, and still is today, a country where such things can happen.

Remember that even during the oppressive Menzies era they could not outlaw the Communist party and something like 97 % voted to give full rights to the natives.

Wiki : "1967 is often recalled as the year that the Aboriginal people of Australia gained the right to vote, however this is an incorrect date, and an over-simplification of the processes involved. When the state constitutions of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania were framed in 1850s, voting rights were granted to all male British subjects over the age of 21, which included Aboriginal men. However, few Aborigines were aware of their rights and hence very few participated in elections.

The situation became murkier when the Commonwealth Franchise Act was passed in 1902. The Act gave women a vote in federal elections but Aboriginal people and people from Asia, Africa or the Pacific Islands (except for Māori) were excluded unless entitled under Section 41 of the Australian Constitution. Section 41 states that any individual who has gained a right to vote at a state level, must also have the right to vote in federal elections. The Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Garran, interpreted it to mean that Commonwealth rights were granted only to people who were already State voters in 1902. What transpired was a situation where Aboriginals who had already enrolled to vote were able to continue to do so, whereas those who had not were denied the right. This interpretation was challenged in Victoria in 1924 by an Indian migrant, where the magistrate ruled that Section 41 meant that people who acquired State votes at any date were entitled to a Commonwealth vote. The Commonwealth government instead passed laws giving Indians the vote (There were only about 2300 in Australia at the time), but continued to deny other non-white applicants.

In the 1940s, groups began to lobby the Commonwealth government to grant Aboriginal suffrage, and in 1949 the Chifley Labor government passed an Act to confirm that all those who could vote in their States could vote in the Commonwealth. However, little was done to publicise the changes, and many Aboriginal Australians remained unaware of their rights.

In the 1960s, reflecting the strong Civil rights movements in the United States and South Africa, many changes in Aborigines’ rights and treatment followed, including finally full voting rights. The Menzies Liberal and Country Party government gave the Commonwealth vote to all Aborigines in 1962. Western Australia gave them State votes in the same year, and Queensland followed in 1965."

http://www.nswccl.org.au/ for various background issues

_________________

The coup caught everyone by surprise, it's one of those things 'I remember where I was.." things, and while workers and students across australia responded instantly by calls for a General Strike and many took to the streets, the leadership of the Unions called for calm.

The principals were hard to identify at the time and the few ones that stood out were forever damned by many. For some of us there has been no other legitimate Prime Minister (though many would call him Mr. President) since .

The Liberal Party (not liberal except in name, it's the OZ equivalent of a right wing party) have tried over time to deconstruct the Gough Whitlam years. They have also tried to roll back a number of the reforms and to some extent succeeded, but Medicare, for example, is still there and the will to restore it fully as well.

The changes he wrought remain as a testament to what's still possible. Unlike the US, OZ has a strong left tradition, so the sense of having been defeated is not there at all.

Gough and his wife and various members of his Cabinet are still with us.

So, in this case I think the answer is that it was a loss but never one that could not be put right. 'They' pulled a 'swifty' and people let it go. Australians have a healthy disregard for its 'rulers' and Nationalism, as the right would have it, is generally spat upon.

I think there is a strong sense that australia has been, and is, controlled by the people. We'll only let 'them' get away with a certain amount and no more, and 'they' know it. So there is a balance in place that perhaps overrides potential extreemism.

____________________

As far as the other guy goes, whats his name, he probably just got caught in one of the many unpredictable rips or other ocean dangers surrounding OZ and drowned, and that's all.

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Fore those who live in the land of Oz I would've thought that the forced removal from power of Gough Whitlam would still be top of the list? That and the (to some suspicious) death of the former Prime Minister who apparently drowned while swimming who's name escapes me.

We have discussed Gough Whitlam here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=7532

The Australian Prime Minister you were thinking of is Harold Holt.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4807

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Guest David Guyatt

Yes, John, it was Harold Holt. I was contacted several years ago by a former Oz Navy frogman/cum Oz SBS type who claimed that he was part of the team that killed Holt (drowned him I think he said). But I had reservations about the man's credibility and cut the connection.

As you also point out in your linked thread on Whitlam, he was taken out by the CIA because he was in the process of ordering an investigation into Pine Gap. The CIA have much to answer for, including the eventual downfall of Harold Wilson who resigned from office out of the blue. That was, I recall, all part of the Clockwork Orange operation working out of Northern Ireland by psyops Colin Wallace and chums.

David

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HOT DOCS: THE AMERICAN RULING CLASS

Broadcast Date: Tuesday 19 June 2007

Channel: Free to Air / SBS

Broadcast Time: 10.00 pm

Classifications: Other, M (L,A) (CC)

Timeslot Duration: 75 mins

In the freest nation in the world, class is, perhaps, the last taboo. This dramatic-documentary musical examines the existence of class, power and privilege in a democratic society. It follows renowned essayist and author, Lewis Lapham, and two recent Yale graduates as they ambush Pentagon briefings, high-society dinner parties, the World Economic Forum, philanthropic foundations, and corporate banks in search of an answer to the question: Who rules America? (From the US, in English) (Documentary)

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AS IT HAPPENED

Broadcast Date: Friday 22 June 2007

Channel: Free to Air / SBS

Broadcast Time: 8.30 pm

Classifications: Documentary, M (CC)

Timeslot Duration: 60 mins

(Part 1) Six Days In June - (The Six Day War)- The shooting lasted only six tense days in June 1967, but the Six Day War has never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades had its roots in these fateful days. On the 40th anniversary of the war, the region remains trapped in conflict. This war has long been seen by Israel as the miraculous victory of their little state this enclave surrounded by an ocean of tens of millions of Arabs from all over the Middle East. For the Arab states, this was a humiliating defeat suffered at the hand of imperialistic plotters. Our two-part film tells the true story of the Six Day War beyond the images and propaganda clichés. (From France, in English, Hebrew and Arabic, English subtitles) (Documentary Series)

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AS IT HAPPENED

Broadcast Date: Friday 22 June 2007

Channel: Free to Air / SBS

Broadcast Time: 8.30 pm

Classifications: Documentary, M (CC)

Timeslot Duration: 60 mins

(Part 1) Six Days In June - (The Six Day War)

Thanks Evan

A useful tip.

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Dateline SBS wed 27 june

"Coming up on Dateline, video journalist David O’Shea charts Posada’s deadly crusade and investigates why the US seems intent on protecting who his critics call the worst terrorist in the western hemisphere."

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AS IT HAPPENED

Broadcast Date: Friday 22 June 2007

Channel: Free to Air / SBS

Broadcast Time: 8.30 pm

Classifications: Documentary, M (CC)

Timeslot Duration: 60 mins

(Part 1) Six Days In June - (The Six Day War)- The shooting lasted only six tense days in June 1967, but the Six Day War has never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades had its roots in these fateful days. On the 40th anniversary of the war, the region remains trapped in conflict. This war has long been seen by Israel as the miraculous victory of their little state this enclave surrounded by an ocean of tens of millions of Arabs from all over the Middle East. For the Arab states, this was a humiliating defeat suffered at the hand of imperialistic plotters. Our two-part film tells the true story of the Six Day War beyond the images and propaganda clichés. (From France, in English, Hebrew and Arabic, English subtitles) (Documentary Series)

Did anyone catch this? I missed it.

Part 2 is on Friday June 29 at 8pm.

It will be interesting to see if the Liberty is mentioned and what angle the doco takes.

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AS IT HAPPENED

Broadcast Date: Friday 22 June 2007

Channel: Free to Air / SBS

Broadcast Time: 8.30 pm

Classifications: Documentary, M (CC)

Timeslot Duration: 60 mins

(Part 1) Six Days In June - (The Six Day War)- The shooting lasted only six tense days in June 1967, but the Six Day War has never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades had its roots in these fateful days. On the 40th anniversary of the war, the region remains trapped in conflict. This war has long been seen by Israel as the miraculous victory of their little state this enclave surrounded by an ocean of tens of millions of Arabs from all over the Middle East. For the Arab states, this was a humiliating defeat suffered at the hand of imperialistic plotters. Our two-part film tells the true story of the Six Day War beyond the images and propaganda clichés. (From France, in English, Hebrew and Arabic, English subtitles) (Documentary Series)

Did anyone catch this? I missed it.

Part 2 is on Friday June 29 at 8pm.

It will be interesting to see if the Liberty is mentioned and what angle the doco takes.

Well worth watching Mark

French made documentary, some very interesting footage from the era. The first part traced the road to war. Dayan was shown as the main protagonist of war; Eshkol as a reluctant war-leader. Nasser's terrible miscalculation was also covered (very poor advice from his military commanders). It also came through clearly how widespread the perceptions were that Israel was in mortal peril. Most westerners, Arabs - even ordinary Israelis - held that view. The Israeli military command knew otherwise.

If the USS Liberty incident is covered, it must be in Part 2.

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AS IT HAPPENED

Broadcast Date: Friday 22 June 2007

Channel: Free to Air / SBS

Broadcast Time: 8.30 pm

Classifications: Documentary, M (CC)

Timeslot Duration: 60 mins

(Part 1) Six Days In June - (The Six Day War)- The shooting lasted only six tense days in June 1967, but the Six Day War has never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades had its roots in these fateful days. On the 40th anniversary of the war, the region remains trapped in conflict. This war has long been seen by Israel as the miraculous victory of their little state this enclave surrounded by an ocean of tens of millions of Arabs from all over the Middle East. For the Arab states, this was a humiliating defeat suffered at the hand of imperialistic plotters. Our two-part film tells the true story of the Six Day War beyond the images and propaganda clichés. (From France, in English, Hebrew and Arabic, English subtitles) (Documentary Series)

Did anyone catch this? I missed it.

Part 2 is on Friday June 29 at 8pm.

It will be interesting to see if the Liberty is mentioned and what angle the doco takes.

Well worth watching Mark

French made documentary, some very interesting footage from the era. The first part traced the road to war. Dayan was shown as the main protagonist of war; Eshkol as a reluctant war-leader. Nasser's terrible miscalculation was also covered (very poor advice from his military commanders). It also came through clearly how widespread the perceptions were that Israel was in mortal peril. Most westerners, Arabs - even ordinary Israelis - held that view. The Israeli military command knew otherwise.

If the USS Liberty incident is covered, it must be in Part 2.

Would you believe I missed part 2 as well?

Anyway, tonight SBS will air a two part doco on Cutting Edge entitled 'Years of Blood'. A brief description from the SBS viewing guide describes the subject matter:

In 2002, Israel launches a large incursion into the West Bank, and places Arafat's compound in Ramallah under siege, effectively isolating Arafat and his 400-strong loyal guards from the outside world. Then came the Jenin battle, where several Israeli soldiers and scores of Palestinians were killed. Sharon decides to implement the disengagement plan with Gaza, announcing a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza strip, which was occupied in 1967. 22 settlements, some built in the early 70s, are slated for eviction. Under pressure from the UN and Western countries, Arafat accepts the creation of the position of Prime Minister. (From Israel, in English, Hebrew and Arabic, English subtitles) (Documentary Series) (Part 2)

Both one hour parts will be shown, beginning at 8.30pm (eastern) tonight.

The series was produced in Israel so it will be interesting to see if a cross section of views are presented by the interviewees or whether it will focus primarily on Israel's side of the story, with brief comments from token Arab spokespersons (carefully edited of course).

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