How David Petraeus shot himself in the foot

The knives are out for Paula Broadwell.  David Petraeus has taken the blame for his love affair with his biographer but human nature being what it is, Broadwell will be the one vilified as the wicked woman who ruined a brilliant man's career.


Both are still married and Broadwell lives in  Charlotte, North Carolina. On Friday afternoon when the story broke, a media circus turned up at her house and written on the family's driveway in chalk was a message, "Dad loves Mom."

Mrs Broadwell and her radiologist husband Scott have two small sons, Lucien and Lando.  She planned to celebrate her 40th birthday this weekend and several reporters were invited but her husband emailed guests to cancel the event late on Friday.


Broadwell told another woman to stay away from Petraeus when she suspected he had found a new lover.  "I know what you did" she said "Back off."   Broadwell allegedly accessed the general's personal email account to send threatening emails to this woman who became so frightened, she contacted the FBI.  That's when they discovered personal emails which left no doubt that the Director of the CIA was having an affair with his biographer. 

CIA officials were concerned about Mrs Broadwell's close relationship and easy access to the Director.  She was a frequent visitor to CIA headquarters in Langley and often joined him on his 8 mile morning runs.  She also attended public functions with him as his guest.

The affair was deemed a national security risk because Petraeus was still married and as Director of the CIA, he was therefore a possible candidate for blackmail.


Descended from a distinguished line of military officers, Holly Petraeus is considered to be "Army Royalty".  She has been a relentless advocate for the financial education of military families and monitors their consumer complaints.

Biographer Blanche D'Alpuget and former Prime Minister Bob Hawke had a love affair that ended his marriage to long-time faithful wife Hazel. But it wasn't just an affair, he married her. 

Melissa George - Ashamed of her roots

It's very unusual for a girl raised in Perth to start throwing her weight around and acting like a prima donna, but that's what happened last Friday morning at Channel 7 studios during the breakfast show. Melissa George threatened to walk out of an interview if hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gilles dared to mention anything about Angel Parrish, the role she played in Home and Away 20 years ago.

Angel

"Right behind my head were pictures of Angel and on the montage they called me Home and Away actress Melissa George .....so my next call will be to Home and Away to ask them to pay me because nobody does more promotion for that f..... show than me."


Executive producer Sarah Stinson thought she was joking.  "At first I thought I was being punk'd because it seemed so surreal, we are genuinely proud of Melissa's achievements, she's done a lot of great work and I didn't realize she had such an issue with her roots.  Most of our guests are usually proud to embrace where they have come from and we would never have done anything to purposely upset her."


She called the Australian press "disgusting" for constantly referring to her part in the popular soap instead of talking about her other great roles, which are many.


"I want to come home a lot but the stress this has created in me is not worthy of my health.  I think it will be the last time I visit and work here for a while to be honest, because I just get too upset coming home."


But this comment probably hurt the most.  "I don't need credibility from my country any more, I just need them to be quiet.  If they have nothing intelligent to say, please don't speak to me anymore, I'd rather be having a croissant and a little espresso in Paris or walking my French bulldog in New York City.  I've got to be honest, I'm not going to be a good Aussie anymore, I'm going to speak out, I've just had it."


Now a US citizen, Melissa George will be remembered in her home country, for all the wrong reasons.

Australian War Veterans Compensation

Bill Glassick

Decorated Vietnam war veteran Colonel Bill Glassick (retired) has every reason to be angry at politicians who turn up at funerals every single time one of our diggers gets killed in Afghanistan. It was a very different story for our men who died in Vietnam and the hurt runs deep.

"One of the things that pains me is that our government of the day did not see it as fitting to return those killed in action to Australia. And now, when one unfortunate soldier comes back from Afghanistan, we find the Prime Minister and the Minister for Defence turning up to every funeral.  If they had done that for us in Vietnam, they would have spent all their life attending funerals of the 526 who were killed. By the end of the war, almost 50,000 men had served and many acts of outstanding bravery were totally dismissed" he said.

On the 29th April 1965, Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced that Australia would send troops to South Vietnam.  As an ally of the United States, and having a keen interest in keeping Communism out of our own backyard, the government readily agreed to go to war, even though the general public were not so sure. We knew the British weren't going, so why should we?  But this conflict is on our doorstep and we remembered how America helped us out in the second world war, so it must be okay.

Harold Wilson

Lyndon Johnson put pressure on British PM Harold Wilson to at least make a token commitment to Vietnam but he refused.  On 28 June 1966 Wilson 'disassociated' his government from American bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.  We can only wonder what Tony Blair would have done under the same circumstances.

In October 1966, President Lyndon B Johnson came to Sydney.  Prime Minister Harold Holt, Premier Bob Askin, LBJ and US Ambassador Ed Clark drove through the streets of the city.  As Johnson's car drove into Liverpool Street, several anti-Vietnam protesters threw themselves in front of the car.  Askin told a policeman to drag them off and as the car moved off, it's alleged he said to Johnson "What I should have said was run over the bastards" to which Johnson replied "A man after my own heart."  That day on the steps of the Town Hall, the now famous cry went up "All the way with LBJ" and was greeted with thunderous applause.

I shudder when I think about the lottery of pulling names out of a hat.  If the birth date of a 20 year old was drawn in a ballot, he was liable to do two years continuous full-time service in the regular army, followed by three years part-time service in the Army Reserve.

We came to realize later just how badly the government of the day and the general public treated those Vietnam vets who came home damaged but alive. Instead of being lauded as heroes, nobody gave a damn and they just disappeared into the ether and were totally forgotten.

The current war in Afghanistan is totally different.  No one was conscripted and those who signed on the dotted line made the decision to go.  But we can't send young men off to war and expect them to come home unaffected by the experience.  So what if they chose to go, it doesn't alter the government's responsibility to take proper care of them when and if they come home.


Figures released today by Veterans' Affairs show they approved 62 per cent of the 20,703 disability claims lodged by veterans last year.
Only half the claims lodged for alcohol dependence caused by war service were approved, 54 per cent of depressive disorders and for the most obvious war-caused ailment of them all, post-traumatic stress disorder, 75 per cent of claims were approved.


It's obvious to me that these three disorders go hand in hand with the threat of having your head blown off in combat.


I have no idea if Veterans' Affairs are doing the right thing by our service men and women, I only hope to God they are.  After doing their duty for their country, it's up to their country to do its duty to them.

Comanchero Sydney bikie war

Drive-by overnight shootings in Sydney suburbs have become so common place, we hardly notice anymore. There have been 134 so far this year and it isn't even over yet.  The Sydney Comancheros are having a war, not with another rival gang, but with each other.


It's now up to their leader, Mark Buddle from the Maroubra chapter, to sort it out.  The 28 year old has one member dead and three others in hospital with bullet wounds.


To say that police have lost control of Sydney bikie wars is an understatement and Premier Barry O'Farrell is getting nervous.  He's leaning on the Police Commissioner to do something but it must be hard work when nobody is prepared to talk.


The trouble is, they are targeting their victims in public places. The Comancharo who was gunned down outside a Sydney shopping centre this week, is the prime suspect in the murder of a wedding guest on Monday, Faalau Pisu, who died shortly after being shot twice in the head.

Faalau Pisu

It seems the trouble started when one member "patches" over to another chapter.  Faalau Pisu had just moved over from the Milperra Chapter to Maroubra and obviously, someone didn't like him.  Real tensions now exist between Maroubra and Milperra and members are looking to Mark Buddle to fix it.  "No one voted Buddle in, he kind of just took over" a detective said.

Faalau Pisu's family members

But some progress has been made.  Strike Force Raptor, set up to target bikies, charged one of Buddle's senior Maroubra members with three separate assaults on Wednesday.


The Comancharos was formed in 1966 by Scotsman William George "Jock" Ross, a former soldier.  He introduced a set of rules for members to live by, such as not being allowed to have an affair with another member's partner or wife.  But times have changed and as they created new chapters in recent years, the club widened its membership to include Middle Eastern and Islander members.

Mick Hawi

In April this year, Comoncharo national president Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi 31, was found guilty of murdering Anthony Zervas, the brother of Hells Angels member Peter Zervas, at Sydney airport.   He was sentenced to 21 years and six months.


So according to police, this isn't gang warfare. "We believe this is a fight within the Comancharos" Organised Crime Squad head, Acting Detective Chief Superintendent Arthur Katsogiannis said.

President Obama elected by minority groups

President Obama gets another term in the White House but white voters didn't put him there.  Mitt Romney won 59 per cent of white votes, the biggest majority of any presidential candidate in US history.  


Hispanics, the fastest-growing demographic in the US, accounted for 10 per cent of all votes.  There are now 53 million Hispanics in America, 17 per cent of the population.  A record number of Asian voters also turned out but not surprisingly, the President won a staggering 93 per cent of African-American votes.


During his victory speech, he said "It doesn't matter if you're black or white, Hispanic, Asian or Native American, young or old,  rich or poor, able or disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you're willing to try."

Searing heat kills worker on Ethabuka Station

Ethabuka Station

Bush Heritage Australia (BHA) is in the news this week because a young man tragically lost his life while working on Ethabuka Station, a property they own that covers 200,000 hectares in the Simpson Desert, in south-west Queensland.  BHA bought the property to help regenerate the site after degradation caused by cattle and feral camels.


Two men left the station on Monday morning in a four wheel drive and became bogged about 16 kilometres from base.  After many exhaustive efforts to free the vehicle, they decided to walk back.  When the men didn't come home for dinner, the alarm was raised and a search began.


Shortly after midnight, the 30 year old man was found near death by a worker from the neighbouring Carlo Station, about 20 kilometres from the homestead, and the body of his 25 year old friend, known as Mao, was found nearby.  The temperature reached 45 degrees that day and they didn't have enough water to sustain them on their long walk home.

BHA station spokesman David Whitelaw said the man had been working on the reserve for a year.  "Our staff are trained and provided with the necessary equipment to operate out in the field - it is a terrible tragic event and it is a sad time for everyone who knew him."


Police said it highlights yet again, the need to take sufficient water and proper communication into remote desert areas.


Bush Heritage Australia is a non-profit organisation who purchase land assessed as being of outstanding conservation value, from private owners, to manage as wildlife reserves in perpetuity.  It was founded in 1990 by Dr Bob Brown who bought two forested properties in Tasmania, destined for wood-chipping.

BHA is run by an independent board of directors skilled in land management, a small number of paid staff, and many volunteers.  BHA Ambassadors:

• Tim Fisher
• Chris Darwin, great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin
• Phillip Adams
• John Williamson
• Roger Woodward 

St John's College extreme initiation ceremonies

Situated within the University of Sydney, St John's College is the oldest Australian University Catholic College.  It provides accommodation for 168 male and female students.


An incident occurred earlier this year which resulted in a young woman being hospitalised after an initiation ceremony.  Thirty three students were suspended for their involvement in the infamous "O" week ritual. College rector Dr Michael Bongers wrote a report about it which, in part, read:


The incident involved 30 male residents of the university coercing (her) and a small number of other first-year girls to drink a potentially life-threatening mixture which contained dog food, off milk, Tabasco sauce, various forms of alcohol, and shampoo.

Michael Bongers

The circumstances in which she was coerced into drinking the mixture involved her and the other girls being surrounded by the more senior residents in a common room and then made to kneel.

The incident was part of a covert tradition in the nature of an initiation process inflicted by second-year students upon new students.  The students have a number of unwritten rules among themselves, breaches of which carry penalties.

One, or perhaps the main purpose of these rules, is to perpetuate a hierarchy in which freshers acknowledge older students as their superiors.

Dr Bongers suspended 33 students for two weeks.

Formal Dinner

A former fellow of the college, Professor Roslyn Arnold, says the police should be brought in to investigate the disgusting behaviour meted out to new students.  She was once one of 18 fellows who governed the college through the all-powerful college council.  The traditions at the college were often enforced by second year freshers and many students were terrified.  "They work to de-humanize people, they work to disempower people, they work to frighten people, and they work very effectively" she said.

Professor Roslyn Arnold

But she knows things won't change until parents stop sending their children.  "The only thing that will bring an institution to its knees will be if it suffers financial damage."

The College is an independent body which means that Sydney University has no authority over what occurs on campus.

Old boy Tony Abbott said the reports of initiation were appalling and unacceptable and another old boy, Joe Hockey agrees.  But nothing changes because of the 33 men who were suspended for taking part, seven have secured positions on next year's college council, including the three top spots - president, secretary and treasurer.  They are now considered to be "The Untouchables" and the college executive has ordered them not to speak to the media.

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell was asked to step in to help, but there is little he can do.

Joe Hockey said "Let's not gild the lily on this sort of stuff, if you open the lid on colleges and campuses and frat houses right around the world ... by the general standard of behaviour, it would be deemed pretty lewd and inappropriate."

Cardinal George Pell

Edit:  The socalled “untouchables” have been foiled by Cardinal George Pell.  He has removed  priests from the council and without a member of the clergy, it cannot continue to function.  A total of seven people, including six clergy, have now resigned.  He has also called on Premier O’Farrell to change the laws governing St John’s which could mean the church cedes sole control.  ''Unfortunately, I no longer have confidence in the capacity of the council of St John's College to reform life at the college, despite their goodwill and the dedication of the chairman,'' he said. ''I have therefore requested the priest Fellows of the council to resign.''


Edit 21 December 2012:    Thirty three students involved in the scandal have been expelled.