AUSTRALIAN spies are demanding legal immunity to infiltrate and train with terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. The Attorney-General's Department wants to authorise ASIO agents and informants to provide training to, or be trained by, terrorists in covert missions. Agents now risk criminal prosecution for "associating covertly with targets" even if they are collecting intelligence.Would be a good change, if it happens. Doesn't sound like Satan's Boss Gillard will go along with it. Absolutely disgusting that spies have to beg for the authority to be spies. It's like carpenters begging for the authority to use hammers and saws. One of the few areas where America has preserved a slight bit of sanity. We got past the "Gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail" syndrome a long time ago.
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Polistra was named after the original townsite of Manhattan (the one in Kansas). When I was growing up in Manhattan, I spent a lot of time exploring by foot, bike, and car. I discovered the ruins of an old mill along Wildcat Creek, and decided (inaccurately) that it was the remains of the original site of Polistra. Accurate or not, I've always liked the name, with its echoes of Poland (an under-appreciated friend of freedom) and stars. ==== The title icon is explained here. ==== Switchover: This 2007 entry marks a sharp change in worldview from neocon to pure populist. ===== The long illustrated story of Polistra's Dream is a time-travel fable, attempting to answer the dangerous revision of New Deal history propagated by Amity Shlaes. The Dream has 8 episodes, linked in a chain from the first. This entry explains the Shlaes connection.