The Unthrown Kids

John Howard's "forbidden" kids overboard photos

On 23 July 2003, more than one-and-a-half year after the sinking of SIEV 4 - The Olong, as we learnt from David Marr - and the rescuing of its survivors by the crew of HMAS Adelaide on October 8 2001, we received (from someone who wishes to remain anonymous) a set of electronic photos taken on that fateful day.

Below are the photos - most of them are photos we were not allowed to see, in keeping with the brief issued by Operation Relex' Canberra Command Centre - at The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet's office - which stipulated explicitly to 'not humanise the asylum seekers'.

http://www.safecom.org.au/kids-overboard.htm
http://www.safecom.org.au/kids-overboard.htm

Thanks!

chicken_lipsforme wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2011 at 11:44am:



Which is ?

There really is NO hope for the ugly inhumane Abbott mob is there?

chicken_lipsforme wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2011 at 11:57am:


They may have scuttled their motor, but they did not sink their own boat. The boat did that of its own accord. It sank while being towed back to Australia. Why would they purposely sink it and risk death, when they had acheived their aims ?

Which is all beside the point anyway. Its called the "children overboard" incident, not the "sinking ship" incident. The Howard government falsely claimed parents where throwing their children overboard.  A lie as big as they come.

buzzanddidj wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2011 at 12:42pm:


Look at the photo's buzz.
The sea was calm and no naval personnel were aboard when the photo's were taken.
They scuttled their own boat to ensure they would be picked up.

chicken_lipsforme wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2011 at 1:10pm:



The lying rodent would be laughing if he saw this post.  

Boats that look like the one in the photo sink all the time. I remember getting a ferry from Bali to Java and the sea was as calm as anything yet the boat was rocking like a mad-man. I made sure I was above deck for that trip!

This guys arent exactly chartering the tassy ferry for these journeys!

I'd go out on a limb here and say that once the motor stopped, the bilge pump stopped, and the leaky boat demise was a lock.

An angry Howard government, forced in the end to accept HMAS Adelaide taking the disabled and sinking SIEV 4 into tow back towards Christmas Island, ordered that the 223 people including 116 women and children be kept on board their unseaworthy vessel during a 24 hour tow. This criminally irresponsible order contradicted every safety of life at sea principle our naval officers ever learned, but such was the power of politics over navy ethics that the order was carried out without question. As Commander Banks testified, a primary mission aim at this stage was to keep the people on their boat - to take them off before their boat sank would have been mission failure. (Certain Maritime Incident inquiry Hansard pages 180-2, 186-7).

The boat finally foundered on 8 October with only an hours warning. In a dangerous emergency rescue from the sea, it is a miracle that nobody drowned. The most important dimension of the "Certain Maritime Incident", just as important as the cynical falsification of rescue photographs - has been curiously ignored by almost every commentator. For 24 hours, the Operation Relex command were so contemptuous of their responsibility for the lives of these people that Banks was required to keep them on board a wrecked and unseaworthy vessel, instead of prudently moving them to the Adelaide. The lack of concern for human life is significant, in the light of what happened with SIEV-X twelve days later.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/26/1030053029931.html

Senators were unable to question the NORCOM command on its crucial decisions not to order a SOLAS-oriented air surveillance for SIEV-X on 19 or 20 October. Authors of the documents sent in by Senator Hill on 4 July have not been examined in public hearings of the Committee. Initially promised testimony by Admiral Raydon Gates, who had reviewed all the intelligence and has now replaced Admiral Smith as Chief of Navy, was blocked by Senator Hill despite repeated Committee requests for him to appear.