Australian Comedy Group Prods APEC Security

ajdlinux writes "Members of the Australian comedy group The Chaser were arrested today after attempting to breach security at the APEC Leaders Conference in Sydney. Chas Licciardello and Julian Morrow were arrested, along with nine crew members (all are now free on bail), just a short distance away from the InterContinental Hotel where President Bush is staying. They had already cleared at least two police checkpoints, according to CNN, disguised as a Canadian motorcade. 'No particular reason we chose Canada,' said Taylor. 'We just thought they'd be a country who the cops wouldn't scrutinize too closely, and who feasibly would only have three cars in their motorcade — as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him.'" CNN has a photo of Licciardello, dressed as Osama bin Laden, being arrested.

Comments

Previous pranks

[Organic User]

The third series of the Chasers War on Everything started yesterday. Back in the first series they did a prank with Virgin Blue booking e-tickets under the names 'Terry Wrist' and 'Al Kyder' (you can watch the clip here). This prank should be aired this Wednesday.

Tomorrow people living in Sydney will be getting a public holiday and the city will be complete lock down mode.

Re:Previous pranks

[EveryNickIsTaken]

Back in the first series they did a prank with Virgin Blue booking e-tickets under the names 'Terry Wrist' and 'Al Kyder' With such witty humor, it's surprising that nobody has ever heard of them before. I mean.. puns... Wow.

Re:Previous pranks

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually most people in AUSTRALIA (ie, where they're from) have heard of them.

Re:Previous pranks

[sqldr]

Their finest moment has to be wheeling a trojan horse full of greek soldiers into the turkish embassy.. (can we park this here?)

Re:Previous pranks

[Nefarious Wheel]

Actually most people in AUSTRALIA (ie, where they're from) have heard of them

I haven't. Does this presuppose the use of television or some such nonsense?

Re:Previous pranks

[SkunkPussy]

You're unpleasant and judgemental - go back to your Friends and your Cheers, I'm sure they suit your intellect perfectly.

Those of us who are sufficiently open-minded to watch a comedy show before deciding whether it is any good or not will, I'm sure, be in for a treat with the third series.

Re:Previous pranks

[Organic User]

Their finest moment has to be wheeling a trojan horse full of greek soldiers into the turkish embassy.. (can we park this here?) Sure. Here it is. The Australian Army actually let them into the courtyard of their base. At least then someone yelled check out the horse. But amazingly the Opera House is part of the APEC lock down yet during the Torjan Horse prank they went right past security with the horse.

Re:Previous pranks

[phobos13013]

Or you can just watch all the episodes here. Now the question is, will the US pressure AU to treat them as terrorists, etc., and put them away indefinitely and levy heavy sanctions against the ABC? They should just let this one fade away, the only result of something like this will be to get the Chasers more publicity. Which actually, can be a killer in the guerilla media style they emulate.

Re:Previous pranks

[robotoverflow]

From what I remember that prank was about pointing out the fact that airport security is not actually paying attention to the threats that they're supposedly protecting us from, if anything at all. Those names they used were even announced over the PA system without staff so much as batting an eyelid.

Am I the only one who sees the irony in using sarcasm to express how low-brow puns are? ;)

Re:Previous pranks

[Organic User]

I haven't. Does this presuppose the use of television or some such nonsense? They usually have a major boost of awareness after they have their pranks make the world wide media. You, now, know of them because of this prank. I first found out about them after the 'Terry Wrist' prank. (I actually remember reading it on slashdot... yet I can't find the article when searching for it.) They are giving Australia Security a few good lesson.

Re:Previous pranks

[Anonymous Coward]

As if that matters. Doesn't everyone know that if they aren't popular in America, they don't really exist, they're just a figment of someone's imagination?

Re:Previous pranks

[Organic User]

I didn't link to the ABC website because it is supposed to be for Australians only to view. They aren't doing anything to non-Australians but if at the end of the month most of their bandwidth bill is from international traffic be sure they will start ip locking it. The ABC is happy with their content being available on as many possible channels (they even upload torrents of their shows to bit torrent networks) as long as they aren't paying the bandwidth bill.

Re:Previous pranks

[lazybeam]

Well it's downloading at about 4KB/s here :( And I'm on cable!

I slept my favourite tv night. /me also search for spicks and specks vodcast...

Re:Previous pranks

[empaler]

By all means, link to the torrents. I have 10 mbit pipe up, and I'm not afraid to share :)

Re:Previous pranks

[pasamio]

The ABC already has this in place much like the BBC does for some parts of their site. I was in the States a few months back and couldn't get the podcast on iTunes for some reason, went to the website and got a nice message saying "Come to Australia and you can download this." Also the ABC peers onto PIPE in Australia which used to be free traffic for people, now its a rather limited set of people for who its free to disappointingly.

Re:Previous pranks

[Chuck Chunder]

I haven't. Does this presuppose the use of television or some such nonsense?

Unless we've had a sudden population drop it merely presupposes that you don't constitute most Australians. Seeing as I am one too you can't possibly be more than 50%

Re:Previous pranks

[Usekh]

Or reading newspapers, reading websites. You know basically being aware of the world around you :)

Re:Previous pranks

[Just because I'm an]

Yesterday there was a picture of a bomb squad officer in full outfit defusing a sleeping bag published in the daily tabloid. There's been several stories of media officers being told to pick up credentials to access the restricted zone inside the restricted zone, which they can't get into because they don't have their passes, which they're trying to pick up, which they can't... etc. Example

On the one hand I can see that the police and the millions of rent-a-cop types have to take everything ultra seriously just incase one of the leaders (though according to most of the news George "Nucular" Bush and some Chinese guy nobody knows the name of are the only ones in town) does end up karking it in Sydney... it would look bad. On the other hand it's all a big farce.

The police bought a truck mounted water cannon (but NSW rents a water crane to battle bushfires every summer, priorities eh) for this event and cleared jails to make room for the protesters the police plan to arrest. I guess if they can boast they managed to jail a guy that looks like Osama Bin Laden they'll get the merit badge they were after.

Re:Previous pranks

[unfunk]

levy heavy sanctions against the ABC? But... how the hell would that work, considering that the ABC is a publicly funded corporation? I'm sure if Little Johnny cut the ABC's funding much further, plenty of Aussies will be up in arms over it. It really is the last bastion of quality television journalism in this country.

Re:Previous pranks

[microbrewer]

Bruce Schneier also points to one of the Chasers videos about regarding racial profiling and terrorsim on his blog .

"How Australian Authorities Respond to Potential Terrorists

Watch the video of how the Australian authorities react when someone -- dressed either as an American or Arab tourist -- films the Sydney Harbor Bridge and a nuclear reactor.

The synopsis: The Arab is intercepted within three minutes both times, while the U.S. tourist is given instructions on how to get inside the nuclear facility.

Moral for terrorists: dress like an American.

By the way, Lucas Heights is a research reactor. It produces medical isotopes and performs research, and doesn't produce power."

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/04/how_ australian.html

The video can be found here
http://youtube.com/watch?v=McB9tsabPn0

Re:Previous pranks

[Quiet_Desperation]

Tomorrow people living in Sydney will...

There's Tomorrow People in Sydney? Does Torchwood know about this?

Re:Previous pranks

[sholden]

In my *long* stay at Sydney University the only time Honi Soit could be called vaguely readable was when they were running it. That's fame enough in my book. Though I doubt most people in Australia have heard of them. Then again most Australians don't know who Arch Bevis is either.

Re:Previous pranks

[vic-traill]

The Canadian Equivalent is 'This Hour Has 22 Minutes'. Check out the overlap between:

The Chasers - Selling Tourism:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vpHGLXZ-j-Q

22 Minutes - Talking to Americans:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=seYUbVa7L7w

Must have been colonies for too long.

Re:Previous pranks

[Gideon Fubar]

They're the biggest rating comedy team in the country at the moment. Last season, they made a mockery of a bidding war between channels 7 and 9 for their services.

for reference (for those who haven't been to Australia), the majority of people here watch only free-to-air television. The ABC, the network which Chaser broadcast on, is government owned and generally attracts a much smaller audience than the commercial stations.

Re:Previous pranks

[TapeCutter]

"You're unpleasant and judgemental - go back to your Friends and your Cheers, I'm sure they suit your intellect perfectly."

Can you not see the irony in that statement. Personally I have been a Chasers fan from the first show and I also loved Friends and Cheers back when they were fresh. However I do agree that the ABC and SBS are under-rated by many Aussies.

Re:Previous pranks

[PenguSven]

so i guess that means that personal rights and liberties are a figment of my imagination now?

Re:Previous pranks

[Anonymous Coward]

I need to know where you come from to know whether I should pay attention to it or not... please

Re:Previous pranks

[Hucko]

And we Aussies want to know about Yet Another Politician because...? I can't find anything funny about him.

Re:Previous pranks

[charvolant]

It's my understanding that the skycranes are only available on lease. They come complete with pilots and a maintenance team. The NSW RFS has considered getting one on permanent lease and then sub-leasing it outside the fire season. However, it generally makes sense to have them going North and South with the summer.

Sorry, no references, this is from fireground gossip.

Re:Previous pranks

[TapeCutter]

"Does this presuppose the use of television or some such nonsense?"

No, it presupposes you have a life but since we are both posting on slashdot....

Re:Previous pranks

[Nefarious Wheel]

No, it presupposes you have a life but since we are both posting on slashdot....

TapeCutter wins!

Re:Previous pranks

[suckmysav]

What personal rights and liberties? Dr Haneef learnt the hard way that in Australia those are tenuous at best.

Re:Previous pranks

[zobier]

[The ABC] really is the last bastion of quality television journalism in this country. I'm not sure about the quality of the journalism but SBS World News is OK too.

Re:Previous pranks

[NotZed]

It used to be ok but SBS has gone down-hill tremendously since they brought in the 1 hour main bulletin.

They fill it with all these canned stories about how great things are going in Iraq because some little girl got to go to school for the first time and so forth. A 'happy news' story once in a while is ok, but they do it all the time - and it's hardly hard-hitting journalism.

Because of that sort of stuff and the advertising breaks they added, I no longer watch the SBS news regularly as I had for years.

ABC's journalism isn't really that flash any more either for that matter, like everyone else, news budgets have been cut too much to do it properly. If you live in the smaller cities of Australia you get quite a bit of canned news from Sydney - it is particularly noticeable for sports coverage - which is very poor.

No particular reason

[michaelmalak]

"No particular reason we chose Canada" ... except for the two I'm about to mention.

Re:No particular reason

[Anonymous Coward]

particular(a): unique or specific to a person or thing or category; "the particular demands of the job"; "has a particular preference for Chinese art"; "a peculiar bond of sympathy between them"; "an expression peculiar to Canadians"; "rights peculiar to the rich"; "the special features of a computer"; "my own special chair"

particular(a): separate and distinct from others of the same group or category; "interested in one particular artist"; "a man who wishes to make a particular woman fall in love with him"

As in no particular reason, just these two which could have equally applied to any number of other countries.

Re:No particular reason

[michaelmalak]

The reasons were "specific" to Canada though not necessarily "unique" amongst, though with only 21 countries in APEC I'm not so sure.

It's obvious the speaker meant to say "no malintent toward Canada" rather than "no particular reason".

"Security was working"

[Alicat1194]

Which is why they only let them through 2 checkpoints (2 being the secret number of the day).

Re:"Security was working"

[ben there...]

According to the video, they didn't catch on until one of them stepped out dressed as Osama bin Laden. The only reason they were caught was their completely absurd attire. And the security guys pat each other on the back for that. I'm not sure which part is funniest, but I'm definitely laughing.

Re:"Security was working"

[Mordough]

In other news, President Bush claimed victory over terrorism with the apprehension of Osama bin Laden at the Apec Leaders Conference in Sydney today. Osama had infiltrated the Australian comedy group The Chaser, to gain entry to the conference, but highly trained security guards were able to see through the deception and placed him under arrest.

Yep, that's Osama, alright!

[objekt]

I'd recognize that hat anywhere!

Morons without borders

[Anonymous Coward]

Hope they yuk it up in court. At least they weren't asked to show a receipt.

Major embarassment

[evilgrug]

It frightens me that there's a very real chance that had castmember Chas Licciardello not been dressed up as Osama Bin Laden, they could have made it all the way inside.

Of course the police are spinning this and saying that due to the arrests its 'proof' that security works and the $170 million spent on security was well worth it, despite the fact that Candian flags and fake APEC stickers on the hood are all that's required to get within ten metres of the President's hotel.

Re:Major embarassment

[Richard W.M. Jones]

It frightens me that there's a very real chance that had castmember Chas Licciardello not been dressed up as Osama Bin Laden, they could have made it all the way inside.

It frightens you? Why?

Perhaps our "leaders" should not have so much security. Might make them concentrate a little more on not having policies which ruin so many lives and drive people to want to murder them, eh?

Personally I think it's a huge shame that I can't walk up to the Prime Minister and argue with him about his policies.

Rich.

Re:Major embarassment

[SlayerofGods]

Actually... if they hadn't been stopped he wouldn't have gotten out. Therefore they were pulled over first, which seems to indicate that the security was on to them at least some what.

And truthfully from a security stand point this makes sense.
You don't want to stop a motorcade at the first checkpoint otherwise an enemy (I know it's Australia, just saying) could just set up watching the check point and wait for his target to be stopped there. What they should be doing is wave an 'obvious' motorcade through the first level of security and then check them out deeper in where it's safe.

Further the article doesn't make it clear what these check points were. Perhaps the first one was just a couple of guys on foot charged with turning away anyone that doesn't have clear business in the area, and not what everyone pictures when they think of a check point as barbed wire, sandbags, gates, guys with machine guns, ect. /Just saying

Re:Major embarassment

[Organic User]

Personally I think it's a huge shame that I can't walk up to the Prime Minister and argue with him about his policies. You can catch up with John Howard every morning during daily walks. The Chaser did a prank about this during the first series after a school kid came up to Howard with a screw driver and hugged him. You can watch it here (low quality).

Re:Major embarassment

[TubeSteak]

It frightens you? Why? Because when Heads of State violently die it tends to cause chaos, political/economic instability and/or wars.

Perhaps our "leaders" should not have so much security. Might make them concentrate a little more on not having policies which ruin so many lives and drive people to want to murder them, eh? That's the dumbest thing I've heard today.
There is always going to be some extreme nutters who hate the current leaders and their policies.

Personally I think it's a huge shame that I can't walk up to the Prime Minister and argue with him about his policies. I agree that it's a shame, but you have at least one Representative. Talk to them. They are your voice to the PM.

Re:Major embarassment

[IBBoard]

Personally I think it's a huge shame that I can't walk up to the Prime Minister and argue with him about his policies.

I think there's an issue of practicality there, though. If we could walk up to our leaders (without having to pretend to be Canadians in a motorcade) then there'd be too many people crammed around them all trying to argue about dozens of different things!

If only politicians could do what the people want, rather than what the people need.

(I'll leave it up to the reader as to whether the previous sentence is sincere or sarcastic, as best suits their PoV)

Re:Major embarassment

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's frightening that whole city blocks can be barricaded and declared off-limits for the people who live there so that a bunch of politicians can feel secure from the plebs. What's even more frightening/revealing is that they think they have to do that. By the people, for the people, not against the people.

Re:Major embarassment

[Rogerborg]

>It frightens me

How many new laws and restrictions on liberty would it take to reassure you?

Re:Major embarassment

[JonathanR]

It doesn't frighten me at all. The whole episode is a complete farce.

Tell me: Why can the CBD of the biggest Australian metropolis suffer a complete lock-down in the name of a pyjama-party for a few world leaders, while Melbourne can't even host a car-free day in part of its CBD? It strikes me that something is wrong with our priorities.

Re:Major embarassment

[Organic User]

I agree with your points but they let them reach Bush's Hotel without stopping them. This implies that security wasn't on to them enough.

Re:Major embarassment

[Organic User]

I think it's frightening that whole city blocks can be barricaded and declared off-limits for the people who live there so that a bunch of politicians can feel secure from the plebs. No one lives in the CBD. Unless you sleep in your office this shouldn't effect you because it is going to be a public holiday and you should have no reason to be in the CBD. (Many joke about sleeping under your desk because in Australia you are taxed for travel to work expenses... the rational given is that you could theoretically sleep under your desk...)

The only people that are effect are people like me that need to get to the airport tomorrow. In normal conditions it should take me 30 minutes to travel to the airport. I was told by the RTA to give an extra 3 hours for travel or go to the North Shore and get to the airport from there. This is like telling someone to go to Jordan (okay no boarder crossing required but same principle) to travel from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

Re:Major embarassment

[deniable]

And if you're in Benalong?

Re:Major embarassment

[westyx]

No, it does not make sense. The further bad guys get in the more freedom they have to do something. You stop all you can in the outer ring, restricting movement as much as possible.

If the enemy can view their attempt at being stopped, it means they haven't got close to what's being protected. It doesn't matter in this case what the checkpoint was made of, everything should have been stopped and accounted for, and that hasn't happened here at all.

Re:Major embarassment

[crush]

Why?

Think of the children you monster. If you're not cowering under the bed then ... oh why do I bother, you're obviously some sort of a terrorist or you wouldn't want to argue with your democratically elected representative.

Re:Major embarassment

[SlayerofGods]

If the enemy can view their attempt at being stopped, it means they haven't got close to what's being protected.

But what you're trying to protect is the people in the motorcade. By stopping them in plain view you're in fact putting them at risk.

Let's say you stop everyone at the checkpoint and the enemy knows this. All he has to do is find a spot overlooking the checkpoint (not hard in a dense urban area), bring a machine gun, then just wait till the target shows up. So Bush's 10 car motorcade comes rolling up and are all force to stop to be cleared. Now all the guy has to do is open fire at the cars which are basically trapped between the checkpoint gate and the car behind them and even if he can't tell which one Bush is in he's bound to hit something before anyone can react in the chaos.

The only way to protect against this is to either build massive secure checkpoints which would be hard in the middle of an active city. Or have multilayered security where the outer checkpoints make sure guys carrying machine guns don't get through and the inner security makes sure everything is safe and you don't have guys dressed like bin Laden wondering around.

But really though, the news article simply doesn't give you enough information to properly critique Sydney security. For example, why was the motorcade pulled over? Did they simply get lucky or was it proper procedure to check out motorcades once they've cleared the other checkpoints? How close were they to hotel? A 'block adjacent to the InterContinental Hotel' was rather vague. Were they close enough that if it had been a car bomb that people in the hotel would have been at risk? Was there still more security between where they were pulled over and where the diplomats were staying? IE if they had punched the gas would anyone important been at risk?

The news media is just doing what the news media does, trying to be sensational. I take everything they say with a grain of salt.
In the end though was security not as strong as it could be? Probably. But is it as bad as the news is making it sound? Probably not.

Re:Major embarassment

[Anonymous Coward]

There is always going to be some extreme nutters who hate the current leaders and their policies.

Sequestering protestors who object to $DEAR_LEADER's policies in "free speech zones" remote from the event, while allowing those who agree with them to get much closer, does nothing to deter said extreme nutters. I'm sure your average Lee Harvey Oswald-type assassin would have no problem masquerading as a dittohead if it meant that he could get close enough to take a shot.

This sort of security system has little to do with deterring assassination and lots to do with keeping protesters off of the news.

Re:Major embarassment

[westyx]

I understand where you're coming from, but if they were concerns about those then the convoys would go from the checkpoint into a sheltered bay where they would be inspected/challenged, and then let through. I doubt they did a check for guns, because they would have noticed the guy dressed as osama, along with a lack of bodyguards. It's a big embaressment for the police.

(realistically, there's no way bush's convoy would be stopped, ever. the checkpoints and convoy would be in radio contact, and they'd just be waved through).

Re:Major embarassment

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps our "leaders" should not have so much security. Might make them concentrate a little more on not having policies which ruin so many lives and drive people to want to murder them, eh?

Personally I think it's a huge shame that I can't walk up to the Prime Minister and argue with him about his policies.

Wow! You just gave me this flash back.
I was in Ottawa in 1990 when the first Iraq war (Gulf war) started. As a student I had only my 12 years old Walkman to fetch news report. I was told by neighbors "We are at War", being a nerve wreck I went for a walk listening to my walkman.
In 30 minutes I was in front of the Parliament. No one there. I start walking around, listening to all kinds of analysis on the Gulf situation and reports from the "live Baghdad bombing" thru the now famous CNN reports.

Suddenly I see several big black cars stop near me, 6 guys (MIB types) quickly walk pass me, and I see Brian Mulroney, our then Prime Minister walk into the parliament about 10 feet in front of me. I then realize I was in front of the main front door. 15 seconds later I was alone again.

Since then I do have some snickering watching all of today's security. What happened to our beautiful country? (Countries?)
Did the terrorists won? Perhaps not but they certainly managed to change our way of life.

Re:Major embarassment

[drsmithy]

No one lives in the CBD. Unless you sleep in your office this shouldn't effect you because it is going to be a public holiday and you should have no reason to be in the CBD.

There's quite a few apartment buildings in, or very near, the lockdown zone. The Toaster, for example, is right next to the Opera House. Not to mention things like the ferry terminal being smack bang in the middle of it all, the pubs, hotels, general tourist attractions, etc. The Sydney CBD isn't like, say, central London - it's not a deserted wasteland on a non-work day.

Whoever thought Sydney was an appropriate place to hold something like APEC should be fired for incompetence. An island resort or relatively isolated hotel(s), would have been a far saner place to have all the meetings. Much less disruption to local residents, businesses and tourists, much easier and cheaper to secure.

Re:Major embarassment

[Anonymous Coward]

But the Slashdotters will spin it their way so that it is one more thing to try to make government look bad yet these nerds around here could never possibly accomplish anything besides being bitter and jealous toward everyone in the world.

Of course a lot of Slashdot readers are 'sheep' and are grunts of the tech industry, wouldn't surprise anybody as nothing on Slashdot makes national news or their voices ever have any affect in the real world, besides being worried about what SCO/Microsoft/Copyright all the time it can make you turn a blind eye to the real problems of a half assed unpolished linux desktop.

Re:Major embarassment

[unfunk]

But really though, the news article simply doesn't give you enough information to properly critique Sydney security. For example, why was the motorcade pulled over? Did they simply get lucky or was it proper procedure to check out motorcades once they've cleared the other checkpoints? How close were they to hotel? A 'block adjacent to the InterContinental Hotel' was rather vague. Were they close enough that if it had been a car bomb that people in the hotel would have been at risk? Was there still more security between where they were pulled over and where the diplomats were staying? IE if they had punched the gas would anyone important been at risk?

The news media is just doing what the news media does, trying to be sensational. I take everything they say with a grain of salt.
In the end though was security not as strong as it could be? Probably. But is it as bad as the news is making it sound? Probably not. Well, the fact that you're reading a CNN report on it kinda skews the whole thing - check out http://www.abc.net.au/news for a more Aussie view on it. The Lateline (our country's best/most reliable news program) report claimed that the motorcade pulled up - of their own accord - outside Bush's hotel, and that security wasn't alarmed until Chaz stepped out, dressed as Osama bin Laden. The chief of police then went on record as saying that his boys did a good job, and that the arrest of the eleven people involved proved that the $160 million was well spent.

I'm sorry? Would it have been "well spent" if those cars were laden full of explosives and detonated outside the hotel? I doubt it.

That said, I love the chaser boys; they know a good prank when they see one, and also know when they're crossing the line... not that it ever stops them.

Re:Major embarassment

[Dr Caleb]

"Because when Heads of State violently die it tends to cause chaos, political/economic instability and/or wars."

Perhaps if the citizens want you dead, you are doing something wrong? As you and other posters point out - you can't stop the crazies, but you can stop the regular Joes by simply doing your job well enough not to anger anyone that much.

" I agree that it's a shame, but you have at least one Representative. Talk to them. They are your voice to the PM."

Ahhh, to be young and naive again.

Re:Major embarassment

[bzipitidoo]

It'd be nice if everyone could chat with the leaders of millions, but it can't be done-- the numbers are impossible. If the President of the United States tried to see each US citizen individually for just one second, it'd take more than 10 years to get around to everyone. You'll have to settle for arguing with the leaders of mere hundreds or thousands of people, or become a leader yourself. Or make a big campaign donation, I've heard that can work entirely too well.

Re:Major embarassment

[Anonymous Coward]

But the enemy would already know the location of outer checkpoints and the possible routes taken to reach those checkpoints. Thus they could just camp somewhere along the route(s), which is not much different than camping the checkpoint. The fact that the motorcade is known to stop at the checkpoint is probably not all that important to an explosive projectile traveling faster than anyone can react. You have to think of it from the perspective of the weakest link.

As Bush wasn't in the hotel at the time, the threat of an explosive laden car ramming into it wasn't all that important anyway. What would be a threat is the enemy hiding themselves in the hotel by using disguises and social engineering (knowing that Bush would return to the hotel later). There were still quite a few layers of security which hadn't been breached by the Chaser team (getting into the hotel being the main one). I also doubt the Secret Service would let *ANYONE* (all Australian security personnel included) anywhere near Bush's room or in the vicinity of him getting to and from the room.

IMO if you have to worry about being blown up by a sophisticated enemy with missiles and a full black ops detachment in disguise (with insiders and the works), you're rather screwed any way you look at it. That is the sort of problem you can't protect yourself against, no matter how many fighter jets are circling overhead in the sky. The key thing is to prevent common terrorists and mid-level security risks (such as an armed madman) from causing disruptions. The APEC security checkpoints greatly increase the signal-to-noise ratio, solving most security issues. Security procedures tend to be as dynamic and unpredictable as possible (for obvious reasons) so having a high signal-to-noise ratio is critical. In such an environment, security personnel can easily see things "out of the ordinary" and jump on it straight away.

Re:Major embarassment

[Clover_Kicker]

Perhaps if the citizens want you dead, you are doing something wrong? Yeah, Lincoln had it coming.

And don't get me started on Garfield.

Re:Major embarassment

[cheezedawg]

As you and other posters point out - you can't stop the crazies, but you can stop the regular Joes by simply doing your job well enough not to anger anyone that much.

What world do you live in where plotting an assasination doesn't qualify a person as "crazy"?

Re:Major embarassment

[Quiet_Desperation]

Perhaps our "leaders" should not have so much security. Might make them concentrate a little more on not having policies which ruin so many lives and drive people to want to murder them, eh?

John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan because Hinckley was obsessed on Jodie Foster. Public figures, political or not, are lightning rods for every type of kook under the sun.

I'm sorry we don't live in the rosy, bunny filled universe you seem to desire, but that's the way things are.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

Re:Major embarassment

[ben there...]

Actually... if they hadn't been stopped he wouldn't have gotten out. Therefore they were pulled over first, which seems to indicate that the security was on to them at least some what.

And truthfully from a security stand point this makes sense. Only one problem. That's not what happened.

A source inside The Chaser's War on Everything revealed the team never expected to get so far. The skit had been approved by ABC lawyers but was written in the assumption they would be stopped at the first checkpoint.

Instead they were waved through the first on Macquarie St, then a second, which had sniffer dogs, and eventually stopped themselves at Bridge St.

"As they did Chas got out of a car dressed as Osama bin Laden and said something like 'I'm an important world leader why don't I have a seat at the APEC table?'. Apparently that was the first time the police realised it was not authentic and they swooped in and arrested everybody," the source said.

Re:Major embarassment

[bentcd]

What world do you live in where plotting an assasination doesn't qualify a person as "crazy"? I would say that depends entirely on the assassination in question. To take the lazy (easy) example, in my opinion the only thing that was crazy about plotting the assassination on Hitler was that it took them so long to get around to it.

Re:Major embarassment

[Danse]

This sort of security system has little to do with deterring assassination and lots to do with keeping protesters off of the news. And isolating leaders from the dissenting views out there.

Re:Major embarassment

[SlayerofGods]

Only one problem. That's not what happened.

And this is why I just said I've given up trust in most news services.

How can they not see the difference between.

The convoy was pulled over - IE the cops either knew something was up or were about to find out when they asked for ID.
and
eventually stopped themselves - IE the cops knew jack sh-t and if the cars had been loaded with bombs or a bunch of armed terrorists they could have gone anywhere they wanted.

So it does indeed seem like the cops f-ed up and never and were never going to verify it was a real diplomatic motorcade.
I mean hell if you don't want to stop the whole convey would it really be so hard to grab one of the motorcycle escorts and asked to see a badge? That's all it would take to confirm the whole thing is legit.
I swear I'd make a better security analyst than 99% of the people they got out there right now.

Re:Major embarassment

[Dr Caleb]

Yep. Can't stop the crazies. Especially that Nermal fella.

Re:Major embarassment

[Dr Caleb]

"What world do you live in where plotting an assasination doesn't qualify a person as "crazy"?"

What are the reasons the assassination is being plotted? Voices in your head?

I live in a world where the CIA tried to kill Castro several times, simply because he took back his country from gangsters. Castro was doing what he thought right. So did the CIA.

Here in my country of Canada, we haven't had a Prime Minister assasinated, or even attempted. None have been worthy enough, before or since Trudeau. My Provincial Premier was even the kind of guy was even the kind who drove himself around town in his car. Unescorted. You could walk up to him on the street, and shake his hand or chew him out. But he was high enough in the approval ratings not to worry about his safety.

Re:Major embarassment

[Anonymous Coward]

The only assassin of Hitler was Hitler himself. May want to read up on your history.

Re:Major embarassment

[RadioElectric]

I desperately want to believe that he was referring to one of the failed assassination attempts.

Re:Major embarassment

[rizole]

That's the dumbest thing I've heard today

Then check out the next article on the front page:

Okay, but the Xenomorphs of the Alien series of movies weren't eels. [slashdot]

Re:Major embarassment

[aevan]

Are you nuts? Last guy who went after Jean got a soapstone carving upside the head. A monster I tell you!

Seriously though, choice political attack weapon for Canada is pie...the only risk Howard would have been in was were it to have had been beef.

Re:Major embarassment

[Don853]

The guy who killed JFK was a very unimportant person with delusions of grandeur who wanted to be relevant. There may have been people who wanted him dead, but the guy who killed him just wanted to be important. The guy who tried to kill Reagen was just crazy. Martin Luther King and John Lennon, while not politicians, were public figures killed without really doing anything wrong. Of 42 US Presidents, 4 have been assassinated and 4 more survived assassination attempts. I would certainly want protection if the odds were that bad.

Re:Major embarassment

[Anonymous Coward]

John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan on the day before his brother was due to have dinner with Neil Bush. Sure, he may be a nut, but there could well be other reasons than the Foster thing.

Re:Major embarassment

[aevans]

Do unicorns fly in the world you live in?

Re:Major embarassment

[operagost]

Perhaps our "leaders" should not have so much security. Might make them concentrate a little more on not having policies which ruin so many lives and drive people to want to murder them, eh?

The corpse of Abraham Lincoln would disagree with you. But if you have a time machine, feel free to go back and let him know that if he just lets those wealthy southerners secede and whip their slaves around for a few more decades, he can live.

Re:Major embarassment

[operagost]

I live in a world where the CIA tried to kill Castro several times, simply because he took back his country from gangsters.

Maximilien Robespierre was executed simply because he took back his country from the crown.
Adolf Hitler was nearly assassinated and ultimately died with a bullet in his head simply because he took back his country from the bureaucrats and the Jews.

Fidel Castro has done plenty of things to draw assassination attempts-- and few of them are good. I bet you are wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt right now.

Re:Major embarassment

[mabinogi]

Personally I think it's a huge shame that I can't walk up to the Prime Minister and argue with him about his policies. Actually, most of the time you can - just not when there's a whole bunch of foreign heads of state around him.

Or if you can't you can specifically blame groups like The Chaser for harrasing him just because they thought it'd be funny.

Re:Major embarassment

[StalinsNotDead]

Not to wish ill-will on anyone, but I wish Ford would have gotten it just so history could record a presidential assassin named Squeaky.

Re:Major embarassment

[bug1]

"Because when Heads of State violently die it tends to cause chaos, political/economic instability and/or wars."

And if the world is already in chaos, political(lame duck president in US, AUS PM might loose his own seat in a few months)/economic instability(non-prime lending, reserve banks around the world trying to hold it together) and/or wars (iraq, afganistan and others that dont get convenient media coverage) ?

Re:Major embarassment

[10101001 10101001]

Perhaps our "leaders" should not have so much security. Might make them concentrate a little more on not having policies which ruin so many lives and drive people to want to murder them, eh?

John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan because Hinckley was obsessed on Jodie Foster. Public figures, political or not, are lightning rods for every type of kook under the sun.

I'm sorry we don't live in the rosy, bunny filled universe you seem to desire, but that's the way things are.

Ah, that's such a great example, given that Ronald Reagan didn't have the Secret Service to protect him. Oh, wait, he did? Well, I guess then your example proves that in a system where there's government funded security for public figures, it's the "crazies" that end up pulling off an assassination attempt before those with political motives.

But, then, that makes sense. Physical security revolves around being able to "read" people. Sane people, with motives to kill the President, give off clear signals of their intent. Non-sane people, though, are harder to read. So, while you can catch some (maybe most) of the crazy people for being obviously questionable, at least some of the crazy people will pass through security just fine. Does that explain why a comedy group was able to pass through two checkpoints?

Re:Major embarassment

[sasha328]

It frightens you? Why? Because when Heads of State violently die it tends to cause chaos, political/economic instability and/or wars.

This is true for absolute leaders (such as in the USA). For Westminister system democracies (UK, Australia, Canada etc) the death of a leader does not lead to instability. The party will usually vote for a replacment leader. It is the party that leads the country (with a strong leader obviously) rather than an individual.
 
The reason I'm saying this is because in such countries, the leader, although protected, is not living in total isolation behind barricades and barriers. I've seen our leaders (in Australia) on many occasions, and I usually cross to the other side of the street so I don't bump into them.
 
I remember one occasion in Perth when the defence minister (back then) walked in with his family to a food court to have lunch. No guards, no security (at least none we could see).
That's the kind of country I want to live in.

Re:Major embarassment

[Anonymous Coward]

Then you'd probably know how to spell it.

Re:Major embarassment

[oatworm]

You betcha. Lincoln was against state's rights, and Garfield, well, he, uh... he wouldn't give out posts to God-fearing proper Christian folk. Yeah. Think about it.

Re:Major embarassment

[Anonymous Coward]

No one lives in the CBD. Are you really an Australian?

Re:Major embarassment

[TapeCutter]

Yes, they got 2 SUV's and a car within 10 meters of the hotel. Had they been real bad guys they would have just needed to plant the foot and they could have taken out one side of the building with 3 car bombs.

The security types are simply pissed because a bunch a comics made them look like the keystone cops to the rest of the world.

Re:Major embarassment

[TapeCutter]

Correct - nothing was inspected, they were waived through TWO checkpoints despite the fact their "fake ID's" were emblazoned with the words "Joke" and "Insecrurity".

Disclaimer: I am also a long time fan of Lateline and Chaser's, it's kinda ironic that the two government funded channels in Oz are by far the most informative and entertaining.

Re:Major embarassment

[TapeCutter]

"Whoever thought Sydney was an appropriate place to hold something like APEC should be fired for incompetence"

Yes, we went to the trouble of building a new city in the middle of nowhere, I believe the idea of a "national capital" was to prevent politicians and this sort of shit away from coming into contact with the general public.

However on this occasion the politicians escaped from Canberra and "locked down" one of our two main population centers. 8:00pm on a Sat night in Canberra is so devoid of life that you could shoot a cannon down the main street and nobody would notice (or care).

Re:Major embarassment

[Macgrrl]

Based on the local news reports (so take with a grain of salt) the motorcade wasn't pulled over, but the Chasers' crew decided the joke had gone far enough - stopped the card and got out. At that point the security forces saw the guy dressed as Bin Laden.

Re:Major embarassment

[westyx]

More information: linky

Re:Major embarassment

[totally bogus dude]

I doubt it. I mean, they were in a motorcade, flying Canadian flags even though the Canadian prime minister hadn't actually arrived in the country yet. I think the reason they got through was because it "looked" official enough, and whatever actually checks they have in place were obviously flawed.

One would think that the movement of each motorcade would be tracked, and all security checkpoints would be aware of who is approaching them. It actually sounds like they merely have instructions to stop anyone who doesn't look like part of an official party representing a country.

Re:Major embarassment

[Frozen Void]

Its probably related on how much military power a country is projecting over the world.

Re:Major embarassment

[superiority]

There were, however, many other people who plotted his assassination, even if they never succeeded. May want to learn to read.

Re:Major embarassment

[superiority]

If only politicians could do what the people need, rather than what the politicians want.

Fixed.

Re:Major embarassment

[Quiet_Desperation]

Well, I guess then your example proves that in a system where there's government funded security for public figures, it's the "crazies" that end up pulling off an assassination attempt before those with political motives.

Not really, no. It was merely an illustrative example of *a* crazy to underscore the point that there are reasons for high security other than the politically discombobulated. For an example of the other type, you only need go back to the Kennedy assassination. Even the most insane and convoluted conspiracy theories involve political motivations.

Non-sane people, though, are harder to read.

That's an invalid blanket statement. "Non-sane" can be the guy who wanders skid row talking to himself (easy read) all the way to the type depicted on the show Dexter (nigh impossible to read). Although I sometimes doubt the existence of the super-serial killer types of fiction. When I see interviews with captured serial killers, I get a seriously weird vibe from them no matter how normal they try to act. I dunno... maybe I just missed my true calling as a profiler. :)

Re:Major embarassment

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoever thought Sydney was an appropriate place to hold something like APEC should be fired for incompetence.

Thank-you!

I happen to live in the CBD, a few blocks from George St., where the Chaser boys cleared one of the security checks. I cannot tell you how eager I am to see this thing finished. It has been a huge, massive inconvenience for me, not to mention the noise of half a dozen helicopters chopping away from early morning to late night.

Re:Major embarassment

[nofud]

6 months ago, I ran into the president of my country (Switzerland) while shopping for groceries in a mall. Although she most surely had body guards or what not around, I didn't saw any and she was very happy to chat with random people and have people taking pictures with her. Her weird hairdo makes her very recognizable from afar, I would probably have not recognized last year president...
I thought it was rather cool, but nothing extraordinary. Not like if I lived in country with free speech zones...

The president of Sweden was murdered walking home from a cinema with no protection, though.

Re:Major embarassment

[Dr Caleb]

LOL, yea, nice try.

It's been my experience that people who are for the Right to Bear Arms also tend to be the same ones who decry Castro's right to remove a corrupt government. That conflict of morals always amuses me.

The government of France is still scared of it's population, the way a proper government should be. It's long been the right of citizens to remove corrupt governments and heads of state.

Guy Folkes T-Shirt, actually.

"Remember, Remember the 5th of November,
Of Gunpowder, Treason and Plot . . ."

Re:Major embarassment

[IBBoard]

Well, what I really meant was: "If only politicians could do what the people want, rather than what the people 'need'." i.e. what the Politicians think we need, which is basically what they want.

That and the subtext of "like Politicians are ever going to do what people want because what we want can often not really be what we want and is less likely to be what we need and what works well in a multi-national environment, but of course people can't see it that way".

Don't you just hate it when the subtext is longer than the message?

Re:Major embarassment

[ultranova]

Its probably related on how much military power a country is projecting over the world.

You mean that people who are not shooting at other people are less likely to have other people shoot back at them ? Inconceivable !

Re:Major embarassment

[dwarfsoft]

That is because anybody who is out and about on a Saturday night is clearly drunk and passed out in Garema Place, or scoffing down some unhealthy slop from Chicken Gormet. Nobody would be around Northbourne Avenue...

Also, the canon noises would be assumed to be Fireworks by the people, and therefore gain no attention, unless for some reason somebody from one of the other states happened to be there.

I agree, though, that Canberra would have been a better place to host APEC. It's designed to host dignitaries, so why doesn't it? Perhaps it's because John Howard himself would rather waste more Taxpayer money and make Sydney Australia's Capital (a clear snub to the Victorian Parliament which hosted the National Government in the early years). I think in future our Prime Minister should be forced to live at the Lodge, or use their own Salary to pay for lodging elsewhere and travel to Canberra instead of getting additional Tax funds to cover those expenses.

I look forward to the Departure of Johnny, and I strongly believe it will be at this election.

Downer on the comedy group's motives

[.c]

"Whatever you think of the humor of 'The Chaser,' the honest truth is they were clearly not going to harm anybody in a physical way," Downer said. "They presumably were, as is the nature of their show, aiming to humiliate a lot of well-known people."

For a politician, this type of harm could be career-ending -- public opinion is everything.

Re:Downer on the comedy group's motives

[lazybeam]

Not in Australia. Pollies here love being satired!

Re:Downer on the comedy group's motives

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, you're entire country is descended from criminals so its not like any of you have an illustrious family background to maintain :-p

Re:Downer on the comedy group's motives

[deniable]

Have you seen Alexander Downer? This will help his image.

His best moment, IMHO, was a radio interview where the headphones had a problem. "It's broken," BANG, "It's FUCKING BROKEN."

Re:Downer on the comedy group's motives

[apt142]

My question then is, What could they do to make him look any dumber than he already is?

Re:Downer on the comedy group's motives

[McTaggart]

Considering that 'politics' in Australia is basically all about digging up dirt about the other party and leaking it to channel seven I don't think the Chaser are going to do any more harm than the other party. If the politician recognises that it's someone from the Chaser (and really, this isn't hard) and at least humours them for a minute or two it's not going to hurt their image at all. Australians like their politicians to be able to take a joke.

Re:Downer on the comedy group's motives

[dbIII]

Not for Downer. This guy was mixed up in an incident where Saddam was bribed for over 300 million. A long string of incidents show he's a living example of why hereditary leadership is a bad idea - if his grandfather had not been sucessful he would not control a political faction and would be almost unemployable.

Have they gone too far this time?

[hools1234]

These guys are seriously the funniest thing on Australian TV. They are extremely witty and some of their comedy is so well thought out, you really wonder where they get it from. There is some great footage of this weeks episode on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxXAr0R43dQ where they try to see how big a weapon they can smuggle in to a jail, including a rocket, a small canon (disguised poorly as a babies pram) and a tank! Some very clever gags about APEC also. Have they gone too far this time though? With times so security conscious, dressing up as Osama and getting that close to the US Presidents quarters, they are lucky they weren't fired upon! Funny though.

Re:Have they gone too far this time?

[garcia]

Have they gone too far this time though? With times so security conscious, dressing up as Osama and getting that close to the US Presidents quarters, they are lucky they weren't fired upon!

No, they haven't gone too far. By pointing out that the US has a huge and unnecessary motorcade in a foreign country, it opens my eyes to yet another fleecing of America by the douchebags in office. By pointing out that people may be arrested for nothing more than a prank mostly because it embarrassed the security forces supposedly increased for the visit of someone "so important", it shows me that the countries we live in suck compared to 10 years ago.

Someone needs to continually point out the failures and by doing it with comedic value, a larger majority of people will pay attention.

Re:Have they gone too far this time?

[deniable]

That's what one of the senior cops said. Something about all the snipers on the building would have shot them. If that's the case, the snipers are a bigger threat than a terrorist.

Re:Have they gone too far this time?

[Gideon Fubar]

indeed.. it might be said that it's very lucky that it was a group of comedians, not someone looking to do actual harm.

Re:Have they gone too far this time?

[sr180]

Dont worry, the snipers are wearing fluro yellow high visability vests, so you'll be able to see them.

Photos here.

hilair

[SkunkPussy]

I've seen some of their clips on youtube and they're pretty damn funny!!

Over here in the UK, the main Aussie telly we're blessed with are neighbours and home & away - I would swap war on everything for neighbours any day!!

Re:hilair

[Anonymous Coward]

You can podcast it from the ABC website.

Re:hilair

[kramulous]

Download the episodes from http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/int/vodcast/

Re:hilair

[StikyPad]

That's funny.. I would swap my neighbors for war on anything.

And for the record, I'd swap the show as well. For those who don't know, most Aussie TV, especially Neighbours, is about the quality of the 20th century BBC: low production value and weak acting. If you can get beyond that, the plots are pretty mundane as well. I just read that they apparently switched to HD for the 2007 season, but before that, viewership was severely declining. It's definitely a solid Meh, whose main purpose is to provide Australian produced content, since most TV and film is imported. While I'd rather watch grass grow than watch Neighbours, I will say that its popularity reflects well on the character and (general) good nature of Australia. If it wasn't for their metered broadband, I'd want to live there :( What can I say, I need my fix.

Re:hilair

[unfunk]

I dunno how far behind us you Brits are, but the 03-04 seasons were really quite good - interesting characters, amusing plot lines.. at some points, they all but acknowledged that they were in a bad TV show. Then, all the interesting people died in a plane crash.

If they had tried to do that in the U.S.

[elrous0]

After their arrest, the Bush administration and Justice Department officials immediately hold a press conference to brag about how they've busted up another terrorist cell, ending with "See, all these new wiretapping laws are working!"

Re:If they had tried to do that in the U.S.

[grolschie]

If they did this in the US, they'd now be be "holidaying" for an age in Gitmo. :-/

Re:tagged Slashkos - kdawsonfud

[faloi]

Any particular reason for this story other than another kdawsonfud attempt to get a slam in at Bush?

Sure. The technology hooks are self evident. You can, ummm, find clips of the guys on youtube. And, err, well, we're pretty sure one of them had a cell phone. And the cameras, don't get me started about the cameras!

Re:tagged Slashkos - kdawsonfud

[Anonymous Coward]

The phone probably even had a SIM CARD in it!

Transcript of the arresting moment

[Dystopian Rebel]

Guard: Where are you from?
Australian Mimicking A Canadian: We're the Canadian delegation. Where's the hockey rink?
Guard: We don't have a hockey rink here, Sir. [Addressing AMAC bin Laden.] Are you from the Middle East, Sir?
AMAC-BL: Yes, from Montreal.
Guard: Who is Margaret Atwood?
AMAC-BL: [pause] She's the wife of Wayne Gretzky.
Guard: Step out of the car, Sir.

Re:Transcript of the arresting moment

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a good thing the guard had had his sense of humor surgically removed, or there would be bodies.

Glad to hear someone thinks they're funny.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because this prank, and the others in the comment thread, don't strike me as being the least bit funny at all. Frankly, I think people have forgotten how to be funny.

Re:Glad to hear someone thinks they're funny.

[JonathanR]

Ah, why not lighten up a little David?

Re:Glad to hear someone thinks they're funny.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because this prank, and the others in the comment thread, don't strike me as being the least bit funny at all. Frankly, I think people have forgotten how to be funny. Riiiight..... Let me guess. In "Good Morning Vietnam" you thought Lieutenant Steven Hauk really *was* the funny one?

Re:Glad to hear someone thinks they're funny.

[microphobe]

"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Francis Behan

Those who can, Do.
Those who can't, Critique.

APEC Protest Coverage

[essence]

You can get some grass roots coverage of the protests against APEC at Sydney Indymedia.

Had to be the chasers

[Lightster]

Hahahah, As soon as I read the title I thought, its the chasers isn't it.

Re:Had to be the chasers

[Usekh]

I heard it on the news and they just said "A commedy group" and had the same first though :) had to be Chasers.

Re:Had to be the chasers

[Tekgno]

Well it bloody wouldn't be Kath and Kim :P
I had the same initial thought as well.

Re:Had to be the chasers

[cammoblammo]

After the turds Kath and Kim have been turning out this year, I wish it was them and they'd been arrested without bail.

Great stuff !

[unity100]

nice to see there are still witty people in australia, despite the latest prime minister, who gives the feeling of rattlesnake when you look into his eyes.

Should have dressed up as Norman Hsu

[Anonymous Coward]

That way, we could have a fugitive have direct access to senior elected members of our government.

As long as they're Dems, anyway...

Re:Should have dressed up as Norman Hsu

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, Hillary gave that money to charity.

If a criminal gives money to a Repuke, they actually get a billion dollar contract, are appointed to a job, and maybe one of their kids is put in charge of rebuilding Iraq.

Gotta love conservatives... they don't even bother to HIDE their criminality!

Re:Should have dressed up as Norman Hsu

[Anonymous Coward]

Unlike democraps who just shoot 'em and leave 'em in a park or on a plane or face down on a grave or...

'course, one does have to admit they prefer shooting other dems. But, in a pinch, innocent men, women, and children will work as shown at Waco.

Who are the fucking criminals?

WOO HOO, 8 more clintons year! http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI CLE_ID=57498 />

Utterly Un-Australian

[Malekin]

I feel that it was utterly un-Australian to arrest these guys. It was a complete waste of police & justice system resources, and really only a pathetic attempt to legitimise the $170 million spent on the ridiculous security theatre show borking up Sydney's CBD.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[Rogerborg]

Calm down, Sparky. What would be un-Whatever would be to charge or convict them. Merely detaining them and then moving them off site while you figure out if they are who they say they are is common sense.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[Usekh]

I agree. At least semi-seriously ;) I mean larrikanism and taking the piss like this is one of the things I love about Australia. Unfortunately they don't seem to have a place in Howard's vision of Australia.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[smegged]

Are you kidding? The coallition members are by far more cooperative with the Chaser guys, particularly Costello. It's the labor party members (I'm looking at you Beazley) that have traditionally reacted badly to them.

You have enough fodder to criticise the coallition without slandering them. Locking these guys up was procedure for anyone who broke through security, which they did. I doubt that the PM even found out about it until after the news had broke and they'd been incarcerated.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[SlowTurtle]

I think he was referring to one of the Chasers episodes where they test what is actually "un-australian." It's a good episode...

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[Rogerborg]

Then I shall steal it from the intartubes forthwith. Theft is the Australian thing to do, as I understand it.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[Archades54]

It was probably done just to double check that they were safe and not going to do anything harmful. It is possible they COULD have had explosives etc, a few arrests and checking around is better than the ultra slim but still real chance that the headlines tomorrow could have read Comedy act suicide bombs, or whatever.

And hell, it tests out 170 million dollars worth of security.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[deniable]

Look how far Howard has gotten. He's a good politician. He'll chuckle and let them go for points with the voters.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[_14k4]

I may be feeding the troll here, but for f*ck's sake... they knew what they were getting into when they decided to go through with the prank. That is, after all, why it is called a "prank"...

They've also, probably, broken some Canardian laws, too...

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[Nazlfrag]

It's an Australian production, it comes pre-stolen or what you foreigners call free. Click here to steal the episodes from their homepage.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[cibyr]

They've been arrested and charged with "entering a restricted area without justification", under new laws created for APEC. Un-Australian is right.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[dbIII]

To make things worse they were arrested under a newly minted law designed for occasions like this at the conference. People should see the humor in this - earlier this year we actually changed the gun laws for Cheney the night before his arrival. We're doing a lot of pandering to a playboy King (we shutdown a big chunk of sydney so he could go for a mountain bike ride on the other side of the city) and the Prince at his right hand - how long is it before the USA gets a President again? You are doing monarchy entirely the wrong way - we don't have to shut down a city every time our Queen visits.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[Malekin]

It is possible they could have had explosives, granted. It is also possible they could have been emissaries from Her Holiness The Flying Spaghetti Monster sent to Earth to speak to the leaders of the planet about the proper way to worship meatballs.

Neither of these is a reasonable expectation, though. I expect my police force to be calm, moderated and reasonable in their dealings. They're meant to be sensible in the performance of they duties. Arresting these guys may have been legally justified, but I don't feel it was a measured response. It is not sensible to believe these particular individuals meant to do physical damage to persons or property. The measured response would have been to lead them outside the security zone and to give them a bit of a lecture about being funny buggers around jumpy US secret service goons who think they have the right to shoot first and ask questions later.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[femto]

Not unless flying the Canadian flag is against the law. It wasn't sophisticated enough to break any Canadian laws. There was a Canadian flag on the car and a sticker with an APEC logo which read:

"This vehicle belongs to a member of The Chaser's War on Everything. This dude likes trees and poetry and certain types of carnivorous plants excite him."

Contrary to CNN's official misinformation (or should that be CNNNN?) the "motorcade" was not stopped police. They only got picked up when the fake motorcade stopped outside the Intercontinental Hotel and "Osama" hopped out of the car. If you look at the picture in the SMH Article Osama "Chas " Bin Laden isn't being pulled from the car by police but leisurely stepping out of his own accord. The doorman is not a cop but one of the Chaser's own crew.

The only crime committed here is to make the NSW Police and their political masters look like idiots.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[dbIII]

One thing I've always thought Australia had over the USA in the past was that the leader goes out for a run every morning on public streets and anybody that can be bothered to get up early enough to yell insults at him as he goes by can. Earlier leaders were also acessable to the public - I think this is why there have been no recorded assassination attempts. The worst thing that has happend along those lines is one Prime Minister (the leader of the elected government) had an egg thrown at him - this actually resulted in the formation of the Australian Federal Police.

This overblown security response is not something we are used to. It looks like we are copying what is done in the third world for unpopular dictators, getting some ideas from the USA, and then getting it all wrong.

The US King will go home soon anyway, and hopefully the next US leader to visit will be a President and not need such ridiculous pandering. There have to be some Republicans that want a Republic over there.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[TapeCutter]

"What would be un-Whatever would be to charge or convict them."

They were released on bail after being charged under new security laws, the charge carries a maximum penalty of 6 months jail time if convicted.

Anyone who watches their show on a regular basis knows these guys have intellegence, wit, and most importantly a huge set of balls.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[XCondE]

At least that $60 million firewall that was cracked by a horny 13-year-old doesn't look so bad now...

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[_14k4]

Except for the part where they impersonated officials, no? I mean, they didn't to it verbally... but they did it physically.

I agree, though, that it made the entire security system there look like it was put together by a 5yo.

Re:Utterly Un-Australian

[GrassyNoel]

The only crime committed here is to make the ... Police and their political masters look like idiots.

Which is the worst crime there is, going by sentencing. In 1982, Ray Mickelberg got 20 years for it.

Re:tagged Slashkos - kdawsonfud

[Guzzitza]

Well, considering the government is spending 170 million on security, which includes a lot of technological crap - such as choppers flying around blocking mobile phone signals, it seems important to note that all you need is 3 cars, a couple of flags, and a fake sticker to bypass all that security... I know it isn't massively relevant, but it is funny.

This is Australia

[Chuck Chunder]

We already know all politicians are dick heads, we don't worship them (or want to) as many Americans seem to do.

It may frighten you

[tietokone-olmi]

But for me, it gives me hope.

Re:tagged Slashkos - kdawsonfud

[eloki]

Any particular reason for this story other than another kdawsonfud attempt to get a slam in at Bush?

You mean apart from the fact it's funny and is filed under the Humour section? :) APEC is a reasonably major political/economic forum for the region, I don't see this as being gratuitous.

unparalleled hypocracy

[michaelmuffin]

So those who tag themselves as the leaders of the free world are restraining their populace with barbed wire fences, armed riot police, and undemocratic bans on demonstration. Howard's use of the word `violent' (which the media has perpetuated without question) to describe protesters is a pretext to take away more free speech and freedom of assembly rights and to characterise /all/ dissent as criminal. Everyone remember Heiligendamm earlier this summer? The APEC summit will turn out the same way.

Re:unparalleled hypocracy

[mabu]

The worst part about all this is that there will probably be thousands of protesters with legitimate issues they want raised. And the news media will find the one tripped-out, bearded, hippy-dude beating on a djembe screaming "legalize meth!" and splatter that all over the television as an example of a typical activist.

Re:unparalleled hypocracy

[michaelmuffin]

That's exactly what I mean. The corporate media has every reason to maintain the status quo, so they marginalise dissent by ignoring dissenters. There will certainly be reporting, but it will be about that "legalise meth!" guy and it will ignore the issues that the protesters came to protest. The Sydney Indymedia coverage is great, by the way.

Re:unparalleled hypocracy

[mabu]

The same thing happened in the states during the WTO protests in Seattle. They found some drunk asses smashing stuff and focused on that as if the entire flock of protesters were just there to dance in the street and break things.

Re:unparalleled hypocracy

[TapeCutter]

As much as I like to bash "corporate media" I simply can't agree they ALL behave like Alan Jones and the infomercials disguised as current affairs programs. The morning talk show on channel TEN had the organiser of the main protest (scheduled for Saturday) as a guest today, the two hosts (David & Kim) asked pertinent questions and got reasonable answers.

"marginalise dissent"

The main reason the protesters had to change their planned route (yet again) was that the cops suddenly decided a roadblock in the middle of the planned route was necassary, the court determined that said roadblock was likely to incite a violent confrontation. I expect to see the same agent provocators responsible for the Cronulla riots at work on Saturday.

It's always funny to see comedians arrested.

[deweycheetham]

You got to love any comedian who is willing to get arrested for comedy's sake.

Bring on the Fools...

eep

[Verte]

Remember why the Glasshouse got axed? You can't be critical of the Liberal party's ridiculous actions! Especially when [click]

Re:eep

[shellbeach]

Remember why the Glasshouse got axed? You can't be critical of the Liberal party's ridiculous actions! Especially when [click] Yeah, but curiously the ABC brought on "The Sideshow" this year, in which Paul McDermott is openly anti-Howard (it's wonderful to watch just for his little stand-up routines during the show) ...

Personally, I think the Glasshouse was simply rating too well for the ABC to cope with. They axed it when the panic of being popular set in ...

Re:eep

[Verte]

The Chaser have always seemed somewhat critical of Howard, but making fun of APEC is like making fun of Howard's mum.

At the very least, they won't pull Chaser's before the election, and might not be able to afterwards. It looks like we're in for some interesting viewing over the next couple of months!

Re:tagged Slashkos - kdawsonfud

[deniable]

The Chasers have been mentioned on here before. A 16 year old issued a bunch of bogus DMCA take-down notices to youtube about their stuff. They thought it was pretty funny.

If you are Canadian ...

[tiananmen tank man]

You can already get up and personal with your leaders in a http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/05/17/pol itics.fights/index.htmlchoke hold

On the topic of the Chaser

[smegged]

Just an FYI for everyone out there, the Chaser is a show which is broadcast by the ABC, a PUBLICALLY FUNDED channel here in Australia. They constantly poke fun of security, politicians and current affairs shows (among other things). They are a great example of democracy done right.

For some interesting clips see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs3SfNANtig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnP0snh_1cU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3grHjibNdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BOMOVV2pf0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc5xTZGUrRQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GViD0Zwc3Bg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-6F8GN8eXI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwJ9s1RdGhc&

Many more are freely available on youtube and other sites. The ABC doesn't mind you distributing them either.

Re:On the topic of the Chaser

[Anonymous Coward]

You can download a whole collection of podcasts of entire Chaser shows - from their website,
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/vodcast/,
including the latest from three days ago. In a week you will be able to download the episode which may include this APEC stunt.

Re:On the topic of the Chaser

[Anonymous Coward]

You can get entire episodes and many other videos at http://abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/

Re:On the topic of the Chaser

[Frogbert]

Stop Posting youtube links!

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/vodcast/

There you go. Download all the episodes from the shows website. It works in Australia but I'm not sure how good you foregners will go though.

Re:On the topic of the Chaser

[smegged]

The reason I posted the youtube links was to avoid overburdening the already resource-limited ABC site.

Re:On the topic of the Chaser

[sr180]

No, the ABC Site is ONLY for Australians. The ABC and the Chasers themselves encourage foreigners to view the youtube links.

Re:On the topic of the Chaser

[trawg]

Many more are freely available on youtube and other sites. The ABC doesn't mind you distributing them either. Actually I don't think that's strictly true - from their vodcast page:

This video podcast is made available for use by persons located in Australia only. If you are not located in Australia, you are not authorised to use this podcast. The ABC grants you a licence to download these audio-visual files for your private, personal, domestic, non-commercial use only. You may not use these audio-visual files for any other purpose (including but without limitation downloading, editing, or using these files for the purpose of (a) distribution to a third party; or (b) promoting, advertising, endorsing or implying a connection with you (or any third party) and the ABC, its agents or employees). (emphasis mine.)

Re:On the topic of the Chaser

[Anonymous Coward]

The Chaser guys have actually posted the clips on Youtube several times, and said that they don't mind their distribution.

The legalese is lawyer talk. However, the ABC do prefer that people access the videos from YouTube, as the ABC media server is already overloaded as it is.

Darwin Awards

[huckamania]

Probably lucky that they were in Sydney and not Singapore. Glad to hear that no one was hurt in the end.

Re:Darwin Awards

[Farmer Tim]

Glad to hear that no one was hurt in the end.

Cue prison rape jokes in 5...4...3...

Re:tagged Slashkos - kdawsonfud

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the "offtopic Bush slam" that's IN THE ORIGINAL CNN ARTICLE:

"-- as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him."

(some people)

Security Theater

[sethstorm]

Well, this gives yet another meaning to the phrase "Security Theater" given that all that investment on keeping APEC from the public being defeated by a few creative actors.

Re:Security Theater

[Anonymous Coward]

What it does highlight is that the security is there to stop protesters getting too close and that the pretense of the "terrorist threat" is a thinly veiled justification for oppressing the right of people to move freely about public land.

Whitehouse Response

[deweycheetham]

Whitehouse Response

The White House was not amused Thursday by the antics of an Australian comedy group that breached President Bush's security in Sydney.

Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino had few details on the incident, but Australian press reported that 11 members of the troupe "The Chaser's War on Everything" had been charged with entering a restricted area. ...

See the rest of the article at:

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/white-house-mu m-on-comedy-groups-security-breach-2007-09-06.html

Major nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

Because when Heads of State violently die it tends to cause chaos, political/economic instability and/or wars.

I'm not suggesting anyone do something stupid (go away, Secret Service, I'm not a "person of interest") but sheesh. America desperately needs some political instability.

And a president is just some guy. He can be replaced, and the current one hasn't demonstrated any particularly unusual skills. That doesn't mean he (or anyone else) should be murdered, but if his murder is a serious problem for society, then you already have a serious problem for society.

This applies whether you agree or disagree with his particular policies. We're talking about one person, who works in an administrative capacity, and is surrounded by hundreds of other people who almost certainly have even more administrative experience. He's a cog. That isn't to say he doesn't have a shitload of power and that his decisions don't end up being far-reaching. But he's not a key man whose duties someone else can't easily take over.

Wrong Synopsis.

[donscarletti]

The Australian Army did not let it in and were the only ones to check inside of it. Also, this was filmed months before APEC when the only security concern with the opera house was preventing drunk students from farting in the tubas.

Re:Wrong Synopsis.

[Arcane_Rhino]

ROFLMAO

Ah... University education. Those were the days...

Re:Wrong Synopsis.

[Anonymous Coward]

It happened yesterday... the official APEC business started on Monday, 4 days ago...

The 'security' is too busy racial profiling and not busy enough checking credentials.

Re:Wrong Synopsis.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, because we all know that chaser did all of its stunts this week, so if you find something on youtube with those guys in it, it MUST be only a couple of days old, despite its TV broadcast date last year.

Security shouldn't be worrying about the race or credentials of suspects when clearly they could get a dipshit like you to figure this stuff out for them.

Aussie PMs

[thaig]

. . . but you still elect them?!

Re:Aussie PMs

[Anonymous Coward]

. . . but you still elect them?!

Have to have somebody to make fun of!

Re:Aussie PMs

[Merusdraconis]

We gotta vote for someone. (Because voting is compulsory, y'see.) It does have its upsides: attack ads tend to be less frequent; as everyone already knows that politicians are scumbags, running an attack ad merely confirms whoever paid for the spot as a scumbag.

Re:Aussie PMs

[Gideon Fubar]

i don't think you understand..

we already know that all our politicians are dickheads.. the leftwingers are fighting a battle to be as big a collective group of dickheads as the rightwingers.

John Howard has been caught lying before elections at least twice, with ignorance of the facts as his only defense, Alexander Downer should have been thrown out for incompetence years ago (perhaps during one of his various international scandals), and Peter Costello is just waiting for John Howard to die of old age.

At the moment, the other major political party is offering nothing but copies of the policies offered by the government, and everyone is preoccupied with making each other look bad. Not unlike America, i guess..

Re:Aussie PMs

[Tacticus.v1]

You don't have to vote for anyone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_vote

Re:Aussie PMs

[shellbeach]

You don't have to vote for anyone No, the donkey vote is actually voting for the candidate who's first on the voting paper (as you number the boxes sequentially down the page). It is an incredibly stupid thing to do, as you give your vote randomly to someone without considering the consequences of your action.

If you don't want to vote, merely fold the ballot paper over and place it in the voting box without writing anything. Or you can scrawl some doggerel of your choice over the ballot paper first to make you feel better if you like. But please, leave the electing of representatives to people who've at least given some thought to the matter!

Re:Aussie PMs

[Tacticus.v1]

whoops it seems i have a different idea of donkey vote to wp and the rest of the world

i was always informed that a donkey vote is just what you described. a straight blank ballot or some other obviously invalid ballot

i agree that the donkey vote described in wp is a stupid thing to do now if only there was an edit button

Re:Aussie PMs

[thaig]

Not unlike anywhere. (Says a disillusioned Zimbabwean)

Unfortunately there is something wrong with us if all of them really are bad because we allowed them to bubble up.

I think we tend to believe people when they tell us what we want to hear and this is the root of all problems.

Slashkos / bush hating / nothing tech

[Anonymous Coward]

This site is not about tech... its a liberal site where the basement dwellers can all high five each other and feel good about their incomplete lives.

Slashdot is obsolete.

Re:Slashkos / bush hating / nothing tech

[Farmer Tim]

its a liberal site where the basement dwellers can all high five each other and feel good about their incomplete lives.

And staying here to complain about it makes your life complete?

Re:Slashkos / bush hating / nothing tech

[Anonymous Coward]

you see at the top of (this section of) the site, where it says 'politics for nerds'?

good luck playing with new toys if you don't play politics at least once in a while :(

hey, ideally, i'd love for it to be able to just be tech too.

Re:Slashkos / bush hating / nothing tech

[TapeCutter]

"This site is not about tech...its a liberal site"

Please be carefull with your terminology, you are confusing the Howard supporters with your use of the word "liberal".

Re:Slashkos / bush hating / nothing tech

[Anonymous Coward]

What isn't technocratic about hating Bush?

Nice to see...

[Eevee1]

$1545454.55 AUD (Take 20-25% off to get USD) per person. That's a complete and utter bargain. AND THEY'LL BE WALKING OUT THE DOOR AFTER PRICES HAVE BEEN MASSIVELY REDUCED!

Re:Am I the only one?

[Anonymous Coward]

Lieutenant Steven Hauk: I understand you're pretty funny as a dee-jay and, well, comedy is kind of a hobby of mine. Well, actually, it's a little more than just a hobby, Reader's Digest is considering publishing two of my jokes.
Adrian Cronauer: Really.
Lieutenant Steven Hauk: Yeah. And perhaps some night we could maybe get together and swap humorous stories, for fun.
Adrian Cronauer: Oh, why not? Maybe play a couple of Tennessee Ernie Ford records, that'd be a hoot.
Lieutenant Steven Hauk: That's a joke, right?
Adrian Cronauer: Maybe.
Lieutenant Steven Hauk: I get it.

Nope, you're right. Not funny. Not funny at all.

Chaser links

[ribman]

Chaser gets away with all sorts of scary and unbelievably insulting stuff. It's the most refreshingly truthful stab at "normalcy" that is around at present in AU. I think there's much less reason to trust the common media than there is to trust Chaser in what they say - Chaser have invested in telling "the stupid truth" via bitter-sweet parody.

(Original sources, should contain podcasts of the segments being mentioned.)

ABC Chaser's War site:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/

Chaser's War Video archive:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/video/default. htm

Chaser's ongoing website:
http://www.chaser.com.au/

Chaser CNN takeoff series: (aged material)
http://www.cnnnn.com/

Oblig Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaser

Any real danger to politicians in Australia?

[Anonymous Coward]

As a Sydneysider, I have to say the APEC security was already seen as a farce even before the Chaser's stunt (which 86% of people responding to a Sydney Morning Herald poll thought was "funny"). But more to the point, the over-the-top security is all seen as being because of President Bush (not Putin or Hu Jin Tao), our Prime Minister's "great mate". Hu Jin Tao (the Chinese President) flew into Perth with some offsiders, had some meetings with Woodside Petroleum, and then bascially travelled the length of Australia including a visit to a sheep grazing property in rural NSW which the local school children attended, before arriving in Sydney for APEC. In Sydney, one resident remarked that they saw Hu's motorcade from an overhead pedestrian bridge, from which any nasty person could've chucked a rock (or a bomb) at it.

The reality is that there have been only two political assassinations in Australian history, both in Sydney (in 1894 the Burwood (Sydney) Mayor was shot by the deranged town clerk; and the 1994 murder of John Newman MP for Fairfield (Sydney), for which a corrupt local councillor Phunong Ngo was later convicted). I don't think Bush or any other politician is in danger here (except from being satirised). Sadly the people most inconvenienced by all this security are the residents and businesses in the Sydney CBD and tourists (including Americans).

We're desperately in need of some humour in Sydney right now, as the security (and rhetoric about security) has reached absurd levels. Chas getting out of the motorcade in front of Bush's hotel, dressed as Osama Bin Laden, was the funniest thing I've seen for ages. Every time we saw a po-faced politician or policeman denouncing the Chaser team, we just laughed harder.

Re:Any real danger to politicians in Australia?

[Anonymous Coward]

Every time we saw a po-faced politician or policeman denouncing the Chaser team, we just laughed harder. It looked to me like Alexander Downer was struggling to avoid laughing while delivering his sober statement about the stunt.

Re:Any real danger to politicians in Australia?

[GrassyNoel]

There was the Sydney Hilton bombing of 1975 (?) which wasn't a political assassination, but easily could have been if the timing had been better.

Re:tagged Slashkos - kdawsonfud

[Anonymous Coward]

it has a reasonable amount to do with politics (that's why it's on the politics section of the site), and i think even some nerds may have a sense of humor.

in Soviet Russia...

[weighn]

I've been waiting for this, and then I slept in. Oh well.

In Soviet Russia, Sydney locks down APEC.

Re:in Soviet Russia...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sidney.

It's spelt Sidney.

In Soviet Russia, Sidney misspells you.

Just the best joke ever.

[polygamous coward]

Bring Ossama to Bush!

Some cartoons about the fence

[Anonymous Coward]

http://203.26.51.178/cracker/194300_1.jpg

http://203.26.51.178/cracker/194299_1.jpg

Everyone trusts a Canadian

[GISGEOLOGYGEEK]

Yet again, the good reputation of Canada is abused by others. Reminds me of the multiple times Isreali spies used forged Canadian passports.

Re:tagged Slashkos - kdawsonfud

[totally bogus dude]

Extreme security measures and their effectiveness are very much a current topic (especially at airports). This prank shows that often the "intense security measures" don't do squat or can be trivially bypassed. They actually made today a public holiday in Sydney, because the lockdown is expected to be so disruptive to transport that they decided it would be too difficult for a lot of people to get to and from work. So yes, the security for this event is supposed to be pretty tight, to the extent that they're shutting down the city for it. Yet apparently, if you stick a few flags on your car you can drive right on through.

I was surprised to see this on /. -- but there's plenty of other crap articles that make it on here, and this is one of the better ones, IMHO.

Sidney

[weighn]

It's spelt Sidney it is, at least in White House press briefings.
"It's a predictable error for an American to make because they're bad spellers" -- John Howard making a predictably bad attempt at humour for a Liberal Party goon.

Re:Sidney

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm an American you insensitive clod.

I'm only sure of one thing .....

[HW_Hack]

We didn't start the fire ........ ***

***Lame Billy Joel reference for you youngsters

Not true.

[jotaeleemeese]

Because when Heads of State violently die it tends to cause chaos, political/economic instability and/or wars This is patently untrue. This only applies where heads of state have too much real power concentrated on them.

In parlamentary democracies it is not uncommon to find politicians on the streets, no guards.

Even Tony Blair had minimal security around him in most of his trips in the UK.

In 1978 QLD was in public march lockdown

[vortexau]

and it was impossible to get the necessary March Permit!

This led to Henry Akers and his dog Jaffa making an unauthorized public march down a non-through road, in the early hours of April Fools' Day, in Bundaberg.
http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/library/exhibition/hu manrights/default.htm The Courier Mail, 31 December 2001, p18

His activities were watched by a carload of detectives who turned up to guarantee the safety of the general public, and that public mobility would be unimpeeded.

Download the show

[lordlod]

The Chaser played some really nice footage that they shot of the whole exercise. You can see the relevant segment from their website.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/video/default.htm?program=chaser&pres=20070912_2100

They also provide the entire episode, an mp4 format file is also available.

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/vodcast/chaser_2007_ep15.wmv