No Chance of Confusion

From the Brisbane Courier-Mail :

Labor candidate Ivan Molloy posed with a machine gun supplied by Muslim extremists and has said Australia should be turning its military on both itself and the US.

Dr Molloy has also claimed Muslim guerilla groups should not be labelled terrorists.

The group he posed with in the Philippines in 1983 has recently been linked by Washington to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
[...]
A photograph of the gun-toting Dr Molloy was featured in a 33-page working paper he wrote for his thesis entitled "The Conflicts of Mindanao: Whilst the Revolution Rolls On, the Jihad Falters".
[...]
"I don't want to get caught in the trap of saying I am sympathetic but I would say I understand their causes," Dr Molloy said yesterday.

But Dr Molloy said groups which resorted to violence should not be stereotyped as "terrorists" by people who did not understand their side of the argument.

"It is no good to call them all terrorists. You have to look at the side they came from," he said.

In December 2002, Dr Molloy blamed Australia and the US for terrorism.

"If the West in general and the US in particular are really serious about stamping out terrorism and state promoters of this activity, we would be turning our guns not only on the Russians, Chinese, Irish, Spanish, French, virtually all our allies and even back on ourselves, but most importantly also on the US itself," he said in a public speech.
[...]
Dr Molloy, an academic at the University of the Sunshine Coast, posted on an Internet chat room in April 2002: "I have spent much time in Asia and Central America researching and supporting many popular struggles against oppression."

From News Ltd :

John Howard and Alexander Downer are demanding Molloy, a Queensland lecturer specialising in terrorism, be sacked after the emergence of a 1983 photograph showing him brandishing a gun allegedly supplied by an extreme Muslim terrorism group in The Philippines.

Adding to the case against Molloy, the Government produced an academic paper presented seven weeks after the 2002 Bali bombings. Molloy argues if the West, and Australia, were serious about stamping out terrorism then "we would be turning our guns not only on the Russians, the Chinese, the Irish, the Spanish, the French, virtually all our allies and even back on ourselves".

Wonder why News Ltd didn't mention the US? Maybe because it wouldn't fit in with the picture they're painting of "harmless leftist trendoid". Anyway, beack to the News Ltd article:

We enter and the poor candidate is sweating like a sow. Molloy doesn't want to talk, is waiting for a call from head office, promises to "unload" if they dump him. Campaign workers are afluster, urging their man to keep his trap shut and step back inside. Only wife Cate Molloy, who skipped a sitting of state parliament to be by her husband's side yesterday, is showing any vestige of poise or good humour.

Perhaps that's due to her pedigree as a prominent nudist state MP. The member for Noosa has provided Premier Peter Beattie with the occasional political migraine through her passionate advocacy of the sensual wonders of nude bathing.

Having sailed through these controversies, Cate reckons Ivan's lot is a giant fuss about nothing. The now infamous picture of her husband wielding a gun, published on the front page of The Courier Mail, was, she says, a legitimate part of his university thesis. Cate insists Ivan, also a keen nudist, is no terrorist sympathiser.
[...]
Last week, when Cate blamed the Liberals for the Bali bombing, he happily endorsed her comments.

Now, according to Molloy, Labor HQ is on the phone to sort out The Philippines mess.

We agree to rendezvous later. By which time the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister are demanding Labor sack Molloy. And Mark Latham has mistakenly labelled him "Ivan Milat".

Controversial ... the picture that sparked the furore
"Excuse the slip," says the Labor leader when he realises the nudist-cum-alleged terrorist sympathiser has now been lumped with the notorious serial killer.

"That's a funny coincidence - Ivan Milat was once one of my constituents."

Mr Latham later backed Molloy, who in a letter to the party said he had always repudiated terrorism. He insisted the photograph showed him with supporters of the late Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos.

Which is why, no doubt, it was included in a thesis sympathetic to the Moro Liberation Army.

To some people, all the talk about 'Terrorism', 'Democracy', 'Liberation' and so on is all a bit of a joke. Something to talk about over a Latte on the beach (nudist or otherwise). It doesn't really matter whether you pose for a "photo opportunity" with an Islamic terrorist - sorry, Freedom Fighter - or a 'Marcos Supporter'. I mean, there are just so many anti-Imperialist movements around, it's difficult to keep all these precious little brown people straight. No-one takes it seriously, anyway. It's not as if anyone's ever going to fly airliners into skyscrapers over anything (Ha-Ha!).

As for the pictures? The one on the Left in Ivan Molloy (the Labor Candidate), the one on the Right is Ivan Milat (the Serial Killer). No chance of confusion, is there?