The ultimate betrayal !

Two men - one a serving officer and the other an ex-officer of the Australian Defence Forces are being held without bail, charged with stealing ten M 72 rocket launchers from the Australian defence arsenal. These charges allege that the weapons were sold to a criminal of Lebanese background who later onsold them to a terrorist cell operating in this country.
One rocket launcher has been recovered with the remainder still in the hands of terrorists. It is suspected that the weapons have been sealed in plastic piping and buried against the time they will be used in a terror strike.
Understandably, the security forces are concerned that this strike may be against a gathering of world leaders to be held in Sydney this September. The rocket launchers are formidable weapons, quite capable of downing an aircraft on final approaches to Sydney airport or destroying an armoured vehicle used to protect foreign dignitaries.
The fact that these weapons were stolen and sold to this country's enemies by members of the defence force is the ultimate betrayal - and these men sold out their country cheaply. It is reported that they handed the weapons to criminals for as little as $ 5,000 a launcher.
The theft - and the danger it imposes - raises the question of what punishment should be awarded. This country is at war, whether that war is declared or undeclared. The forces of Osama bin Laden have made it quite clear that they intend where possible to launch attacks on Australian citizens and Australian targets with the intention of overthrowing the government and declaring Australia an Islamic state subject to Sharia law.
In war a traitor faces execution. These men are traitors and the damage they have done to Australian security deserves the ultimate punishment.
Australia has seen fit to repeal the death penalty as it applies to civil crime such as murder, but what these men have done makes murder pale into insignificance. If it takes a referendum, then so be it - but few would dispute that the crime of endangering the nation should attract the ultimate punishment !