Not terrorists - but we'll blow ourselves up if we don't get our way

Sure they're desperate. Desperate to jump the queue.

From thisevening's PM program:

MARK COLVIN: There's obviously political sensitivity too, isn't there, because the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam are regarded in many parts of the world as a terrorist organisation and so there would be great reluctance to associate themselves with that group in any way.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Yeah that's right, and in fact one of the repeated things they said is "we are not terrorists" and they seem to waiver between making these sort of threats of violence of blowing themselves up, to then sort of tempering that when they realise that makes them sound rather unsavoury and so they're trying to sort of deliver a softer line, saying that we want international assistance.

What they really don't want is to go through the normal process. They're fully aware that if they get off the boat and end up in an immigration detention centre they will be there for up to 10 years. That's what happens. They've got 16 million asylum seekers around the world, that's the queue that they're trying to jump, it's a long one and that's something that they're trying to avoid through this sort of desperate performance they have on the boat at the moment.

More here.

Another snippet I heard was this, regarding the war of words between Rudd and Turnbull regarding rewarding illegal entry by permitting the entrants to stay.

EMMA GRIFFITHS: Neither the Opposition Leader nor the current immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone have publicly embraced the idea.

They say the focus should be on the Government.

SHARMAN STONE: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course. We are developing policy but the issue right now is what is this Labor Government doing, what is its policy, what are its strategies because the Australian community doesn't care about what an opposition's strategy might be or could be at the next election. They want to know what is happening right now as the numbers on Christmas Island groan to maximum capacity.

More here.