Australia's shame

This business with the Mohamed Haneef case that's been going on for some time now, is going from bad to worse, from dumb to dumber. 
The government it seems wants to be seen as being tough on terrorism, so they've got this poor man, 
whom they have connected to a 'terrorist' group in Britain , in gaol. He is from India and has been working in Australia as a doctor, apparently on a work visa. He has been, loosely, connected to some cousins in Britain, who have been arrested on terrorist charges. So far nothing concrete has been established against this man, by the police, despite the fact that he has been under arrest and has been interrogated intensely by the Australian Federal Police. He has now been stripped of his work visa by the Australian Minister for Immigration. He applied for bail, to be let out of gaol, while waiting for his case to be heard in court. He was granted bail by the court judge, but the Immigration Minioster immediately cancelled his work visa, which means this man can not be free. He will have to be incarcerated at the Immigration Detention Centre, at the suburb of Villawood, until his case goes to court. Very possibly he will be deported back to India. The government is looking for a way out of the mess it has created.
The sad thing is the the opposition Australian Labor Party is supporting the government action, mainly due to political 
reasons, as it does not want to be seen as being weak on security issues. 



Here is the latest story on the issue from the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper:

Another tall story blown sky-high
Craig Skehan
July 23, 2007

Yet more confusion … the federal police commissioner has dismissed reports of a plot to attack the Q1 building, above centre, involving the detainee Mohamed Haneef, pictured with his wife, Firdous Arshiya.

PERHAPS thoughts of September 11 and its burning skyscrapers came to mind when investigators found a photograph of Mohamed Haneef and his family posing outside the Q1 residential tower on the Gold Coast.

The 77-storey, 322.5-metre landmark - the world's tallest residential building - has become a photogenic attraction in itself in the middle of Surfers Paradise. But in the age of terrorism, you want to watch where you point your camera.

In Haneef's case, his tower photograph prompted reports in Sunday newspapers of a terrorist plot to blow up the landmark. His lawyers said it was the first they had heard of it. Then it fell to the Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, to publicly declare the claims false.

It was the last thing Mr Keelty needed after weeks of controversy over the Haneef case, including British police sources describing Australian police as "a laughing stock" after the revelation that the crucial claim against the doctor - that his SIM card was found at the scene of a Glasgow bombing attempt - was false.

"We will be taking the extraordinary step of contacting Dr Haneef's lawyer to correct the record," Mr Keelty said.

The Herald understands Haneef's lawyers were contacted by the federal police late yesterday.

The tower photograph was the subject of some police questioning after Haneef was arrested on July 2, but nothing was put to him to suggest it was regarded as potentially sinister.

But yesterday's report, in News Ltd newspapers, said that police found "images of a Gold Coast building" and its foundations in a raid on Haneef's apartment. The report said investigators were looking at documents referring to the "destruction of structures" and information that Haneef was one of a group of doctors who had been learning to fly in Queensland.

In his statement, Mr Keelty denied the federal police were the source of the leak.

"There has been significant misreporting on many aspects of this case," he said.

Earlier, Haneef's solicitor, Peter Russo, said the report was "fanciful and wrong". He asked why, if police believed such a plot existed, they had not raised it in court, or in the information provided to the Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews, as he weighed cancelling Haneef's work visa.

Mr Andrews cancelled the visa after Haneef was granted bail on a charge of recklessly providing support to a terrorist organisation.

Haneef's wife, Firdous Arshiya, told the Herald that she and her husband had taken many photographs around Surfers Paradise because it was "the most happening place on the Gold Coast". The new reports were laughable, she said from her home in Bangalore, India.

"I guess the AFP does not know what to do now. If this was the case that they have found some more evidence against my husband, then why are they planning to deport him as soon as possible?"

She was reacting to reports that some unnamed Government MPs, concerned about the controversy, would prefer to see Haneef simply removed from Australia.

Sources said Haneef would not seek an injunction to stop deportation - if the Federal Government tried to do so without proceeding to trial - because he was desperate to see his wife and new baby.

Meanwhile, Indian Government sources said there had been no reply to their request for a copy of a confidential section of a police brief used by Mr Andrews in ruling on Haneef's visa.

That information is expected to be presented at Federal Court hearings due to begin on August 8 to decide on an appeal against his visa being revoked.



And another article:

Terrorism as diversion? Please explain, minister
David Marr
July 23, 2007


FOR A few exciting hours yesterday Mohamed Haneef seemed more evil than we had ever imagined. The doctor was not just lending his SIM card to his family firm of terrorists in Britain, he was checking out local skyscrapers to destroy. The target wasn't Glasgow, it was the Gold Coast.

Until Mick Keelty spoilt the whole thing in the afternoon by declaring there was no truth to the newspaper reports, a frisson of fear hung in the air. This was terrorism as entertainment, with the victim locked in a Brisbane prison unable to contradict the latest tabloid speculation.

According to yesterday's "exclusive" reports, this man is so sinister that the Australian Federal Police have been examining information "which indicated the Gold Coast doctor planned to leave Australia the day before or after September 11 - the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York".

Are we talking September 11 last year? According to the transcript of Haneef's interrogation released last week, September 11 2006 was the day he arrived in Australia with his wife, Firdous Arshiya, to begin work as a resident doctor at a Gold Coast hospital.

But coming or going, what on earth does it prove? Terrorism is supposed to have changed our world, but it hasn't changed the way criminals are detected. The same old rules apply. Crooks are not caught by backyard gossip and idiotic speculation but by bringing logic to bear on facts.

Was that tiny weapon of mass destruction - Haneef's SIM card - found at the scene of the crime in Glasgow? No. Perhaps the overcoat he left also with his cousin turned up in the blazing Jeep Cherokee driven into the airport terminal? Apparently not. Was he roaming Surfers Paradise looking for a target to destroy? Not according to the police.

It seems we're just where we were last Friday: the public case against Haneef has entirely collapsed. Perhaps there is something in the Immigration Minister Kevin Andrew's dossier of "protected" - the new jargon for secret - information that explains the charging of Haneef and the cancelling of his work visa. If so, it's time we knew.

"For God's sake," Peter Beattie said to Canberra last week, "explain to Australians why you have taken this course of action."

Haneef would have read all about his latest fiendish plots yesterday morning at Brisbane's Wolston Correctional Centre. The denials were published after he was locked back in his cell. His lawyer, Peter Russo, said yesterday: "I hope there are decent prison officers on tonight who have seen the news and go and tell him."