The thin blue line
Terrorism laws - - Posted on July, 21 at 3:14 pm by Ken L
I wonder if Greg Sheridan is still happy with this piece of wisdom about the Haneef affair from a couple of days ago:
The Australian Federal Police has acted efficiently and effectively.
It stands in quaint juxtaposition to this from today’s SMHerald:
… the Australian police were considered a laughing stock by Britain’s Metropolitan Police for allowing “such a major cock-up” to happen. “Australian police have got their wires crossed. This is very embarrassing for them. The police here are laughing at the Australian police, saying, ‘What on earth have they done?’ [Haneef] is clearly more of a political case than a police case.”
Especially when his own newspaper adds today:
THE Australian Federal Police have admitted that crucial evidence against Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef - that his mobile phone SIM card was found at the scene of a British car bombing - is wrong.
…The revelation has cast fresh doubts over police handling of the Haneef case.
Lang Mack asked a pertinent question in comments:
Would not the Doctor have pissed off prior to the event? If he is alleged to be so involved?
One would indeed have thought that if the doctor had any reason to believe his relos were about to launch jihad on the Brits he would have bailed from Brisbane and been back home well before the shit hit the fan in the UK.
Consider however an alternative scenario. Dr Haneef, living in a strange country with his wife and child back in India, gets a call that one of his relos has self-immolated while apparently trying to blow up Glasgow airport.
Doctors are not normally stupid people and faced with that shocking news, Dr Haneef may well have realised immediately that Australia was about to become a very dangerous place for anyone remotely connected with the wannabe car bombers. He may sensibly have decided that it would be prudent to get back home ASAP until he could assess how the Howard Government was going to play the issue. That’s certainly what I would have done.
So I think it’s quite plausible that Dr Haneef was trying to get out of Oz because he was worried about being connected with the attempted bombings. Subsequent events have of course proved that such worries were 100% well-founded. It should go without saying that there would be nothing even slightly wrong about behaving in the way I’ve suggested.
Needless to say, the people who are determined to damn Haneef by innuendo are persevering doggedly. The latest piece of ‘significant’ information is this (per Sheridan, natch):
Haneef was in frequent and elaborate contact with people at the centre of the British terrorism investigations.
It might come as a surprise to Greg and/or the AFP, but quite a lot of people stay in frequent contact with relos, especially if they might be feeling a tad lonely because they’re living in a strange land where some of the locals are, shall we say, slow to welcome people of Middle Eastern appearance. So I think most people would find the ‘frequent’ contact perfectly normal.
Which leaves the ‘elaborate’ bit … and WTF is ‘elaborate’ contact anyway? It’s a ludicrous expression; I have no idea what it’s supposed to mean. I know there are still people who find cordless telephones a slightly scary technological marvel so for them, any form of communication involving the intertubes might constitute ‘elaborate contact’ (maybe Dr Haneef used both email and instant messaging … how suss would that be?).
Then again he might have sent letters written in invisible ink, containing messages in a code that the experts at Benchley have been unable to crack. We’re not told. We’re just told it was ‘elaborate’, as if that’s self-evidently sinister, leaving hordes of nutters to invent their own explanations of what it means, most of which will be detrimental to Haneef. No doubt that’s one of the outcomes desired by whoever coined the idiotic expression in the first place.
If this affair has really caused approval of the Howard Government to increase, it’s a very sad commentary on the mentality of some of our fellow-citizens.
Posted in Terrorism laws |
July 21st, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Yet again, a “Howard rabbit” blows up in their face. This is becoming something of a habit. The benefit in this for the opposition (and lets face it - rationality in public debate) is that the press cant ignore it, and its all bad news for the Government. So the debate shifts away from “Howard the genius” to “Government on the ropes”.
Of course Ken, the rednecks out there who are looking for any excuse to damn the “foreigners” love it and will drift back to Howard.
Who needs em…
July 21st, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Mu understanding was that the hospital knew Dr Hannef was about to take leave & expected him to return.
I am puzzled that people think there is anything sinister in a new dad wanting to fly home on a one way ticket to be with his partner and baby.
Similarly I thought it was common knowledge that it is cheaper to buy flights from India - when you are in India.
July 21st, 2007 at 4:22 pm
True about the leave from the hospital peterm although I can’t find any info about when he actually applied for it. However his father-in-law has apparently confirmed that he organised Haneef’s ticket on July 2, i.e. the day of the intended flight, and that the UK events were mentioned in a telephone convo before he bought the ticket.
July 21st, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Correction - Dr Haneef apparently requested the leave on the day he was planning to leave the country (Monday July 2).
July 21st, 2007 at 4:41 pm
According to my sources, Haneef had requested leave some time prior to 2 July, but was told the hospital could not spare him. On that day, circumstances changed, and he was told he could have a week off straight away. He could not buy a ticket because he had been sending most of his money to his wife in India, but spoke to his father-in-law who sprang for the ticket.
Obviously the father-in-law is also not a person of good repute, and as for the relo who is being allowed to come here on a tourist visa … he should be very careful.
July 21st, 2007 at 4:48 pm
It’s like Children OB again accept this is unravelling much quicker. I’m tipping this aint going to help the Libs one bit.
Please visit Free Dr Haneef for practical ways to help this poor guy.
July 21st, 2007 at 4:51 pm
One thing’s for certain in the Haneef case. We don’t know all the facts.
What facts there are surrounding his treatment do not paint the government or the police and prosecution in a good light. The Herald calls it “descending into farce”. On the face of it, it looks pretty clear that Haneef has been dudded big time.
But there is always the chance that the cops really do know more than they’re letting on. They certainly say they do. It’s not unheard of to arrest someone on a minor charge to keep them handy, pending further investigations.
I repeat the point: we just don’t know at this stage.
Given the government’s form on pumping up terror issues, you’d have to say it wouldn’t be surprising if this isn’t another example. That would be my strong suspicion, yet something whispers in my ear to hold-off condemning them outright until we know more. I think this is Labor’s basic position. The temptation to start slagging off the government must be great, but Labor has been briefed by the cops and say that on the basis of the briefing - so far - that they are not going to naysay what the government is doing.
If it turns out that Haneef is a baddie, then Labor is in the clear. If it turns out that Haneef has been wronged, and that the cops and the government tried to cover it up, then Labor can say they were tricked into supporting it (which they would have been).
It’s easy for us here to get angry and report all kinds of “common knowledge” about ticketing procedures, draw conclusions based on newspaper reports and make up scenarios from what has been eked out of “the authorities” so far. You could even say it’s our “job”.
The Labor party has no such luxury available to it. They have to go by the briefing they have received. They have to stand up for the cops (who have done quite a few things right in the past, by the way). They have a responsibility not to go off half-cocked, both to themselves and to the 7 million-odd voters out there who say they’re intending to give Labor a chance at government come the election.
If the government has not been acting in good faith then Labor can - genuinely - say they have been misled while trying to give all the benefits of the doubt possible up until any deception becomes apparent. It’s starting to look not very good at all for the government, but to start sounding off now would be a bad thing on so many levels for Labor.
When bloggers say that it’s obvious the government’s up to something nasty I’m sure they believe it. It may be - and probably is - a correct assessment. But there’s no comeback on us if we’re wrong, except a pummelling from Tim Blair’s acolytes, easily survived. The comeback on Labor if they are wrong (and the government is right) would be much more serious.
I still say “Wait”. No mortal harm is going to come to Haneef (any more than the harm done so far) if this takes another week or so to unravel. He has three-quarters of the senior legal fraternity on his side. He will get a fair trial, eventually.
In the meantime we should let off steam, the journalists should continue to investigate. The lawyers should prepare their briefs. The commentators should apply pressure to the government.
If the Haneef investigation fails the major blame will go on the government’s head, not Labor’s, who were only doing what a loyal opposition should do: supporting the government on matters of criminal law until the goverment puts the rope around its own throat, reaches over and pulls the lever.
Not only the poeple will have been fooled, but Labor will have been too, and if they’re worth their salt, they’ll make sure the public understands this.
Howard, however, will have shot his bolt on terrorism. He’ll never be able to raise the issue again and be taken seriously. There’s far more pressure on him right now than on Rudd. The prospect of Howard officiating at his own political execution is well worth a week or two of Labor’s time.
July 21st, 2007 at 5:11 pm
The problem with waiting Aussie Bob is that the issue will fall from the headlines.
I am yet to see any evidence Haneef knew anything about the attacks. Until we see evidence nobody should let this issue slide.
I have set up Free Dr Haneef which helps people lobby politicians and offer support for someone who should not be behind bars.
July 21st, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Federal Labor don’t have to do anything anyway AB. It’s happening by poxy, oops, sorry, proxy through Beattie.
He’s doing his “Something terrible always happens when those Mexicans turn up in Queensland” to good effect. If a Maroons supporter had been running the country this fiasco never would have happened.
Here in SEQld every second doctor is an Indian. Couldn’t have been better for Beattie. We’ve got a shortage of doctors and now look - the feds are frightening half of the doctors we have left.
July 21st, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Re Sheridan. Unelaborate (sic) editing , the ‘in’ and ‘un’ were left out.
Still has Howards hand prints all over it, the rush to get this into the public arena, without due care and process, now where have we seen that before?
July 21st, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Look, it still concerns me that the Doctor would hang around if he knew something ‘big’ was going to happen, involving his relations. Did he send ‘em a message “hey Cous/Neph,could you hang off with the bombs for a couple of weeks, bloody flat out at the Hospital”.To get a medical degree you have to be pretty bright and I just feel that there is a ’stich up’ going on here.
Not that it will be noticed, Peter Beattie, I home you have got the Doctor some foot wear and out of that garb, please..
July 21st, 2007 at 6:25 pm
My thoughts exactly AB. The best place for a forensic examination of the whole thing, apart from the Courts of course, is Parliament. I look forward to a careful and absolutely thorough grilling of the Attorney General by the Leader of the Opposition. Anything less in the circumstances would be absolutely shameful, and utterly morally compromised.
In my view, the hapless Dr Haneef is a victim of a cock up, (initial bumbling by AFP), which was then used to try and create another Tampa by Andrews’ usual morally compromised fumbling.
The problem as I see it for Dr Haneef now is, whatever attempts the Opposition makes to get some truth via Parliament, the government will be able to say, all the way to the election, ‘it is not right that the details of this matter be ventilated in Parliament, because it could jeopardise his chances of a fair trial’. Since it is very unlikely he will come to trial prior to the election, the dog whistle will be blowing softly and insistently all through the campaign. In these circumstances Rudd and co will simply have to cut through the wedge, and have a point of view. Not to do so, would be to be damned as morally compromised as the government has been over the years, without even attempting to bring the grubs out into the open about their compromising of both our security, and Dr Haneef’s rights to a fair trial.
July 21st, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Once again, wot AB sed.
Plus;
There may be something to that. Beattie is coming to the end of his political career anyway, so he can afford to take some political flack if Haneef turns out to be a genuine baddie, without any cost to Rudd.
July 21st, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Agree Aussie Bob,
My heart wants Labor to campaign for legal principles and expose this as the sham we all think it is.
But my head says they must bite their tongue, bide their time and allow events to unfold.
This government cannot be given the luxury of an ALP own goal or be allowed any free kicks.
July 21st, 2007 at 7:32 pm
A bells rings in my head concerning the involvement of The Australian in all this, too.
They have been been spruiking for both sides from the start, first for Howard and now for Haneef.
Chris Mitchell, that most odious of toads, smarmily told Mick Keelty that the leaker of the record of interview was definitely “not a member of the AFP”. This left only the defence side to have been the source. Mitchell effectively dobbed in his his own source. What a dog!
I have no doubt that the journalist covering the story, Hedley Thomas, is sincere in every way about getting to the truth of the matter. His and others’ work has made these leaks into a story. You could almost say The Australian was just doing what newspapers should do: reporting the news.
Almost.
But this rag is an unashamed supporter of Howard. For instance, Kelly today has reached new heights with his labelling of that part of the legal profession taking an anti-government line as, “destined to lose because of its flawed intellectual position”. Coming from a lightweight shill like Kelly, that’s the pot calling the kettle black! According to his overblown self it seems, only Kelly has the intellectual cojones to comprehend that we must abandon a thousand years of legal history and development to support Howard by defeating the terrorists. What a giant of a man he truly is! What hope have the assembled QCs and SCs of Australia got up against this jurisprudential savant? I pity them.
I’m thinking the Australian isn’t doing whatever they’re doing because they’ve suddenly got an attack good-journalism-itis. I’m wondering whether they’re not trying to set a trap for all the lefties, defeatist lawyers and Kevin Rudd, in particular.
Oh sure, they might sell a few papers (for a change), but methinks they’re onto a nice little sideline, trying to get Rudd and Labor all fired up and into the wedge should Howard spring a surprise. It doesn’t quite qualify as a “conspiracy”, more like serendipity should Labor take the bait. Kelly’s piece shows their general inclination, to support Howard first and then find out what the issue is.
Once again, Labor should resist the temptation to meddle in the affairs of state. There is far too much to lose. They can meddle all they like after they win the election.
July 21st, 2007 at 8:14 pm
“I’m thinking the Australian isn’t doing whatever they’re doing because they’ve suddenly got an attack good-journalism-itis. I’m wondering whether they’re not trying to set a trap for all the lefties, defeatist lawyers and Kevin Rudd, in particular.”
Interesting theory Aussie Bob. And here I was actually beginning to think that The Australian was finally beginning to hold the government to account, like a normal, credible newspaper would.
Given The Australian’s past form as the government’s mouthpiece, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’s FAR more likely that they are up to something dirty than they would have changed their ways.
Let’s hope Rudd and others in the Labor party also have their wits about them and avoid the trap. Now is certainly not the time to get involved.
July 21st, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Another theory on The Australian’s change of tone. Maybe Rupert has decided that the Coalition is on the way out, and the latest disaster has confirmed it.
The Courier-Mail, another Murdoch paper, had this in its editorial today:
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/oursay/
We all know that Murdoch loves his role as “king-maker”—even if that is retrospective.
July 21st, 2007 at 9:04 pm
AB wonders “I’m thinking the Australian isn’t doing whatever they’re doing because they’ve suddenly got an attack good-journalism-itis.”
Actually, there may be another explanation - if you read the today’s pompous editional comparing the newspaper to the Heart of the Nation
While the whole article is a laugh, I especially liked the editorial humour in the following paragraph
Whereas at the Oz, now the government just gets one of its sycophantic journos to repeat whatever is the latest talking point issued from liberal party HQ.
July 21st, 2007 at 9:07 pm
By they way, I really wish the programmers of the code to deter spammers wouldn’t use either capital “o”s or zeros. They’re so hard to tell apart, and if you make a mistake, you lose your post. Very shoddy.
July 21st, 2007 at 9:12 pm
PeterG,
I didn’t see that editorial, but what a laugh! Next they’ll be calling themselves one of the “great newspapers” of the World.
On the subject of Beattie, Howard had this to say today to the NSW Liberal conference:
Well, no-one said Howard was stupid. At least he seems to be getting the Labor tactics in the Haneef matter.
July 21st, 2007 at 9:39 pm
I just spent a huge amount of time making sure my comment was considered and well thought out, took ages to get it just right, entered the code, checked the code because others have had problems with it, pressed submit comment, and was told I got the code wrong.
Sorry to deprive you all of my magnificent wisdom. I’m sure you’re all devastated by the loss.
July 21st, 2007 at 9:57 pm
I am Lyn…bummer…luv yer comments, very insightful…retype what you can remember if you get the time…i make it a habit of copying the text just in case…but occasionally i forget…can be really irritating to lose it.
July 21st, 2007 at 11:56 pm
AB, I get the feeling that Rupert, ever the pragmatist, is just trying to keep his media interests looking relevant by them getting with the strength. He’s let selected eds and shills off the leash for a spot of bay and chase. The old Fox likes to keep them blooded.
July 22nd, 2007 at 7:49 am
Well-spotted Carlos in the previous Haneef thread!
From the Herald web site this morningM/a> we have this:
July 22nd, 2007 at 7:54 am
Sorry for the formatting of the previous comment. It should have read like this:
Well-spotted Carlos in the previous Haneef thread!
From the Herald web site this morning we have this:
I was wondering out loud myself just a couple of days ago whether the cock-up might not be an “out” for Andrews.
If this report comes true then that’s it for “Terrorism” as an election issue. It also nicely shuts up Mick Keelty, who has seen (much) better days in his role as AFP Commissioner. Note also the prissy comment, “No one is backing away from the fact that this guy is a security risk,” as in “We know he’s a terrorist, but we just can’t prove it.”
Take a chill pill guys. You fucked it up. Meanwhile cue Kevin Rudd (or suitable deputy) to begin a silky laying-in to the government with a velvet covered baseball bat on this one.
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:45 am
Hi Lyn,
Why not register with rts and login then you want have to use the code to send your message.
The ‘register’ link is in the right hand column in the META section.
After logging in you then click on “view site”
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:46 am
oops that should be the left hand column.
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:33 am
They’re at it again. More leaks, this time to the Courier-Mail.
I wonder where teh AFP plods get off?
More leaks given to a Murdoch newspaper that just happen to reinforce the case for keeping Haneef in prison or detention.
Now Haneef is supposed to have been planning an attack on a Gold Coast building and to have taken flying lessons.
I thought the AFP wouldn’t comment on such matters of evidence because it was all was “before the courts”.
Where do these pricks get off? They leak like a sieve off the record if it damages Haneef, but tut-tut when someone puts his name to a leak that helps Haneef.
No comment yet from any government minister, but you can guess what it will be when it comes, “You’d have to ask the AFP about that.”
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:48 am
Further to the possibility of Murdoch changing his allegiance, this is the front page of today’s Sunday Telegraph:
http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5577555,00.jpg
“HOWARD ‘OLD AND SNEAKY’”. Now this is based on “leaked ALP secret polling”, so you can take from it what you will, but to choose this as a headline is rather telling, I’d have thought.
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
AB, I posted extensively on the AFP in the earlier Haneef thread, only to be gazumped by this one… I had a ‘Lyn’ post-disappearing moment and had breakfast while I fumed. Meanwhile, this one started up. Basically, what you say… Habib, Hicks, Bali 9 and now this. A discredited agency, with Keelty a bunyip J Edgar Hoover.
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:38 am
The issue in the Haneef case is partly one of justice being done and seen to be done and partly about the competence (and some say the political malleability) of the AFP.
But increasingly what is making me most angry is the continuation of exclusive leaks of information - allegedly from high level police sources - to preferred media (mainly Murdoch papers). Good luck to the newspapers which benefit from this practice but is this how a fair and open democracy should be working? What is going on here? If even 1/5 of today’s reports in Herald Sun and Courrier Mail is correct, there is a serious case against Haneef but we are not to be told about it except by selective and partial leaks to the media. No wonder Labor is cautious (I thought was right to play a dead bat on the Insider program today).
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Fred, I share your outrage about the consistent leaking.
Tanner was asked this morning about it - the mechanism, not the substance of the leaks - and refused to condemn it.
Several possible reasons…
1. Labor knows what the “secret” information is.
2. Labor doesn’t know what it is but is backing the police and the government (possibly into a corner) by not giving them any reason to stop leaking and/or by not taking the bait.
3. Labor is a bunch of spineless wimps too afraid to take on the goverment on matters of national security.
Perhaps a bit of all of the above.
My own position is that if they don’t know the truth (which is what Tanner claimed), it’s better not to get in the way of the government’s and the AFP’s digging of their own graves. Let the situation get worse and worse, with more and more leaks uncriticised, then - when the whole thing is exposed - claim to be innocent dupes whose chief crime was beieving the government and AFP spin on the matter. “Just goes to show how political this government can be on such serious matters &etc. &etc.”
With Koutsoukis’ famous “insiders” (who haven’t got anything right yet… remember how they were going to put Rudd on the autopsy slab?) now having a bet each way on whether to prosecute Haneef or deport him, and (if Koutsoukis’ sources are speaking truthfully… always doubtful, but maybe this time…) openly slagging off the AFP from within the government, Labor is still sitting pretty.
They could be a little damaged by their faux “naiveity” in all of this, but better that then to be the government and AFP if this all comes down around everyone’s ears.
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Aaw come off it Fred, which fifth? That he was one of a group of doctors taking flying lessons? Quite a lot of people do learn to fly I understand, and very few of them do it for purposes related to terrorism. What’s supposed to be the innuendo - that he was going to hijack a plane and fly it into the basement of a Gold Coast building?
I suppose he needed the photos to study where to do the most damage.
That would be consistent with the Australian Tourist Commission’s official definitions of ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’ snapshots, I guess.
Maybe he was going to parachute out just before the plane hit, so he could catch his flight on September 11. It’s a warning to anyone of Middle Eastern appearance anyway - don’t travel near the anniversary date of a terrorist attack because the AFP thinks it’s suspicious. He hadn’t seen his wife and new baby since the birth, why wouldn’t he be planning a visit home for god’s sake?
But here’s the real killer:
Cunning bastards. Why can’t they write in English like honest people? Still it would explain why an intelligent man would save incriminating material on his laptop instead of on a CD or better still by uploading the files to a web site somewhere. It’s always the little things that bring the crooks undone, eh.
I guarantee if someone wanted to cherry pick stuff from my PC and put together a selective portfolio, they could make a circumstantial case that I was planning anything from terrorism to pedophilia to treason to becoming a fundamentalist Christian. That’s one reason we don’t let coppers go on unrestrained fishing expeditions - not even when a crime’s been committed, let alone when they’re just suspicious that someone might be thinking of doing something in future.
The whole thing stinks of efforts within either the AFP or more likely Andrews’ office to make themselves look less incompetent and vindictive than has appeared to be the case to date. I’ll bet none of these alleged Haneef terror plots ever sees the light of a courtroom but the poor bastard will have to wear the odium for the rest of his life.
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Still not convinced that Morgan results were an effect of this case. It also happened to coincide with some budget bribes that were handed out in July.
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:56 pm
This debacle just gets more and more rancid by the day. The AFP are sinking deep into the bog. I don’t expect any better from the government, but the AFP should know better, especially with a probable change of government coming up.
••••••••
Lyn and Hal9000. Write your comment in whatever text or word processor program you have, then when it is ready just cut and paste into the RTS box, and submit. Or, write the comment in the RTS box and just copy it before you hit the submit button. Either way if it goes missing you still have a copy of the text to try again.
TIm and Jon, it might help things if you made the font size of the code a few points larger so it is easier to read.
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:56 pm
The HUN informs us that drDEATH did indeed write in mysterious code, \
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Sir, Sir,
the verification code ate my homework/posting too, after ‘..mysterious code,’ don’t know where the \ came from.
Doesn’t really matter as KenL made the same point.
There are ten times as many English speakers in India as there are people in Oz, so how difficult is it that we might a few here who can read those chook scratchings?
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Thank you all for your comments in this and previous threads on Dr. Haneef’s treatment - whatever eventuates from the allegations that have been made of him - it most certainly puts our way of going about things legal in a very compromised, undemocratic and damning light. Your passionate comments have really bucked me up.
Having grown up myself in a family whose father was a senior British security police officer (very similar to the AFP) during a time of the Cold War, and knowing how difficult, stressful and unrelenting their working lives can be, and, having grown to like the Commissioner Keelty over the years - due to his understated, readily available, un-uphimself manner - I’m afraid the current contretemps makes him and his team appear like a bunch of chaps out of their depth and eager to please a mean and tricky government. I can well understand the summation of the Metropolitan Police in this matter.
Again, I have often wondered why Mr. Howard has surrounded himself with a bunch of right wing fundy Catholics (of whom the seemingly mild mannered Keven Andrews - he previously of the anti-euthanasia and WorkChoices putsches - is a devout member), and why (Abbott and Brough included) they would be so drawn to our little man of steel. Then I am reminded of the Spanish Inquisition and its ‘apostolic inquisiters’ - they sure got things done without much concern for a ‘fairgo’ - nuff said.
July 22nd, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Look at me, look at me. I’m registered at RTS. Never knew such a thing was possible. Thanks Muskiemp.
The evil code overlord is gone.
Shame I don’t have anything worthwhile to say on the topic.
July 22nd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
News Ltd strikes again. No doubt Keelty’s correction will be prominently featured on tomorrow’s front page of the nation’s premier journal of record.
What a sour charade this whole thing is. The Howard Government and national security … early contender for biggest joke of the 21st century.
July 22nd, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Herindoors, The Lyons Forum.(Google)
Lyn, How did you do it, I can’t even find the Register Here thingo!
Ken thanks again, good work , there is as I’m sure all will know:) a Free Dr Haniff web site just put up.I’d have a go st the address but! .
)
( Um Ken, you could wack some music in amongst all you dire info, that would fix, I’ll go away, sorry etc;
July 22nd, 2007 at 7:50 pm
The problem lays w/ the fact we don’t feel like we can trust our Governments anymore…particularly the Federal ones…this is exactly why Howard & his cronies should be lambasted for using ‘Children overboard’ & such for political purposes…they’ve basically put the citizenry in a difficult situation. When I see incidents like the ’steam’ explosion in NY & see billowing clouds & shots by mainstream news organisations of buldings that have weird, slanting roofs & architecture…selective shots that make the buildings look like they’re leaning or collapsing, I immediately suspect that the media are up to no good for ratings purposes, but that some might be part of an organised plan to create further FEAR & shift viewers & NYers back into the War-Monger’s camp.
The lack of TRUST is all over the public’s perspective on the Haneef case. Exactly why we need a change of Government, some FRESH AIR.
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Lang Mack, look under Meta in the left hand column.
Ha har. Another election plot unravels before the coalition’s nasty little eyes.
Mind you, up here in Maroon supporter land there will be much disappointment all round if, yet again, no terrorists anywhere are interested in blowing us all up.
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Lyn, Hal9000 etc.
The Firefox browser doesn’t generally lose comments when you get protection codes wrong.
I tried it here and it kept my comment. If that doesn’t work you can usually go backwards a page or two in history to get it back.
Websites could be programmed to keep your comments when the codes are entered incorrectly, but even better to use a browser that does what you want when the website does not.
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:02 pm
So ‘anonymous sources’ supplied the information to News Ltd papers, that the AFP has now disavowed? So who were the anonymous sources? Who could stand to gain from suggestions that there is, in fact, more to the allegations against Haneef than we, the great unwashed, know about? I smell yet another rodent.
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Thanks Lyn and others. The magic code dog won’t get my homework again, I’m sure.
Meanwhile, on topic, I’d feel more confidence about the leaking if Keelty and his political masters were demanding the head of any leaker, and promising to leave no stone unturned in finding the culprit. In the absence of anything remotely resembling this response, I’m with pugsley. The leaking is more likely to come from a ministerial office than the AFP at this point, if you follow the cui bono method of analysis. The only mob standing to benefit by waters-muddying and suggestions that the unhappy doctor is a master terrorist planning to wipe the Gold Coast high rise district from the map (perhaps with a Cessna packed with medical isotopes) is Howard & co. The allegations are so fanciful even a copper would have difficulty believing them - however to a mind as addled as Alexander Downer, nurtured in an intellectual compost of the thoughts of Mark Steyn, the Podhoretzes, Bolt and Christopher Pearson, the must have seemed like holy writ. And who has both form in malicious leaking of confidential information and a dedicated hotline to the Government Gazette newsroom, I ask?
July 24th, 2007 at 6:51 am
What is this world coming to..
Did I know sharing a sim card would get me into trouble?
How about taking pictures of a building?
I wouldn’t mind a trial flight, archer field airport has some good flying schools I should try my luck.
Forget hobby flying, for now I’ll go to Bangalore and buy a ticket later on considering its 1000 AUD/ 35000 INR for a return trip ticket purchased in India compared to 900 aud for a single journey in brissy!)
All I wish is let elections get general election for the Parliament of Australia get done and over asap so that I can come home. Let my government decide if I am a terrorist or a genuine doctor.
Just one question remains unanswered
Will he serve the Australian community ever again?
I wonder if a doctor performing community service, helping and saving people lives could possibly be a terrorist.
What is this world coming to..