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Paging Mr Kafka?
Jan. 12th, 2005 02:46 pmSo, it seems that Mamdouh Habib wasn't a terrorist after all! Bully for him!
It only took the single largest intelligence organisation on the planet three years to figure out. What did they think Mr Habib was going to do with those three years anyway ... raise his young children?
And yet... His detention is not over. Sure, he gets to get out of those 10x10' dog kennels. (Oh, I'm sorry: Air-conditioned dog-kennels...) Sure he gets to see his family for the first time in three years. Sure he doesn't have to jump when some dickhead PFC with delusions of adequacy shouts at him. But he is not free.
Ruddock (*hawk-spit*) agreed to "unspecified controls" on Mr Habib before taking him back. He is to be a 'Person of Interest' to ASIO, ASIS, et al. He will, I will put money on this, not be allowed to travel to the next city without government approval, Gods-forbid overseas. We are not going to be told what other restrictions may or may not be put on him, and likely neither will he until and unless he breaks those rules. An imposed vow of silence à la Mordechai Vanunu is almost given. And Habib should be glad that this is his lot, because it seemed only a couple of months ago that he might have been sent back to Egypt permanently.
And on what basis? He was arrested in Pakistan at the airport, handed over to the Americans, who handed him over to Egypt for some 'softening up', before the Yanks imposed their own Grandmotherly Kindnesses upon him. The evidence against him is classified, so that no-one is allowed to know what, precisely, he is accused of. Evidence in his defence is similarly classified, but this was not leaked to the Four Corners as the accusations and (unsubstantiated) dirt was.
Yes, because it is now apparantly lawful to be punished for actions which are not a crime, but you can't be sure, because no-one will tell you what those actions were in the first place, and there is NO APPEAL, EVER.
Habib won't even get the luxury of even a kangaroo court trial. He is guilty because the Yanks say he is, and no appeal is even theoretically possible. He will live the rest of his life under microscopic scrutiny for the crime of being a loudmouth in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The question is, is he more like K., or No. 6?
It only took the single largest intelligence organisation on the planet three years to figure out. What did they think Mr Habib was going to do with those three years anyway ... raise his young children?
And yet... His detention is not over. Sure, he gets to get out of those 10x10' dog kennels. (Oh, I'm sorry: Air-conditioned dog-kennels...) Sure he gets to see his family for the first time in three years. Sure he doesn't have to jump when some dickhead PFC with delusions of adequacy shouts at him. But he is not free.
Ruddock (*hawk-spit*) agreed to "unspecified controls" on Mr Habib before taking him back. He is to be a 'Person of Interest' to ASIO, ASIS, et al. He will, I will put money on this, not be allowed to travel to the next city without government approval, Gods-forbid overseas. We are not going to be told what other restrictions may or may not be put on him, and likely neither will he until and unless he breaks those rules. An imposed vow of silence à la Mordechai Vanunu is almost given. And Habib should be glad that this is his lot, because it seemed only a couple of months ago that he might have been sent back to Egypt permanently.
And on what basis? He was arrested in Pakistan at the airport, handed over to the Americans, who handed him over to Egypt for some 'softening up', before the Yanks imposed their own Grandmotherly Kindnesses upon him. The evidence against him is classified, so that no-one is allowed to know what, precisely, he is accused of. Evidence in his defence is similarly classified, but this was not leaked to the Four Corners as the accusations and (unsubstantiated) dirt was.
Mr Howard says Mr Habib will be treated in accordance with Australian law when he is repatriated.
Yes, because it is now apparantly lawful to be punished for actions which are not a crime, but you can't be sure, because no-one will tell you what those actions were in the first place, and there is NO APPEAL, EVER.
Habib won't even get the luxury of even a kangaroo court trial. He is guilty because the Yanks say he is, and no appeal is even theoretically possible. He will live the rest of his life under microscopic scrutiny for the crime of being a loudmouth in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The question is, is he more like K., or No. 6?
