‘Diddums’ Habib
The Banshees now have their work cut out trying to make Habib’s appearance on last night’s 60 Minutes believable. In this morning’s Australian Foreign Minister Downer says words to the effect that ‘We don’t believe he is inncocent” and ‘He’ll be lucky to get his passport back’ thus reflecting most rational people’s views on the matter.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Government still had concerns about Mr Habib and doubted whether he would succeed in his action in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to have his passport returned. “ASIO has great concerns about him. They have great concerns about his alleged involvement with al-Qa’ida,” he told the Nine Network.The New York Times also has a piece from the weekend. (free subscription required) They’re happy to get the word ‘Torture’ in the headline but don’t come up with any new allegations. Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock is glad that at least Habib has now admitted that he was in Afghanistan
“The other matter that I think is new, is that the only claims I’ve ever made were that he was in Afghanistan and was believed, on advice from others that were there, that he trained with al-Qaeda,” Mr Ruddock said. “They are matters that last night he declined to reject outright and said that he might speak to a judge about. “That is new information because his representatives have always previously denied that he was in Afghanistan.”Habib has only answered the charges of aiding and abbetting El Quaida with claims of dubious torture. Habib’s saga of undescribable torture includes being forced to look at photoshop piccies.
He also said he was forced to look at photographs of his wife’s face doctored to fit images of naked women placed next to Osama bin Laden.Oh. My God. Such strength. How brave the man that can endure that level of torture and still live to talk about it. If someone flashed me a picture of a woman bearing a ‘photoshopped’ face of my wife standing along side Osama Bin Laden I doubt very much that I would think ‘Oh, my God. My wifes having it off with Osama’! ‘I’ll say whatever they want. This is inhumane’. I’d be thinking ‘Iv’e got these guys tossed if that’s the best they can come up with. I’ve had worse in training. Habib doesn’t deserve any more oxygen from the press and we need to go on but I wait with baited breath for the Banshees to take up his cause and quote everyting he says as gospel. As Christine Keeler said many years ago…”He would say that. Wouldn’t he?” Update: Not only did I close this post with a line that only 50 years old would be familia with, but I accredited to the wrong woman. It was actually Mandy Rice-Davies, a friend of Christine, who uttered the line “He would say that, wouldn’t he? For those who care about such things, the full story of the Profumo Affair, a British saga of sex, spies, lying Ministers lying to the house and misleading the British House of Commons nearly brought down a Government is here
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Look, I think they’re just being unfair.
Didn’t the poor guy say he was looking for a good school for his children?
Do you realize how many schools in Australia teach kids how to become a martyr, not to mention a proper use of RPG-2 or basic decapitation techniques.
Probably none.
So what do you do when you care about your children future?
You’ve got to go places until you find something suitable.
I’d say it’s all B. Nelson’s fault.
Oh so typical and oh so egalitarian of you. Why then has Howard siddenly back-peddled on the ‘he’s clearly guilty’ line?
Look Naill, there’s that many question marks hanging over this man of peace it’s not funny. Why was he in Afghanistan? Why could he travel throughout the Middle East on government welfare?
And you can answer them, CB? I think not, then why be so judgemental in the negative. Perhaps it’s because you’re biased against his religion? Perhaps it’s due to his country of origin? Be realistic for once. There is NO EVIDENCE which will convict this man and NO EVIDENCE which supports any of the negative political weight drawn against him.
I knew you’d turn up here you stupid racist fuckhead.
What evidence do you have that there is no evidence?
BTW, how’s Centerlink these days?
Nothing to do with the price of eggs! but just a little anecdote from my training days at a Paddington Hospital. I was a student nurse, we had a patient called ‘Lucky Gordon’ he was a criminal and friend of Stephen Ward and of a’ property developer’ whose name I think was Peter Rachman. Mandy rang the ward asking how her freind was and left a message saying who she was, followed by’I expect you have heard about me” I thought I would not flatter her and said ‘No I have never heard of you. She was a very pretty girl and Rachman a fat eveil slug-I could not understand any girl wanting to live like that- but still I had a strict methodist upbringing. I always remember my mother saying’ cheap girls never got anywhere in life- good girls I discovered stayed poor and staid!- still I married a real treaure 38 years ago on 31 Jan
Amazing how he can pay rent at Sydney rates, feed and cloth a family 6/7 including himself,and make 6 trips in 4 years looking for ‘schools’ . Air fares to and fro Pakistan and Afghanistan and accommodation whilst overseas?- he must thinkthat we all came down in the last shower- writing of which he claimed he was deprived on showering and soap- I wonder how they manage in the Tora Bora mountains
Simple Murph…just like you. There isn’t any evidence either way. Thaink on real hard and you might just see where I’m coming from.
The word of this country’s highest ranking police officer and highest ranking intelligence analyst vs that of a gentleman who was evasive, refused to answer questions and who was arrested in the neighbourhood of the crime. The courts of our land regularly convict people on these levels of evidence every day.
Let Habib have his day in court. He should have been given the chance well before now. If he has been tortured, those who have done so should face the courts also. Again, our agencies believe he was not.
He will be shown to have been engaged in unsavoury activities with unsavoury people through the evidence of our intelligence agencies which cannot be made available to the public. It may be a failure in the system, but it is not an uncommon occurrence in order to protect witnesses.
He may not have committed a crime under Australian laws, but he has undermined our way of life. He can return to Pakistan for good and live where he obviously enjoys.