Labor has said
that the evidence
against Mamdouh
Habib is tainted

AUSTRALIA: The fascist Federal Government has been exposed for the torture of Australian Mamdouh Habib and the US Government's allegations against him (if they were true) would have been made under duress.

Mr Habib insists he confessed to training some September 11 terrorists after being tortured. Ouch!

Fascist Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has conceded that innocent man Mamdouh Habib may have been physically abused in Egypt?

The Foreign Minister's admission came as senior government officials continued to maintain they had no evidence of maltreatment during Mr Habib's three years in US custody?

But the perpetrators of this brutal crime wouldn't concede to the crime, but they let it happen, and it was okay to watch it happen and perhaps to even interrogate Mr Habib themselves.

The War Criminal Downer also said it was possible evidence of torture would be found at the US's Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba, where Mr Habib was held without charge for almost three years before his release last month.

"For all I know, he may have been badly treated in Egypt, but we don't know because the Egyptians have still not conceded to us that they held him,"?

A parliamentary committee heard almost $500,000 was spent on returning Mr Habib to Australia.

Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, Robert Cornall, said to a Senate estimates committee hearing today the charter flight for Mr Habib had cost $US354, 000 ($451,300).

Under questioning by Labor senators, he said the cost was shared equally between the US and Australian Governments.

Meanwhile Ch/7 Sunrise advocate this morning that a phone poll they had taken asking, "Do you think that under certain circumstances people should be tortured?".

'I think I love you' CH/7 and its viewers reckon 52% said yes. People should be tortured under certain circumstances and 48% said no they should not be tortured under any circumstances.

Meanwhile, the federal opposition Leader Kim Beazley (a well paid loser) chosen to lead the opposition by HoWARd's ABC and the Corporate media has been alleged to have narrowed the gap between the Labor Party and the Government by 10 percentage points since mid-January, an ACNielsen poll showed?

Another flawed plebiscite no doubt, the poll in today's Sydney Morning Herald, shows Labor under Mr Beazley enjoyed 48 per cent support on a two-party preferred vote, compared to the Coalition's 52 per cent.

But I notice strikingly that the same statistics 52% and 48% suggest the same group of people who think its okay to torture a citizen.

Could this group of people represent human rights in Australia? One does wonder!

It is difficult to comprehend that Australia has gone that far back to the dark ages by lowering the standards of a human being. That means these people advocate that they themselves can be tortured?

Fascist Attorney-General Philip Ruddock does not know the reasons behind the US decision not to lay any charges but says American authorities had told Australian officials they did not have sufficient evidence.?

"We were disappointed about that because they'd led us to believe they did," he said.

"They've told us they didn't have sufficient evidence to proceed with the prosecution.

Ruddock "I assume it relates to a range of potential issues that might be involved in that."

Ruddock says he can not exclude the possibility that one of those "issues" was the use of torture to gain Mr Habib's confessions.

So after Ruddock let them torture him he was disappointed that they did not charge Mr Habib?

You mean it was all for nothing?

Labor's Nicola Roxon suggests the evidence against Mr Habib was tainted.

"I think it defies belief that they haven't asked the US the reasons that they released Mr Habib without charge," she said.

"The evidence they had was tainted in some way and couldn't be used, for example it was obtained through torture."

ASIO and federal police officials will be quizzed today about whether any of their officers witnessed Mr Habib being tortured.

But according to the ABC Four Corners program last night there is no question that their officers were complicit in the torture and interrogation of many others.

Related:

Secrets and Lies
Reporter: Liz Jackson
Broadcast: 14/02/2005

He lives quietly in Canberra's outer suburbs. He comes and goes a lot. When he is home he may be seen tending his roses in the front yard.

This unobtrusive, quietly spoken man has been privilege to some of the world's best-kept secrets for two decades. He knows from long personal experience how intelligence agencies and big defence bureaucracies operate.

Since the first Gulf War in 1991 his unique expertise on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction has been sought by the CIA, Canberra and the UN.

Now he's decided to talk to Four Corners...

"You're imbued with this idea of keeping secrets... you're not allowed to talk about who you are - even who you work for... What we're saying now will come as a surprise - even to some of my friends," he says.

"I think the world should know some of the truths, which at times, I'd have liked the world to have known - but I couldn't say anything."

Via interview and contemporaneous diary notes, the insider paints a disturbing picture of the backroom political forces at play in the run-up to the Iraq War and in its aftermath, as the coalition conducted its fruitless search for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

He details to Four Corners:

* how he quit in disgust after the CIA censored a crucial WMD report, leading to deletion of central facts and conclusions. "We left the impression that maybe there were, was WMD out there...I thought it was dishonest," he says;

* his personal observations of the present head of Britain's MI6, who also played a key role in the David Kelly affair, applying pressure to "sex up" the same report;

* his pre-war advice to the Australian and US governments that Iraq's weapons did not threaten either country;

* how he reported to Australian authorities his suspicions about systemic abuse of prisoners in Iraq by coalition forces, before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, and how his concerns were ignored;

* his and other Australians' roles in interrogating "high value" Iraqi prisoners - despite Canberra's denials of Australia's involvement in interrogations. "Someone was brought to me in an orange jumpsuit with a guard with a gun standing behind him...of course I didn't pull any fingernails out... but I think it's misleading to say no Australians were involved. I was involved."

Related:

PM Cold Hard Criminal

During his visit to Iraq, Mr HoWARd didn't find himself in the unthinkable situation of walking down a main street of Baghdad and taking a telephone call of gratitude from President George W Bushit while Australian militants attacked and maimed Iraqi citizens

More:  https://www4.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/02/304770.html

Aust Community criticises Govt for 'crimes'

The 'Community' is waiting for the prosecution of these offenders. The offenders of these premeditated, vicious and callous crimes should be charged with the offences they have been alleged to have committed. Mr Habib should complete a record of interview taken by the police.

More:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/01/304602.html

Australian Govt Guilty of Crimes: Community

But no one can say the same about the act of taunting Mamdouh Habib in Australia before he was kidnapped by the US and then tortured. Nor can they say the same about the Australian Governments complicity in his torture by the US.

More:  http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/01/86677.php

Lawyer blames police for Habib break-in

"We'll also be laying a complaint with the Ombudsman about the behaviour of New South Wales police officers breaching the privacy of my clients."

More:  http://www.adelaide.indymedia.org.au/newswire/display/7919/index.php

No reason for Habib to sell story: Beazley?

Perhaps Kim Beazley would like to donate his last three years pay to Mr Habib instead? Seems, while Beazley was putting on the pounds stuffing his face and keeping his big mouth shut about Mr Habib. Mr Habib had been taunted and profiled in Australia, then kidnapped by the US and isolated and tortured in Guantanamo Bay? Right under his nose!

More: http://.www.adelaide.indymedia.org.au/newswire/display/7920/index.php