Whose Afraid Now, Boys?

So Doctor Mohammed Haneef is not a terrorist after all. Who could have guessed? Well, when I posted on this over two and a half weeks ago there were not many other bloggers speaking out in his defence.

Howard, Rudd, Keelty and many others have disgraced themselves over this. Kevin Rudd's decision to remain silent is also disgraceful. Yet again it is left to Bob Brown to speak truth to power:

Senator Brown says the Greens will be pushing for a Senate inquiry.

"You can't move beyind thinking that the mistakes here come out of the politicans in the Howard Cabinet wanting to put fear into the Australian public as a means of changing votes," he said.

Let's not forget the media's role in all this, either. There has been some excellent investigative reporting, but also some total lies. Were these lies fed to a compliant media, or were the media just making things up?

Surprise, surprise, it was News Ltd making all the pace. Given that Murdoch controls nearly every single SE QLD newspaper, including the free local weeklies, it shows where we are at, doesn't it?

The Australian leaked the transcript (a move criticized as illegal by Keelty). The Sunday Mail's outrageous lies about a plot to blow up a Gold Coast landmark were denied by Keelty himself within 24 hours. The Australian claimed police wrote in Haneef's diary, which Haneef himself denied. The Herald Sun published unauthorised photos of Haneef's flat, taken before the place was fingerprinted, totally compromising the evidence. Etc Etc.

Of course this was all desperate politics by desperate men, but once again it was the Murdoch media wot enabled all the fear-mongering nonsense.

And speaking of Murdoch, how does everybody feel about this GG article:

THE Australian Federal Police will form a 1200-strong paramilitary-style International Deployment Group to be equipped with the latest weaponry including armoured personnel carriers.

Ah, yes, those glorious boys in blue. Haven't they covered themselves in glory? Just like Hitler's SS troopers. Mick Keelty's head should be the first to roll here.

The people who are supposed to be protecting us are instead doing everything they can to scare the crap out of us. Worse yet, their hypocrisy and incompetence is actually increasing the dangers we face.

Howard is still insisting that Australia's anti-terror laws need to be strengthened in the wake of this case. That is bullshit. An innocent man became a political pawn. The anti-terror laws should be modified to ensure this never happens again. And the first step in that direction is some real accountability from this criminal government.