19 Nov 2007

What about civil liberties of kidnappers?

Gerard Henderson is pissed at the judge who found that two ASIO officers kidnapped Izhar ul-Haque and falsely imprisoned him. Hendo says we should leave it all in the hands of ASIO and our beloved Attorney-General.

Hendo omits to mention that LET, a group dedicated to ousting Indian forces from the disputed territory of Kashmir, was not outlawed as a terrorist group in Australia at the time.

Hendo says "there is no evidence that he [ul-Haque] has denied the training" with LET. Indeed! The fact is, ul-Haque returned from his 3-week course, handed over his documents to Australian authorities, and "told them everything"!

Ul-Haque was only ever under investigation because an associate of his, Faheem Lodhi, was suspected of planning a terrorist attack in Sydney. And what ASIO was really trying to do was TERRORIZE ul-Haque into becoming an informant. And like it or not, there are laws against that sort of thing!

What Hendo is really arguing is that the Law should be tossed aside in any such terrorism cases. He ridicules suggestions that Australia might be "going the way of Pakistan". But if the police, ASIO, the government and the judges all abandon the rule of Law, as Hendo advocates, where does he think we are heading? Berlin 1939?

Jesus wept.