1. evolvingthoughts
  2. The Haneef washup

The Haneef washup

By evolvingthoughts on February 1, 2008.

Readers will know that I got very angry about the Haneef Affair, in which a muslim Indian doctor was accused of being a terrorist and deported by the improper abuse of power by the minister for immigration of the previous government [here, here, here, here, here and here].

Now his lawyer has been cleared for "leaking" the Australian Federal Police transcript of interview, which basically showed that Haneef was innocent and the AFP had nothing. And of course the head of the AFP is upset. He wanted the AFP to remain under the rose, free from public scrutiny.

I'll say it again. Whenever a government instrumentality or administration wants to be free from oversight, the motivation, whether they are aware of it or not, is empire building and control. No government activity, not even those pertaining to that hold-all of rights denial, national security, should automatically be free from supervision. Democracy only works when government is done in the open. Otherwise it simply becomes a matter of who can rort the system most effectively, as we see with the Bush administration today.

No special powers are required to prevent terrorism, just good old fashioned police work. No special acts of parliament are needed to prosecute them, for insurgency and murder are already crimes. And no special politicians are needed to "lead us out of this mess", because either every political authority can do this, or we have no hope. And a democratic government, legislature or judiciary knows this already, and will act to protect our rights in a time of stress.

Tags
Politics
Race and politics

More like this

AFP newswire even less reliable than Chinese spokesperson on bird flu

Since we posted here less than a week ago on a recent paper authored by Chinese and US scientists in The Lancet giving scientific details confirming what most people had already assumed was a p

Copernicus corpse confirmed

Computerized reconstruction, via BBC

Throwback Thursday: Are asteroids dangerous? (Synopsis)

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” -H. P. Lovecraft

Researchers create 'lesbian' mice by deleting a single gene

DELETION of a single gene switches the sexual orientation of female mice, causing them to engage in sexual behaviour that is typical of males.

You've articulated the way I feel.

I consider the Haneef affair was a disgraceful event exemplifiying the results of our previous Government's vigorous yet short-sighted and vote-seeking use of the terrorism issue.

It made me realise anyone could be arrested for no substantive reason under the justification that it was "in the national interest" under current law.

I would have felt safer than I do now had we merely enforced or strengthened existing law when terrorism became an issue.

By John Morales (not verified) on 01 Feb 2008 #permalink

One for the quotation books:

No special powers are required to prevent terrorism, just good old fashioned police work. No special acts of parliament are needed to prosecute them, for insurgency and murder are already crimes. And no special politicians are needed to "lead us out of this mess", because either every political authority can do this, or we have no hope. And a democratic government, legislature or judiciary knows this already, and will act to protect our rights in a time of stress. -- John S. Wilkins

Very well said.