* Screwing infidels out of their wits with the help of lefty shysters and useful idiots…
* Haneef investigation cost: 8 million dollars!
By Rosemary Desmond |Â The Australian
FORMER terrorism suspect Mohamed Haneef wants compensation from the federal government and an apology for his arrest and imprisonment after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) dropped its case against him.
* Bobby Brown has a boner for Haneef:Â “Whatever can be done to have him come back to this country should be done”…
The AFP today said it had advised the former Gold Coast doctor’s solicitor Rod Hodgson that the agency had recently informed Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus that Dr Haneef “is no longer a person of interest”.
“The AFP has concluded its active inquiries, although some long-standing overseas inquiries are yet to be fully resolved,” the AFP said in a statement.
“At the present time, there is insufficient evidence to institute proceedings against Dr Haneef for any criminal offence.”
Mr Hodgson said his client, who has been working in the United Arab Emirates for the past couple of months, was “delighted” at the news, but wanted an apology from the government and as yet unspecified damages.
“We are ready to negotiate the terms of any apology and a damages settlement with the government so as to avoid the unnecessary expense and further angst of civil litigation,” Mr Hodgson said.
He declined to say how much compensation Dr Haneef was seeking, saying only it was “a matter for further down the track” after a federal government inquiry into the case.
Former NSW Supreme Court judge John Clarke QC, who is heading the inquiry, is due to hand his report to the federal government by September 30.
Asked if Dr Haneef wanted to return to work in Australia, Mr Hodgson said: “He still loves Australia but no decision has been made about whether he’ll come back to Australia, and if so, when.”
Another of Dr Haneef’s lawyers, Peter Russo, said he was highly sceptical about the AFP’s statement.
“It is hard to know with the AFP; they don’t deal with things with a straight bat,” he told the ABC.
“So only time will tell, but it would be comforting for him to know that the AFP no longer regard him as a suspect in any wrongdoing in Australia or elsewhere.”
Dr Haneef was arrested at Brisbane International Airport as he boarded a plane for Bangalore on July 2 last year, after police linked his mobile phone SIM card to botched terror attacks in Britain.
He was held for 12 days before being charged with supporting a terrorist organisation.
Meanwhile, his visa was cancelled by then immigration minister Kevin Andrews just hours after a Brisbane magistrate granted him bail on July 16, ensuring he remained in detention.
The case later collapsed for lack of evidence.
Mr Hodgson said Dr Haneef should never have been arrested and also called for the sacking of AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty.
“The continued claims by Mr Keelty that Dr Haneef was a ‘person of interest’ – which is the police euphemism for a suspect – has continued and exacerbated the damage to Dr Haneef’s reputation that the unreasonable and unjustified actions of July 2, 2007, had already caused,” he said.
Mr Keelty has spent millions of taxpayers’ dollars blackening Dr Haneef’s name even further.
“The long delayed admission by the AFP that there’s no basis for suggesting that Dr Haneef had committed any criminal offence must surely call into question Mr Keelty’s tenure in his present position,” Mr Hodgson said.
“It also heightens the need for the Clarke inquiry to be given royal commission powers and widened terms of reference so that the AFP’s continued efforts over the last 13 months to destroy Dr Haneef’s good name and reputation can also be investigated.”
Last month, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd declined to say whether the Clarke inquiry needed royal commission powers, saying it was still underway.
Evidence at the inquiry is given in private and transcripts will not be released publicly.
The Greens say Australia should invite Dr Haneef back to continue his medical career – and offer him a full apology at the same time
“Whatever can be done to have him come back to this country should be done,” Greens leader Bob Brown said.
“Australians will welcome him.
“(But) you couldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to risk it a second time.”
Senator Brown also called on former prime minister John Howard, who he said was largely responsible for the affair, to offer an apology to Dr Haneef.
“The last government owes both him and his country an apology, it should come from John Howard,” Senator Brown said.
He described the Haneef affair as a shambles and a mistake which had been very damaging to Dr Haneef, and to Australia’s reputation.Â
Here’s Andrew Bolt’s take on this:
Haneef had to be investigated, and the fact that he’s cleared is not of itself a sign of incompetence:
THE Australian Federal Police has formally abandoned its $8 million investigation of Mohamed Haneef, more than 12 months after the Indian doctor was arrested at Brisbane airport over alleged terror offences.
Rather, the problem is that the case against Haneef, as presented to court, seemed at times to go beyond the evidence, as did the Howard Government pronouncements. And the AFP seemed to be keener in the end to justify itself than to simply establish the boring facts.
No great scandal, in the end, but certainly a lot of money down the drain.
Update December 23, 2008Â
We won’t say sorry to Haneef – Coalition
THE former Howard government does not owe one-time terror suspect Dr Mohamed Haneef an apology, despite an inquiry finding he was wrongfully arrested and detained, the opposition says.Rather, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should say sorry to former immigration minister Kevin Andrews, who was vindicated in the report by retired New South Wales Supreme Court judge John Clarke.The report clears Mr Andrews of any improper behaviour in cancelling the doctor’s visa, although it does suggest he didn’t “reflect deeply enough” on what was a “rambling brief” from his department.Â
Opposition attorney-general spokesman George Brandis said the report proved the former government had done nothing wrong and “comprehensively exonerated” Mr Andrews.
The former government therefore did not owe Dr Haneef an apology, he said.
“There is nothing in the report to suggest that any conduct by any member of the former government calls for an apology,” he said.
Instead, Mr Rudd should say sorry to Mr Andrews for criticising his handling of the case.
“(He) clearly and repeatedly sought to trash Mr Andrews’ public reputation,” he said.
“… The prime minister owes Mr Andrews an apology.”
He said the wrongful arrest and detainment of Dr Haneef was a police matter.
And, he added, any move to extend an apology to Dr Haneef was a matter for the current government.
Dont give any compensation, apology. Dont bow to these Muslims, if you bow they will ask you to sleep with them. He is a fault giving his SIM to be used by the Glasgow bombers. Muslims are responsible for all but couple of 52 wars being faught in the world. Do read what ISLAM teaches these leaches in Koran http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles.htm