Habib is not a POW, let's get that straight. He is an Australian, not an Afghan. he was detained by Pakistani police while travelling on a bus, apparantly for questioning the arrest of a colleage he was travelling with. The Habib team says he was in the region looking for work, housing and a school for his children. He wanted to leave Australia because he was facing threats from other Sydney Muslims. He does not hate Australia. Whoever suggested that he did is very ill-informed.
His role as an Australian citizen touring the region should have rendered him immune to American arrest. Our government requested information on Habib's status and location from the Americans on a number of occasions, however on each occasion we were rebuffed. Alex Downer himself- "when we've sought this information we havn't been given the information".
This next paragraph is of immense interest to me- from today's SMH-
"...pressed by journalist Laurie Oaks as to whether the US refused to tell Australia whether they had abducted Mr Habib and taken him to Egypt, Mr Downer said 'I'd have to check'".
The reason why this is interesting is because if the Australian Government wants to avoid defeat in the court case Habib plans to launch against it (him sueing Aust. Govt for failing to protect him), the only way of winning will be proving that it was unaware of Habib's transfer from Afghanistan to Egypt. The reason why the Government must proove it didn't know is because Egypt's reputation as a country that favours the use of torture is well-known. If the Government is successful in doing this though, it will be known that America did infact withold information from us regarding Habib's location. This will undermine the integrity of our relationship with the US, severely, which is not a good thing especially when our Prime Minister puts so much emphasis on it as being facet of current Australian prosperity.
Whatever the outcome of the court case, the Government is up shit creek. If Habib wins it should proove Australia's failure to protect its citizens (compounded with whole Cornelia Rau affair= not good for the Liberal Party). If the Governmetn wins though, it will be known the US failed- possibly refused- to supply us with information regarding the well-being of our own citizens.
Court case will be interesting!
