THE Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has ordered a fresh inquiry into the case of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib.
Julia Gillard requested the new probe amid dramatic claims of Australian government complicity in his 2001 CIA rendition to Egypt, where he was detained and tortured.
The investigation follows a secret compensation payout made by the federal government to Mr Habib in December, apparently triggered by untested witness statements implicating Australian officials in his detention and brutal maltreatment in a Cairo military prison.
The new evidence, not previously made public, includes a statement from a former Egyptian military intelligence officer that he was present when Mr Habib was transferred to Cairo in November 2001.
In the statement, tendered as part of Mr Habib's civil case against the commonwealth, the officer says Australian officials were present when Mr Habib arrived in Egypt, handcuffed, with his feet bound, naked and apparently drugged.
- Habib's story is backed by evidence The Australian, 6 days ago
- Too much secrecy The Australian, 10 days ago
- Guantanamo ex-detainee won't sue Adelaide Now, 10 Jan 2011
- Downer amazed by Habib payment The Australian, 9 Jan 2011
- Gillard defends Habib settlement Courier Mail, 8 Jan 2011
The statement says: "During Habib's presence some of the Australian officials attended many times. The same official who attended the first time used to come with them."
It continues: "Habib was tortured a lot and all the time, as the foreign intelligence wanted quick and fast information."
The statement is at odds with repeated assertions by the federal government and security agencies since Mr Habib's return to Australia in January 2005, that they had no knowledge of or involvement in his rendition or detention in Egypt.
As recently as November, in a letter to Mr Habib, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade insisted it had never been able to confirm Mr Habib's presence in Egypt.
The startling new evidence, which The Weekend Australian understands prompted the commonwealth to make an undisclosed compensation payout to Mr Habib on December 17, includes another untested statement from a fellow detainee in Egypt, Pakistani-Saudi national Muhammad Saad Iqbal Madni.
Mr Madni says he was detained, like Mr Habib, in a small underground cell, where he was forced to sleep in freezing conditions on a concrete floor and tortured during questioning.
"I could hear Mamdouh Habib screaming in pain during his interrogations."
Madni also says Australian officials were present and played an active role.
"Egyptian, Australian, Israeli (Mossad) and US intelligence agencies were involved in my interrogations."
"The Egyptian interrogator told me that the Australian intelligence organisation wanted to ask me questions about Mamdouh Habib, the Australian man who was seized in Pakistan and then rendered to Egypt."
Madni says he was interrogated about Mr Habib by an Australian officer.
ASIO and DFAT have maintained they had no access to Mr Habib in Egypt.
In November, Mr Habib wrote to the Prime Minister, informing her he had witnesses who would testify to the involvement of Australian officials in his incarceration. He says he received no reply. Mr Habib says he also revealed his evidence to commonwealth government lawyers involved in his civil case last year.
On December, 17 officers representing Attorney-General Robert McClelland arranged private mediation in Sydney, where they agreed to a secret compensation payout in return for Mr Habib dropping his case accusing the commonwealth of complicity.
The deal includes a clause that prohibits Mr Habib from revealing any details of the settlement.
The Prime Minister's office yesterday confirmed that Ms Gillard had asked the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to conduct an inquiry into the role of Australian agencies in Mr Habib's arrest and detention.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225988027776
http://harpers.org/archive/2011/01/hbc-90007921With Gillard’s announcement, Australia now joins Britain, Germany, Poland, Spain, and Italy among the nations now conducting formal investigations into CIA renditions operations on their soil or involving their government personnel. Torture allegations figure prominently in each case.
He obviously wasn't tortured enough to get a good confession out of him.
Obviously the man was guilty. Why else would we have bundled him over to Egypt for mistreatment?
We should have just invented another court so we could convict him for Australia without all this red tape and rights and .
Pre-MCA of 2006, there were DSRTs. Was there a fuller tribunal process too, or was that all post 2006? Do you know, CD?
Last edited by Winehole23; 01-21-2011 at 06:01 AM.
If we'd only kept Mr. Habib one more year, we could have detained him forever and spared ourselves (and our ally, Australia) the embarrassing repercussions.
It was all pre-2006. He lost a habeas corpus hearing, but was released the afternoon of the publishing of a WaPo story detailing his story of torture -- a day before he was to be formally charged.
Really odd timing.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
