Friday 4 June 2010

Protesters rally in bid to save Sheikh | Top Stories | BigPond News

as posted here ... Protesters rally in bid to save Sheikh | Top Stories | BigPond News

About 1,000 protesters have marched on Parliament House in Canberra, demanding a review of the planned deportation of Sheikh Mansour Leghaei.

Dr Leghaei has lived in Australia for 16 years and is the force behind an Islamic centre in suburban Sydney.

Noisy and colourful, the group of Muslims, Christians, men, women and children walked to the lawns of Parliament House where they were greeted by dozens of police.

Hundreds bowed to Mecca for daily prayers as the former Anglican bishop of the Canberra-Goulburn diocese George Browning looked on.

Dr Leghaei has been ordered to leave the country by June 27 following two adverse security declarations from ASIO.

He and his followers have fought the matter at length through the courts and most recently took the matter to the United Nations.

Despite all their appeals, Immigration Minister Chris Evans has remained steadfast in the decision to deport Dr Leghaei.

On May 17 Senator Evans said the ASIO finding was all that mattered.

'The fact remains that he is the subject of an adverse security assessment,' Senator Evans said.

'In reaching this decision, I have acted in the national interest because Australia's national security must always be paramount.'

Ben Saul is one of the barristers who has been fighting the case.

'The evidence has never been tested in an independent court,' Dr Saul told AAP on Thursday.

'No Australian can have confidence that the allegations are accurate.'

ASIO has never detailed its evidence against the sheikh despite support for him coming from as far afield as South Africa and Jerusalem.

Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal was the 13th Episcopal Bishop of Jerusalem and is now a world leader in human rights activism.

'Dr Leghaei is not only not a threat to Australian national security but indeed through his peaceful presence and work both within the Muslim community and with other religious leaders and people, makes a great contribution to Australian society,' Mr Abu El-Essal said in a statement.

ASIO intelligence used to jail mother in Yemen, say activists

as posted here ... ASIO intelligence used to jail mother in Yemen, say activists

AUSTRALIA provided intelligence about a Yemeni-based Sydney woman - who was subsequently jailed and her young children placed under home detention - to Yemeni security police via the FBI, a Yemeni human rights organisation says.

The head of Yemen's National Organisation for Defending Rights and Freedoms, Mohamed Naji Allawo, has told the Herald Shyloh Giddins, 30, from Bankstown, was arrested after the FBI provided information on her. The FBI received its information about Ms Giddins - who converted to Islam in Sydney and then moved to Yemen - from Australia, Mr Allawo said. The FBI has a permanent presence in Yemen.

''We believe … the Yemeni government collected some information in co-operation with the Australian [government],'' Mr Allawo said through an interpreter.

The Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, cancelled Ms Giddins's Australian passport on April 10 at ASIO's request. Her Australian lawyer, Stephen Hopper, received a letter from the Department of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday saying: ''ASIO assesses Giddins has an extremist interpretation of Islam and her activities in Yemen are prejudicial to security.''

Mr Smith refused to confirm if Australia provided intelligence, citing operational concerns.

Ms Giddins, who has lived in Yemen with her children aged 4 and 7 since 2006, was interviewed by Yemen's National Security Bureau on May 14 and arrested two days later. She is being held at Sanaa central prison and has been refused access to a lawyer.

She is the former sister-in-law of Mazen Touma, one of nine Sydney men convicted of plotting terrorist attacks in Australia.

Australia link to held woman

as posted here ... Australia link to held woman

AUSTRALIA provided intelligence about a Yemeni-based Australian woman - who was subsequently jailed and her young children placed under home detention - to Yemeni security police via the FBI, a Yemeni human rights organisation says.

The head of Yemen's National Organisation for Defending Rights and Freedoms, Mohamed Naji Allawo, has told The Age that Yemeni authorities arrested Sydney woman Shyloh Giddins, 30, after being provided information by the FBI.

The FBI in turn received its information about Ms Giddins - who converted to Islam in Sydney and then moved to Yemen - from Australia, said Mr Allawo.

The FBI has a permanent presence in Yemen. It has been running a campaign there against an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group, following a failed attempt on Christmas Day last year to blow up a US-bound flight by a Yemeni-trained Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

''We believe … the Yemeni government collected some information in co-operation with the Australian [government],'' Mr Allawo said through a translator.

''Yemen is dealing with the FBI, which has its own office in Yemen, and we believe that the FBI is the connection between the intelligence of the Yemeni government and the intelligence of the Australian government.''

Ms Giddins had her Australian passport cancelled by Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on April 10 at the request of ASIO.

Her Australian lawyer, Stephen Hopper, received a letter from the Department of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday which stated: ''ASIO assesses Giddins has an extremist interpretation of Islam and her activities in Yemen are prejudicial to security.''

Mr Smith has repeatedly refused to confirm if Australia had provided intelligence to Yemen about Ms Giddins, citing operational concerns.

Ms Giddins, who has lived with her children Amina, 4, and Omar, 7, in Yemen since 2006, was interviewed by Yemen's feared National Security Bureau on May 14 and arrested two days later in the country's capital, Sanaa.

She is now being held at Sanaa's central prison, and has been refused access both to legal representation and her children - who had their passports confiscated and remain under detention in a Sanaa apartment.

Neither Ms Giddins, Mr Allawo nor the Australian government has been told why Ms Giddins is being held, but her arrest comes in the middle of a crackdown on foreigners suspected of being linked to a local jihadi group, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - known as AQAP.

That group is suspected of being behind the attempted bombing by Abdulmutallab of the US-bound plane last year.

Warnings may be old but we haven't learnt the lessons

as posted here ... Warnings may be old but we haven't learnt the lessons

Three guesses. Who said this? ''Our institutions - Parliament, all liberal thought, free speech and free criticism must go on. It would be a tragedy if we found that we had fought for freedom, free belief, and the value of every individual's soul and won the war, but lost the things for which Australia was fighting.''

And this? ''Terrorists see our democratic freedoms and institutions as a source of weakness. I refuse to let that be the case. Our way of life needs to be protected.''

The former was Bob Menzies in September 1939. The latter was Philip Ruddock in 2007. Both Liberals.

There's always going to be a bogyman from whom we need to be protected - whether it be Germans, Japanese, commos, terrorists or boat people. If there isn't a bogyman, one will be invented so politicians can make hay out of our ''national security''.

In 1917 Billy Hughes used wartime powers to censor Hansard if someone made an anti-conscription speech. Under John Curtin, the censors were obsessed with prohibiting anything that could create ''false impressions abroad''.

In May 1940 things were so dire the director-general of information (Keith Murdoch) insisted on a new regulation to give him power to dictate the wording of newspaper and radio news. The idea was that he would be editor-in-chief of Australia, a position to which his son has sought solemnly to adhere. Funnily enough, by 1944 most of the Commonwealth censors were former journalists.

But the sorts of things being censored on the grounds of national security had little to do with national security. For example, news reporting about a tramways strike and a miners' strike were prohibited.

In April 1944 Rupert Henderson, then managing director of Fairfax and the chairman of the Australian Newspaper Proprietors Association, wrote a missive complaining that censorship was being applied for political purposes unrelated to the nation's safety. His article, to be published in The Sunday Telegraph of April 16, 1944, was censored.

Naturally enough the commos had a bad time of it. It was an offence under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act, of all things, to make seditious comments and pro-Soviet comments were seditious. That landed Lance Sharkey and Gilbert Burns in the clink.

History is riddled with false alarms. The security agencies have not rested. Busily and successfully they have persuaded successive governments that they need more and more powers to protect us from hobgoblins. In a terrorist-troubled world there is potentially no end to the array of blunderbusses and catapults that can be stashed in the national security armoury to keep us safe.

For instance, when it comes to reporting the trials of people accused of terrorism offences there are lots of barbed-wire entanglements. Australian academic Lawrence McNamara has been studying how the counter-terrorism laws affect media reporting. His research encompasses conditions in Australia and Britain and in the process he has interviewed lawyers, journalists and security officials.

As far as Australia is concerned, the main direct impediment to media reporting is the National Security Information Act, which controls media coverage of terrorism-related trials. The legislation says the court can decide, on applications by the attorney-general, to prevent the disclosure of evidence. Even potentially more restrictive, the prosecution and defendants can ''agree to an arrangement'' about the disclosure of evidence.

Other terrorism legislation - such as the Crimes Act and the ASIO Act - has a less direct effect but creates a culture of secrecy and the potential to chill reporting.

The biggest terrorism trial we've had in this state is known collectively as the Elomar case. At a recent public seminar Justice Anthony Whealy, who presided over Elomar, said prosecution-defence suppression agreements were now ''part of the furniture'' of these trials.

Nowhere in the legislation is there a requirement that applications for suppression have to be weighed against the principle of open justice.

This sort of furniture has to be bad for the decor, if only because it contemplates a far wider incursion into open justice than might even be dreamed up by the attorney-general on behalf of the spooks. And for what purpose?

If history is our guide, we're entitled to be entirely sceptical that these lavish claims for secrecy really do protect our national security. After all, ASIO has been insisting in the Sagar and Faisal cases (both former Nauru residents under the kindly auspices of the ''Pacific solution'') these refugees could not have access to their security assessments. Further, they posed a risk to Australia. The United Nations Human Rights Council ultimately arranged with Sweden to take Sagar, where he has failed to be a security threat. Subsequently, ASIO had another look at Faisal and decided he wasn't a risk at all and could be admitted to the Land of Oz with permanent residence. However, as part of the cloak and dagger apparatus, his security assessment remains a secret.

We need go no further than the Haneef case to be reminded that from time to time secrecy also serves the useful purpose of shielding from the public gaze the incompetence of security agencies.

Still, the manufacturing of new machinery to fight the battle proceeds apace. Before Parliament can be found the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill 2010. It seeks to further tighten the reporting of terrorism-related events by requiring judges to decide before a trial or hearing whether to close the entire proceedings if matters of national security might arise.

The definition of national security is delightful. ''National security information means information (a) that relates to national security (b) the disclosure of which may affect national security.''

That just about covers it. We're fast losing the things about which Pig-Iron Bob warned us in 1939.

Aussie held in Yemen an 'extremist' and a security threat: ASIO | The Australian

as posted here ... Aussie held in Yemen an 'extremist' and a security threat: ASIO | The Australian

AUSTRALIAN spy agency ASIO cancelled the passport of an Australian woman detained in Yemen for the past three weeks because her interpretation of Islam was "extremist" and it believed the 30-year-old English teacher and mother of two was a threat to security in Yemen. Revelations of the reasons for ASIO's actions came as Yemeni authorities refused to release Shyloh Giddins's children from house arrest in the family's apartment in Sanaa.

Ms Giddins was imprisoned on May 15, five weeks after ASIO cancelled her passport. ASIO's statement of reasons says that Ms Giddins "has an extremist interpretation of Islam and her activities in Yemen are prejudicial to security".

It assessed that she was "likely to engage in activities prejudicial to the security of Australia or another nation". ASIO will not elaborate on what activities this refers to.

Ms Giddins's lawyer, Stephen Hopper, said the statement provided insufficient reasons and ASIO's comment on Ms Giddins's religious beliefs constituted "religious persecution".

Officials from the Australian embassy in Riyadh yesterday attempted to remove Ms Giddins's children from house arrest and transfer them into the custody of a German doctor who is a friend of the family, in accordance with Ms Giddins's instructions.


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Yemeni guards stationed outside refused to allow the embassy officials entry to the apartment or access to the children -- Aminah, 4, and Omar, 7 -- according to Mr Hopper.

Abdel-Rahman Barman, a human rights activist and lawyer for the National Organisation for Defending Rights and Freedoms, said the detention of the children was a deliberate strategy.

"I think the security people want to exercise pressure on the mother by separating her from the children to make her talk (to see) if she has links with any terror groups," Mr Barman said.

The children are being cared for by a Bangladeshi friend of Ms Giddins, Rafah Hussein, who was also detained and interrogated by the Yemeni security forces before being released. The arrests were part of a sweeping crackdown by Yemen's Political Security Organisation on Islamist groups, after the attempted bombing of a US airliner last Christmas Day by a Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who studied in Yemen and was reportedly a follower of US-born, Yemen-based radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

Associated Press has reported that Yemeni security officers said the arrests were made after foreign intelligence agencies provided Yemeni authorities with names of people they wanted detained or put under surveillance.

The Australian has learned that 30-year-old Ms Giddins has been on ASIO's radar for several years. A counter-terrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she had been "a figure of interest for a considerable period of time". Ms Giddins's interest to the authorities is believed to stem from her former marriage to a Lebanese-Australian, Mohammed Touma, who was allegedly a senior member of a Middle Eastern organised crime group in southwestern Sydney and was believed to have been a close associate of Sydney crime identity Adnan "Eddie" Darwiche, who is serving two life sentences for murder in a Sydney prison.

Ms Giddins is believed to be a friend of Sydney woman Rabiah Hutchinson, who has been targeted for years by ASIO for her links with Islamist groups, including al-Qa'ida. Ms Hutchinson's two sons were arrested in Yemen in 2006 but released without charge. She declined to comment on Ms Giddins's case.