A blog revealing the horrors of Islam,International Socialism,the misery these two evils are inflicting upon the free the world,and those it has already enslaved,along with various articles revealing the attacks from within upon the western Judeo Christian ethic by those we entrusted to preserve it.
Videos and Pictures of many varied subjects from around the world, along with some jokes of mine and any funny ones you want to send me.
An American, Australian ,Israeli, British "Judeo Christian Friendly " blog.
Quote
Warning to all Muslims the world over seeking asylum and protection from the manifestations of their faith.
Do not under any circumstances come to Australia, for we are a Nation founded upon Judeo Christian Law and principles and as such Australia is an anathema to any follower of the Paedophile Slave Trader Mohammad's cult of Islam.
There is no ideology more hated and despised in Australia than Islam.You simply would not like it here.
“ If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.
“There may be even a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves” Winston Churchill. Pg.310 “The Hell Makers” John C. Grover ISBN # 0 7316 1918 8
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything. —Confucius
Hontar: We must work in the world, your eminence. The world is thus.
Altamirano: No, Señor Hontar. Thus have we made the world... thus have I made it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Voltaire said: “If you want to know who rules over you, just find out who you are not permitted to criticize.”
--------Check this out, what an Bum WOW!!!!
When those sworn to destroy you,Communism, Socialism,"Change you can Believe in" via their rabid salivating Mongrel Dog,Islam,take away your humanity, your God given Sanctity of Life, Created in His Image , If you are lucky this prayer is maybe all you have left, If you believe in God and his Son,Jesus Christ, then you are, despite the evils that may befall you are better off than most.
Lord, I come before You with a heavy heart. I feel so much and yet sometimes I feel nothing at all. I don't know where to turn, who to talk to, or how to deal with the things going on in my life. You see everything, Lord. You know everything, Lord. Yet when I seek you it is so hard to feel You here with me. Lord, help me through this. I don't see any other way to get out of this. There is no light at the end of my tunnel, yet everyone says You can show it to me. Lord, help me find that light. Let it be Your light. Give me someone to help. Let me feel You with me. Lord, let me see what You provide and see an alternative to taking my life. Let me feel Your blessings and comfort. Amen.
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"The chief weapon in the quiver of all Islamist expansionist movements, is the absolute necessity to keep victims largely unaware of the actual theology plotting their demise. To complete this deception, a large body of ‘moderates’ continue to spew such ridiculous claims as “Islam means Peace” thereby keeping non-Muslims from actually reading the Qur’an, the Sira, the Hadith, or actually looking into the past 1400 years of history. Islamists also deny or dismiss the concept of ‘abrogation’, which is the universal intra-Islamic method of replacing slightly more tolerable aspects of the religion in favor of more violent demands for Muslims to slay and subdue infidels"
THE federal government has green-lighted its highly controversial censorship plan to introduce a mandatory internet filter that will block refused classification content from being accessed on Australian soil.
New legislative amendments to be introduced to the Broadcasting Services Act when parliament resumes next year could see all internet service providers block refused classification-rated material hosted on overseas servers.
A black list of refused classification content is compiled by the Australian Communications and Media Authority through a public complaints mechanism and typically includes illegal material such as child sex abuse content, bestiality, sexual violence and the detailed instruction of crime or drug use.
This material is currently subject to take-down notices by ACMA if it is hosted online in Australia. However, ACMA is unable to directly regulate content hosted overseas.
Anti-censorship groups had been opposed to previous suggestions by the government that all ACMA black-listed content - including X-Rated material - be caught by the ISP filtering plan. “ISP filtering reduces the risk of Australians being inadvertently exposed to RC-rated material when they are online,” Communications Minister Senator Conroy said.
The filter plan was given the go-ahead by the government after a successful live-trial involving nine ISPs including Unwired, Optus, Primus and Webshield. A report of the trial, which was conducted by Enex Test Laboratory, has now been publicly released.
Telstra - which did not take part in the trials - welcomed the introduction of the plan and said that it provided greater clarity on the government's approach to cyber-safety. “It is important to recognise, as the government has, that there is no silver bullet which will make the internet 100 per cent safe. The blocking of a blacklist of RC sites is one element of the multi-faceted approach that is required to create a safer online environment,” Telstra public policy and communications chief David Quilty said. “We support the fact that the government intends to legislate its approach, thereby ensuring that it applies across the industry, is clearly spelt out and is enforceable by law.
The government also announced additional initiatives to complement the mandatory filter. A grants program will be available to ISPs to encourage the introduction of optional filtering to block X-rated and gambling content as requested by households.
The government also announced an expansion of the cyber-safety outreach program run by ACMA and the Cyber-Safety Online Helpline to improve education and awareness of online safety.
“The government has always maintained there is no silver bullet solution to cyber-safety. That is why we have established a comprehensive range of cyber-safety measures, including funding for 91 additional online Australian Federal Police officers and education,” Senator Conroy said.
“Through a combination of additional resources for education and awareness, mandatory internet filtering of RC-rated content, and optional ISP-level filtering, we have a package that balances safety for families and the benefits of the digital revolution.”
The ISP filter plan has been a controversial one for the government which has faced a chorus of criticism from industry and angry internet users who claim that its introduction would strangle internet speeds, curb free speech, and be abused by the government to ban content that it deems “undesirable”. But Senator Conroy hosed down the past speculation.
“The live trial has shown that filtering of a defined list of URLs can be done with 100 per cent accuracy and negligible impact on network performance – despite the many claims that have been touted,” Senator Conroy said.
“ISP level filtering is a useful measure as part of an overall cyber-safety plan. The government should do all that it can to protect Australians from exposure to RC-rated content.”
Rudd Government to censor Australian internet, for our "safety" (of course)
Australians will soon have the same internet censorship controls as those in place in Australian Prime Minister Rudd's ideological homeland China,Iran,Cuba,North Korea.Venezuala.
Australians access to internet content will be controlled by what the Australian Labor Party,it's Marxist based, Australian Council of Trade Unions(ACTU) bankers and financiers, and those it is beholding to,deem is "safe" for Australians to be permitted to access to.
Joy oh joy of Comrade Rudd’s “Fresh Thinking” and “getting the balance right” for “working families”
I guess it will be good to know that we will all be “safe” from information Comrade Rudd and his Beijing masters feel might “confuse “ us or indeed make us “unsafe” whatever that may mean at any given time.
Sydney Opera House has again been vandalized by Labor’s Envrio Nazi attack Dogs, Green Peace.
The vandals again managed to avoid Opera House security staff and casually walked up a sail of the Opera House and proceeded to vandalize the building with Labor Party and Green Peace propaganda.
The Vandals in action this morning,on what must surely be the most dangerous unsecure public building on earth, these vandals could have thrown explosives or distributed any substance of their choosing from here,contaminating hundreds if not thousands of tourists and Sydneysiders on their way to work disembarking ferries and busses at Circular Quay below.
Again no attempt was made to shoot down these Peace Activists Enviro Nazi’s aka. Urban Terrorist’s,Vandals.
Flash Back Green Peace Vandals last and most infamous vandalism attack upon the Sydney Opera House was back on March 18, 2003.
The words "No War" were sprayed on to one of the Opera House sails in red paint.
Two peace activists who painted "No War" on the Sydney Opera House were today sentenced to nine months' periodic detention.
David Burgess, 33, and Will Saunders, 42, were convicted late last year of malicious damage after painting "No War" on the tallest sail of the Opera House on March 18, 2003.
NSW District Court Judge Anthony Blackmore today sentenced the pair to nine months weekend jail and ordered they jointly pay $111,000 compensation to the Sydney Opera House Trust.
Earlier in today's proceedings the pair handed over a cheque for $40,000 to the trust.
The pair painted the slogan on the Sydney landmark in a protest against Australia's involvement in the war in Iraq.
Judge Blackmore said it did not matter whether the graffiti was done to make a political statement, it was still malicious damage.
"Whether it was caused by an irresponsible drunken man or one making a serious political point it makes little difference," Judge Blackmore said.
About 100 supporters waited outside the court for Burgess and Saunders while they were fingerprinted.
Burgess's lawyer John Doris said the pair would appeal their conviction and sentence.
THE estranged teenage model wife of a Malaysian prince was ordered by an Islamic court on Sunday to return to her marriage and repay a 1.1 million ringgit ($A356,149) debt, his lawyer said.
Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar said the northern Kelantan state Islamic High Court ordered Manohara Odelia Pinot to be "loyal" by returning to her husband, Kelantan prince Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry, and returning his money.
"The court ordered Manohara to be loyal to her husband by returning to him to resolve their marriage problems within 14 days of an oath the prince will take on January 3," the prince's lawyer Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar told AFP.
"The prince is delighted with the outcome and hopes that Manohara will follow the court's order and return," he added.
Zainul Rijal said the court also ordered Manohara to return the money to the prince in a lump sum within 30 days of the ceremony.
"If Manohara does not return to the prince within the stipulated time that will mean she can be declared 'disloyal' which means the prince would not be obliged to pay her any maintenance," he said.
"It also means that should the marriage end in divorce in the future, she will not get any compensation as the divorce would have been caused by her disloyalty," he added.
He said Manohara was not represented at the Islamic religious court after her Malaysian lawyer quit last month.
In November, Tengku Fakhry won a defamation suit claiming Manohara and her mother had defamed him by claiming he had sexually abused the 17-year-old.
In May, the US-Indonesian model slipped away from the prince's guards at a Singapore hotel and returned to her family in Indonesia with tales of abuse, rape and torture at the hands of the 31-year-old prince.
Manohara, a well-known socialite in Jakarta, claims to have been cut with a razor and injected with drugs that made her vomit blood while being held under guard in her bedroom at the palace.
Her Indonesian lawyer said she had filed a police report on the abuse but Indonesian police say they are unable to investigate as the incidents took place outside their jurisdiction.
Caution do attempt to recreate this statue’s depiction.
Indonesian’s claim that until the arrival of Hussein Obama in Indonesia, butterfly’s were vicious and deadly creatures who’s bite was a certain death sentence for the unfortunate victim, the statue of the Messiah depicts the Messiah and a butterfly at one, with each other, caution the child Hussein Obama, is the only human known who has been able to survive contact, and indeed not be affected in anyway,with contact, with the generic Indonesian butterfly,the woman seen at bottom right of this picture has not been seen since this picture was taken.
Hussein Obama seen here dressing up in HIS national costume.
In a way I like this guy at least he has the GUTS to tell us how much he hate us and how he will ensure that HIS side is given every opportunity he can give it, to enslave me or better still, kill ME and people like ME at every opportunity he is able to give HIS side.
From correspondents in Beijing Daily Telegraph December 12, 2009
THE half-brother of U.S. President Barack Obama has been named a "volunteer image ambassador" for the gritty southern Chinese city in which he lives, state media said on Saturday.
who had the same, late, father as the U.S. president, was also given a "five-star volunteer" award in a ceremony in Shenzhen on Friday, the official Guangzhou Daily said.
The newspaper added that Ndesandjo held a concert earlier this year to raise money for victims of last year's massive earthquake in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan.
Ndesandjo has kept a low public profile since reports surfaced last year that he was living and working in the southern Chinese manufacturing centre of Shenzhen, around an hour's train ride from Hong Kong.
He made a rare public appearance earlier in November in the nearby city of Guangzhou to launch a novel he said drew on his painful childhood under an abusive father.
He briefly met the US president in November during Obama's visit to China.
RESIDENTS are fighting a mosque and cultural centre they believe will become a headquarters for the strict Wahhabi sect of Islam in Sydney.
Auburn Council, in Sydney's west, has outraged residents by approving the three-storey mosque with dome and minarets on a site occupied by a Depression-era Art Deco fire station.
The Australian Islamic Cultural Centre, which has links to Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism, plans to demolish existing buildings - including the fire station - and construct a mosque for up to 1000 worshippers, a library and a youth cultural centre with two levels of basement.
A petition demanding the council reverse its decision and preserve the heritage fire station in Harrow Rd is circulating in the suburb.
Activities planned for the complex include cultural and religious lectures, weddings, prayers, cultural, religious and language classes, fundraising, public speaking, Ramadan festivities and counselling, welfare and rehabilitation services.
Harrow Rd resident Barry Walsh, who is campaigning to save the fire station, said the development was so large it almost certainly was planned as a "corporate head office".
"There is a chamber for 1000 worshippers at a time, a dome and minarets with the sign of the crescent moon," he said.
"It's an opportunity for the Australian Islamic Cultural Centre to house its operations. The $9 million for it will come from overseas."
Mr Walsh said residents aimed to collect 8000 to 9000 signatures on a petition demanding Auburn Council preserve the fire station or its facade.
Islamic Cultural Centre spokesman Shafiq Khan runs nearby Al-Faisal College at Auburn and is known to have connections in the Saudi Government, which has spent an estimated $120 million bankrolling mosques, schools, clerical salaries and Islamic scholarships in Australia.
He was not available to comment.
Councillors have voted 7-3 to approve the mosque with conditions, but will consider a rescission motion at a meeting in January.
Labor councillor Patrick Curtin said concerns surrounded a lack of information about the proposal relating to noise, drainage, overshadowing, hours of operation, height, traffic and parking.
Mr Curtin refused to comment on the applicant but said he had not been impressed by its presentation.
"The recommendation (to approve the development) is based on insufficient information," he said.
The development application was accompanied by a petition with 1800 names supporting the complex.
There will be endless platitudes and one liners, claiming that the objections are raised out of ignorance and a “lack of information”
The Islamist’s problem is that Australians, ARE informed and ARE aware of what the members of the Religion of Peace objectives are.
The Australian Labor Party and their co conspiritors, the Multicultural Industry, simply refuse to accept that Australians, regardless of how many freedom FROM free speech laws they impose upon them, that they will NEVER accept the cult of Islam and its loony followers objectives or belief’s.
Australians are too well informed about Islam, that’s why at every opportunity, just like 75% of the worlds population, they reject it outright,irrespective of Labor Politicians insistence that Australians cow tow, accept,respect and facilitate it’s intolerant Godless manifestations of their “Holy Koran”
Australia could be hit with a $400 billion tax bill
Draft deal leaked to media
Thousands of Attention Deficit sufferers,International Socialists, Despots and useful idiots gathered in Copenhagen to worship each other and their Cult of Global Warming aka Climate Change aka. the weather. These advocates of returning western democracies to Serfdom are reminicent of the scene in Star Wars where all the Galactic Freak Shows met at the Bar.
Islam is known for denying others the very tolerance it demands for itself. Switzerland recently voted to ban minaret construction, outraging local Muslims, the majority of whom are from Kosovo and Turkey. Yet, over a hundred historic Christian churches have been destroyed in Kosovo since 2000 (including this one, in which a Muslim is relieving himself).
Latest Offerings from the Religion of Peace
"He who fights that Islam should be superior fights in Allah's cause" Muhammad, prophet of Islam
2009.12.04 (Srinagar, India) - Al-Nasireen gunmen assassinate a political leader outside his home.
2009.12.04 (Mohmand Agency, Pakistan) - Mujahideen bombers take out six members of a wedding party traveling in a mini-bus.
2009.12.04 (Tuz Khormato, Iraq) - An ethnic minority member is gunned down in his home by Islamic terrorists.
2009.12.04 (Rawalpindi, Pakistan) - Seventeen children at a mosque are among nearly forty people cut down in a barbaric shooting and bombing attack by Sunni hardliners.
2009.12.04 (Khasavyurt, Dagestan) - A civilian having lunch at a cafe is among two people murdered by Muslim terrorists in separate attacks.
2009.12.03 (Pattani, Thailand) - A 17-year-old boy is among three members of a family brutally gunned down in their home by Islamic separatists.
Articles & Commentary
Islam and the Rise of Violent Anti-Semitism (Islam Watch) When a religion's founder personally racks up hundreds of Jewish scalps, the legacy of anti-Semitism shouldn't be much of a mystery.
"Do it in Allah's Name!" (Free Thought Nation) Transcript from the Mumbai Massacre. It may read 'God', but the audio (and the results) say 'Allah'.
Muslim Mafia (Interview) (LiveLeak) (Audio) Paul Sperry, the author of a new book on CAIR, discusses his undercover operation and findings.
The Taliban War on Pakistani Schoolchildren (Time) Good thing for the Taliban that they aren't Israelis. Otherwise the rest of the world might actually care about these victims.
One Surge Doesn't Fit All (Associated Press) Beyond the irony of Obama pressing for the same strategy that he once blasted Bush over, there is the very strong possibility that what worked in Iraq may not work in Afghanistan.
"Minarets are our Bayonets" (Hurriyet) A Turkish Muslim writes on the hypocrisy of Islamists who "love Democracy as long as it serves political Islam."
Jihad Down Under: "There are Two Laws" (YouTube) A cleric in Australia collects welfare for 19 years while plotting to kill his benefactors. Can you guess his religion?
Why the Swiss were Right (Pajamas Media) Why shouldn't Europeans resist the political domination of an ideology with contrary values?
What's Liberating about Islam? (FrontPage Magazine) Apparently one of the surprising benefits of Islam is not having to think.
The Problem of Islamic Religious Persecution (National Review) Despite the lofty rhetoric about religious freedom, Muslims do not act as if it applies to anyone other than themselves.
Muslim Woman Stabs Israeli Guard (on Video) (Answering Muslims) Ah, the Religion of Peace at work, up close and personal. Note that the guards merely subdue the woman and do not respond in kind.
Terrorism or an Act of Faith? (Intellectual Conservative) Is the Qur'an really as clear about condemning killing as CNN would like it to be?
Obama's Hedged Bet on Afghanistan (FrontPage Magazine) Obama's commitment to victory comes with an 18-month expiration date. . . Other than that, it might actually make sense.
America vs. The Narrative (NY Times) An editorial from the New York Times that is surprisingly on target. Even the Left is starting to notice that Muslims are in no hurry to clean house.
The Dark Side of Islam (Daily News) A student's personal quest to learn the full truth about the 'Religion of Peace'.
Why They'll Never Allow Democracy in Britain (Telegraph) The minaret ban in Switzerland explains why it is deemed too dangerous for European voters to control their own matters.
Subduing Women's Sexuality (FrontPage Magazine) A well-written article on the stifling effect that Islam has on sexuality and women.
What the 9/11 Plotters Will Say in Court (Human Events) Robert Spencer tells us that the upcoming 9/11 trials in NYC should provide more than enough fuel for Jihad propaganda.
A Kidnapped Soldier Worth a Thousand Criminals? (Fiamma Nirenstein) Israel is forced to free convicted murderers of women and children to buy the liberty one innocent soldier illegally kidnapped within its territory.
A Substantive Critique of the UN Gaza Report (JCPA) (pdf) Expsoing the UN's lies and half-truths concerning the conflict in Gaza that was provoked by Hamas nearly one year ago.
New Islamism May be Greater Threat (Daniel Pipes) "If the violence of Islamism 1.0 rarely succeeds in forwarding the Sharia, the Islamism 2.0 strategy of working through the system does better."
'Killing of Non-Muslims is Legitimate' (YouTube) An oldie but a goodie from Anjem Choudry, who lives on British taxpayer dime, even as he explains why it is OK to kill his benefactors.
SPANISH police have arrested nine men suspected of seeking to have a woman killed after they accused her of adultery, claiming they were following Islamic law, authorities said.
The men were arrested on November 14 and seven have been held in jail, a police spokesman said.
According to police, the woman had been taken in March and held in an isolated house in Valls in northeastern Catalonia.
Authorities say the men set up a court there to judge her for adultery.
"These men had formed a kind of court to apply (Islamic) sharia law,'' the spokesman said, adding the woman told authorities she was tried and sentenced to death.
She was later able to escape and report what happened to police.
These Godless Swine should simply be put down, like the rabid mindless Dogs that they are.
They, like their ideology, the Religion Of Peace, aka. Islam, serve no useful, peaceful or civilizing purpose to mankind, and as such should be removed from the gene pool.
It is a waste of time dealing with these Islamic Savages who live in Judeo Christian Democracy’s and applying OUR legal and moral code to them when they simply behave in the way they are bound to behave by their cults Terror Manual, the Koran.
The Lefts Multicultural “all Cultures / Religions are equal” useful idiots really have a lot to answer for,bring on the Treason Trials NOW.
Disarmament + Internment + Deportation = a Peaceful Muslim Free Spain.
MAMDOUH HABIB, who was held without charge for more than three years as a suspected terrorist, has taken to the air - and says authorities can do nothing to bring him down.
The former Guantanamo Bay inmate, who has had one training flight in a light plane, said being up in the clouds was the greatest feeling of freedom since his return to Australia four years ago.
He described the 90-minute flight over Sydney's south-west with an instructor as exhilarating.
''Now in the air no one can harass me, not even the police,'' he said. ''Up in the air no one knows me, only the birds, I feel free.''
But the father of four from Greenacre says he has not decided whether to start a full-time flight training course to get a pilot's licence.
Mr Habib, who was born in Egypt in 1956, is on medical benefits after the failure of his Sydney security and cleaning business.
He said the public and authorities had nothing to fear if he gained his pilot's licence because: ''I am not and never have been a terrorist.''
''If someone wanted to commit a terrorist act with a plane, why would they get a licence? They would not get a licence to fly a plane,'' he said at Bankstown Airport.
Mr Habib said his wife Maha had gone with him to the flying school when he took his first lesson last month.
He said he had worn a T-shirt that declared ''ASIO Traded Me'', in reference to his long court action against the Federal Government for compensation for wrongful detention and alleged kidnapping by US authorities in Pakistan when he visited that country.
Mr Habib said he had decided to learn to fly because of frustration over an eight-month delay by the Department of Immigration and Foreign Affairs to issue him with an Australian passport which would allow him to travel abroad with his family or visit his sick sister in Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city.
He produced letters from the passport office saying his application could not be considered because the office was ''awaiting advice from ASIO about whether the circumstances providing grounds for the decision to refuse to issue you a travel document remain current''.
He found the refusal to let him travel abroad was absurd as he could still fly domestically and take flying lessons without a security clearance.
Mr Habib said if he did not obtain his licence, he was considering learning to become an aircraft maintenance engineer.
''I have done nothing wrong. No one can stop me.''
In "Worst of the Worst?" Four Corners looks at the most revealing and comprehensive account so far about Egyptian-born Habib, and what he did before he was detained at Guantanamo Bay and deprived of his legal rights.
Date: 20/07/2004
SALLY NEIGHBOUR, REPORTER: In November 2001 in Hamburg, German police interrogators went to work on two suspected al-Qaeda recruits arrested in Pakistan in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on America. The two suspects were linked with the now-infamous Hamburg cell, headed by the September 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta. The pair had been captured after leaving a training camp in Afghanistan in the days after the attacks. The two suspects were grilled for days about their al-Qaeda links and their training and about an Australian man who had been arrested with them.
INTERROGATING OFFICER (TRANSLATION): What can you say about the Australian? What was his name and what did he tell you?
BEKIM ADEMI (TRANSLATION): He came from Sydney. He's married with four children.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The Sydney man named by the two Germans was well known to the Australian authorities. He had been watched by ASIO for years in a long saga leading up to his capture.
IBRAHIM DIAB (TRANSLATION): He planned to move to Pakistan with his family. Later in prison, I found out his name. It was Mamdouh Habib.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Almost three years later, Mamdouh Habib's family is still waiting for him to come home. Habib is one of two Australians incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, reportedly beaten, abused and tormented, and until two weeks ago denied any legal rights. The two Germans who named him have long since been released. And exactly why Habib is still being held remains largely a mystery.
Tonight on Four Corners, we piece together the troubled story of Mamdouh Habib, the cleaner turned coffee shop owner and father of four from suburban Sydney who somehow ended up in the prison camp America reserves for the men it calls "the worst of the worst".
In 1995, caught on home video playing at the beach with his children, Mamdouh Habib looks like a man without a worry in the world. Habib had moved to Australia from Egypt in 1984, married a local Lebanese-Australian girl, Maha, and had two sons and a daughter, with a second girl to follow.
IBRAHIM FRASER, FRIEND: Mamdouh is a great guy. He's really family-oriented and very dedicated to his family.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The Habib family settled in Sydney's south-west. Habib ran a cleaning company and later opened a coffee shop in Haldon Street, Lakemba.
IBRAHIM FRASER: Well, this is Haldon Street. I go up and down Haldon Street all the time. Just up here, next to the National Bank here, is the coffee shop that Mamdouh owned. It's really funny coming back.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: One of his regular customers was a local taxi driver Ibrahim Fraser, an Australian-born Muslim convert who lived nearby.
IBRAHIM FRASER: Mamdouh, to me, is friendly and outgoing and, uh, very interested in people and, you know, the welfare of people.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib's cafe in Lakemba's main shopping strip was a popular meeting place for the Lebanese and Egyptian-born communities. His friend Khalil Chami, who runs a bookshop in Haldon Street, says Habib threw himself into community life.
SHEIK KHALIL CHAMI, ISLAMIC WELFARE CENTRE: I mean, he's active and he was working hard with the community and he invited people and he's not selfish. I mean, he's a person... I mean, he will invite you to coffee and he will never take money for the coffee. He is very generous in this line.
MAHA HABIB: He's always said to the kids, you know, he said, "No matter what, if anyone ever asks you for any help and you can help, don't hesitate to do it, because one day you will need someone."
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib's wife Maha would not be interviewed for this program. This interview was filmed by 'The 7:30 Report' in late May.
MAHA HABIB: And he's always told them, "Never be afraid of the truth, because if you've done anything wrong, alright, you have to face your problem, OK?"
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib prayed at the Lakemba mosque and taught Islamic scripture at a local high school. His friends say he was not an extremist but took his faith seriously.
IBRAHIM FRASER: He told me that, you know, to be a good Muslim you had to live Islam, and that's what he did. He lived Islam and to me he was a great inspiration, Islamically.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib was a follower of Australia's most senior Islamic cleric, Sheik Taj, a man whose views have been called extreme. Sheik Taj was almost deported in the '80s for comments like this.
(HOME VIDEO FOOTAGE FROM 1988 PLAYS)
SHEIK TAJ ON VIDEO (TRANSLATION): The Jews try to control the world through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treachery and economic hoarding.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Sheik Taj has mellowed over the years, although he was condemned again more recently for calling the September 11 attacks "God's work against oppressors." Habib too was a man of strong views.
SHEIK TAJ ALDIN AL-HILALY (TRANSLATION): He was always trying to put his nose into everything, to poke his nose into a lot of things. He was a talkative man. Always interfering in matters regardless of whether they interested him or not. That was part of his personality. He was sharp and aggressive. He would get angry quickly and then calm down quickly. Mamdouh is like that - he always brings problems upon himself.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: In 1991 Mamdouh Habib took his family on a holiday to his native Egypt and then to see his sisters in New York. It was on this journey that his problems began.
While Habib was in New York, a celebrated court case was under way. It was the trial of an Islamic militant El Sayyid Nosair, who was charged with shooting dead an extremist rabbi, Meir Kahana, during a function at a New York hotel. Every day during the trial, rival camps of Muslim and Jewish protesters gathered outside the court. Mamdouh Habib was invited by an old school friend to join the crowd who rallied to yell support for the accused killer.
MAHA HABIB: Someone has said that, um, there was a person who'd been accused of killing some, I don't know, um, Jewish... What do you call them? Um, 'rab...'
INTERVIEWER: Rabbi.
MAHA HABIB: Rabbi, yeah. And his case is running. "Just for out of support, do you want to come?" I went to court too.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The man who invited Habib to join the protest was an old friend from his school days in Egypt, Ibrahim El-Gabrowny, a cousin of the accused killer. Also at the court was another friend of Habib's, Mahmud Abouhalima. The men were all followers of the militant Egyptian-born cleric Omar Abdul Rahman, known as the 'blind sheik', who urged his flock to "kill the enemies of God" and rid the world of the descendants of "apes and pigs fed at the table of Zionism, communism and imperialism".
The blind sheik's followers were jubilant when Nosair was acquitted of the murder despite having been arrested with the gun still in his hand. He was convicted on gun charges instead. Mamdouh Habib joined in the celebrations.
MAHA HABIB: What's wrong with going to court? I can go to any court now and see any...hear any hearings. Is that wrong?
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: 15 months after Habib's trip to America, the World Trade Center in New York was bombed, leaving six people dead and more than 1,000 injured. The blind sheik Omar Abdul Rahman and Habib's friends El-Gabrowny and Abouhalima were arrested and later convicted over the attack and plans to bomb other New York landmarks.
MAHA HABIB: Put it this way - say if your friends from school...you had your friends from school, OK? And you used to go with them to school and afterwards, you know, um, you'd met them after you got married and, you know, long time ago, and whatever they've done wrong, would that blame you too?
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Back home in Sydney, Habib took up the blind sheik's cause, organising a protest to support the jailed cleric whom he described as his teacher.
SHEIK ABU AYMAN, NATIONAL EMIR, AHLUS SUNNAH WAL JAMA'AH: I heard him say, "I was one of the students of this man." This is from his mouth to the brothers - not to me in particular, but to everyone.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: He said he was a student of the blind sheik?
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: Yep. That's what he said.
SHEIK TAJ ALDIN AL-HILALY, MUFTI, AUSTRALIAN ISLAMIC COMMUNITY (TRANSLATION): He used to come and argue with me in my office many, many times. I used to listen to him. "Should be, do something, should be. We have to support the case of Dr Omar Abdul Rahman, he's innocent." I would say, "OK, God willing." He would get angry and leave my office, very upset. The same thing happened many times. He would come to see me, we would disagree, then he would come back after a few months and try again.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: From his home in Sydney's west, Habib stayed in contact with his friends in New York. Phone records produced in the US court case revealed a series of calls between Habib's house and the men on trial for the bombing. Habib later claimed he was discussing a business deal with his friend El-Gabrowny and fundraising for the blind sheik.
INTERVIEWER: There is some evidence that he had connections with terrorists, though, isn't there? For example, the phone calls with...
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib's lawyer Stephen Hopper refused to be interviewed for this program. This interview was filmed by Four Corners last year.
STEPHEN HOPPER, LAWYER FOR HABIB: It was about $500, which was raised by Mamdouh from the community, and the reason why that money was raised is there seemed to be a debate over whether the US authorities were giving the sheik his diabetes medication. And this has been documented in the press.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib's contacts with the World Trade Center bombers and his support for the blind sheik aroused the interest of ASIO, which paid him a call. The knock on the door - in late '93 by his wife's account - would be the first of many.
STEPHEN HOPPER: We know from about 1996 until the time he left to Pakistan in July 2001, ASIO had put him under scrutiny. And that's quite a number of years. But during all that time there were no charges ever laid and in the latter part of it, ASIO asked him to be an informer for them and offered to put him on a payroll. And Mamdouh Habib refused to do that. He didn't want to spy for anybody.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: While the home videos continued to show the same old smiling Mamdouh, beneath the happy exterior was a man under mounting pressure. The attention from ASIO was not his main worry. Business was going badly. Habib's cleaning company had a contract with the Defence Housing Authority cleaning defence homes. After a series of complaints that his work was substandard, Habib lost the job.
IBRAHIM FRASER, FRIEND: He said that he was cheated and that the Government owed him all this money and that he was victimised on grounds...on the basis that he was Muslim and Egyptian.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: After Habib made a series of angry phone calls, the Defence Housing Authority took out an apprehended violence order against him. In court, witnesses told of abuse and threats by Habib.
(EXTRACTS FROM WITNESS EVIDENCE PLAY)
WOMAN: He became very angry. He said it was unfair what we had done to him and his company and he was going to get us for that.
WOMAN 2: He said to me, "I'll tell you what happened to a woman who was working for some people. She had acid thrown in her face and she was badly damaged by that." I said, "So what has that got to do with me?" And he said, "Nothing, but people have to be very careful."
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: His psychiatrist testified that Habib was suffering from major depression and was being treated with Prozac, but that he was not prone to violence.
(WITNESS EVIDENCE CONTINUES)
MAN: He is irritable. He has been preoccupied with a sense of hopelessness about his future. He has become withdrawn and he has been very agitated at home and he has been crying excessively as well. There is no evidence to suggest that he is aggressive or about to become aggressive or violent. He is not dangerous at this point.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: During the court case, police searched Habib's home and found a gun and ammunition that he held under licence. The magistrate ordered the gun destroyed and Habib's shooter's licence was cancelled. The Defence Housing Authority got an AVO for five years.
IBRAHIM FRASER: He felt that because it was the Government, the Government always wins - the Government's on the side of the Government and that's it.
SHEIK TAJ ALDIN AL-HILALY, MUFTI, AUSTRALIAN ISLAMIC COMMUNITY (TRANSLATION): He used to imagine that... He used to think that he was a victim, that he was being discriminated against and that everyone was against him. He felt that there were hidden forces watching him - that was a delusion. I used to try and make things easier for him and give him psychological support, but he had those delusions.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: After falling out with Sheik Taj, Habib began attending a more radical mosque just up the road in Lakemba. The prayer room in the arcade off Haldon Street is well known to ASIO for the sometimes extreme views that are preached there. Its spiritual leader is Sheik Abu Ayman. The sheik remembers Habib well from the day Habib trooped up the stairs to the prayer room dressed in a karate suit.
SHEIK ABU AYMAN, NATIONAL EMIR, AHLUS SUNNAH WAL JAMA'AH: Usually I don't recognise people, but when he came to talk to me and he had special hat, this ninja hat or something like that, and white suit and black belt. And I know these kind of people. I've been across so many people in my life. And I saw him that night with these clothes on, just I gave him a big smile.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: What did you think about that?
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: Better not... (Laughs) Sorry about that, but... (Laughs) Better not to say what I was thinking about.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: According to Abu Ayman, Habib became even more conspicuous for the argumentative ways he brought with him.
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: I would say he is an attention seeker. I would say he loves the people to give their ears to him. And again, I could say he's a disturbed man. If you don't agree with him, he will accuse you of every name under the sun, and again, this is not a normal thing from a normal person to do.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: What would he argue about?
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: The hot issues that people argue about these days. It started with Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, then Osama bin Laden, then jihad - this is the issues that people argue about these days.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: And what would he say about Osama bin Laden and jihad?
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: Now, he's in trouble already. I don't want to make him in a worse situation, but it's been recorded and I'm sure the Government knew about it. He used to wear the photo of Osama bin Laden, his T-shirt. As I said, this is a childish thing. A man doesn't do that. Even if you love someone, you don't wear a shirt like... This is for the children.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib was certainly not the only one in the prayer room to support Bin Laden and advocate jihad or holy struggle. Abu Ayman and his congregation have been under close watch for years because of the extreme views expressed by some of his followers. The man who runs the prayer room, Abdul Salam Zoud, was named in a French court dossier as a recruiter for jihad - a claim he denies. Several men who have attended the prayer room are currently facing terrorism-related charges.
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: Most of it is ill talk based on no evidence whatsoever. And that's the fact. They have to blame someone. There is always...in any agenda, there is a scapegoat. It has to be all the time someone to put the blame on. And this is why you find us sometimes, yes, saying something the public doesn't like, for example, or the Government doesn't like.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The reason the Government doesn't like what's preached in the prayer room is apparent from the sermons available on video in the bookshop up the road.
(FOOTAGE FROM 'THE ENEMY'S PLOT' PLAYS)
SHEIK FEIZ: What is really meant by the term, by the wording, by the so-called war on terrorism? Does it leave any doubt in anyone's mind that it is nothing but a war on Islam and the Muslims to ensure the Zionist - those pigs - the Zionist-American domination in every corner of this earth?
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: This is one offering from Abu Ayman's star protege, a young firebrand from Liverpool known as Sheik Feiz, whose weekly lectures in the prayer room Mamdouh Habib used to attend.
(VIDEO FOOTAGE CONTINUES)
SHEIK FEIZ: Go to Iraq today and see your brothers and sisters! See them! See what is happening there! It's gonna happen to you one day! Their heads are being blown off, their legs are being amputated, their arms, their bodies. Their meat is being just thrown off their bodies. Look! And we are too comfortable with cultivation! We're too scared to go to jihad! What are you living for?
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The call to jihad was like a magnet for Habib. He was so enthused he began signing people up, according to Abu Ayman.
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: So they give their names. Then they find out after that he's collecting these names for so-called jihad or something like that.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: What do you mean by that? What do you mean "collecting names for jihad"?
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: Who wants to go to jihad, or something like that.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: So was he trying to get people to go overseas to fight, do you mean?
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: I would say that, yes.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Do you know where?
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: No, but it's obvious. That time was Chechnya and Chechnya was the main area, the hot area in that time.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: It wouldn't have been the first time someone from the prayer room headed off to jihad. Other followers of Abu Ayman are known to have trained and fought with militant Islamic groups overseas. But for a group already under suspicion, Habib's overt lobbying and collecting of names was dangerous. He was told to stop.
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: This is the problem. Loud mouth is a big problem. To go and do whatever you want. The Government want to blame us for that. It's your problem and it's your personal issues. We cannot stop anyone to do what he wants to do, except in the area we are authorised to stop. And this is what we did.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: In March 2000, Habib packed his bags and headed off overseas. His destination was not Chechnya but Pakistan. He was away for just under two months. Habib's exact movements are unclear but he spoke to his friend Ibrahim Fraser before he left.
IBRAHIM FRASER: I met him at a cafe in Lakemba and he discussed to me that he had plans to go to Afghanistan to live an Islamic life in the Bin Laden camp. He felt that that was a good life to lead. He thought that would be good for his children. He thought that his children would have an Islamic upbringing and that they would also be able to study the Koran and everything Islamic. So he told me that. I said to him, "So do you mean that you would go for jihad?" And he said, "Well, if that's...if that was necessary, because..." He said, "But I really only want to live there. I'm not really interested in jihad, but I really want to live with Bin Laden."
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: According to Australian authorities, Habib travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Four Corners has been told that on this trip he did military training with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba, which has since been listed as a banned terrorist group in Australia. The authorities say that notes from an L-e-T weapons course were later found in Habib's home. Several months later, back in Lakemba, Ibrahim Fraser spotted his friend again in Haldon Street.
IBRAHIM FRASER: I said, "Oh, well, so how was Afghanistan?" He said "Great." He said, "This is truly a great place."
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Did he tell you what he'd done there?
IBRAHIM FRASER: No, he didn't tell me whether he'd done anything in Afghanistan. He didn't tell me...he didn't say that he'd been on jihad. He hadn't said that he had done any training. He just told me that he'd been looking for a...that he'd been to...met Bin Laden and been there and found it to be a really great place and...
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: He said he'd met Bin Laden?
IBRAHIM FRASER: I think so. I think he had. I think that's what he said.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: In the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics, the police and ASIO stepped up their interest in Habib. The authorities didn't know at this stage of his movements overseas but they were keen to pump him for information on the prayer room, which was now under close surveillance.
Habib wrote to the Inspector-General of Intelligence, the first of many written complaints to a range of authorities.
LETTER FROM MAMDOUH HABIB TO THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL: "Dear Sir, I would like to lodge a formal complaint against the ASIO. I have been harassed by them for over 5 years. I am facing a lot of problems and I request help from your department to seek for my rights. If I do not have the help from your department, I will consider to seek for my rights in a different country."
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The Inspector-General later wrote back to inform Habib that ASIO did not intend to interview him again, except in the unlikely event that new information came to hand. But by this time, Habib's contacts with ASIO were an open secret in Haldon Street. Rumours swirled around Lakemba that Habib was a spy.
IBRAHIM FRASER: I remember once somebody said to me, "Just be careful about this guy." And I said "Why?" I mean, "What's wrong with Mamdouh?" you know. And they said, "No, you've got to be careful because he...he's got connections."
SHEIK ABU AYMAN, NATIONAL EMIR, AHLUS SUNNAH WAL JAMA'AH: We are under scrutiny from the Government and from everyone. Then someone come to say to us, "Let's go to jihad. Let's do that. Let's do this." And first thing comes to your mind - "That man wants to put us in trouble." That's why he wants to say, "Yes, yeah, let's go." Then he will go and report us. This is what...a normal thing to think about these people. And you don't blame anyone. This doesn't mean he is.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: But you thought he was working for ASIO or the Government trying to make trouble for you?
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: Doesn't mean he is, but it's normal to think he is.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: As the rumours escalated, Habib started complaining to his local MP, the Labor Member for East Hills, Alan Ashton.
ALAN ASHTON, MEMBER FOR EAST HILLS: He told me that the problem he had there was that the mosque authorities were accusing him of being, essentially, either an ASIO agent or a CIA agent. And that they had declared him at one stage... He used this word to me - 'halal'. And there are various definitions of that term, but the impression I got from him was that this meant that he could be killed - or sacrificed, if you like - if at any time he came into the Lakemba area and attempted to go to that mosque.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The bad blood between Habib and the men of the prayer room came to a head when a stranger from an Islamic group in Holland showed up collecting funds for the Chechen mujahadeen. The Dutchman, known as Abu Zer, was befriended by Habib. Abu Ayman and his colleagues became angry when they learned the visitor was using their group's name to raise funds. The sheiks confiscated the Dutchman's passport and demanded he give the money back.
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: We never heard of this man. We didn't know anything about him. Now, we don't give anyone the authority to collect any money for any reason whatsoever.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib described the argument with the man who runs the prayer room in a letter to his MP, Alan Ashton.
EXTRACT FROM MAMDOUH HABIB'S LETTER TO ALAN ASHTON: "He also said in front of many people that if I ever do come back to this mosque, he will break my head and cut my legs and hands into pieces."
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib claims that you said to him that you would break his head and cut his legs and hands into pieces and that you said - you asked, and I quote, "every Muslim to have him killed because his blood is halal".
SHEIK ABDUL SALAM, NSW EMIRE, AHLUS SUNNAH WAL JAMA'AH: I didn't say like this. I didn't say this. And I was surprised first when I heard from you now I said this. I deny it. And I challenge if I did say these words.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: What did you say to him?
SHEIK ABDUL SALAM: Just, "Please, Mamdouh, please don't come to this prayer room." He said, "Why?" I said, "You know why. Because you're making trouble with the...some people and I want...I don't want any trouble to be in my place here or in the prayer room."
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The dispute at the prayer room ended in blows when Habib showed up again with a video camera and began filming people as they left through the arcade.
Why was he doing that? Why was he filming people?
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: For so many reasons. A disturbed man, or a man wants to make trouble, they can, for teasing us enough...to create a problem. Maybe he's not shooting at all, he just putting the camera like this and letting the people feel they are being recorded, so they go and make a fight.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Two men were charged with assaulting Habib. One was the former Qantas baggage handler Bilal Khazal, currently facing charges of making documents likely to facilitate terrorism. The assault charges were eventually dropped for lack of a complainant after Habib's arrest. The Bankstown police investigated Habib's complaints to Alan Ashton of threats to himself and his family. The police concluded that the sole issue was Habib having been barred from the mosque and that his accusations were "grossly exaggerated and fictional". But in Habib's mind it all remained very real.
ALAN ASHTON, MEMBER FOR EAST HILLS: I think he was very frightened. He wrote one letter that just virtually headlined the letter, "It was a cold-blooded murder attempt," and he's underlined it. And then he goes on to describe having guns pointed at him and other things that happened. So by this stage he was very fearful, I think, for his life and his wife and his children.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib also complained to Alan Ashton's office that he'd been abused at his children's school and that rumours were being spread there that he was a spy.
ALLAN WINTERBOTTOM, ASHTON'S ELECTORATE ASSISTANT: He rang late one evening and he said about the problems with the children and, er, various people at the school were making it very uncomfortable for his children to attend. And he mentioned about the mosque where he was allegedly assaulted. And I suggested why doesn't he go to another school and another mosque and he raised his voice and said that he'd rather kill his own children than to change his place of worship.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: By early 2001, behind the familiar smiling face of Mamdouh Habib there was clearly a man on the edge. At a meeting with Bankstown police, Habib was described as showing "signs of hostility towards government organisations and the community generally". The Protective Services Group was asked to do "a detailed threat assessment" of Mr Habib. The final conclusion was that there was no information to support concerns that Habib might carry out an act of violence. The police decided Habib was "a repetitious and vexatious complainant" and that "little credibility could be attributed to any threats or allegations he may make".
ALAN ASHTON: While he never made any threats and never said anything that you would take to be a threat, it was just all the contacts he had and all the letters and that frustration. And occasionally his conversation with me would be along the lines of, "Do I have to leave the country?" And that's what he did.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: On July 29, 2001, Mamdouh Habib headed overseas again. His destination was Pakistan. He told several people he was going to find a religious school for his children.
MAHA HABIB: Believe it or not, we were going to go all together. All of us, you know, to see... We've heard that Pakistan has a very good reputation in teaching the kids the Koran, memorising the Koran, alright? And I guarantee you, whoever memorise the Koran and understand it, there won't be any problem. There won't be any, um, you know... Because knowing the Koran is a way of life, OK?
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib's exact movements after he arrived in Pakistan are once again unclear. His wife, Maha, claims he travelled only within Pakistan. The Australian Government claims Habib was in Afghanistan when the attacks on America took place on September 11 that year.
All that the Government has said publicly is that Habib is alleged to have trained with al-Qaeda. Four Corners has been given a more detailed account. We're told that while he was in Afghanistan, Habib did an advanced al-Qaeda training course in a camp near Kabul. It's claimed the course included surveillance and photographing facilities, the establishment and use of safe houses, covert travel and writing secret reports. Australian authorities say that several other men who took part in the course identified Habib as having been there. Evidence to support these claims is still to be produced.
IBRAHIM FRASER, FRIEND: I don't believe he's a terrorist. I just believe he's Mamdouh Habib looking for a place for his children to study. I mean, to do training doesn't mean to say that you actually participated in any war. People join the army but they don't all go to war. They do the training and not all people go to war.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: In the wake of September 11, ASIO raided and searched Habib's home. It was just after this that Maha Habib spoke to her husband for the last time.
MAHA HABIB: I told him. He said, "Have we got anything to hide?" I said, "No." He said, "Then don't worry about it." That's what he said and he was so calm about it. He said, "Just don't worry. Just relax." I was really upset. I asked him, actually, "Have you found a school?" And he didn't... Actually he didn't sound too good. He said, "Don't worry. I'll tell you when I come. Everything's upside down." That's after September 11. So he said, "I'll tell you all about it when I come home."
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib called again a few days later when no-one was home and left a message.
MAHA HABIB: Last thing we've heard was on the answering machine. He was saying, "I'm on my way back home." So we felt happy, you know, and I said, "That's it. He's coming!"
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib was in Quetta, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, on his way home. It was there he met the two Germans, Ibrahim Diab and Bekim Ademi, who were also heading home from Afghanistan.
IBRAHIM DIAB (TRANSLATION): When we arrived at the bus stop, we met an Australian. He told us he was going to look for a school for his children, but that he didn't like Pakistan. Like us, he was planning to go back home as quickly as possible. We went with him by taxi to the town centre because we planned to buy presents for our families there. The Australian bought shoes for his daughter.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib and the Germans took a bus for Karachi. But five hours into their journey, the bus was stopped by Pakistani police and the two Germans were hauled off. It apparently wasn't Habib they were after. Four Corners has been told that it was only when Habib piped up and protested in his usual fashion about the treatment of his companions that the Pakistanis said, "Well, if you're travelling with them, you can come too," and arrested Habib as well.
INTERROGATING OFFICER (TRANSLATION): I'm asking you again when and where you met the Australian, Habib.
IBRAHIM DIAB (TRANSLATION): I met him at the bus stop in Quetta.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The two Germans were released after their government intervened on their behalf. Under lengthy interrogation, they said nothing that incriminated Habib.
INTERROGATING OFFICER (TRANSLATION): We have information that the Australian, Habib, was also in a training camp near Kabul. Did you see him there? Did he tell you about that?
BEKIM ADEMI (TRANSLATION): No. I didn't see him in the camps I was in. Nor did he tell us that he had been into a training camp.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Unlike the Germans, the Australian Government has made no effort to have its citizen brought home.
PHILIP RUDDOCK, ATTORNEY GENERAL: If people go abroad to train with terrorist organisations, to learn how to use weapons against civilian populations, uh, they do pose a significant risk to your society.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Since his capture in Pakistan, the Government has seemed quite happy to have someone else deal with Mamdouh Habib. The Government is even less keen to have Habib brought home after advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions that neither he nor the other Australian in Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks, has committed any offence under Australian law at the time.
PHILIP RUDDOCK: The United States sought advice from us as to whether we could successfully prosecute Hicks and Habib and the advice they received from us is they could not be. Um, so our view has always been that if there were serious issues to be tried and the United States believed they were in a position to pursue those matters, it would be foolish for us to be seeking their return to Australia in the knowledge that they would have to be released.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: From Pakistan, Habib was sent to Egypt, where he was kept blindfolded and reportedly tortured for several months.
EXTRACT FROM LETTER FROM MAMDOUH HABIB TO MAHA HABIB: "I've been in too many different places - I never know where I am... I've been blindfolded for eight months - I never see the sun, but I see you and our kids every minute. I never forget you or forget my children."
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib was then sent to Guantanamo Bay, where he's been held now for more than two years, beaten and abused, according to the accounts of former detainees. The label "worst of the worst" used for the men held here has now been exposed as a fiction.
TORIN NELSON, FORMER GUANTANAMO BAY INTERROGATOR: Almost everybody that has come down to Guantanamo Bay to work there has usually gotten off the plane thinking that they're going to be working with 600-plus al-Qaeda and hard-core Taliban members. And then after not too long a period when they actually interact with them, they find that the majority of these individuals are...distantly removed from that type of idea. And you can see this evident in the fact that so few charges have been brought up against the detainees that are actually there.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Mamdouh Habib's family has heard nothing from him since March last year. His wife can only imagine the state he might be in. She's heard reports that can't be confirmed that he's dazed and confused, has refused his medication for depression, believes his family is dead.
MAHA HABIB: There's no correspondence, there's no letters. And he is... The Red Cross actually has said that he is refusing to write back. But why would he refuse to write back, you know? Doesn't... There's no explanation. I can't understand it.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: It may be many more years before Habib's family sees him again, because even after his trial by a US military commission, there is no guarantee he'll be released as long as the so-called 'war on terror' continues.
PHILIP RUDDOCK, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The argument that the United States has taken is that, in this war in which they're engaged, they don't wish to release people that they believe are likely to go back and resume hostilities.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: But that would blow away one of the most fundamental principles of the rule of law, would it not, if they were to do their time and still not be released?
PHILIP RUDDOCK: As I understand it, one of the...one of the accepted principles in the conduct of war under Geneva Conventions is that prisoners of war are held until the end of hostilities.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: And in this case, that could be 50 years?
PHILIP RUDDOCK: Well, we don't know, do we?
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: What we do know is that there's no happy ending in sight to the long and sorry story of Mamdouh Habib.
What was your reaction when you learned he was in Guantanamo Bay?
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: Somehow, I wasn't surprised, because a man with a big mouth like this, he will end up there. In another way I was really shocked, because the assessment of the Government should be better than anyone else. They know he's a disturbed man, they know his background. He never did a real threat or a real problem for the Government or for outsiders. But the Government didn't do anything to let the American understand "This is not the right man in your hand. He is not what he claims he is." He is a disturbed man. He doesn't deserve that punishment for his big mouth.
NEW Premier Kristina Keneally yesterday declared she would keep Labor warlords Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid as her mentors, describing them as "popular".
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, she denied she was a "puppet" and defended the men who helped her into power, claiming they had "served the community well".
Ms Keneally praised the pair that ousted premier Nathan Rees labelled as "disloyal and treacherous" and said she did not believe his description of them was true. But an angry Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday refused to endorse Ms Keneally.
"The people of NSW are now expecting better government," he said.
"I would suggest that the new Premier of NSW get on with the job as of today."
Senior sources said Mr Rudd was furious that, after having backed Mr Rees as premier, the NSW Labor Party "stuck their fingers up at him" and sacked him.
"It's safe to say he is not a very happy man," the source said. Ms Keneally was branded a "puppet" of Mr Tripodi and
Mr Obeid on Thursday and, when asked if she thought the stinging assessment of the pair as cancers on the party was true, Ms Keneally said: "No."
"I think that yesterday was a very difficult day for Nathan Rees. I don't believe those statements reflect well on the
party and I don't think they reflect what I would have thought was Nathan's genuine belief," she said.
The new Premier, who was handed the job by Mr Tripodi and Mr Obeid whose Right faction supported her, even defended their record of service to NSW.
"Both of those members have served as ministers in different cabinets and both of those people have served their communities well," Ms Keneally said.
"Joe is a very popular local member in his community."
Mr Rees sought a change to party rules at last months' state Labor conference to get rid of Mr Tripodi from cabinet.
Mr Obeid hit back last night, accusing Mr Rees of lying to "slander" him and Mr Tripodi because it was convenient.
When asked if she would continue to take their advice, Ms Keneally said she would continue taking the advice of all MPs.
"Particularly once you have been elected leader it is essential you talk to your caucus colleagues, all of them, and you work with your caucus colleagues, all of them," Ms Keneally said.
In a further sign that Ms Keneally will be unable to throw off the shackles of the past, she last night appointed Walt Secord, the Canadian-born former adviser to Mr Rudd and former premier Bob Carr, as her chief of staff.
Mr Secord was until yesterday, the chief of staff to NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal.
While Mr Tripodi will be left out of her Cabinet, leadership rival Frank Sartor will be welcomed in and Ms Keneally declined to say if former health minister John Della Bosca, who resigned over an extra marital affair three months ago, would make a comeback.
A source yesterday said both Ms Keneally and Mr Sartor had offered Mr Della Bosca a cabinet seat if he supported them.
Walt Secord……Ahem…Any thought of this Woman been ignorant or naive or been a babe in the woods and not totally aware of the malignant culpability of her Party and her back door men aka. “Puppeteers” FACELESS MEN of the ALP is now officially defunct, she is obviously one of THEM.
