Australians saw Habib tortured, says officer

Mamdouh Habib Tortured

DAMNING evidence from an Egyptian intelligence officer that names an Australian official who witnessed the torture of Sydney man Mamdouh Habib in Guantanamo Bay has been revealed as the trigger for a hushed-up government payout to Mr Habib and a high-level investigation. The explosive 840-word statement, released exclusively to The Sun-Herald, was shown to government solicitors three days before they suddenly paid Mr Habib an undisclosed amount to drop his lawsuit claiming Australia was complicit in his CIA-engineered kidnap in 2001, transfer to Egypt and subsequent torture.

Seems our Australian Government officials are just as guilty in respect to torturing our own citizens as the Americans have been.....shame!

In his statement, which is yet to be tested in court, the intelligence officer says Egyptian guards routinely filmed terrorism suspects in their jails. He says there is footage and photographs of Mr Habib and an Arabic-speaking Australian called George who witnessed his degradation.

''He [Habib] was naked of any cloths [sic] even his underwear. He was hysterical, almost crazy, drugged. The hand down of him and his belongings and the medical check was before the Australian official [George]. Habib constantly was fighting with the guards and wanted to escape outside.

''During Habib's presence some of the Australian officials attended many times and some of them were women. The same official who attended the first time, George, used to come with them and Habib was tortured a lot and all the time as the foreign intelligence wanted quick and fast information.''

The statement from the intelligence officer was taken by Mr Habib's Egyptian lawyer, Hisham Mahmoud Ramadan, who told Mr Habib yesterday that the overthrow of the Mubarak regime would make it easier to get more information about his torture.

Mr Habib was arrested in Pakistan in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He was secretly taken to Egypt where he was tortured for seven months before he was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, where he was held until January 2005. He was released without charge. He immediately began legal action against the Australian government, claiming it was complicit in his transfer and torture.

Then foreign minister Alexander Downer attorney-general Philip Ruddock repeatedly denied knowledge of the transfer. So did then ASIO boss Dennis Richardson and federal police chief Mick Keelty.

Mr Habib sued and after a six-year battle, the Gillard government suddenly agreed to pay him an undisclosed sum on December 17 in exchange for him dropping his case. The amount is subject to a strict confidentiality agreement.

Utterly dissappointed in the actions of the Australian Government......what hope is there for the rest of us.......this would set a precedence, whats next?

Originally posted by Melbourne_Militia
.what hope is there for the rest of us.......this would set a precedence, whats next?

Plenty of hope, do not support terrorists and you will have no problems - support terrorists and expect to be punished

Firstly I'm Australian, Secondly...as much as I hate seeing a fellow human being being subjected to such torture they used at Gitmo, I have to keep in mind that if terrorism ever reached our shores that our way of life would be changed indefinitely.

reply to post by Sounds_of_Silence


Thirdly Why the hell do they think they can come to our country and force there own laws and beliefs upon this beautiful land and then expect a payout when we are heavy handed with extremists. Multi-Culturalism is the undoing of any country which chooses to adopt it, just look at Britain, Canada, America all crawling with a minority of filth out to kill us. I would rather force them out of our country than let them in on the boil to wage there so called Jihad on us.

With some of the aussie posters views I am sometimes ashamed to admit I am an Australian..
Sad,,

reply to post by backinblack


Why? I don't see anything wrong with anyones posts here, no one has targeted muslims...only extremists(minority) if any at all, also, multiculturalism why don't they immerse themselves in our culture to a certain extent, with the racial abuse out-cry in 2009-2010 I didn't see a spike in those people joining the police force to keep there countrymen/women safe, I've never ever ever seen a person who has come to this country in the last 5 years out in force as police officer in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney....nowhere, why should people that have been living in Australia for more than 5-10 years have to pick up the pieces for these people.

Originally posted by Sounds_of_Silence
reply to post by backinblack

 

Why? I don't see anything wrong with anyones posts here, no one has targeted muslims...only extremists(minority) if any at all, also, multiculturalism why don't they immerse themselves in our culture to a certain extent, with the racial abuse out-cry in 2009-2010 I didn't see a spike in those people joining the police force to keep there countrymen/women safe, I've never ever ever seen a person who has come to this country in the last 5 years out in force as police officer in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney....nowhere, why should people that have been living in Australia for more than 5-10 years have to pick up the pieces for these people.

What is "our culture " ??
White man only arrived 240 years ago...

Even in my childhood it was the Italians and Greeks we said the same about..
Then it was the Chinese and other Asians..
Now it's the Muslims...

It all takes time..Assimilating and fitting in doesn't happen over night...
But it just seems to me we are always looking for someone to blame, someone to call the bad guy...

reply to post by backinblack


We are all flawed and you just have to take the lesser of the two evils, and I choose how we are now as to how we will be in the next 10-20 years if we don't sort these sort of things out and by things I mean people who want to kill us for the lives/religions we lead/follow. I don't want to be hanged in a public square or have a burning tyre around by neck.

I'm not sad to call myself Australian, I'm sad because there is an influx of people that have been known to put violence before love back in there own HOMEland, then they bring it all over here for whatever reason, and then the generations of people after we have withered away have to put up with it. You don't know what other people are thinking and the thing that best combats that is the way they are portraying themselves

Put all these things into perspective:

These are the things I don't care about: Having times set out for them to bathe with no men around. Halal Mcdonalds, because I don't even care how my meat is butchered(well I do, as humane as possible.) Women covering up in public(In someways I guess you could have men robbing banks in that attire.) or even have men sneak into womens change rooms in that attire(western women wouldn't think twice, I don't think.)

Things I do care about:

Let's target Churches of other dominations such as Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Mosques...just because of decisions made my a single person.
Gee lets throw boiling cooking oil over our wives because she refuses to sleep with us...because she would look so much more attractive after we teach her the lesson not to refuse sex, or lets just play marbles with huge rocks with this adultering wife. Lets throw acid on the people we like when we see them with another man/or woman. You know what? Let's introduce blasphemy laws for whoever takes any prophets name in Vain...Let's hang gay people in the town square for being gay. Let's just go to war with all infidels because they are unbelievers and shall suffer the same fate as animals at the slaughter.

I drove past a Jewish school just the other day and there were 3 security guards out the front, if you put two and two I don't think it would be a one off domestic violence thing.

Like I said before we are all flawed but you just have to pick the lesser of the two evils.

reply to post by Sounds_of_Silence


I haven't heard reports of any race or religion wanting to kill or target Aussies..
Certainly not Muslims and I have spent a LOT of time in Muslim countries..
I have not once felt threatened, in fact just the opposite..
They are very friendly to Australians..

I suggest you stop believing all the crap feed to you on TV and online..
Search and show me some facts to backup your comments..

The point I was trying to convey in my OP, was that the majority if not all Australians beleived that our government and/or officials within that government were not involved in the torturing of terrorist suspect/Australian citizens.

This revelation hits that on the head completely.

The other thing is that Habbib wasnt convicted so technically he is a free Australian citizen...Im talking bout the bigger picture here of potentially other Australian citizen with what the government may define as "extremist views" and Im not just talking about Muslim extremist here could be lined up and tortured aswell.

Many of our views on this forum are classified as extreme....many people who criticize the government could be classified as extreme....as furmenting extremist views/ideologies via online forums....

This could happen to anyone...thats the point Im trying to convey with this post...not on muslim extremism in Australia but what the government could classify as extremist and the potential ramifications of it.

Originally posted by Sounds_of_Silence
just look at Britain, Canada, America all crawling with a minority of filth out to kill us.

Minority filth?

Which minority is filthy?

reply to post by Melbourne_Militia


Sorry mate..Didn't mean to stray off topic..

But talk of extremists does seem to centre around Muslims lately..

Though you OP applies to Julian Assange and his treatment by our corrupt Government also..
I mean, we have a PM who was trying so hard to make up a crime to excuse the lack of help given to one of our own..

reply to post by whaaa


A racial, religious, political, national, or other group thought to be different from the larger group of which it is part.

I bet you were hoping I would say Muslim, but I am talking about a Minority of people with extremist views...of any denomination...the thing is, there ideals are corrosive to any forward functioning country.

Originally posted by Melbourne_Militia
Seems our Australian Government officials are just as guilty in respect to torturing our own citizens as the Americans have been.....shame!

Of course they are. That's the only reason they wanted a "confidentiality agreement". If I committed a crime, I would want one too.

Just like the gag order with Hicks. These people are simply fighting so we don't discover who they really are, so they can continue to fool the masses that they are good people and have our best interests at heart.

Originally posted by dereks
Plenty of hope, do not support terrorists and you will have no problems - support terrorists and expect to be punished

Problem is, these people were not supporting terrorists.

That's why they never end up being charged.

Originally posted by Sounds_of_Silence
reply to post by whaaa

 

A racial, religious, political, national, or other group thought to be different from the larger group of which it is part.

I bet you were hoping I would say Muslim, but I am talking about a Minority of people with extremist views...of any denomination...the thing is, there ideals are corrosive to any forward functioning country.

I wasn't hoping for anything except clarification.

Would you consider arrogant elitist, racist, fascist in the filthy minority? I would.... as they are the ones most corrosive to any society, with their quest for brutal control of anyone they disagree with; or that they perceive as different than themselves.

reply to post by whaaa


I guess, but they have a round-about way of trying to kill us, terrorists are more straightforward.

Originally posted by dereks

Originally posted by Melbourne_Militia
.what hope is there for the rest of us.......this would set a precedence, whats next?

Plenty of hope, do not support terrorists and you will have no problems - support terrorists and expect to be punished

And what if your son, daughter , brother, mother, neighbour, best friend, cousin, teacher or whatever was suddenly taken away on terrorist charges.

Would you then allow yourself to be punished?