Detained man pleads: 'I'm not a threat to Australia'

Detained man pleads: 'I'm not a threat to Australia'

www.heraldsun.com.au

A PAKISTANI warehouse worker swooped on by intelligence services, who deemed him a security risk, says he is not an extremist and has pleaded to be released.
Salman Ghumman was taken in to custody on December 21 by Immigration Department officials at Merlynston Station, just days after he was quizzed by authorities about phone calls made to Pakistan, NATO attacks, his movements and why he was in the country.

(visit the link for the full news article)

How is this. To all Americans reading this, yes you got your bill passed this year, however Australia has had this happen since 2003! In all seriousness though, this guy was Pakistani with supposed links to a terrorist organisation, so in my opinion he deserved to get caught. The article goes on to mention:

Liberty Victoria president Spencer Zifcak said adverse security assessments from ASIO meant people could be kept in detention indefinitely.

"To hold people indefinitely on no charges without appeal is in breach of virtually every human rights convention Australia has signed on to."





www.heraldsun.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by daaskapital


ASIO are not stupid and it appears they knew exactly what they were doing and why when they took him in to custody.

They must have had this guy under a watchful eye and his phones tapped too.

Thank you ASIO !

reply to post by bluemirage5


Yeah definitely mate. I am pleased that ASIO nailed him. Who knows what he could have done

Everyone.. Terrorist or not shold be entitled to the due process of law. A world in which people become either above or below the law is a very dangerous place to live. The world is going backwards atm.. Not foward...

They royally screwed up by detaining Doctor Mohamed Haneef, so I wouldn't hold my breath on this guy either.

I'm not surprised he got caught, the authorities in Australia do a damn good job at keeping everyone under watch. They might get away with a terrorist attack in places like America or the UK but in Australia they keep a record of everything you do, even what you buy. A friend told me that if you buy more than 2 bucketts of chlorine (for a pool) at one time than you instantly go onto a secret watchlist.

Anyway, this guy does sound suspicious so I'm glad they caught this one.

Originally posted by Jace26
I'm not surprised he got caught, the authorities in Australia do a damn good job at keeping everyone under watch. They might get away with a terrorist attack in places like America or the UK but in Australia they keep a record of everything you do, even what you buy. A friend told me that if you buy more than 2 bucketts of chlorine (for a pool) at one time than you instantly go onto a secret watchlist.

Anyway, this guy does sound suspicious so I'm glad they caught this one.

Jace, not to sound anti-ASIO or anything but how is what you described freedom? Ok so this one guy was making suspicious moves so they arrested him. What if he had family in Pakistan that was in a not so nice place and he was calling to let them know how his petition for citizenship was going. He should at least have a fair trial to plead his case. How backwards this world has become.

I don't know whether he's guilty or not so I'm not going to pass judgement as what I read in the article was mostly happenstance. What if it was you?

Originally posted by HellstormRising

Originally posted by Jace26
I'm not surprised he got caught, the authorities in Australia do a damn good job at keeping everyone under watch. They might get away with a terrorist attack in places like America or the UK but in Australia they keep a record of everything you do, even what you buy. A friend told me that if you buy more than 2 bucketts of chlorine (for a pool) at one time than you instantly go onto a secret watchlist.

Anyway, this guy does sound suspicious so I'm glad they caught this one.

Jace, not to sound anti-ASIO or anything but how is what you described freedom? Ok so this one guy was making suspicious moves so they arrested him. What if he had family in Pakistan that was in a not so nice place and he was calling to let them know how his petition for citizenship was going. He should at least have a fair trial to plead his case. How backwards this world has become.

I don't know whether he's guilty or not so I'm not going to pass judgement as what I read in the article was mostly happenstance. What if it was you?

Sorry for intruding in your conversation, but it is better to be safe than sorry. I'm sure ASIO wouldn't detain someone based on no evidence. The incident in which you described did obviously not happen. ASIO was tracking his phone calls, and listening in as well. He was talking about the NATO attacks and other events taking place in the region, not his petition for citizenship. If i was this Pakistani guy, i would help ASIO clear everything up. There's nothing else he can do.

reply to post by HellstormRising


Well, no not really. I'm sure he was arrested because they had sufficient evidence against him etc, phone hacking. It doesn't have to do with a lack of freedom or living in a police state, this is just how our authorities deals with these people, secretly.
However, I would also like to say that in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks the state of Queensland actually introduced a new law against terrorism. There is nothing a terrorist could have done that was not already illegal in Australia, so what was new in this law that was not published in the media?
Inside it stated that it now gave authority for the federal government to lawfully detain people who are suspected of going against Australia, they can hold you indefinately without a reason.

reply to post by Kryties


I still believe Haneef had direct or indirect contacts with undesireable persons of interest in India, most Indian Muslims do.

Perhaps ASIO did'nt have enough to bury the guy and may have screwed up their own investigation but I'm sure they were on the right track.