The crazy processes at work in our latest terrorism threat Dr Mohomad Haneef is a warning of the ways in which our freedom and rights are being eroded, in the name of the "war" on terror.
Dr Haneef was first detained for nearly two weeks simply because he was related to one of the perpetrators of the London and Glasgow bombings.
After rendering his house unfit for habitation, and finding that the magistrate was starting to get impatient with the lack of evidence being presented, the police finally charged him with "recklessly supplying a phone SIM card to a terrorist organisation."
When the magistrate ordered him released on bail, the Immigration Minister immediately revoked his visa and announced he would be locked up again in Immigration Detention.
Let's deconstruct the charges and the process.
1. "Recklessly supplying a SIM card." A phone SIM card is not a dangerous, deadly or even valuable item. He gave the card to his cousin a year ago to use up unused calls. If the terrorists had not received this card from Dr Haneef they could have got one from almost any shop in the UK. When you give a small, disposable gift to a friend or relative do you stop to ask if they could use it in a violent way? Why have the police not charged the retailer of the SIM card for being equally reckless? Remember the Cronulla riots and the unprecedented use of SMS to organise the attacks on both sides? Where were the "reckless use of SIM cards" charges then?
2. "A terrorist organisation." This phrase hardly describes the ham-fisted attempts at jihad by these men. Al-Quaeda have distanced themselves from the group because it was so singularly unsuccessful! The UK police have NOT charged the perpetrators of belonging to a terrorist organisation, so clearly there is no organisation.
What has happened is Dr Haneef has been found guilty of being related to some bad people- guilty by association.
What particularly concerns me is that having had the their case thrown out of court the government then uses an administrative ruse to further detain Dr Haneef. They keep hinting at information that can't be released to the public as justification for their actions. Yet a magistrate has seen the best case the police can put up and has considered it inadequate. Haneef's lawers believe that when the visa decision is reviewed by an independent tribunal it has a good chance of being overturned.
It is obvious to me that the Government is seizing this case as an opportunity to bolster its claim to be tough on terrorists in an election year, when it is facing a very difficult battle to be re-elected.
We live in a society that traditionally values individual freedom. It used to be said that it was more important to risk one guilty person go free than to risk that innocent people be locked up.
But that high value on freedom is being whittled away year by year. As politicians increasingly take away the rights we take for granted- open trials, presumption of innocence, due process- we will see more and more people being locked up for no good reason.
If that's the way we are going we might as well let the jihadists win- what they are demanding seems no worse than what the politicians are delivering in the name of "freedom."
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