Terrorism by Association - What Would Buffy Do?

So Dr Mohammed Haneef’s Visa has been revoked. Well I for one smell a rat. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for defeating terrorism, especially in my own back yard. But I must say that I am a bit suspicious that the only thing they could get him on is the fact that he aided and abetted a terrorist by supplying them with a mobile phone SIM card before he departed Europe for Australia. In cases like this, I like to ask myself “What Would Buffy Do?”, but since Buffy is all about fighting Vampires, and not terrorists I guess I am going to have to field that question myself.

So, “What would I do?”



Image lifted from the “Nine Network” Via theage.com.au

Let’s assume for a minute that I am, to pick a profession at random, an engineer, on holiday in the UK, and that I have a prepaid SIM card for the duration of my stay. Let’s further assume that when I leave, I have 20 pounds of credit left. I could throw it away. Or I could give it to a bloke down the pub on a Friday night for a couple of pints of the drink that cheers, or most likely to a family member. Let’s further assume that the aforementioned bloke down the pub or as it might be family member gets involved in some serious terrorism, I’d be mightily pissed off if I got done for aiding and abetting terrorism, based on the SIM card. Yes it is more likely that a family member would know that the person he was giving the SIM card to was involved in some seriously bad terrorism, but going back to the old “What would I do” way of thinking, I know there is a lot of stuff that I do that my family would not have a clue about.

The fact that it took so many Federal Police extensions to his detention (without charge whilst evidence was gathered) has me a wee bit suspicious that we may not have the strongest case against him. The fact that after gathering all that evidence, the AFP had to have his VISA revoked in order to get him legally detained makes me even more suspicious. I only hope that we actually have a strong case, and that the AFP are trying not so show how strong a hand they have regards getting a conviction, you know because of continuing investigations overseas.

I especially liked this quote from Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews:

“Haneef had failed a character test by associating with people allegedly involved in terrorism, and that the decision was based on advice from the Australian Federal Police. I reasonably suspect that Dr Haneef has had or had an association with persons involved in criminal conduct, namely terrorism,”

I can understand refusing to award a VISA to someone because they have some bad ass family members who are involved in terrorism (Since a country does not need to give a reason why it denies someone access, and in the case of a VISA application “Guilt by association is enough"), but cancelling a VISA in this manner, where the other legal avenues have failed, seems to be grasping at straws.

More info on the doctor here, here, here and here.

You make up your mind, because since I have not made up mine yet, I can’t be of any help, unless you pay me, then I will very helpfully tell you whatever you want to hear, and for the right amount, actually make it sound plausible.
--
haneef chat

I am not an Engineer. I am a Human Being!

Terrorism is getting weirder and weirder. It was kind of comforting to be able to think that terrorists were poor, disenfranchised people with nothing else to live for and hence they turned religiously extremist. Comforting I say, because at least we knew what the solution was. Get rid of poverty, and once people have enough money, they will stop trying to blow each other up, you know in the name of progress. But then we got these Doctors and Neurosurgeons no less getting in on the act. Don’t try to tell me that a neurosurgeon is a poor, disenfranchised person with nothing to live for. Or is medicine now part of the apprenticeship for suicide bombers.

From “The Times Online”

The unexpected profile of the modern terrorist: 26, from a caring family, married, with children, graduate
We expect suicide bombers to be uneducated social outcasts who have been twisted by fanatics. But the reality can be very different
Two men attempt to commit suicide and mass murder by driving a jeep packed with gas cylinders and petrol into an airport terminal. One is suspected to be a doctor, a man supposed to be committed to saving, not taking, lives. The other, now fighting for his life in a burns unit, is a “pleasant, calm and sociable” aeronautical engineer.

I got even more worried when I found out that the latest examples of the not so poor disenfranchised person with nothing to live for was in fact an “aeronautical engineer”. With brown skin no less. So worried in fact that I rang my parents and told them “I am not an aeronautical engineer, I am a human being” and if anyone asks I am now a project manager. It took a while for my mum to stop laughing, but at least we got that sorted out.

It pays to make sure people know the difference, at least now I can sleep at night and not worry about “crazed mobs” smashing in my door with flaming torches trying to fulfil the “brown skinned engineer APB”.