Turns out the SIM card which Haneef “recklessly supplied to terrorists” (allegedly) wasn’t anywhere near either of the incidents that have landed him in so much shit. And the police knew. And they didn’t say anything about this crucial bit of evidence on which the charges against Haneef hang. Oh. But he’s still going to be in jail, or detention, and most likely deported, and his future tainted by the fact that his visa was cancelled and his passport suspended. Chances are he’ll never visit a foreign country again, at least through legitimate channels. ...

I don’t think I’ve ever understood this term quite as well as I do now. I’ve picked up the work from one of the guys in the team who is off on holidays, and along with the new-found responsibility that I’ve been given myself (I have to find solutions!) I’m suddenly finding myself with too many meetings and not enough time at all. Never was the lesson that you have to have a concise message more clear than it is now… ...

You’d have to think there’s something about the Immigration portfolio which requires the minister in charge to check their conscience at the door. First we had Ruddock with the Tampa, SIEV X, the “Pacific Solution” and all that illegal immigration muck. Then we had Vanstone and that little bit of nastiness around the lady deported to the Phillipines, not to mention Cornelia Rau, the German-born lady who forgot who she was momentarily and was locked up for it. ...

It just gets better for Mohammed Haneef. He wins bail, walks out of the court… into the arms of the Immigration department. His 457 visa has been revoked and he will now be put into a detention centre for illegal immigrants. Ironically, he was trying to leave the country when he was arrested. The reason? Section 501 of the visa. With a special proviso. What’s that, you say? Guilty, by association, until proven Innocent, you might say: ...

Dr Mohamed Haneef, the “Australian connection” in the recent terror scare in the UK, is to be charged with “recklessly supporting terrorism by supplying the SIM card to his second cousin, Sabeel Ahmed”, and therefore he had “supplied the alleged terrorists with a usable alternative identity.” He faces up to 15 years in prison for giving his mobile SIM card to his cousin. Un-frickin-believable. If this case had any real basis, the prosecution would have to demonstrate that he actively knew that his cousins would engage in a terrorist act, and that the SIM card could be a way for authorities to monitor and track his cousins. When clearly, they had no bloody idea that anything was going to happen, and the ‘alternative identity’ apparently provided by the SIM card had no role to play in the terrorist act. ...