The bien-pensant pissants that provide so much of Crikey’s commentary have invested much time in tortured argument since the arrest of Mohamed Haneef demonstrating the arch-Machiavellianism of John Howard and his cronies in the ministry, let alone the over-zealousness of his Federal Police satraps.

They have also successfully demonstrated their ignorance of public administration.

C-ckups happen much more often than conspiracies.

What else would you expect a flustered, desperate government and a media sl-t AFP Commissioner to produce?

Central to the conspiracies was the active acquiesence and participation of The Australian newspaper – “The Government Gazette”, in their parlance.

The same Australian newspaper that on Friday was already telling on its front page how “Australian Federal Police investigating terror suspect Mohamed Haneef made claims in a court affidavit that appear to be inconsistent with an official police record of interview…”

And the same Australian newspaper that today tell how the flatfoot fed “wrote the names of overseas terror suspects in Dr Haneef’s personal diary, only to later grill him during an interrogation over whether he had written the potentially incriminating notes…”

There’s a scandal here, alright, but no conspiracy.

Two scandals, in fact.

The first is that the frontline of our nation’s defence against terrorism appears to be held by heavy-handed morons – thugs and fools of the type that gave us the Cornelia Rau scandal.

And the second is that the Government continues to tolerate these bungling bureaucrats after the Rau and Alvarez scandals.

There’s a small silver lining for people concerned about this.

The perpetually outraged know far more about huffing and puffing than they do about winning elections.

And Labor seems to have stopped listening to them.

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