Download the full transcript of the police’s second record of interview with Dr Mohamed Haneef here.
For how much longer does the Australian public have to put up with Kevin Andrews – our hapless Immigration Minister. Today, with the release of 378 pages of the second record of interview by Federal Police with Dr Haneef, once again Mr Andrews has been undermined by the facts.
Remember that Mr Andrews would only selectively quote from the second record of interview and said that the release of the entire interview was a matter for the AFP. Mr Andrews didn’t want to prejudice national security by releasing the entire interview.
Well we have news for you – an analysis of the 378-page interview shows (which you can download here) that there is nothing contained in it which, if made public, would jeopardise national security or an ongoing investigation.
The vast majority of the 378 pages is taken up with questions and answers which essentially rehash matters inquired about in the first record of interview. Matters about Dr Haneef’s background, how long he had been in Australia, his relationship with his cousins etc.
Names and contact details have been blacked out so there can be no question that Dr Haneef’s lawyers, who released the Interview today, are in any way hindering an investigation.
And the material in the interview on the internet chatroom conversations between Dr Haneef and his cousins (where he talks about leaving Australia and the attempted terrorist attacks in the UK) – selective extracts of which Mr Andrews cynically leaked to the court of public opinion to prejudice Dr Haneef’s reputation – is not nearly as damaging to Dr Haneef when one reads all the questions and answers on that topic.
Here’s Haneef’s explanation of the online chat that the Immigration Minister found so suspicious:
Yesterday Mr Andrews lost in the Federal Court because he tried to kick Dr Haneef out of Australia by applying the wrong legislative test. Today Mr Andrews has been caught out being, shall we say, a little too clever by half, in refusing to release the entire 378 pages of the second interview, instead settling for selected, inflammatory highlights which are taken out of context.
Mr Andrews behaviour over the second interview is his “children overboard” scandal.
Read Christian Kerr’s blog on the Haneef transcript here.
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