[NYTr] Oz: Another Haneef tall terror story blown sky-high

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

[In another dispatch from southnews, not included here, there is
apparently growing concern among doctors worldwide about traveling to
Australia, given the treatment Mohamed Haneef has been given. Perhaps
Australia will soon be begging Cuba to send some of its legendary
medical teams to help out. -NY Transfer]

sent by Dave Muller (southnews)

Sydney Morning Herald - Jul 23, 2007
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/another-tall-story-blown-skyhigh/2007/07/22/1185042950376.html

Another tall story blown sky-high

by Craig Skehan

Yet more confusion  the federal police commissioner has dismissed 
reports of a plot to attack the Q1 building, above centre, involving
the detainee Mohamed Haneef, pictured with his wife, Firdous Arshiya.

Yet more confusion  the federal police commissioner has dismissed 
reports of a plot to attack the Q1 building, above centre, involving
the detainee Mohamed Haneef, pictured with his wife, Firdous Arshiya.
Photo: Michel Osullivan

PERHAPS thoughts of September 11 and its burning skyscrapers came to 
mind when investigators found a photograph of Mohamed Haneef and his 
family posing outside the Q1 residential tower on the Gold Coast.

The 77-storey, 322.5-metre landmark - the world's tallest residential 
building - has become a photogenic attraction in itself in the middle
of Surfers Paradise. But in the age of terrorism, you want to watch
where you point your camera.

In Haneef's case, his tower photograph prompted reports in Sunday 
newspapers of a terrorist plot to blow up the landmark. His lawyers
said it was the first they had heard of it. Then it fell to the
Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, to publicly
declare the claims false.

It was the last thing Mr Keelty needed after weeks of controversy over 
the Haneef case, including British police sources describing Australian 
police as "a laughing stock" after the revelation that the crucial
claim against the doctor - that his SIM card was found at the scene of
a Glasgow bombing attempt - was false.

"We will be taking the extraordinary step of contacting Dr Haneef's 
lawyer to correct the record," Mr Keelty said.

The Herald understands Haneef's lawyers were contacted by the federal 
police late yesterday.

The tower photograph was the subject of some police questioning after 
Haneef was arrested on July 2, but nothing was put to him to suggest it 
was regarded as potentially sinister.

But yesterday's report, in News Ltd newspapers, said that police found 
"images of a Gold Coast building" and its foundations in a raid on 
Haneef's apartment. The report said investigators were looking at 
documents referring to the "destruction of structures" and information 
that Haneef was one of a group of doctors who had been learning to fly 
in Queensland.

In his statement, Mr Keelty denied the federal police were the source
of the leak.

"There has been significant misreporting on many aspects of this case," 
he said.

Earlier, Haneef's solicitor, Peter Russo, said the report was "fanciful 
and wrong". He asked why, if police believed such a plot existed, they 
had not raised it in court, or in the information provided to the 
Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews, as he weighed cancelling Haneef's 
work visa.

Mr Andrews cancelled the visa after Haneef was granted bail on a charge 
of recklessly providing support to a terrorist organisation.

Haneef's wife, Firdous Arshiya, told the Herald that she and her
husband had taken many photographs around Surfers Paradise because it
was "the most happening place on the Gold Coast". The new reports were
laughable, she said from her home in Bangalore, India.

"I guess the AFP does not know what to do now. If this was the case
that they have found some more evidence against my husband, then why
are they planning to deport him as soon as possible?"

She was reacting to reports that some unnamed Government MPs, concerned 
about the controversy, would prefer to see Haneef simply removed from 
Australia.

Sources said Haneef would not seek an injunction to stop deportation - 
if the Federal Government tried to do so without proceeding to trial - 
because he was desperate to see his wife and new baby.

Meanwhile, Indian Government sources said there had been no reply to 
their request for a copy of a confidential section of a police brief 
used by Mr Andrews in ruling on Haneef's visa.

That information is expected to be presented at Federal Court hearings 
due to begin on August 8 to decide on an appeal against his visa being 
revoked.