Friday, October 24, 2003

Servile Australian Senator 'defends' Bush and 'man of steel' Howard from 'dangerous' files: "'I [Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot] spontaneously rose from my seat when I saw [Green senators] Brown and Nettle heading for the President with some files in their hand. I don't know what was in those files. They could have been something dangerous. I couldn't take that chance.

'I prevented them from accosting the President and the Prime Minister. I assumed either [of the leaders] was deserving of my defence.'"

"The "dangerous" object the Greens were bearing was actually a letter written by Maha Habib, pleading for the release of her husband, Mamdouh, who has been held without charge at Guantanamo Bay for some two years."

"When the US President was delivering his address to Parliament, the 18-year-old [Ahmed Habib], whose father has been held without charge by the Americans in Cuba since late 2001, stood up in the public gallery. "What about my father's rights?" he called out before security guards escorted him from Parliament, making him the only person removed during the address.

"[Lawyer] Mr Kenny said the two men were "being kept in cages, their regular exercise is two 15- or two 10-minute exercise periods per week whilst shackled . . . They've had no contact with the outside world except occasional censored Red Cross letters"... Mrs Habib said Mr Bush "was saying wonderful things about freedom, about democracy and justice and dignity, but unfortunately, where is my husband standing now?""

No comments: