Look out, reptiles, here come Keelty's size 12s

Richard Ackland
February 1, 2008

You've got to admire Mick Keelty, our top-dog copper. Boldly and single-handedly, he has set about reforming the fragile flower of open justice. It has been in a parlous condition for some time, what with so much prejudice about, so maybe Mick's right - close it down completely.

Herd all those bad-breathed reptiles and their notebooks out of the courts, bolt the doors and let the judges and lawyers get on with the public-spirited task of slotting people.

The impression I got from the federal police commissioner's speech to a public rally in Sydney on Tuesday was that he was rather keen on the concept of the "media blackout".

Here are his words on the topic of community access to trial information: "In the United Kingdom, to provide a contrast with Australia, contempt-of-court laws prevent journalists from reporting proceedings in open court. In fact, even reporting information that has previously been in the public domain might also not be exempt from contempt-of-court laws."

Que?

A cursory examination of various English newspapers reveals a wholesale breach of what we might call "Mick's law". The Guardian, The Times and The Independent, not to mention such fragrant organs as the News of the World, are all carrying innumerable reports of terrorism cases and other criminal proceedings in court. Soft-headed English hacks have not caught up with this blackout.

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Gus: Richard, you're too kind or too subtly sarcastic for your [our] own good. Mick Keelty should go. Boom... Replaced with someone who has no connection to the past government's shenanigans. Someone who's not prepared to feed our black sheep to the death-penalty wolves in another country... Someone who thinks with his/her brains rather than his/hers polish for brass buttons...  Someone who's not blaming anyone else — especially "reptiles" (I call some of them "dung beetles" as they used to push shit uphill) — for his cock-ups...  

The Rudd government has to pay him out if it has to... Mick's an accident-prone embarrassment to Aussies like me. And believe me, the sad part is he's not going to learn or improve... More of the same clod-plod if he stays. Give him a gold watch. Give him two gold watches... whatever.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the Federal Government does not support Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty's call for a media blackout in terrorism cases.

Earlier this week Mr Keelty said he believed the media should be prevented from reporting on terrorism cases until all judicial avenues have been exhausted.

But Mr Rudd has told Fairfax radio that while he has full confidence in the Commissioner, the Government will not be acting on the call.

"He's speaking obviously in terms of his own capacity as head of the Federal Police," he said.

"The Government has its own view and the Government's view is that the media should simply abide by the laws of the land.

"On the side of the media giving full and frank coverage, I think the media's role in the [Mohammed] Haneef case was in the national interest."

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Gus:  the words "national interest", "full confidence" and "the law of the land" are creeping in the Rudd vocab. Sure... he's the boss...

But Mick Keelty is speaking rot nonetheless... and one cannot have confidence even (especially) when speaking rot "obviously in terms of his own capacity as head of the Federal Police." Not good enough, Kev. 

from Crikey ..... 

Haneef's lawyer exonerated: Keelty on shakier ground …..  

Greg Barns writes: 

Stephen Keim, the barrister who represented Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef, had a victory this morning, with Queensland's Legal Services Commissioner exonerating him for the act of releasing his client's records of interview.  

One of the complainants against Keim was none other than Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty. In fact, as recently as this week, Keelty was still banging on about Keim's disclosure. Of course, what Keelty conveniently forgets, but what the Legal Services Commissioner obviously took into account was that, in the circumstances, Keim's actions were thoroughly justified. 

This is because, despite what Keelty says, the AFP was busily leaking information that was adverse to Dr Haneef after they arrested him in July last year. 

It's about time that Mick Keelty simply recognised what the rest of the community knows - that he and his organisation performed lamentably in the Haneef investigation and that he should stop trying to blame others, like Keim.  

The Keim case of course illustrates why it is that the Australian legal system needs to grow up and allow lawyers to speak directly to the media about their clients' cases and release any documentation if it is appropriate to do so, and their client consents. This is the situation in many other countries in the world, and if such rules applied in Australia, Queensland taxpayers would have been saved thousands of dollars, because the Legal Services Commissioner would have had nothing to investigate.

The paramilitary wing of the AFP

By Bruce Haigh

Terrorism has been a feature of global policing from the mid 1960s, although listening to the Howard government and the Australian Federal Police you could be forgiven for believing that terrorism began on September 11, 2001.

.... 

Keelty has encroached into the public service under what, until now has been the unchallengeable mantra of terrorism. When faced with deciding a course of action following the boarding of a Japanese whaling vessel by two activists, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, said the AFP were providing him with advice on the legalities of their action and the procedures to be followed.

This is not the role of the AFP. The AFP is there to uphold the law, not interpret the law. Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-General's department have well qualified lawyers to provide advice on issues involving The Law of the Sea. The trigger for the involvement of the AFP was the incomprehensible claim that the actions of the activists might constitute an act of terror.

It is with this mechanism that the AFP have been able to clear the arena, allowing inroads into the Departments of Immigration, Foreign Affairs, Defence, AusAid and Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Terrorism has been the vehicle for unrestrained empire building by Keelty and the AFP with minimum accountability and an apparent desire to avoid it.

Keelty's drug demand comments amazing: educator

A drugs educator says Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty would not have made remarks regarding the effectiveness of strategies to curb illegal drug demand under the previous federal government.

Mr Dillon says the previous government concentrated mainly on enforcement, and hopes the commissioner's comment will trigger community debate.

"Every single time they said they were doing anything about drugs, out would come a new police helicopter, or out would come a new customs machine," he said.

"That's very easy to parade to the media and say, 'Look, we're doing something about drugs'. It's a lot more subtle that that.

"You can't parade everything out that is demand reduction. Harm reduction isn't particularly palatable to some members of the community, so of course, that's a tough one.

"And that's going to prove a very, very tough one for the Rudd Government."

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Keelty should have been at least reprimanded or sacked for his handling of Dr Haneef's case done at the pleasure of Rattus demands rather than good policing... And the package of fog surrounding the truth about this case should have been dispelled by Our Ruddner... see toon at top.

The AFP's ties to the Coalition have almost turned our nation into a police state, using terrorism and immigration as political tools, writes Bruce Haigh.

AS THE HOWARD REGIME progressed, through time it perfected the art of smoke and mirrors, reaching the art of the ridiculous under Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Abbott and Turnbull made notable contributions.

Over this twenty-three year period, the politicisation of the public service and associated institutions has aided and abetted the show business of the LNP and, to a lesser extent, the Labor Party. We have seen the trashing of truth for political ends. As an example, sustained pressure from Howard saw the Bureau of Statistics decide that one hour of work a week constituted employment. By what flight of common sense did that become accepted? It is nonsense intended at the time to boost the LNP’s political fortunes.

I deliberately include the Labor Party in the Howard era because of their supine adoption of Howard’s policies toward refugees, poverty, border “protection”, Iraq, Afghanistan, water, energy and the AFP.

And it is the AFP I wish to examine with a hope of reform, better accountability and improved leadership.

The AFP has demonstrated an ideological affiliation with the LNP and their obsession with border protection and terrorism. They bought into Howard’s use of terrorism as a political tool and means of control, much as Menzies did with Communism (“Reds under the bed” and Vietnam).

Encouraged by Howard, the former Commissioner of the AFP, Michael Keelty, ran a strong anti-refugee and terror campaign. The AFP was active offshore in Indonesia disrupting people smugglers with threats and inducements with the aim of preventing the arrival of boats in Australia. They bought into turning back boats as a deterrence when, in fact, a better policy would have been to process refugees in Indonesia as part of a regional policy.

With his illegal incarceration of refugees and the pursuit of terrorists, Howard put little in writing, operating with a wink, a nod and peripheral language.

On 2 July 2007, an Indian doctor, Mohamed Haneef, working at a Gold Coast hospital was arrested as he attempted to depart Australia for India on a one-way ticket. He was arrested under the 2005 Terrorism Act, which closely resembles the terrorism act in place in Apartheid South Africa.

Haneef told the AFP that he was going home to see his six-day-old daughter. He was not believed. His SIM card had been found in a vehicle belonging to men accused of bombing Glasgow Airport on 30 June 2007. He was distantly related to the men. He had given one of them the card on his departure from the UK some months earlier. He had bought a one-way ticket to India because of insufficient funds.

With excellent lawyers, the case against Haneef began to fall apart and, as it did so, false and misleading information was leaked to the press as an attempt to discredit Haneef. All charges against him were withdrawn on 27 July and he returned to India. He later received a considerable sum of money as compensation. The Indian Government was considerably exercised over the gross miscarriage of justice and made a number of representations.

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/there-is-no-b...

Read from top.

The Australian Federal Police's war crimes investigation into former special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith was compromised after former AFP chief Mick Keelty was told secret details by serving police and then passed them on to Mr Roberts-Smith.

Mr Keelty passed on confidential information to Mr Roberts-Smith just days after the AFP had launched what were supposed to be covert inquiries into the Afghan veteran and Victoria Cross recipient in early June 2018. Mr Keelty's information confirmed to Mr Roberts-Smith that he was the subject of police interest according to official sources familiar with the matter speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The police watchdog, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, has confirmed Mr Keelty's actions have resulted in an inquiry into "a potential corruption issue relating to the alleged release of information by an unknown AFP member to Mr Ben Roberts-Smith about an investigation into Mr Roberts-Smith".

Sources with knowledge of the events say Mr Keelty's intervention allowed Mr Roberts-Smith to take precautions against police inquiries at a time when he should not have known he was under scrutiny. The disclosures meant the covert phase of a war crimes inquiry – one of the most sensitive probes in AFP history – was blown only days after it started.

read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/covert-war-crimes-inquiry-compromised-by-former-afp-chief-mick-keelty-20200812-p55kzj.html

Read from top.

Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter has defended former AFP boss Mick Keelty's role as an anti-corruption adviser, saying he provided "valuable insight" into the structure of a new national integrity commission even though his conduct was subject to a corruption investigation at the time.

Mr Keelty, who has held various government positions since he retired in 2009, has admitted he passed on confidential information given to him by his ex-colleagues to former special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith just days after the AFP had launched inquiries into the Afghan veteran and Victoria Cross recipient.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/porter-defends-keelty-s-appointment-to-anti-corruption-position-20200817-p55mlh.html