A top federal investigator was identified in a secret corruption inquiry more than a decade ago yet rose to become one of the most powerful crime-fighters in the country before being charged this year in a major drug importation sting. 

Ten years after closing the secret Harrison inquiry into corruption within the Australian Federal Police, The Weekend Australian can reveal that Mark Standen - the NSW Crime Commission deputy director until he was arrested in June - was one of the agents named in the 1997 investigation.

Leaked documents obtained by The Weekend Australian indicate that as recently as 2006, AFP agents failed to act on allegations by drug bosses, in formal interviews, about Mr Standen.  

And authorities have now been forced to look back at the Harrison files dealing with Mr Standen, who faces charges over an alleged plot to import $120million worth of pseudoephedrine.  

It can also be revealed that Mr Standen was one of a number of agents who quit the AFP ahead of the Harrison inquiry and was not investigated for corruption.  

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal that the inquiry head, then Sydney silk and now NSW Supreme Court judge Ian Harrison, complained at the time to the Howard government that he had been given "insufficient" powers to compel a number of agents to face the hearings because they quit the AFP as the inquiry was being set up.  

The Weekend Australian has been told that the Harrison inquiry and the federal Attorney-General's Department informed employers of all the officers named in the report who had left the AFP but taken up other law enforcement officer positions.  

It is understood Mr Standen's then employer, the now-defunct National Crime Authority, was made aware of allegations.  

An investigation by The Weekend Australian has raised questions about the handling of corruption allegations about the AFP, as well as widespread discontent within the ranks over abuse of a confidential system for agents to make secret allegations against each other.  

The AFP is one of the few police organisations in Australia not to have faced a fully empowered judicial inquiry into corruption.  

The Federal Police Disciplinary Tribunal was closed down in 2006 after not hearing a case for seven years -- with the AFP preferring to deal with agents behind closed doors.  

Commonwealth Ombudsman John McMillan -- who is responsible for investigating complaints against the federal police - said he was in favour of a parliamentary watchdog to oversee the AFP and plug a "big gap".  

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty yesterday said a more robust way to deal with allegations of corruption would be to put the money into the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, set up in 2006 to monitor corruption issues in the AFP and the Australian Crime Commission.  

"To deal with corruption effectively requires pro-active and covert operations, whereas a parliamentary oversight committee would look at issues retrospectively," Mr Keelty said.  

"The AFP already reports to the legal and constitutional committee in the Senate -- another layer of parliamentary oversight would in my view not be as effective as a properly funded ACLEI."  

Former AFP internal investigator Ray Cooper, who investigated corrupt cops in Sydney, yesterday told The Weekend Australian that the AFP had suffered from a culture of cover-up and his warnings about corruption in the 1980s went unheeded because the AFP was so desperate to be seen as "squeaky clean".  

"They would like the public to believe they are without fault but no organisation which is involved in drug trafficking and laundering can ever expect to be squeaky clean. They will always have to be vigilant, because sooner or later someone will go off the rails."  

Investigators Re-open AFP File On Mark Standen 

How can we expect anything better when the leadership of the AFP has been so completely compromised by successive waves of incompetent politicians & when promised enquiries turn-out to be nothing more than public whitewashes? 

The current Prime Minister – “our Kevin” - & the Attorney-Drone – Robert McClellend – have both publicly expressed complete confidence in the village idiot who holds the post of Commissioner of the AFP, Mick Keelty, notwithstanding that its own counterfeit enquiry into the obscene Haneef affair has not even been completed. 

The fish always rots from the head down ….

The Australian reports that the AFP has finally released an unclassified version of their on the investigation of Dr. Mohammed Haneef.  

The report summarises some of the issues that the AFP claims made them suspicious. What’s new is that they report finding “jihadist” materials in Haneef’s flat, a brochure ‘from the UK branch of an international organisation, which is prescribed terrorist organisation in a number of countries.  

The revelations are contained in the Federal Police's long-awaited submission to the Clarke inquiry, which was published on the internet today.  

In the submission, the AFP revealed that investigators unearthed a brochure from an organisation the AFP said was "prescribed in a number of countries”.  

The brochure contained a reference to "the brutal invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the killing and murder of our brothers and sisters and the brutality of British and American foreign policy". 

The submission does not name the organisation, nor say in which countries it is banned.

On Dr Haneef's laptop the AFP found audio files of lectures delivered by an author "linked to al-Qa'ida”.  

"In one of the lectures the author expresses a militant view of jihad, explaining that fighting jihad in the path of Allah is the primary meaning of the word if it is used unqualified”.

Again, the author is not named, nor is any further context to the remarks provided.  

Dr Haneef's legal team also made the point that these materials were never raised with Dr Haneef, meaning he was never given a chance to explain them. 

One of Dr Haneef's lawyers, Rod Hodgson, said their inclusion in the submission appeared to be an attempt to further traduce his client's reputation.  

What a joke: there are no jihadists posting on this site but it is replete with opinions of the kind that the incompetent Keelty & his plod are so concerned about ….

Maybe they’ll arrest us all for having an opinion about the war crimes perpetrated against Iraq, Afghanistan & the civilian peoples of both countries? 

Fascism’s finest. 

meanwhile ….. 

Who watches Australia’s spies?  

That is the job of Ian Carnell, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. He plays a crucial role given the lack of judicial or parliamentary oversight in Australia of intelligence operational activities.  

His Annual Report (PDF 1.89MB) for 2007-2008, has just been publicly released. 

The constant need to balance security, secrecy and civil liberties hovers over this Report. 

It is easy to take a jaundiced view of security and intelligence agencies, but all countries, one way or another, have them, even New Zealand and Switzerland. The hard part is for democratic governments to keep track of their spy agencies. The Inspector-General's office was basically established to “watch the watchers” and head off major problems that might effect the government, public or employees of the agencies themselves. 

The Inspector-General, with his tiny staff of nine people, has oversight of the following spy agencies: 

·                     Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO);

·                     Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS);

·                     Defence Signals Directorate (DSD);

·                     Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO);  

·                     Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO); and

·                     Office of National Assessments (ONA). 

It is notable that the Australian Federal Police is not included even though it possesses extensive security and intelligence resources within Australia and overseas. 

An Annual Report is not supposed to generate headlines critical of the government - hence events are covered in a process driven manner. Dramatic events that received passing mention included the treatment of Dr Haneef (mainly on page 23) which is also the subject of the enfeebled Clarke Inquiry.  

A cynic might suspect that the AFP-influenced Haneef affair could be minimised simply because the vast security and intelligence resources of the AFP are strangely immune from the Inspector-General’s oversight. 

Who Watches The Watchers?

from 4 Corners ….. 

They were the glamour force... supercops smashing drug rackets, tracking terrorists and making Australians feel safe. 

Grateful politicians showered them with praise and hefty budget increases. Officers of the Australian Federal Police and their canny chief Mick Keelty could do no wrong. 

Or so it seemed. 

The once-lionised AFP is now ridiculed for apparent bungling, excessive secrecy and cosying up to political masters.

The collapse of the terrorism case against Dr Mohammed Haneef – now the subject of an inquiry by a retired judge – has been a humiliation for the AFP, with speculation erupting about Mr Keelty’s future. 

Good Cop, Bad Cop

remember when... That was more than a year ago!!!!... and the crap still fly in the fan because the copper is still there buttering the buttocks of the new ministers? Hello?...