Collaborating with torturers or conducting torture in Australia or abroad could be made a separate criminal offence by the Federal Government. 

In a new hardline approach against torture, the Government will also ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture — an extra treaty that allows United Nations or domestic inspectors to visit prisons and detention centres. 

It is unclear whether the proposed federal law criminalising torture will affect Australia's security forces or their work with foreign agencies. 

Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said existing legislation preventing torture applied to defence personnel and "hasn't impeded their interaction with other defence forces". 

But Ben Schokman, a lawyer at the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, said not all legislation covering security forces had penalties for torture. 

He said the ASIO Act of 1979 stipulated that detainees be treated humanely, but did not provide penalties for cruel treatment. 

He questioned the implication of the proposed law for cases such as that of Australian Mamdouh Habib, who alleges Australian officials allowed the US to transfer him to Egypt for torture under its "rendition" program. 

Distancing the Government from the US, Mr McClelland condemned the torture method known as waterboarding, which has been used by US intelligence agencies. Under the practice, detainees are held down and water poured over their faces to simulate drowning. 

Government Takes Hard Line Against Torture 

and some deja-vu ….. 

Whilst Osama bin Laden's former driver was found guilty in the first full trial held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba this week, it's a fate that could well have befallen Australian Mamdouh Habib, who found himself in Guantanamo Bay after a journey under United States control that allegedly involved being tortured in Egypt as part of the sinister rendition program. 

It's been a long saga but now it seems that the truth about Habib's experiences and the failure of the Australian Government to ensure that he received appropriate legal protection is finally seeping out. 

In recent days, The Age requested information from the Attorney-General's Department on how the Australian Government became aware Habib was in Egypt and if anyone from the government visited him there. The department was also questioned about whether Australian air space, personnel or equipment had ever been used to assist with a rendition. 

Few Australians will have heard about an extraordinary meeting involving some of the nation's most powerful government figures held at the Attorney-General Department in Canberra on October 23, 2001. Perhaps more should know that it concerned the possible torture of this Australian citizen. 

The meeting, organised by the spy agency ASIO, was a "pull-aside" after another meeting so there was no official transcript of what was said, but those present discussed the possible forced transfer of Habib from Pakistan to Egypt, possibly to be tortured. No wonder no one was taking notes. 

The United States was interested in Australia's views. The most extraordinary part of the meeting was the conclusion: that the Australian government "would not give assent to such a process of rendition" to its US allies. 

Almost seven years later we learned that two days before the Canberra meeting in 2001, then ASIO boss Denis Richardson had held a discussion with a US official at which "the United States sought Australia's views on the possibility of Mr Habib's transfer to Egypt, and that Mr Richardson conveyed the view that the Australian Government could not support any transfer of Mr Habib to Egypt". 

This was an amazingly evasive answer — "could not support". It sounds more like a wink and nod than a categorical NO WAY! 

This was one of the most important security and human rights issues in Australia's recent history — deciding if Australia would turn a blind eye to one of its citizens being tortured and the response was ambiguous at best, despite the fact that the Australian government knew what would likely happen when Habib was sent to Egypt. 

ASIO boss Paul O'Sullivan told a Senate hearing in May this year why he thought Richardson had said Australia could not support it: "My assumption is that it was because of longstanding Australian government policy, going back over decades, that Australia does not support torture, and so we would not support a position where one of our citizens was put in the position of being rendered." 

At the time of the US request and the meeting in Canberra, an ASIO security intelligence report that discussed Habib's situation was circulating in senior government offices in Canberra. Senior levels of Government had been warned an Australian may be sent somewhere to be tortured — so where were the alarm bells?The US is an important ally of Australia and a good friend. Sometimes friends need to be told hard truths.

The US ambassador should have been told Australia would be outraged if the Habib rendition occurred — and that there would be consequences. 

The US did not treat John Walker Lindh, the young American detained fighting on the battlefield for the Taliban, the same way, but the message sent by the Australian authorities was the green light to facilitate the alleged torture of an Australian citizen.What Australia knew — and when it knew — about the Habib rendition has been a closely guarded government secret. 

The lack of information, resembling a cover-up, must be investigated. It is not plausible that no senior members of the Howard government were aware of the US request to transfer Habib. A declassified Department of Foreign Affairs cable sent from Canberra on November 19, 2001, said an Australian citizen had been sent from Pakistan to Egypt — despite the Government denying any firm knowledge of Habib's rendition until the following February. 

Confused and patchy evidence has been given by some of this country's most senior security officials about this sordid affair, only later to be corrected. But if the truth is not exposed, this could easily happen again. No one can feel safe if our own government permits torture by turning a blind eye. 

This is not just a question about Mamdouh Habib, it is about the rights all Australians have and how the Government should protect those rights. The department declined to answer The Age's questions on the issue because Habib is suing the Federal Government. 

The Greens have called for a judicial inquiry into the transfer of Habib from Pakistan to Egypt. "It is such a serious matter that it warrants the air being cleared," Senator Bob Brown said. The paying of bribes to Saddam Hussein's government warranted the AWB inquiry. The alleged torture of an Australian citizen must have the same scrutiny. 

The British Government recently admitted US rendition flights had used a British base to refuel, despite previous repeated denials from the British Government that Britain had any involvement in the practice. 

Now the Rudd Government has the opportunity to set the record straight, to reveal what really happened at that 2001 spring meeting in Canberra. This will not be the last time Australia faces critical security issues. It's time to act to ensure that torture is never again part of the response. 

Turning A Blind Eye To Torture 

and barking from the darkness ….. 

Former attorney-general Philip Ruddock has criticised Labor's decision to give up on reform of the United Nations and just sign up to its agreement against torture. 

The Rudd government has flagged plans to make Australia a party to the United Nations' Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, which the Howard government refused to ratify. 

Mr Ruddock stressed the coalition was opposed to torture but had problems with the way the UN operated and its overlapping structures. 

"We're certainly not in favour of torture and I don't think any government in Australia would condone the use of torture," he told ABC Radio. 

I guess we shouldn’t expect anything-else from this rotting relic of the criminal rattus cabal …. “darth” Ruddock, Amnesty member & Attorney-General when the shameful “children overboad” crime was perpetrated; the Attorney-General who gave us “illogical & anachronistic” sedition laws; Attorney-General when Scott Parkin, the American activist deported from Australia as a “threat to our national security” for demonstrating against the venal war profiteer Halliburton; Attorney-General when the corrupt political persecution of Haneef was launched; the Attorney-General who claimed that the bushit administration’s system for prosecuting the inmates of Guantanamo Bay, including David Hicks, was a “fair system of justice”, as he sat on his filthy hands for 5 years & did nothing to secure & protect the rights of an Australian citizen being tortured by our “special friends” ….