Back in December 2002, when Ahmed Zaoui arrived in New Zealand, the police thought they'd found someone "big" on the international terrorist scene. So, when Zaoui was being held at the Papakura police cells while they debated what exactly to do with him, they put an "undercover operative" in his cell. Who asked him where Osama bin Laden was. By playing charades:
Manning said Zaoui realised the man was an undercover agent. "He was only let out of his cell into the day room a few times and this guy was always there asking bizarre questions."Zaoui told the Star-Times he thought the man's activities were strange. When asked where Bin Laden was, he had replied "in Afghanistan". The agent could speak only English - which Zaoui could barely understand - so communicated some questions with charades.
It would be comical, except for the fact that Zaoui was subsequently subjected to solitary confinement for 10 months on the basis of the resulting threat assessment. I'm just wondering if the above was used as the basis for a claim that he "knew the location of Osama bin Laden". The Americans certainly would have.
(Oh, and in case anyone has forgotten, that threat assessment also used information sourced from an internet conspiracy website run by Lyndon LaRouche - so much for "police intelligence". OTOH, the SIS "evidence" wasn't much better).
Is it really too much to ask that our police behave like a professional force, rather than a bunch of bumbling professional hicks?
5 comments:
we should neither be the basket that catches all the people everyone else thinks are too dangerous nor the basket that catches all the people everyone else determined were not worth detaining anymore.
the rule would be pretty simple one ticket back to where they came from and "please pop by our embassy and fill in the appropriate forms - here is the address...".
No questions asked, no requirement for a passport, no detention.
Each time someone does it you could add 1 to our refugee quota.
Posted by Anonymous : 2/18/2007 09:38:00 PM
To anonymous - I don't think you quite get the concept of asylum. Sending them back to where they came from and expecting them to go and fill in forms at an embassy is kind of naive.
Posted by Marshmellina Black : 2/18/2007 11:58:00 PM
"Is it really too much to ask that our police behave like a professional force, rather than a bunch of bumbling professional hicks"
i/s.... i think you should stop wandering into fanciful conspiracy theories...
and anon, dunno if you're aware, but not every country in the world actually has access to an embassy, consulate, or even a "district office"
Posted by Triple T : 2/19/2007 07:19:00 AM
Since Labour's been in power the level of policing in this country, including at the top seems to be influenced by what Labour wants.
This has resulted in the Police looking very much like the Keystone cops.
Posted by Anonymous : 2/19/2007 01:00:00 PM
Yes, it's this Govt's fault, the Police were princes under all prior Govt's. In fact it's obvious that the entire Police force are hardwired to The Govt. behaviourally, ethically and personally, like automatons they follow every bid and command, to the letter, each one of them and...well, you get my point.
Posted by Anonymous : 2/19/2007 02:54:00 PM
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