| I think the cowboy hat on the kid is a really nice touch... |
The Attorney-General said last night he was disappointed with the Americans' handling of the Habib case, which Canberra had repeatedly asked to be dealt with quickly. Habib's alleged activities in Afghanistan from mid to late 2001 occurred prior to the time in which he could be prosecuted under Australian counter-terrorism laws promulgated in July 2002. Mr Ruddock last night appeared to rule out any retrospective changes to federal laws, but said Habib would remain under the intense scrutiny of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. "It remains the strong view of the United States that, based on information available to it, Mr Habib had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks on or before September 11, 2001," Mr Ruddock said. "Mr Habib has acknowledged he spent time in Afghanistan, and others there at that time claim he had trained with al-Qaeda."
Specific offences of training, funding or associating with a terrorist group did not exist under Australian law at the time Habib was captured. Habib's wife, Maha, said last night that she was overwhelmed with the news after a difficult few years for her and their four children. She had sat her two youngest children down at their house in southwestern Sydney just before 8pm to tell them the good news, just minutes after the Department of Foreign Affairs told her their father would be freed from the US naval base in Cuba. "They couldn't believe it. The youngest (Hajer) kept saying 'when is he coming? How many sleeps?'," Mrs Habib said. "I just wasn't prepared for this. I rang the two older ones and said 'come home and I will tell you some good news'."