Australia: Howard government knew of Guantánamo detainee's torture complaints

Together with another Australian citizen, David Hicks, Habib was among the hundreds of men rounded up by American, Pakistani and Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001-02 and designated “enemy combatants” in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Some were “rendered” to third countries, such as Egypt, for interrogation and torture, before being detained indefinitely without trial at Guantánamo.

The Howard government, backed by the then Labor opposition, supported the Bush administration’s criminal practices. It echoed Washington’s claims that Habib and Hicks were among “the worst of the worst” and specifically denied any knowledge that the pair had been tortured, or that Habib had even been in Egypt. Senior ministers publicly accused Habib, a father of four, of being a dangerous terrorist and a threat to “the Australian way of life”.