Not Adding Up: Australia, Iran and the Release of Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Australia’s ambassadorial offices and political leaders have a consistent record of ignoring their citizens in tight situations. David Hicks, Mamdouh Habib and Julian Assange are but a few names that come to mind in this inglorious record of indifference. In such cases, Australian public figures and officials have tacitly approved the use of abduction, torture and neglect, usually outsourced and employed by allies such as the United States.
Australian diplomacy, to that end, is nastily cheap. It comes at heavily discounted prices, when it comes at all. To then see the extent of interest and effort in seeking the release of Australian-British academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert from Iranian captivity, is as interesting as it is perplexing. A work ethic in Canberra has come into being. Nothing was spared securing the release of Moore-Gilbert, where she had been imprisoned for espionage charges and spent 804 days in detention. Fears for her wellbeing spiked with her transfer to Qarchak women’s prison, not known for its salubrious facilities. She had previously spent time at Tehran’s Evin prison.
Efforts were made by Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, who raised Moore-Gilbert’s detention in four meetings with her Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif. As she confirmed, the release “was achieved through diplomatic engagement with the Iranian government.”
Iranian authorities put it to the Australians that they wanted three of their covert operatives – Saeid Moradi, Mohammad Kharzei and Masoud Sedaghat Zadeh – released. The three men in question had been held in Thailand for planting explosive devices in Bangkok in an effort to assassinate Israeli diplomats in 2012. Whatever the skills of these operatives, bomb making was evidently low on the list. An accidental explosion holed their rented Bangkok villa. Moradi was sentenced to life for his attempt to kill a police officer. The police officer survived; Moradi’s legs did not, lost when a grenade he tossed bounced back and detonated. Kharzei received 15 years for possessing explosives.
With the list handy, the Australian government approached Thai contacts. Moore-Gilbert’s release had, Payne claimed, become a matter of “absolute priority”. Israeli government officials were also engaged. A secret agreement was reached, involving what was effectively a prisoner exchange.
Whatever else is said of her case, the issue of the effort and labour put in is significant. Throw in the cliché of being an academic with Middle Eastern expertise working in foreign climes, and you have a recipe rather richer than is advertised.
The heavily scripted nature of the affair is screamingly evident. Media coverage of Moore-Gilbert’s release, and the circumstances of her detention, has avoided much in the way of analysis. The tone is very much that of the official press release. What we get, instead, are the anodyne statements from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, supposedly “thrilled and relieved” by the outcome. “The tone of her voice was very uplifting, particularly given what she has been through.” We also get notes of worry. Amber Schultz of Crikey expressed concern about the prolonged “ordeal” that would continue to face Moore-Gilbert upon her return to Australia.
That Moore-Gilbert’s release was, in fact, brokered as part of a broader prisoner release is not laboured over. The prime minister is cryptic in his statement. “If other people have been released in other places, they are the decisions of the sovereign governments. There are no people who have been held in Australia who have been released.” Skirted over, as well, is Moore-Gilbert’s relationship with an Israeli, which, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, led to “baseless claims that she was a spy for Israel.”
Iran’s Young Journalist Club has its own serve on the subject, making mention of the release. Moore-Gilbert “was swapped for an Iranian businessman and two other nationals incarcerated abroad on delusional accusations, Iranian news agencies reported.” It notes a report by the IRNA news agency claiming that the academic “had passed a two-year special training course for her spying mission.” She attained fluency in Persian “and was prepared to perform espionage activities in Iran.” What interested the IRNA was her second visit, when “she entered Iran on the recommendation of the Zionist regime [Israel] on the lunar calendar month of Muharram.” Details are sketchy on what Moore-Gilbert supposedly did. She “travelled to different cities as part of her mission and gathered information.”
For her part, Moore-Gilbert, in letters smuggled out of Evin prison, denies ever being a spy. “I am not a spy. I have never been a spy, and I have no interest to work for a spying organisation in any country.”
The standard concern by some in the media stable is that such exchanges are common instruments in Tehran’s foreign policy arsenal. The Australian director of Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, suggested “a clear pattern by Iran’s government to arbitrarily detain foreign and dual nationals and use them as bargaining chips in negotiations with other states.” The executive director of the Australian Israel and Jewish Affairs Council Colin Rubenstein saw the practice of using hostages in exchanges “for terrorists is typical of the tyrannical Iranian regime.” Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow with the Middle Eastern program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, notes “hostage-taking as a tool of statecraft for four decades now. The Revolutionary Guards are blatant about it and believe it delivers results.”
Such concerns are legitimate and consistent, though the circumstances for each situation varies. Attention should be paid to the quarry being traded. The Iranian Republic has a striking appetite for detaining academics and researchers. French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali, have all been the subject of Tehran’s ire. Djalali, also accused of spying for Israel, faces execution.
The question not being asked is why Moore-Gilbert was that valuable so as to warrant the release of three Iranian agents. Afshon Ostovar, an academic based at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Department of National Security Affairs, sees little in the incongruence; Iran negotiation strategy, he more than implies, lacks proportion. “It seems rather puzzling that Iran’s imprisonment of an innocent foreign grad student [sic] should lead to the release of three of its covert agents jailed for failed explosive attacks in Thailand but that’s how the Islamic Republic does business.”
One person not exactly cheering the prisoner swap is Israel’s former ambassador to Thailand, Itzhak Shoham. On Israel’s Channel 12, he vented. “I don’t know anything about this deal beyond what was published. Of course it saddens me to see the pictures as [the Iranians] celebrate instead of rotting in prison, if they haven’t already been executed.” Rather abstractedly, Shoham had one consolation: that the former chief of Iran’s Quds Force, General Qassem Soleimani, was killed in January in a US drone strike.
This prisoner exchange is also odd in another respect. Such instances are usually occasions of much fanfare for Tehran. Iranian television anchors tend to be at hand, noting the names of the released figures and their return to families. “The reason for Iran’s refusal to name those freed remains unclear,” states the cautious Times of Israel. “However, Tehran has long denied being behind the bomb plot and likely hopes to leverage the incoming administration of US President-Joe Biden to ease American sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump.
The nagging question remains: Why did the Australian government regard Moore-Gilbert’s case as exceptional?
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Veeps
Return to home pageMirrors my own sceptical thoughts.
We remain, as always, “mushrooms”.
If anyone should imagine that we, the citizens of the mediocre world of the hoi polloi will ever become privy to the machinations of those who use us for their own benefits and evil purposes, then he/she/it needs intense psychiatric interventions.
Australia doesn’t have spies or Olympic drug cheats. Obviously.
Meanwhile Assange rots in a British hell hole for telling the truth.
.
Fars News Agency put some meat on the bones on how and why this woman was caught spying for Israel or perhaps was it in a joint UK Au Israel operation.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13990906000199/Iran-Swaps-Israel%27s-Spy-wih-Bsinessman-2-Nainals?fbclid=IwAR2Th_24kk8TFWgdKKJF4oChYFrVzVPNCwe2PXa6r9xiRfw0-f7QAotf2po
Karen – would you prefer to believe the Australian govt or an Australian Govt state media outlet like the ABC or the SBS … and if so why?
This is tricky. As Bono’s points out the Australian efforts on Kylie’s behalf hint at deeper issues. The FARS report contains a lot of detail that goes far beyond a simple smear sheet. If Kylie is important to Israel one wonders why they would acquiesce to a swap of terrorists who targeted their nationals, though given their apparent ability to assassinate with impunity on Iranian soil one would not expect those released to have long lives. In any case an intriguing story.
By distancing himself, Morrison adds to the mystery of the Australian flagged aircraft that flew between Australia, Bangkok, Teheran and back.
Morrison says “If other people have been released in other places, they are the decisions of the sovereign governments. There are no people who have been held in Australia who have been released.” So was this all down to the Thais ?
Best come clean Scomo otherwise a humanitarian act is immersed in unsavoury dealings with a rogue regime.
Having said that, can we ask who Boris wants to swap for Assange !
Perhaps you could come up with something better, Karen.
Feel free to submit it to The AIMN.
That sounds like 99.99% of your comments.
Calling Iran a a rogue totalitarian state is a little disingenuous.
Suggesting it would just rip someone off the streets and imprison them for years for no better reason that years down the track using them for prisoner swaps is just silly.
https://www.facebook.com/timand2037/videos/10221949629822800/ . Looks like she married an Israeli Russian and maybe even worked in the IDF
She got gaol for doing a berejiklian (where does a male sexist country fit with the cries of men against the nsw premier???)
She got freed, why?????
Something’s crook in tallarook!!!!
ps my search skill cannot find her place of birth??? is she an Australian or a pom???
Where is boris????
” Calling Iran a a rogue totalitarian state is a little disingenuous.”
I can’t believe this, mark, but I agree with you.
Having some knowledge of Iran, one is surprised that any high level academic would risk visiting Iran let alone attending a conference and doing interview research too (different from tourism and/or personal).
Unless closely affiliated with a local university, they would immediately be viewed as a risk (she was apparently highlighted by an Iranian academic she had interviewed) e.g. independent, expertise in Islamic Studies, links with Israel (lived one year studying Hebrew) etc. would be enough to inspire paranoia, and also useful as a potential bargaining chip?
Unclear exactly on what basis she was given a visa (apart from conference) if she had a clear connection with Israel, but anyone academic or otherwise doing research can produce very paranoid reactions in Iran, Turkey and the region, even amongst educated middle class academics, and deemed to be working for e.g. ‘the CIA’.
Further, academics are often only slightly better treated than journalists; bit like the parts of the western world nowadays with paranoia from govt. and authorities on universities, education, journalists and security.
They lied about Iraq
They lied about Afghanistan
They lied about Libya
They lied about Syria…etc, etc..building 7.etc etc..
But now they are telling the truth, ok.
Given the way Iran has been mangled the last century, little wonder it is not even nastier than what it is.
“Oh, to see ourselves as others see us”
Karen – Perhaps you have never met anyone who has recently travelled to Iran or know Iranians. Maybe if you did you might lose the attitude. I hope you dont believe everything written in the Guardian cos it can be pretty dodgy at times and too often follows British Govt policy and has often been said to be too close to British Intelligence.
Iran is somewhat paranoid – but with reason. MEK is a western funded terrorist organisation operating within and around Iran – they are pretty handy with guns and bombs and probably or possibly ran the hit on the Iranian scientist this week for Israel with full US approval.
Can you imagine how paranoid an Australian Government would be knowing that foreign powers were funding these sorts of outfits within Australia. Seriously.
BTW Iran China Russia and North Korea are not your enemy.
Yet another assassination of an Iranian scientist figure on Iranian soil has received very little coverage in MSM concerning threats of “terrorism”, with the Guardian fretting about retaliation from Tehran toward the usual suspect. An alternative headline from that journal could have read,
“What mysterious terrorist organisation has been responsible for the violent and provocative deaths of several high ranking Iranians over the last decade and who is sponsoring terrorism in West Asia?”
Are the Americans involved in any of these goings-on, or the Brits, to do with some sort of detente?
Is it just Israel again, scared that the Iranians may end up being able to hit back at Israel in the same way it hits out at those who incur its displeasure?
Once again, after years of poverty-inflicting sanctions on a notorious and hypocritical double standard concerning defence issues and the state terrorism implicit in the Yemen genocide for example, I fail to see what exactly it is about the oil filching, geopolitics obsessed West and its allies that should particularly enamour them to Iran and other nations in that region, although I suppose the blockading of China and Russia is probably all part of this centuries “Grand Game” involving ruthless and amoral big powers.
Calculus, I agree entirely.
The sanctions and embargoes that the US imposes on perceived enemies (most of whom are not actually enemies, eg Cuba) are simply acts of war and terrorism minus the sounds of explosions and gunfire.
Yet this is accepted as normal by our journalists and government.
In 2015, after many years of quiet negotiation, the Obama administration headed up the The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) designed to bring Iran back into the global community and reduce its nuclear ambitions. The signatories to this historic agreement included Iran plus the P5 + 1 – (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, the European Union, United States—plus Germany).
By any standards of global cooperation it was a major achievement and had the potential to eliminate the threat of nuclear war in the Middle East.
Under JCPOA, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%, and reduce by about two-thirds the number of its gas centrifuges and for a period of 15 years Iran agreed to limit uranium enrichment. Iran also agreed not to build any new heavy-water facilities for the same period of time. To monitor and verify Iran’s compliance with the agreement, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were to monitor progress and have regular access to all Iranian nuclear facilities.
Subject to Iran abiding by the agreement and its objectives, Iran was to receive some relief from U.S., European Union, and United Nations Security Council nuclear-related sanctions.
So far so good : Iran would be held to it’s obligations and any deviation would bring down the wrath of the global community so whilst it was considered only as a road-map it certainly seemed to be heading the the right direction.
But then in 2016 along came Trump, who was being heavily influenced by Bibi Netanyahu and hated everything that Obama had achieved while in office, and so the USA unilaterally backed out of the agreement and intensified sanctions against Iran and its people : even to the extent that we now see political assassinations becoming the order of the day.
I for one, hope that the Biden administration have the courage to resurrect this agreement and push on with diplomacy in the Middle East : assassinations of your political opponents is no way forward.
That’s my view !
All true. Trump has certainly been one of the most pro Israel Presidents ever. Mind you the war against Syria (by Obama) was very much a favour to Israel. Israel also did what it could to assist al qaeda types to take down Assad. And its worth noting that – PM Olmert of Israel ran the Operation Cast Lead aka the Gaza Massacre in the transmission months 2008-09 leading up to the inauguration of Obama ie between the outgoing Bush and incoming Obama much like Netanyahu has just run an assassination operation in Iran between the outgoing Trump and incoming Biden. Why you might ask…because they can!
I heard those clowns on the ABC this morning, I’m sure high school students could have done better but then the ABC is a major fail when it come to foreign reporting and as perception managers they are just shit.
I might be trying to connect some very wide dots here; but Pompeo meets with Netanyahu and within a couple of days there’s a political assassin in Iran.
Someone please tell me I’m dreamin’.
You dont just organise a hit like that in a few days Michael. And Iran isn’t stupid enough to invite a US or Israeli attack any time soon.
Thank you, mark. I was indeed grasping at straws.
I’m not so sure that you’re off the mark Michael.
It could have been pre-planned, just needing a final nod of approval.
you were doing well until the last two paras.
Karen Kyle, to suggest that mark delmege supports the killing of millions of people is a deplorable accusation. I would expect a retraction.
If none is forthcoming I will be deleting the accusation.
You don’t get it do you, Karen Kyle. The double standard is the fuel that has that has burned grief and anger into the hearts of those who have been its victims, with an entire region kept in servitude as a component of someone else’s empire.
The $30 billion squander on US arms to puppet Saudi Arabia is just the latest example of many of the system and the ordained wastage that produces another Syria, Iraq, Yemen (several more, besides) while a few oligarchs and local allied kleptocrats consolidate a feudalist global system founded on poverty and repression.
In short, Palestine is the micro for the whole evil shabang!.
Karen Kyle, your vile accusations against mark delmege have been deleted.
Karen, if you search to comments on this site or indeed the posts, you will find that we have been very critical of those regimes.
And why not a word about it here? Simple. Because most of us like to stick to the topic of the post.
Karen Many of my jewish friends (some are even zionists) have more sense than to defend modern day Israel – but then I have jewish family who dont like me either so your criticism doesn’t bother me at all. Actually I always feel I’ve had a win when people abuse me and even more so from a zionist – so go right ahead.
Every time I read of the 100 million that died under communism my frustration level goes up a few notches.
Yes, Stalin was brutal, but as Chomsky has noted, it’s a feature of Western policy that we brutalise our perceived enemies, most of whom bear us no ill will at all, then use their inevitably brutal responses as justification for escalating the violence.
The West attempted to strangle the Soviet Union at birth, invading on two fronts as soon as WW1 was over. But we condemn the Russians as being paranoid and aggressive.
Gorbachev dismantled the Soviet Union on the basis of a guarantee that NATO would not expand towards Russia. A promise that was immediately broken, with Russia now facing military bases within striking distance. But they are just paranoid and aggressive, and what’s more, not to be trusted.
As for the 100 million deaths, the independent and politically neutral economist Amartya Sen did a detailed study of the response by India and China to the East Asian famine of the mid-1900s, and concluded that the free market-based response to the crisis caused more deaths in a few years than the total attributed to communism.
As for the “exile of millions” under communism that was mentioned above, have we forgotten the clearances of the Scottish Highlands to make way for sheep, and the starvation that forced the Irish to flee to North America while Ireland was exporting food?
As Terry Eagleton noted in Why Marx Was Right, capitalism was also forged in blood and unimaginable suffering, but as it was not in living memory, we have forgotten. But we will live to regret that capitalist interventions that are ongoing and just as brutal, are not being forgotten and are preventing people today from constructing the future they wish for. It’s no coincidence that all the regimes we toppled in the Middle East were all socialist states of varying persuasions.
Good. You don’t like us. It might be a good time then to go away.
You’ve picked a very bad day to piss me off, Karen. A very bad day.
Might I suggest that you take a break for a while, as I’m getting very close to placing your comments in moderation.
Steve, the clearances of the Scottish Highlands stands as the first example of ethnic cleansing in modern history.
PS: I’m certain that in a previous incarnation I fought at Culloden. 😉 🏴
Michael Taylor, I am all in favour of people expressing their own opinions, but not of inventing their own facts.
That you have permitted this purveyor of ‘fake news’ and distorted ‘truth’ to continue thus far is evidence of a generosity of patience on your part.
I would not have been so forebearing.
Thank you, Drake.
I do find it odd that a person we give the freedom to comment here spends almost every visit as an opportunity to demean us. It’s like barging in to a friends house, demand they cook you roast lamb, and then spend the rest of the evening complaining about their cooking.
And I can assure you that my patience is nearing its end.
“I fought at Culloden”
Nah Michael, I had you pictured from an earlier period, nicely painted in woad! : )
Was definitely at Culloden, Steve, but it didn’t end too well for me as I was only a young bloke when I took up arms in the American War of Independence. And I’m fairly sure I marched with the Irish at Castle Hill and later stood firm at the Eureka Stockade, before hurtling forward 70 years to do my bit in the Irish Rebellion. And I most likely fought the Romans in the Black Forest, too. 😀😀
Yep – let’s turn this site into an echo chamber. All howling the same tune. As for ‘facts’ being somehow above question (and not contestable) is just laughable. The there’s the meaning given to same. Next we’ll be in praise of John Howard and his view of history.
Don’t go there, MN. Not today.
If you failed to grasp that I’ve had enough, then I’ll repeat it now: I’ve had enough.
Please be kind to me and drop it.
Karen still trying to peddle the old equivalencing, Chomsky, Michael Taylor= Jo Stalin?
Karen, why smear folk because they can refute your McCarthyite nonsenses.
Come out of your psychotic cloud and breath the air, it is two thousand and twenty, not nineteen fifty.
Fascism and Stalinism, not a binary opposition.. These two oppose enlightenment and democracy…facts and logic, not paranoia, please.
KK re
That’s a contestable claim. Worth talking about. But, as always, it needs to be interpreted in a particular context. In the original US Constitution there was no freedom of speech until subsequent Amendments. Further, the US Constitution continues to evolve. The meanings given to particular aspects (including Amendments) is still a work in progress even if some want to end that. It’s a living, evolving document. And, I suspect, the emergence of Trump will cause further change.
See what is happening with Supreme Court appointments. An attempt to hold back the tide of history?
Here is a heads up on a serious problem husbanded by the West:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/apr/16/how-saudi-arabia-religious-project-transformed-indonesia-islam
Michael, you did better at Tewkesbury, but Marston Moor was a wipe out.
calculus witherspoon – yes Saudi Arabia’s global export of Wahhabism is a problem but not a recent one. It’s fueled by very rich oil barons. Remember talking to some Islamic scholars in Turkey, many moons ago, who couldn’t believe that Western Nations, including Australia, were aiding and abetting the spreading of Wahhabism – albeit by omission. This of course was pre-Erdogan when such scholars were quite liberal in orientation.
As I understand it, many of those scholars are now in prison. The level of local ignorance continues to astound.
KK. after the Civil War, and at a superficial level, Blacks and Whites were legally the same. The reality was very different then as it is to-day. Presumably you’ve heard of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. One could write a tome on how legal discrimination in the US today is theoretically no more but it would be a misrepresentation (superficial nonsense) even though it would be underpinned by a mountain of facts – including reference to legal decisions.
Discrimination in schooling in the US supposedly ended with Brown versus the Board of Education and the overturning of separate but equal doctrine. But it didn’t! Here in Australia Aboriginal children get the same opportunities as white kids – with the same same curriculum, same teachers, same … what ever. But no-one believes that. Do they?
Back to the US. One needs to dig well below the surface (but sometimes no digging is required because it’s there for all to see) to witness the discrimination that occurs. Take the recent election as an example. Trump scared to crap out of white voters by claiming that the (white) suburbs would be invaded by blacks. And that’s just one example.
Simply, facts, while necessary, don’t make a good history. It’s much more complicated than that.
andrew j smith.
spot on it shows that academics can still be stupid and arrogant.
She was reported as a risk? Take a guess that she mouthed off about israel QED.
cheers wam but wafflems is a better fit
KK, I’m not up with recent developments but I would be very, very surprised. As I understood it, there was a settlement of sorts. The religious would stay out of politics (including the internal machinations of the royal family) in return for a free hand to convert the world assisted by generous financial support.
Worth reading a bit about Salafism as well as Wahhabism if you want to explore Islam more generally. Me I’m an atheist who is very interested in religion because of its historical (and current) importance.
KK – much funding for education in the US comes from local government taxes. Poor areas translate to poor schools – including teachers wages etc. Guess where the blacks live?
Fuck ,I’m enthralled with the repartee,and I didn’t even pay to get in,they say you never stop learning,and I am very grateful, keep it up.Long may you run.
Much to gain from a look including KK doing Devils Advocate to draw out more a dialectic.
Karen made some interesting comments on Russia and others regarding historical crimes. I guess at least Russia has undergone a revolution or two since the time of Stalin and has recognised its crimes and moved forward somewhat (not that my Stalinist friends find any joy in that). Unlike Israel who was born with terrorism and ethnic cleansing and hasn’t stopped one day since. Apartheid Israel will prove to be a temporary historical juncture but its anyones guess how that will end.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/55973.htm
How Iranian nuclear scientist was murdered
Assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist ‘involved 62 operatives
This is one account of how the assassination may have been conducted
Here, Karen Kyle….You’re in bad need of an “education”…. https://freefall852.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/a-cultural-revolution/
Karen,
Might I suggest you read “The Arabs: A History” by Eugene Rogan to at least give you a different perspective than that of your rather somewhat blinkered view of Israel. I am, however, not holding my breath that you will.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/29/dehumanising-israeli-groups-verdict-on-military-invasions-of-palestinian-homes?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR3–3UL43kkcjRK9gQySL6bySHI51VH4OrlYVGBNTZ45mB9re-_E0YEsC0
KK…: ” And best of all….they have their own country….the Promised Land.”….
.From fiction to fantastical in one sentence….YOU, Karen should be the one writing stories…oh..wait!…
Joe, I was tempted to mention that the Palestinians deserve their own land but hesitated, hoping to avoid 20,000 characters of keyboard vitriol from KK.
Ah, what the heck. I’ve said it now.
Ah…she has good intentions, Roswell…but she gets that head of steam up till the old boiler hits the red-line and off go all the bells and whistles!
Dat’s true, Joe. I don’t think she’s a bad person. Just says bad things at times.
By the way, you used to be ‘Joseph’. What happened? Were you demoted or something?
Roswell…I’m going incognito…
She is a fantasist, fundamentalist Stepford Wife who has had her capacities for critical reasoning some how damaged during her upbringing, my guess.
Daddy issues?
A troll conditioned against consideration of any viewpoint no matter how rational and evidence based not coinciding with her narrow conditioned outlook.
I know Lambchop. He is a good man. He is quite entitled – for privacy concerns – to go by the name you object to him using.
“David Hicks, Mamdouh Habib and Julian Assange are but a few names that come to mind in this inglorious record of indifference.”
The three people you named don’t really punch home your point of confusion. Nor would any person imprisoned by a country with a strong defence (and intelligence) relationship with Australia.
The rest of the article was an interesting read (covered in-depth elsewhere) but the lead on was very amateurish. I’m actually surprised to discover the author is an experienced university lecturer.