From Guantanamo Bay To Parkville - Habib The Star

The Age

Friday September 15, 2006

By ADAM MORTON, HIGHER EDUCATION REPORTER

CALL it celebrity culture run riot. Two years ago Mamdouh Habib was locked in a cell in south-east Cuba accused of training with terrorists. Yesterday he was at Melbourne University ringed by starstruck students wanting his autograph.

The undergraduates were chasing a memento after hearing the former Guantanamo Bay detainee speak against, among other things, secret overseas prisons run on behalf of the US - the sort of jail where Mr Habib says he was once held.

"Thank you, that was the most inspirational thing I've heard for a long time," one student said.

Mr Habib, who was brought to Melbourne University by a left-wing student group and spoke to a lunchtime audience of about 150, said he was glad to put his name to scraps of paper as long as people were hearing his message.

"Whatever people are happy with, I'm happy to give them (but) I'm not talking to give signatures, it's nothing for me. I just want people to have knowledge of what's going on," he said.

Since his release in January 2005 after more than three years being accused, but never charged, of training with terrorist group al-Qaeda, Mr Habib has maintained he was tortured in custody. He says he was hung by his arms from hooks, repeatedly shocked and beaten.

He has taken to public speaking, telling rallies and university groups that Australia is the "best country in the world and the safest", but that its Federal Government was like a negligent father that refused to care for its children - principally him and fellow US detainee David Hicks.

"They never helped me out when I needed it," he said yesterday.

With his wife Maha and two young children watching, Mr Habib said he felt vindicated when US President George Bush last week confirmed that the CIA ran secret prisons in foreign countries and used "tough" interrogation techniques.

"This is jungle law - to kidnap people, take them away and torture them," he said. "The truth has to be out."

The Egyptian-born Sydneysider, who is suing the Federal Government, ASIO and federal police officers for their alleged complicity in his imprisonment, said while in Melbourne he would also see a play based on his life - The Habib Show - at Theatreworks in St Kilda.

© 2006 The Age

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