Saddam personal bodyguard living in Australia

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) – One of Saddam Hussein’s former
bodyguards is living in Australia after initially being refused
a visa due to concerns he may have been involved in crimes
against humanity, prompting criticism of the nation’s
immigration system.

Prime Minister John Howard said on Monday that Oday Adnan
Al Tekriti arrived illegally by boat in 1999 but was denied a
visa by the immigration department in September 2000 after
admitting to belonging to Saddam’s special security services.

“The department did not want to give him a visa,” Howard
told parliament after the Sydney Morning Herald broke the news
that Tekriti had been living in Australia for six years.

Howard said Tekriti, 38, had had the visa denial overturned
by an appeals tribunal which found he had not held a position
in Iraq which was directly or indirectly involved in crimes
against humanity. Tekriti gained a temporary protection visa in
2005.

The Herald said Tekriti was a member of Saddam’s family, a
major in his personal security force and also worked for
Saddam’s son Qusay tracking down dissidents. It said he was now
married to an Australian doctor and living in the southern city
of Adelaide.

Howard said he would ask his immigration minister whether
the government could take further action against Tekriti.

The Herald said at least 30 men seeking asylum in Australia
had been refused visas over the past 10 years on grounds they
had committed crimes against humanity, but many had remained in
Australia for years due to a slow appeals process.

News that Tekriti was living in Australia prompted the
Labor opposition to claim the country’s immigration system had
failed.

It came on the day the upper house Senate began debating
new laws aimed at combating “home-grown” terrorism. Initially
set to be pushed through on Monday, the legislation is sure to
be passed by the end of the week when parliament rises for a
summer recess.

Labor immigration spokesman Tony Burke said that
Australia’s immigration character test was meant to protect the
country from people who are considered dangerous.

“If the reports today have any validity, then you’ve got to
say somebody who had the job for Saddam Hussein of chasing
dissidents falls on the dangerous side of the equation,” Burke
told reporters.

“He should not have passed a character test. If this is the
outcome, the system has got to have collapsed,” he said.

Australia, a staunch U.S. ally with troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan, has never suffered a major peacetime attack on
home soil. The country has been on medium security alert since
shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United
States.

One state political leader has described the new
anti-terror laws expected to pass through parliament this week
as “draconian” but necessary, but they have been widely
criticised by civil rights and law groups. The Law Council of
Australia launched a national advertising campaign on Monday
opposing the laws.

“The government is using the threat of terrorism to
introduce laws that put our most basic civil liberties under
threat. The ramifications have the potential to be as
terrifying as terrorism itself,” said the council’s full-page
newspaper advertisement

The new laws will allow police to detain suspects for seven
days without charge, use electronic tracking devices to keep
tabs on them and make support for insurgents in countries such
as Iraq an offence punishable by a seven-year jail sentence.

The laws were proposed after the July 7 London bombings by
a group of young British Muslims.