Quote "That Dr Haneef was arrested at Brisbane Airport trying to board a flight on a one-way-ticket to India was also suspicious given its proximity to the attempted bomb attacks."

Why is this suspicious? (Given that the bomb attacks occurred in Britain). Granted, that flying from Britain might in some sense be suspicious, had he been in Britain, but why is flying between two other countries suspicious?

What went wrong in the Haneef case is the way rational thought disappears when persons of other races are involved. Perhaps someone could also tell me - suppose the SIM card had been found in the bomb vehicle - so what? It's no more suspicious than the mechanics who maintained the vehicle (just to take a random example).

And don't forget that the system "worked" only because of the actions of Dr Haneef's lawyer(s), who were attacked by the system to the point of making a formal complaint about their conduct to the legal professional body.

A good summary of what the author describes as the "idiot left".

How so, Leigh? The only particular commentator he attacked was Jason Koutsoukis, who might well qualify as an idiot, but hardly left-wing (he's attacked the Greens party many times, with little justification, and is almost universally unpopular among the various left-wing blogs that I visit from time to time).

Mind you, you also apparently consider Howard to be left-wing, so I don't suppose this is a point worth dwelling on.

So... what was the point of showing such an article that's 6 MONTHS old?!

All this article seems to really do is attempt to bash the "dishonest, ratbag left". Does anyone blithely stamping such monikers on a decent proportion of society really deserve to have their articles discussed further?

Because, Chade, it is part of our Best Blogs 2007 feature and is clearly marked as such. This feature is a showcase for what have been voted the top 40 blog posts for 2007. Susan Prior (ed).

A classic Goebellian, Piers Ackerman style of abuse against anybody who is concerned that our justice system has been severely undermined by the Howard government. The police and ASIO can now enter and search homes and computers at will and without informing us and in our absence. We can be locked up and interrogated for 14 days at a time on the say-so of a malicious neighbour without being allowed to talk about it publicly and indeed without a lawyer being present. We need not be told about the alleged evidence against us. If charged, we can be held in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison seemingly without ever coming to trial, and our trial can be held in camera and without our having full access to the evidence against us. THAT is what the anger about the Haneef case was all about. If the writer supports this type of police-state legislation (which a good number of our conservative legal profession do not) I suggest he go find a communist country to live in. He would do well in N Korea.