Accused spy defiant (Iraqi Australian Diplomat)

Herald Sun ^ | March 9, 2003 | Andrew Probyn

[Indy Pendance]

AN accused Iraqi spy awaiting expulsion says he will fight Australian troops if they join a US-led war on his country.

Helal Ibrahim Aaref, who has been told to leave Australia by Wednesday, told the Herald Sun he would have no option but take up arms.

"I hope Australians don't go to Iraq," Mr Aaref said.

"But anyone, from all the world, who attacks Iraq, enters my cities, enters my country, I fight him.

"You know, Iraq has a long history, from about 8000 years, and all that time we

are fighting enemies because Iraq has oil and resources."

Mr Aaref, Iraq's fifth highest ranked diplomat in Australia and a former soldier who fought in the bloody Iran-Iraq war, is accused by ASIO of being an intelligence officer with the feared Mukhabarat organisation.

The 43-year-old father of four is vehement he is nothing of the sort, saying that since arriving in Australia four months ago, his only job has been to administer visas.

When the Herald Sun visited Mr Aaref in his embassy office yesterday, he showed bulging, colour-coded files containing Iraqi visa applications: one was for journalists, the other for Iraqi citizens.

"This is what I do," Mr Aaref said. Speaking with a picture of a young Saddam Hussein on the wall behind him, the affable diplomat joked he could not even find the nearest post office, much less engage in spying.

He had not been to Melbourne, had once seen Sydney's airport, and said the only places outside of the embassy he had visited were Canberra's Woden shopping centre and the local post office.

He had never met President Saddam Hussein, only seen him on television. "I'm just a small employee but he's in the heart of all Iraqis," he said.

Rejecting the tag of super spy, Mr Aaref said he once got so lost in Canberra's suburbs he had to call for a taxi to rescue him.

The Howard Government said Mr Aaref's expulsion was in the national interest because he had acted contrary to standards of diplomacy.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said that if he was a threat to national security he should have been expelled immediately rather than given five days' notice.

"I fear the Government may be tempted to exploit the timing of the expulsion of this Iraqi diplomat for political reasons," Mr Rudd said.

"Because if this person is a threat to Australia's national security they should be expelled now.

"By expelling them in five days' time we have the drama of an expulsion on the eve of the Prime Minister's address to the nation."

At the time of the Gulf War, Iraqi diplomat Saad Omran was also expelled from Australia for security reasons and to protect the national interest.

The United States has reportedly passed to 60 countries the names of hundreds of suspected Iraqi agents working through diplomatic missions.

During the week, the US expelled two Iraqi attaches working at the United Nations. The Philippines has also expelled an Iraqi diplomat with suspected links to a terrorist group.

[Indy Pendance]

Who is Helal Ibrahim Aaref?

Age: 43

Family: Married with two sons (13 and 11) and two daughters (6, 2). Wife and children live in Iraq. Ranked: Fifth highest diplomat in Iraqi embassy.

Lives: at the embassy in O'Malley. Job: Administers visas.

Educated: Baghdad University, degree in administrative law.

Military service: Three years. Fought in the bloody eight-year Iran-Iraq war.

Previous diplomatic posts: None.

Previous experience: worked in the consular section of Iraq's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Previous spying rows in Australia

1954: Russian embassy spy chief Vladimir Petrov is given political asylum in Australia after claiming he feared for his life.

1983: ASIO tells the then Hawke government that senior ALP figure David Coombe had been recruited by Russian embassy agent Valeri Ivanov. Ivanov is expelled, while Coombe is later cleared.

1999: Australian intelligence analyst Jean-Philippe Wispelaere, 28, arrested in the United States trying to sell top secret documents.

2002: ASIO says it has expelled one alleged terrorist and two spies barred from entering Australia following September 11.

March 7, 2003: Australia orders Iraqi attache Helal Ibrahim Aaref to leave the country by Wednesday, March 12 for spying.

[big bad easter bunny]

Then just shoot him now while he is easily in your site.

[11B3]

"You know, Iraq has a long history, from about 8000 years, and all that time we are fighting enemies because Iraq has oil and resources."

Listen up camelhumper: If it weren't for AMERICAN oil companies coming to your pisspot country less than 100 years ago to BUY YOUR OIL FROM YOU - NOT TAKE IT, you would still be trading camels in the middle of the desert. That would be your life. Just like life was there for the last 7900 out of 8000 years. Without the US, you would have advanced to the 7th century AD, and no more. So STFU.

[gulfcoast6]

Atta Boy, tell em like it is.

[piasa]

Well, Brit oil companies, anyway...

[gaucho]

You know, Iraq has a long history, from about 8000 years, and all that time we are fighting enemies because Iraq has oil and resources."

Mr. Aaref needs a lesson in history. Iraq was founded in 1920 and has only been independent since December 1927. There is a long line of civilizations that have lived in the area for millenia, but to claim that Iraq is 8000 years old is hogwash.

[piasa]

Prove spy claims, says Iraq embassy

By Karen Middleton

CANBERRA

THE Iraq embassy has called for the Federal Government to prove its allegations that a senior Iraqi diplomat has been operating as a spy and should be expelled.

Labor, the Australian Greens and Australian Democrats all called for more evidence of the alleged spying activities of Iraqi attache Helal Ibrahim Aaref, which led to the man being given five days yesterday to leave Australia.

In Baghdad, Iraq accused the United States of inventing pretexts to expel its diplomats and persuade other countries to do likewise as a war with Iraq looms.

Mr Aaref has denied spying. Iraqi charge d'affaires Saad al Samarai also defended his colleague.

"We are not spies here and will never be," Mr al Samarai said. The allegations were a fabrication and the embassy was being victimised because of international tensions.

He said the Government should provide evidence of its claims and the expulsion was on orders from Washington.

Opposition Leader Simon Crean said it was disturbing the Government had provided no further information on Mr Aaref's activities.

"No advance warning was given to us and no subsequent briefing has been made available to us," Mr Crean said.

"I find that very odd, indeed. If we are to deal with issues of national security it does require a bipartisanship."

Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett said he understood intelligence matters could not be explained in full detail but a bit more information would be handy.

But Greens Senator Bob Brown said the expulsion smelt of a lead-up episode to the coming war with Iraq.

If Mr Aaref had been spying, he should be sent packing and the embassy possibly closed. Prime Minister John Howard, in Auckland for weekend talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, defended the decision to expel Mr Aaref.

"We had very good intelligence and security reasons for doing what we did," he said. "He broke the rules and that is why he is being asked to go. That has happened in the past and it will happen again in the future and the fact that it occurred in the context of the UN debate is just how the cards fall."

Mr Howard said it was nonsense to sug gest the expulsion was simply a precursor to a war in Iraq or an attempt to win further Australian support for it.

Shadow foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd queried why Mr Aaref was being given five days to leave the country, rather than 24 hours.

Mr Rudd suggested the Government was playing politics with the expulsion, timing the diplomat's departure for Wednesday - the day before Mr Howard has decided to make a previously-unscheduled address on Iraq to the National Press Club.

-Source: The West Australian

[expatpat]

And I doubt anyone was after their oil for 7850 of those years, even the Vestal Virgins.