It's clear enough that the SIS had legitimate cause for concern, on the basis of the information it held, when Ahmed Zaoui arrived five years ago. Those were fevered times. But by the time the Refugee Status Appeals Authority had published its comprehensive finding, the game was surely up, or should have been.
But some people have taken a power of convincing. Wikinerds may be interested in the "slow edit war" that unfolded on the Talk page of the Zaoui article on Wikipedia. One particular editor posted the SIS's summary in full in the article, but kept reverting out material from the RSAA's finding on the basis that it was "opinion". I think it would be fair to say now that the RSAA was a lot closer to the mark than the SIS has been.
But it's scary bigots-a-go-go over at Kiwiblog. Check this out for a comment:
New Zealand will regret this decision be letting this parasite into our country. We will regret this decision if he turns out to belong too sleepy cell who could be prepared to commit Terrorist Acts against our country or one of our allies. From my understanding he has Intellectually Handicap Child which will be leech on our Welfare System.
Wow.
Back on the human planet, Amnesty has a useful FAQ that covers all the main points about Zaoui's case, including the nature of his convictions in France and Belgium, which do seem to fall short of the standards we would expect from other democracies.
In the Belgian case, where a lower court and an independent tribunal acquitted him on charges of associating with the GIA (the militant group that splintered off from Zaoui's FIS party after the FIS government was overthrown by the Algerian army, and subsequently killed both civilians and moderate FIS leaders), the impression persists that the authorities just wanted to convict him of something, even if it was vague and attracted only a suspended sentence.
Herald correspondent Catherine Field, as she has throughout, channelled the case to the contrary, but nothing in it really steers away from the conclusion of the RSAA that the evidence it had examined "does not provide evidence that [Zaoui] has committed, directed or participated in any act of violence or terrorism that would require his being excluded under Article 1F from the protection of the Refugee Convention."
It's ironic that Zaoui is now claimed by the Herald to have provided information on a former fellow FIS member, Anwar Haddam, which was of interest to the CIA. AS far as I know, Haddam actually lives in the US, having gone through a remarkably similar process to Zaoui. Ironically, until he was imprisoned in 1996, he seemed to be regarded as the acceptable face of the deposed government, as noted in this interview he gave to Daniel Pipes and Patrick Clawson shortly before his arrest.
Haddam walked out of jail after four years, when the US Board of Immigration Appeals found that the case against him (based on secret evidence) had not been proven and that he was entitled to political asylum. The SIS was facing a similar judicial showdown with its Inspector General Paul Neazor and, in all probability, decided it would be better to quit now and save some face.
Haddam comes across as a religious conservative and thus clearly not to my personal taste. But if Zaoui is secretly harbouring extreme Islamist beliefs, he has done a magnificent job of hiding the fact. In the course of many opportunities for a slip, he has never given the impression of being anything other than he says he is: a moderate Muslim academic and a former member of a democratically elected government. He has moved calmly enough amongst pissed-up musicians and exotically dressed women on the odd night out.
In an interesting interview with Simon Pound on 9bFM this morning, Deborah Manning flatly denied most of the claims made by the Herald this morning -- including the one, dating from 2004, that Zaoui had given information on his former colleagues to French intelligence. If the Herald believes what it has obtained from its European sources to be true, it should of course say -- but consciously leaving out the rebuttal from his lawyer seems bloody reckless.
As No Right Turn notes, Manning also commented on the SIS' statement that Zaoui had "offered new information that he had not previously disclosed" about former FIS colleagues. Her account was that the SIS had never previously asked about those people.
But hey, if a few people saving face is the price of Zaoui finally attaining the refugee status he was granted four years ago, then so be it. It has been a torrid time. And if Zaoui and his supporters are delighted that he is a free man, you can also safely bet that SIS' director Warren Tucker is deeply glad to have this one off the books too.
I don't expect that Zaoui will have much trouble finding work here now that he is able, and I expect him to make quite a contribution to New Zealand. I hope his family can join him as swiftly as possible.
Anyway, on a lighter note, I loved John Hodgman's explanation of the White House's "keys to success" on the Daily Show this week.
And, finally, huge big up to Auckland-based Massive Software for its role in this -- Hanson Robotics' new robot, Zeno, which will be officially launched today at Wired magazine's NextFest in Los Angeles. Massive, as you may know, provided the crowd AI in the Lord of the Rings. Remarkably, the same software has now been incorporated in the robotics application, giving Zeno a "brain". Cool.