The Duggan Disgrace

Posted on 24 July, 2023 by C.L.

ODD, isn’t it, that the earnest Cassandras who warn of a ‘growing threat’ to ‘Western values’ posed by China and Russia have no interest in the Albanese government’s ugly and immoral abuse of an Australian citizen. Not a News Corp leader, an editorial by Bolt or the merest ‘steady-on’ by ASPI. When Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus approved the October 2022 arrest of Daniel Duggan, he was obeying the demented Biden ‘administration’ whose justice and intelligence officials are infamous for corruption and contempt for the rule of law. The health and well-being of Duggan’s heroic wife and their six children is also of zero interest to either Dreyfus or the loony Ukraine-AUKUS lobby. These Australia-second bootlickers couldn’t care less. Retired USMC colonel Ben Hancock knows far more about patriotism, justice and Duggan than they do:

Dan literally risked his life almost daily while flying the AV-8B Harrier jet countless times at sea, at night, in poor weather and no place to land except back on the US Navy ship. He did everything I asked him to and more. He was an officer I could count on in both peacetime operations and in combat, and I trusted my life to him while flying together. I do not believe him to be anything but a hard-working, loyal and dedicated individual… I look forward to the dismissal of these charges and Dan returning home to his wife and children.”

In regrettable and injudicious remarks that were included in the ASIO Director-General’s so-called annual threat assessment in February, Mike Burgess more or less referred to Duggan – languishing by then in solitary confinement in a terrorist’s cell – as both a traitor and a “top tool” rather than a top gun. He probably thought this offhanded judgement of an untried man was a good line for the media but ASIO is not a court and his amateur legal opinions are not evidence. Moreover, Burgess has never served in the military, let alone combat. He was understandably more prudent in Senate Estimates after the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security launched an investigation into claims of possible unlawful conduct by the spy agency in this case. In Downing Centre Local Court tomorrow, barrister Bret Walker SC will seek to have Duggan’s extradition hearing stayed until IG-IS Christopher Jessup KC completes that inquiry. If successful, application will then be made for Duggan to be released on bail after 275 days without charge.

A must-read exclusive by Cydonee Mardon: Battle to save Aussie dad from ‘justice’ in America.
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14 Responses to The Duggan Disgrace

  1. C.L. says:
    24 July, 2023 at 6:10 pm

    Lawyers for an Australian father locked up in prison for nine months over claims he trained Chinese military pilots will front a Sydney Court this week to apply for a temporary stay of proceedings.

    Dan Duggan has been in solitary confinement awaiting extradition to the US based on 11-year-old allegations he trained Chinese military pilots in South Africa from 2010 to 2012.

    Mr Duggan, who is being held at Lithgow Correctional Centre, has not been charged with anything in Australia and no other pilots at the same South African flying school, including Australian and UK pilots, have been charged. The flying school says it has been “cleared” by the FBI.

    The allegations, which Mr Duggan strenuously denies, are detailed in a US indictment filed in 2017, at the same time that US foreign policy towards China took a dramatic turn.

    The key allegation, from which the other charges flow, is that Mr Duggan trained military pilots without permission from the Department of Justice. This allegation has a statute of limitations of five years but is still being pursued a decade later.

    In total, Mr Duggan faces as much as 65 years in jail if found guilty in the United States.

    International lawyer and veteran Dr Glenn Kolomeitz, who is assisting the Duggan family, has spent hours with Mr Duggan in Lithgow jail and has analysed this case in depth.

    The Sunday Telegraph has been shown the Australian-US extradition treaty, which says that Australia will not confirm that any offences alleged in an extradition request from the US “are properly charged and supported by legally admissible evidence”.

    Mr Kolomeitz said the US told Australia that they “don’t need to prove anything” but, rather, we should just accept whatever US public servant lawyers and a US grand jury says.

    “Australia, in the exercise of lapdog diplomacy, obligingly agreed,” he said. “Unfortunately, in the US they say that a grand jury will ‘indict a ham sandwich’. I’ve torn the indictment of the grand jury in this case apart. It is riddled with inflammatory and irrelevant statements and the word ‘conspiracy’ 178 times alongside the word ‘China’, such that of course a grand jury is going to indict.

    “What it doesn’t have is evidence linking Dan to those words. In fact, the indictment has so many holes in it, it’s a Swiss cheese and ham sandwich.”

    Almost 13,000 people have signed a petition protesting the treatment of Mr Duggan, who grew up in Boston and served as a pilot in the Marines.

    The 54-year-old moved to Australia in 2002, set up a tourism business running jet joy flights, and became a citizen in 2012, automatically losing his US citizenship.

    The couple and their children also spent some years living in China where they ran a fashion business, Mr Duggan consulted to the civil aviation sector and also ran a bar in Beijing for a short time.

    Mr Duggan’s Australian wife Saffrine and their six children aged ­between 6 and 18 are living on her ­father’s property near Orange.

    Expressing his shock at Mr Duggan’s arrest, his former commanding officer Ben Hanock described him as a loyal and dedicated marine. He said he believed him to be not guilty of the charges, adding: “You get to know a person very well and their true colour and nature when you spend months on a Navy ship in a hostile desert-tent environment as we did while land-based in Kuwait”.

    The case against Mr Duggan is the subject of a rare Inquiry by the Australian Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security’s (IGIS) into the legality of ASIO’s actions.

    The IGIS Inquiry will look at a range of issues, many of which cannot be discussed publicly due to Australian secrecy laws.

    Mr Duggan’s lawyers argue the extradition should be withdrawn until the independent IGIS inquiry concludes, in order to avoid an abuse of legal process.

    They say a cardinal principle of International Law is the noninterference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state and as such the United States should withdraw.

    In her written complaint to the NSW Ombudsman, Mrs Duggan said Dan’s mental health is suffering and seriously deteriorating.

    “There is a growing body of research that shows that solitary confinement as it is used today, including in NSW, can cause a variety of severe psychological problems.”

    She said Dan was first held for 65 days before even knowing what he was falsely accused of, and access to his family or lawyers was extremely restricted.

    “This is completely unacceptable in an apparently democratic and ‘free’ society like Australia where citizens are innocent until proven guilty. Until December 2022, and without convictions or history of violence, Dan was held under the harshest possible prison classification in NSW – ‘extreme high risk restricted inmate’, which is normally reserved for the most violent criminals.”

    Mr Duggan’s stay application will be heard in the Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday.

  2. Petros says:
    24 July, 2023 at 6:20 pm

    No doubt a warning to others who might be training foreign military personnel. Now, about those Saudi pilots that come over here to train…

  3. Tel says:
    24 July, 2023 at 6:43 pm

    The Saudi pilots paid at head office.

  4. Franx says:
    24 July, 2023 at 6:47 pm

    For shame, Australia.

  5. Lee says:
    24 July, 2023 at 6:47 pm

    Meanwhile, the utterly disgraceful and treasonous General Milley, who spoke to Chinese officials behind President Trump’s back, is still free, and faces no prospect of investigation, let alone charges and a possible prison sentence.

    Needless to say, had a general done this under the Biden admin, he would have been immediately sacked, and almost certainly be facing very serious charges.

  7. NFA says:
    24 July, 2023 at 6:57 pm

    Australian AG and ASIO, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”.

  8. Lee says:
    24 July, 2023 at 7:08 pm

    Ironic that someone called Dreyfus has locked up an ex-military man for alleged treason on trumped-up charges, and at the behest of a foreign corrupt government.

  12. Lee says:
    24 July, 2023 at 8:52 pm

    On the other hand, it’s all right if you deal with the Chinese surreptitiously and illegally if your name is Hunter Biden.

    Or any left wing politician.

  13. Eyrie says:
    25 July, 2023 at 10:14 am

    For starters, the Chinese weren’t regarded near as much as military opponents in the 2010 – 2012 time period as they are today when the US and allies are planning a war on China.
    Plenty of Chinese, allegedly civilian, pilots have been trained in Australia over the last 30 years.
    The US and Australia clearly have gangster governments beyond any rule of law.

  14. NFA says:
    25 July, 2023 at 3:55 pm

    C.L.

    Do you know if there is any news on the Duggan case?

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