Federal police chief quits - but was he pushed

CANBERRA - Mick Keelty, Australian supercop and the man who took the federal police global in the war against terrorism, drugs and transnational crime, will quit in five months.

Much honoured at home and abroad, Keelty took over as federal police commissioner just as the world exploded with the September 11 and Bali terror attacks and presided over a massive build-up in staff, reach, and powers.

But he has also been dogged by controversy and criticism over key operations - including the bungled prosecution of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef - and attacked for his views by some powerful politicians.

Keelty has quit well ahead of the 2011 expiry of his contract, sparking claims that he was pushed or at least made to resign early by the furore that followed the Haneef affair.

Both suggestions have been denied.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said after the news broke yesterday that he would have been happy to keep Keelty on, and Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the resignation was "entirely the decision of the commissioner".

The Australian Federal Police brief includes terrorism, organised crime, drug trafficking, money-laundering, people smuggling and organised crime, and is now expanding heavily into high-tech and cyber crime.

Keelty, 54, joined the Canberra police 35 years ago and worked his way up to take the helm in 2001 - the first commissioner to come up the hard way and the only one to serve two terms.

Trained also by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Keelty presided over the dramatic expansion that followed September 11 and Bali.

His agents were key players in the series of arrests and trials of alleged Islamic terror cells in Australia, and in the investigations that led to the capture and execution of the Bali bombers.

Under Keelty, the AFP's annual budget has ballooned to more than A$1 billion. He opened posts in 26 countries, and moved to boost law enforcement in Southeast Asia through such initiatives as the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation.

Keelty has also worked hard to develop personal friendships and associations to develop close working ties with key neighbours such as Indonesia, leading a journalist to once describe him as "Australia's top diplomat" in Southeast Asia. Keelty himself told ABC radio that golf had led to the success of the Bali bombing investigation.

Several months before the attack that killed 202 people - including 88 Australians and three New Zealanders - he played golf with Indonesia's national police head, General D'ai Bachtiar, and discussed future co-operation. The conversation led to an offer of training in post-blast analysis by AFP agents.

Keelty has also worked hard to promote understanding of different cultures and warned of potential future flashpoints in Australia: "If we are not careful we risk raising a generation of Australians who will have a bias against Islam."

But he has come under fire from critics who have alleged that under his leadership the AFP has become obsessively secretive, authoritarian, and corrosive of democratic values.

It bungled its investigation of Haneef, a young Indian doctor working in Queensland allegedly - but falsely - linked to British terror bombers and later deported after the case collapsed.

Haneef's lawyer, Rod Hodgson, said yesterday that under Keelty the AFP had become an organisational disaster incapable of accepting responsibility.

Keelty, a Catholic opposed to the death penalty, was also attacked for delivering Australians to death row by ensuring the Bali Nine were arrested in Indonesia rather than Australia.

INCIDENT-PACKED CAREER

MICK KEELTY
* Will stand down on September 2, his 35th anniversary with the Australian Federal Police
* Became Australian Federal Police Commissioner in April 2001
* He was appointed until 2011

CONTROVERSIES AND CRISES

2007: Arrest of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef over alleged links to failed terror attacks in London and Glasgow. A report on the case found the evidence against Haneef "completely deficient".

2005-9: Bali Nine case which has left Australian citizens on death row in Indonesia.

2004: Boxing Day tsunami.

2004: Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta, killing 11.

2002: Bali bombing in which 88 Australians died.

2001-9: Response to September 11 terror attacks in the US.