Don't talk to Osama

The Australian government are determined to make dills of themselves over their anti-terrorism 'control orders'.

A Federal Magistrate took the government to task for including the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, on a list of people terror suspect Jack Thomas is banned from contacting.

Why put it in a control order? We are all banned from contacting Osama bloody bin Laden, he's supposedly the words most wanted man!

Now if the Osama hunters were serious and they thought that this Melbourne taxi driver had an in with Osama, surely they would be encouraging contact so they could find him.

So the magistrate says: "In my view it makes the order look somewhat silly in putting the name on the list. .. it makes it look almost a bit farcical..." Yup, just like many of the other names on the list.

13 people who were either dead or locked up at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba;Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was captured in Pakistan in 2003, Jemaah Islamiah bomb-maker Azahari bin Husin, who was killed in Java last year, and arrested Bali bombers Mukhlas and Hambali.

The fun part will be reading the new list the authorities have been sent off to create. They've obviously just pulled a who's who of terror so far, and need to be far more creative. Apparently the magistrate was obliged to sign the initial order without seeing the list of banned contacts.

All in all it doesn't look great for the future of control orders, which John Howard says are a necessary tool to fight terrorism, and his greatest terror is the polls.

The control orders mean:

Thomas must be at his home between midnight and 5am each day, or at another address known to federal police;

He must report to police three times a week;

He is restricted to using a police-approved internet provider and specified telephones;

He is prohibited from contacting 50 individuals listed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

So I guess that means Thomas and the Federal cops can't drop in and have a quiet beer with Osama.