Herald on Choudary

Audrey Young and Patrick Gower write:

The husband of the woman who accused ousted minister Richard Worth of sending her sleazy text messages was convicted of an immigration scam. …

Has he been sentenced? It was originally scheduled for February.

Labour leader Phil Goff said last night he was concerned that the woman had been named and that her husband was being brought into the story.

The reason she has been identified is because Goff and Rudman could not keep their mouths shut. Goff’s description of her as “strikingly beautiful” was hugely important in people identifying her – along with Rudman’s revelation she was not just a member or activist but in fact had tried to become an MP.

His status had “nothing to do with the accuracy or the credibility or the veracity of what she has said was her experience with Richard Worth”, he said.

Well that depends on what her knowledge was of what her husband was doing. One may be aware but not be complicit.

One of the victims, Siddesh Sajjan, last night told the Herald he met Kumar and Neelam Choudary in 2002 and paid them $3500 for a job offer that turned out to be fake.

He said that although Neelam Choudary was not charged, “she is a troublemaker”.

This is first hand testimony that she was involved with making a job offer. Now as she was not charged, it is probable that she did not realise the job did not exist, but why get involved with making an offer if you don’t know that it is genuine.

A Labour supporter who lives in Mt Roskill and voted for Mr Goff, he said he had considered warning the party about her earlier when she became heavily involved with it, and regretted not doing so.

So the victim of the fraud is not a National Party member, activist or complainant.

Mr Goff said Mrs Choudary was now under enormous stress.

And who the fuck caused that? Who told the country she is strikingly beautiful allowing her to be recognised? Who has tried to keep the story on the front page for day after day by drip feeding e-mails and advising her not to hand the e-mails over to the PM’s Chief of Staff? Who tried to turn it into a political circus by insisting he attend any meeting with the PM as her “support person”?

Tracy Watkins and Clio Francis reports:

Labour leader Phil Goff yesterday accused National of outing the woman after Naleem Choudary was named on the Right-wing blog Whale Oil as the person claiming Dr Worth offered her plum government positions and subjected her to “vulgar and sexually explicit” phone calls.

The desperate idiot. Goff is the one who helped out her. His comments on her apperance combined with Rudman’s column allowed her to be identified.

The fact is that key people in National have known her identify for a week and they never ever leaked it – despite probably knowing about the fraud conviction. Could you have imagined Labour doing the same and not leaking her identity if she was a National candidate with a convicted fraudaster husband complaining about a Labour Minister? Shit no – her name would have been out within minutes.

I also know that TV3 made a decision to name the woman some hours before her name appeared on a blog. Why? Because Rudman and Goff had effectively identified her already.

Mr Goff refused to confirm the woman’s identity but said he was “really sorry” that a name was out there.

“What does this mean for any other person that wants to stand up and say, `here is a person in a position of power, they’re misusing their power’?”

It means never ever use Phil Goff again as your sexual harrassment advisor.

Mr Goff said he had never hidden the woman’s Labour Party affiliation, including from Mr Key.

“There’s no question at any point other than that she was a member of the Labour Party. I said that the very first time I spoke to John Key and the very first time I spoke to the media about it.”

There is a big big difference between being a member of a political party, and having sought a parliamentary nomination. It is a rare breed of person who wants to become an MP and is prepared to live such a public life by doing so. I will blog more on this later.

Mr Goff accused individuals “with close links to the National Party” of pressuring Ms Choudary to “shut up”, and said there was a deliberate attempt to undermine her.

Not sure who he is talking about, but I actually want her to supply all the text messages – in both directions – as Goff promised.

“Clearly, a political decision was made from the National Party that they would not respect her privacy and that they would attack her credibility.”

The desperate smear to cover up the fact he is more responsible than anyone except Brian Rudman for outing her.