Australian 'counter-terrorism' raids foil beheading plot

[seemslikeadream]

Australian 'counter-terrorism' raids foil beheading plot - media
BY MATT SIEGEL
SYDNEY Thu Sep 18, 2014 3:01am BST

(Reuters) - Australian police will allege that members of a group targeted in a sweeping counter-terrorism operation on Thursday planned to behead a random member of the public after draping the victim in the flag of Islamic State militants, Australia media reported.

Without referring to specifics, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Australia was at "serious risk from a terrorist attack".

He told reporters that the large-scale counter-terrorism raids in Sydney and Brisbane followed intelligence that Islamic militants were urging supporters to conduct "demonstration killings" in Australia.

Court documents to be revealed later on Thursday were expected to show the plan involved snatching someone in Sydney and executing them on camera, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and other Australian media said.

"The exhortations, quite direct exhortations were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country," Abbott told a media conference in the Northern Territory.

"So this is not just suspicion, this is intent and that's why the police and security agencies decided to act in the way they have."

More than 800 police were involved in the pre-dawn raids, described as the largest in Australian history. At least 15 people had been detained, with one man charged with a serious "terrorism-related" offence, police told a news conference.

The raids came just days after Australia raised its national terror threat level to "high" for the first time, citing the likelihood of terrorist attacks by Australians radicalised in Iraq or Syria.

Islamic State militants fighting in Iraq and Syria released a video on Saturday that purported to show the beheading of British aid worker David Haines.

In footage consistent with the filmed executions of two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, in the past month, they also threatened to kill another British hostage.

In 2013, British soldier Lee Rigby was hacked to death by two Muslim converts in London who claimed the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Muslims by British forces.

Police said the raids were focused in western Sydney and the Queensland city of Brisbane. Around half of Australia's population of roughly 500,000 Muslims lives in Sydney, with the majority in the western suburbs where the raids occurred.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said he had ordered an increased police presence onto the streets in the wake of the raids to prevent "troublemakers" taking advantage of heightened tensions.

Australia, which is due to host the Group of 20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane in mid-November, is concerned over the number of its citizens believed to be fighting overseas with Islamist militant groups.

Treasurer Joe Hockey insisted that the necessary precautions had been put in place for the G20 Leaders Summit, and dismissed concerns the raids could disrupt a meeting of the group's finance ministers set for this weekend in the city of Cairns.

"Well, of course everyone needs to make sure that with an increased threat level associated with potential terrorist attacks in Australia, we have all the necessary precautions taken for both the G20 here in Cairns and also in Brisbane, but I am very confident that all bases are covered," he said.

Up to 160 Australians have either been involved in the fighting in the Middle East or actively supporting it, officials said. At least 20 are believed to have returned to Australia and pose a national security risk, the head of the country's spy agency said when raising the threat level last week.

Abbott, highlighting the risk of homegrown militants returning from the Middle East, pledged on Sunday to send a 600-strong force as well as strike aircraft to join a U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq.

Australia had been at the "medium" alert level since a four-tier system was introduced in 2003. A "high" alert level is used when officials believe an attack is likely, while a "severe" level means they believe an attack is imminent or has occurred.

[norton ash]

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. I'd make a 'hockey' joke, but I've really had it. Hi SLAD.

[seemslikeadream]

you can even watch it on the tube

ISIS in Australia ...who knew

[seemslikeadream]

Australia hyping homeland fight against ISIS?

A man detained during a raid sits on the ground between police officers in Sydney, in a still image taken from a police handout video, Sept. 18, 2014. REUTERS

CANBERRA, Australia -- The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) plot to carry out random beheadings in Sydney alleged by police is a simple and barbaric scheme that has shaken Australians. But terrorism experts on Friday questioned whether the ruthless movement had the capacity or inclination to sustain a terror campaign so far from the Middle East.

Police said they thwarted a plot to carry out beheadings in Australia by ISIS supporters after raiding more than a dozen properties across Sydney on Thursday.

ISIS has beheaded three Westerners in the Middle East in recent weeks, recording the brutal slayings to make propaganda videos that have attracted widespread condemnation.

Australian authorities thwart ISIS-related terror plot
Two of the 15 suspects detained by police were charged on Thursday, officials said. Nine others were freed before the day was over.

But police wouldn't say how many remained in custody on Friday as the investigation continues.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott conceded it was difficult to safeguard the Australian population against such attacks.

"The regrettable reality is that to mount the kind of attacks which ISIL in Syria and in Iraq has in mind for Australia, all you need is a determined individual who will kill without compunction, a knife, an iPhone and a victim," Abbott told Seven Network television on Friday, using an alternate acronym for the group, which now calls itself simply the "Islamic State."

Some terrorism experts saw the plot as a potential shift in ISIS' focus from creating an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East. Others said it is more likely a symptom of policy confusion within a disparate group.

"If you have people coming in from different backgrounds from all these countries, when it comes to policy making, they're going to fight each other, they're going to kill each other," said Samuel Makinda, professor of International Relations and Security Studies at Murdoch University.

"On ISIS, I see no direct threat to Australia or to any other country at the moment except those in the Middle East," he added.

The raids involving 800 federal and state police officers came in response to intelligence that an ISIS leader in Syria was calling on Australian supporters to kill, Abbott said.

It remained unclear, however, what actual links -- other than generic calls for supporters to act -- might exist between ISIS leaders in Iraq or Syria, where the group is based, and the suspects in the Australia plot.

CIA Director John Brennan, speaking Thursday to U.S. lawmakers, said the plot demonstrated the "ability of groups like ISIL to be able to use technology, internet and other things, to be able to communicate, to be able to encourage, incite, recruit individuals to carry out their heinous attacks."

Hundreds of Muslims in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba protested the raids on Thursday night, with speakers accusing the government of exploiting public fear in a bid to get contentious counterterrorism laws through Parliament.

Abbott defended the raids against accusations of overkill.

"It was a show of strength," Abbott told reporters. "It needed to be a show of strength. It needed to be a demonstration that we will respond with strength to any threat to our way of life and to our national security."

Abbott said armed police were taking over security at Parliament House in Canberra, because Australian ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria had been urging their supporters at home to attack the building and government members.

With national grand finals approaching in Rugby League and Australian Rules Football -- among the country's most popular sports -- police have said security will be boosted at sports arenas and other public venues attracting large numbers of people.


Play VIDEO
Western jihadists alarm European intelligence networks
Greg Barton, a Monash University global terrorism expert, said ISIS could be starting to direct its global followers to take the fight to their home communities in a bid to usurp al Qaeda's position as the leading global jihadist network.

The movement could eventually mount attacks in Australia like last year's massacre by militant group al-Shabaab on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, that killed 67, Barton said.

It might also become capable of replicating in Australia the London public transport bombings of 2005 which killed four suicide bombers and 52 victims.

"We don't think they have that capacity right now ... so our more immediate threats are things like the Woolwich killing which are very low tech," said Barton, referring to last year's slaying in the London suburb of Woolwich. Two extremists ran a soldier down in a car then stabbed and hacked him to death in public.

"Its power of persuasion at the moment is considerable," Barton said of ISIS. "Whether it's got many followers here in Australia who have much technical nous is not clear."

The government estimates that ISIS has 100 supporters within Australia.

Security authorities are particularly concerned by the dozens of Australian jihadists who have already returned home after fighting for ISIS or al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nursa, also known as the Nusra Front, in Iraq and Syria. Their combat and bomb-making training could make them potent terrorists.


Play VIDEO
More dangerous than ISIS: Airports on alert due to new Syrian terror group
CBS News' Bob Orr reported Thursday that U.S. officials consider an al Qaeda subgroup attached to Nusra the most imminent threat to America at present. The Khorasan group has evolved, the officials say, into the foreign operations arm of Nusra, focused on plotting attacks against U.S. and Western airliners.

But Clive Williams, a counterterrorism expert at the Australian National University and a former military intelligence officer, said ISIS supporters who can't join the fight because their passports have been canceled on security grounds are more worrying.

"The ones who are coming back aren't a problem because maybe they're less committed, or maybe they're less enchanted," Williams said. "The ones who come back are less of a problem than the ones who want to go."

Thursday's raids came just days after Australia raised its terrorism threat to the second-highest level in response to the domestic threat posed by ISIS supporters.

Federal Police Acting Commissioner Andrew Colvin said police conducted additional raids in Sydney Thursday night. "A number of people" remained detained Friday, Colvin said, declining to specify how many.

Counterterrorism laws allow a suspect to be held without charge for up to 14 days.

One of those detained, 22-year-old Omarjan Azari of Sydney, appeared in court on Thursday charged with conspiracy to prepare for a terrorist attack. Another man faces a lesser weapons charge.

Mohammad Ali Baryalei, believed to be Australia's most senior ISIS member, was named as a co-conspirator in court documents. Police have issued an arrest warrant for him.

[seemslikeadream]

WEEKEND EDITION SEPTEMBER 19-21, 2014

Why Australia Urgently Needs an Indigenous Bill of Rights
War, Circus and Injustice Down Under
by JOHN PILGER
There are times when farce and living caricature almost consume the cynicism and mendacity in the daily life of Australia’s rulers. Across the f=ront pages is a photograph of a resolute Tony Abbott with Indigenous children in Arnhem Land, in the remote north. “Domestic policy one day,” says the caption, “focus on war the next.”

Reminiscent of a vintage anthropologist, the prime minister grasps the head of an Indigenous child trying to shake his hand. He beams, as if incredulous at the success of his twin stunts: “running the nation” from a bushland tent on the Gove Peninsula while “taking the nation to war”. Like any “reality” show, he is surrounded by cameras and manic attendants, who alert the nation to his principled and decisive acts.

But wait; the leader of all Australians must fly south to farewell the SAS, off on its latest heroic mission since its triumph in the civilian bloodfest of Afghanistan. “Pursuing sheer evil” sounds familiar; of course, an historic mercenary role is unmentionable, this time backing the latest US installed sectarian regime in Baghdad and re-branded ex Kurdish “terrorists”, now guarding Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Oil, Hunt Oil et al.

No parliamentary debate is allowed; no fabricated invitation from foreigners in distress is necessary, as it was in Vietnam. Speed is the essence. What with US intelligence insisting there is no threat from Islamic State to America and presumably Australia, truth may deter the mission if time is lost. If this week’s police and media show of “anti-terror” arrests in “the plot against Sydney” fails to arouse the suspicions of the nation, nothing will. That the unpopular Abbott’s reckless war-making is are likely to be self-fulfilling, making Australians less safe, ought to in headlines, too. Remember the blowback of Bush’s and Blair’s wars.

But what of the be-headings? During the 21 months between James Foley’s abduction and his be-heading, 113 people were reportedly beheaded by Saudi Arabia, one of Barack Obama’s and Tony Abbott’s closest allies in their current “moral” and “idealistic” enterprise. Indeed, Abbott’s war will no doubt rate a plaque in the Australian War Memorial alongside all the other colonial invasions acknowledged in that great emporium of white nationalism — except, of course, the colonial invasion of Australia during which the be-heading of the Indigenous Australian defenders was not considered sheer evil.

This returns us to the show in Arnhem Land. Abbott says the reason he and the media are camped there is that he can consult with Indigenous “leaders” and “gain a better understanding of the needs of people living and working in these areas”.

Australia is awash with knowledge of the “needs” of its first people. Every week, it seems, yet another study adds to the torrent of information about the imposed impoverishment of and vicious discrimination against Indigenous people: apartheid in all but name. The facts, which can no longer be spun, ought to be engraved in the national consciousness, if not the prime minister’s. Australia has a rate of Indigenous incarceration higher than that of apartheid South Africa; deaths in custody occur as if to a terrible drumbeat; preventable Dickensian diseases are rampant, including among those who live in the midst of a mining boom that has made profits of a billion dollars a week. Rheumatic heart disease kills Indigenous people in their 30s and 40s, and their children go deaf and suffer trachoma, which causes blindness.

When, as shadow indigenous health minister in 2009, Abbott was reminded by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous people that the Howard government’s fraudulent “intervention” was racist, he told Professor James Anaya to “get a life” and “stop listening to the old victim brigade”. The distinguished Anaya had just been to Utopia, a vast region in the Northern Territory, where I filmed the evidence of the racism and forced deprivation that had so shocked him and millions of viewers around the world. “Malnutrition”, a GP in central Australia told me, “is common.”

Today, as Abbott poses for the camera with children in Arnhem Land, the children of Utopia are being denied access to safe and clean drinking water. For 10 weeks, communities have had no running water. A new bore would cost just $35,000. Scabies and more trachoma are the result. (For perspective, consider that the Labor government’s last Indigenous Affairs minister, Jenny Macklin, spent $331,144 refurbishing her office in Canberra).

In 2012, Olga Havnen, a senior Northern Territory government official, revealed that more than $80 million was spent on the surveillance of families and the removal of children compared with just $500,000 on supporting the same impoverished families. Her warning of a second Stolen Generation led to her sacking. This week in Sydney, Amnesty and a group known as Grandmothers Against Removals presented further evidence that the number of Indigenous children being taken from their families, often violently, is greater than at any time in Australia’s colonial history.

Will Tony Abbott, self-proclaimed friend of Indigenous people, step in and defend these families? On the contrary, in his May budget, Abbott cut $536 million from the “needs” of Indigenous people over the next five years, a quarter of which was for health provision. Far from being an Indigenous “friend”, Abbott’s government is continuing the theft of Indigenous land with a confidence trick called “99-year leases”. In return for surrendering their country — the essence of Aboriginality — communities will receive morsels of rent, which the government will take from Indigenous mining royalties. Perhaps only in Australia can such deceit masquerade as policy.

Similarly, Abbott appears to be supporting constitutional reform that will “recognise” Indigenous people in a proposed referendum. The “Recognise” campaign consists of familiar gestures and tokenism, promoted by a PR campaign “around which the nation can rally”, according to the Sydney Morning Herald — meaning the majority, or those who care, can feel they are doing something while doing nothing.

During all the years I have been reporting and filming Indigenous Australia, one “need” has struck me as paramount. A treaty. By that I mean an effective Indigenous bill of rights: land rights, resources rights, health rights, education rights, housing rights, and more. None of the “advances” of recent years, such as Native Title, has delivered the rights and services most Australians take for granted.

As Arrente/Amatjere leader Rosalie Kunoth-Monks says: “We never ceded ownership of this land. This remains our land, and we need to negotiate a lawful treaty with those who seized our land.” A great many if not most Indigenous Australians agree with her; and a campaign for a treaty — all but ignored by the media — is growing fast, especially among the savvy Indigenous young unrepresented by co-opted “leaders” who tell white society what it wants to hear. That Australia has a prime minister who described this country as “unsettled” until the British came indicates the urgency of true reform — the end of paternalism and the enactment of a treaty negotiated between equals. For until we, who came later, give back to the first Australians their nationhood, we can never claim our own.