Australia’s front-line anti-terrorism agency, the Australian Federal Police, has been gagged by the government from commenting on the link between Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s decision to return to war in Iraq and the increased terrorism threat.
The AFP has declined to answer questions about its assessment of whether the government’s intervention in Iraq has increased the risk of terrorism in Australia, saying they needed to be referred to the Attorney-General’s Department for a “whole of government” response. The phrase “whole of government” is normally used only in relation to issues that cross a large number of separate portfolios, such as indigenous affairs, and usually requires co-ordination by Prime Minister and Cabinet. But as of deadline, AGD had refused to provide the “whole of government” response.
Government ministers have been adamant that there is no link between the heightened terror threat level and the government’s decision (backed by Labor) to join the United States as, so far, the only nation to commit military forces to a new round of attacks in Iraq, against the terrorist group Islamic State (also called ISIL or ISIS). At a media conference on Friday, despite NSW Police allegations that a conspiracy to murder a random target resulted from a telephone call last Tuesday, the Prime Minister resorted to Bush-era rhetoric to dismiss any connection:
“I should remind everyone that Australians were the subject of a terror attack in Bali long before we got involved in the 2003 Iraq War. The United States was subject to the September 11 atrocity long before any American involvement in Iraq. So, we are a target, not because of anything that we’ve done but because of who we are and how we live. These extremists — who, in my view have nothing to do with Islam, whatever they might claim — these extremists hate us because they don’t like our way of life, they don’t like our freedom, they don’t like our pluralism, they don’t like the acceptance that we extend to minorities, they don’t like the freedom that we give to women.”
Abbott’s insistence there is no link also appeared to be contradicted by a media report in which NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said about the connection between Iraq and the increased risk of terrorism, “in our risk assessments, in putting together our response plan, we have certainly factored that in”.
However, NSW Police subsequently declined to offer a formal response on the subject, saying it was “a decision of federal authorities, not one we would comment on”. Victorian Police also declined to comment on the link. The situation is somewhat different in Queensland, where police have been on a heightened state of alert for months because of the G20 in November and associated high-profile events like the weekend meeting of finance ministers and central bankers hosted by Treasurer Joe Hockey.
The gagging of the AFP appears designed to prevent a repeat of the embarrassment suffered by the Howard government in 2004 when then-commissioner Mick Keelty admitted that Australia’s participation in the 2003 attack on Iraq had increased the risk of terrorism to Australians. Keelty was savaged by senior government figures and even then-Australian Defence Force chief Peter Cosgrove, and forced to back away from his remarks, but was subsequently vindicated as senior intelligence officials in the UK and the US acknowledged that the war on Iraq had made Western citizens less safe.
We’re supposed to hand over this sort power to the almost-viable remains of the Howard government (from “Ghoulie” Andrews to “Lucky Phil” Ruddock et al, including his master’s apprentice, Abbott).
[Without remembering “Children Overboard”, “Iraq/WMDs”, Hicks, Habib and Haneef?]
To the party led by such a Howard idolater as Toady Abbott?
[Remember “Opposition Leader Abbott”?
“Dr NO!”?
“Climate change is crap” Abbott”?
“Carbon Tax/Whyalla/Port Pire/Gladstone/Hunter valley/Kwinana/Portland/Latrobe Valley crisis” Abbott?
“Economic crisis” Abbott?]
But “This time it’s real”?
Yep, Abbott has thrown us into battle behind the US, before anyone else, including the UK. The UK being much closer to the action, a greater vested interest, more resources and even had a citizen publicly beheaded by IS. As Tony said himself, in respect of war, “Shit happens!”.
Surely the increased terror-Iraq link is so blatantly obvious that no commentary from the AFP or any other agency is required.
Freedom is “given” to women? Excuse me?
A lot of what Tony Abbott says disturbs me, and not a lot of it surprises me.
Just who does he think “gives” women that freedom?
The man is a dinosaur.
I suggest a simple test. Take a group of developed countries that have not passed repressive legislation on civil liberties, have not ramped up their “terror threat” levels, and are not posturing on the world stage about existential threats to our precious way of life. I suspect that there will be an almost perfect correlation between those countries and their absence from the latest re-invasion of Iraq and threatened invasion of Syria.
Further, did you notice the uncanny resemblance between Abbott’s latest pronouncements about what Islamist countries allegedly do not like about us and Bush the Lesser’s “they hate us for our freedoms” rhetoric of the early 2000s?
In more ways than one our Dear Leader is stuck in the past.