“Under legislation to be introduced to Parliament in the next few weeks, it would become a criminal offence to travel to designated countries without a valid reason. Attorney-General George Brandis said the onus would be on someone who travels to such a country to explain that the reason was humanitarian, family or for ‘other innocuous purposes.'” That is a good idea as far as it goes, and it is certainly much more than is being done in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada to stop Muslims from going to Syria and Iraq to wage jihad, but it seems as if it would be all too easy to convince authorities that the trip was for “innocuous purposes.” After all, the Marin County Mujahid, John Walker Lindh, went to Yemen to “study Arabic.”
“Australia plans to regulate travel to terrorism hotbeds,” Today, August 6, 2014:
CANBERRA — Australia’s government yesterday announced plans to regulate travel to terrorist hotbeds such as Iraq and Syria as part of a raft of counterterrorism measures aimed at addressing the domestic threat posed by war-hardened homegrown Islamic extremists.
The government announced proposed laws and A$630 million (S$731 million) in additional resources for intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them cope with the scores of Australians who return home after committing terrorist acts overseas.
“We don’t want to subvert Australian justice,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott said. “The last thing any of us would choose to do is to defend our system by damaging our system.”
“But what we are determined to do is to ensure that where people have been involved in terrorist activities, it is much more readily possible to secure convictions than it currently is, given the difficulty of getting evidence of exactly what might be happening overseas,” he added.
Mr Abbott said it was difficult to find witnesses to testify in Australian courts about atrocities in foreign war zones that are often posted on social media websites. “We’ve all seen truly shocking imagery of Australians born and bred doing absolutely horrific things to surrendering Iraqi police and military personnel,” he said.
“What we are now acutely conscious of is the danger posed back here in Australia by people returning to this country who have been radicalised and militarised by the experience of working with terrorist organisations overseas.”
Under legislation to be introduced to Parliament in the next few weeks, it would become a criminal offence to travel to designated countries without a valid reason. Attorney-General George Brandis said the onus would be on someone who travels to such a country to explain that the reason was humanitarian, family or for “other innocuous purposes”.
The offence would be far easier to prove than the current prohibition on travelling overseas to take part in terrorism. A suspected terrorist would be detained without charge if he or she were “suspected on reasonable grounds”, a lower burden of proof than the current test of “considered on reasonable grounds”.
Under the proposed laws, the Foreign Minister, who can currently cancel a suspected terrorist’s passport, would gain additional powers to more quickly suspend a passport.
The legal definition of armed hostilities would be expanded to include a range of terrorist activities. Australian telecommunications and Internet firms would be required to retain customers’ data for a period. Spy agencies argue that retaining such metadata is necessary to uncover terrorist plots.
In June, the government estimated that 150 Australians have fought with radical militants in Syria and Iraq. The police announced last week that they had arrest warrants for two Australians who are fighting with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria after one posted photographs of the other posing with severed heads of Syrian soldiers. They said former Sydney residents Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar would be arrested if they return to Australia. AP
jihad3tracker says
I have never been to Australia, but judging by development, it appears our splendid far-away friends and free citizens DON’T TAKE NO CRAP AND HAVEN’T CAVED LIKE THE BRITS ! ! !
Must be all that kangaroo meat on the barbee …. That reminds me — time for a trip to the butcher and the brewmaster.
PJG says
At the very same time as his was announced (it’s pointless…these people can simply go to Turkey or other nearby countries, or stay home and plot horror for Aussies) our government announced a backdown on loosening up the anti-free speech law. Muslims mustn’t be offended; they vote. Radical, vicious Muslims vote too. Very important people, whose views must be quietly repected.
Lynne Newington says
The anti speech law is for everyone not just the Muslims.
One journalist resigned the other day for his racial comments and drawing against the Jews, receiving an apology from the relevant newspaper he was employed with remember?
It’s not fair play causing others to contribute or respond to your comments based on misinformation making fools out of them.
Richie says
I lived there for 4 months, wonderful people, the most beautiful women Ive ever seen, and the people there are proud to be Aussies, and they will stand their ground if they feel threatened
PJG says
I wish you were right, Richie, but Australia has been going the PC way along with all the other Western countries. We even have Jew-hating Muslims shouting in the streets and their Australian fan clubs supporting them.
Lynne Newingtom says
You’re a bit of a stirrer think, where and when have Jews personally attacked Muslims in Australia and their fan clubs supporting them.
pdxnag says
Come on, don’t be like the East Germans and wall them in.
Let them cover all their debts, renounce any citizenship claims, and be off. Indeed, encourage them to take their whole clan/tribe with them as a group. Offer free passage even, one way.
If you cannot civilize just one percent of the Islamic genocidal monsters it would be insane to think you could transform 99%. Leaving just one percent of them untransformed is far more than needed to effectively vandalize any free society. The IS shock troops represent far less than one percent of the populations they dominate.
As far as I am concerned, from my amateur knowledge of Islam, no Muslim has ever been a genuine loyal citizen of any Western/infidel nation, ever. Name the cause – faith in Islam – not just a destination country for travel, lest you lump Mormon missionaries in with evil beasts.
Lynne Newington says
I’m not sure you know who Raoul Wallenberg is, he was a Swedish Diplomat with Jewish roots who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jewish lives during the Holocaust and every year an award in his memory gives special recognition to a person who has made a lasting and meaningful contributions
to the advancement of Human Rights. This year Mrs Krayem Abdo received it for her work within our multicultural community with leaders, supporting interfaith initiatives which foster greater understanding and tolerance, in 2008 awarded an Order of Australia Medal.
She is a Lebanese Muslim and a Hungarian refugee, where the need for her services were cultivated.
I haven’t done her justice by this potted history or Raoul Wallenberg, take the time to read about them both.
As I have previously stated elsewhere irrespective of what anyone else say’s to the contrary, we are big on religious and racial tolerance here in Australia and the full force of the law falls on anyone who doesn’t abide it and it comes from education.
Angemon says
That I can relate with.
That’s where it doesn’t make much sense. Wanna-be terrorists, regardless of being Australian or any other nationality, aren’t becoming “radicalized” because they go abroad and have contact with terrorists, they go abroad to have contact with terrorists because they are already “radicalized”. They may gain first hand experience on manufacturing bombs from household items or handling weapons while they are abroad, but if they want to go out to learn that kind of skills then the ideology that drives them to do so is already ingrained in their minds. It doesn’t matter if they were bred, born and raised in Australia, they’re no longer one of you because they no longer stand by your values, and the proof of that it’s that they’re willing to risk their lives fighting to impose a regime ideologically antipodal to yours. It’s game over for them. You prevent them from going and then what? Do they become harmless model citizens? Or do they become ticking time bombs, frustrated for living in a state that, from their POV, is repressing them? The best thing to do is let them go and make sure they can never return.
jihad3tracker says
P.M. Abbott is probably afflicted with a condition I dub PGVOR — Privilege Guilt Versus Obvious Reality.
A recent medical study by the Robert Spencer Clinic documented its rapid spread by Leftists who have accidentally landed here on Jihadwatch and been bitten by a horde of reports.
That affliction causes bi-lateral spasms in the throat and mouth, resulting in double speak — the irresistible tendency to utter two contradictory thoughts simultaneously.
Michael Copeland says
“Radicalization” is a terrible red herring with huge mileage.
One who goes to the root (Latin “radix”) of a subject, by
consulting its texts, is the one who learns his subject best.
He is the expert, not some nutter who has got it wrong.
tpellow says
Tunisian Islamic jihadists also heavily involved in this murderous activity-
“Tunisia Fears Attacks by Citizens Flocking to Jihad”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/world/africa/tunisia-in-political-transition-fears-attacks-by-citizens-radicalized-abroad.html?&_r=0
Will says
A real pity we simply cannot shoot them. But I guess that a few tens of thousands of our civilians have to die first before we take the gloves off.
I have been dead(?: )) against capital punishment for most of my life until the last decade when I decided that the only good jihadist is a very dead one and I see supporting ASIS as treason and much of what is said in our mosques and taught in our madrassas as sedition at the least.
John Stefan Obeda says
Dear Will, God gives the right to the government to execute premeditated murderers i.e. that are truly guilty. “For he [the authority] is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries our God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:4). I believe that “the sword” is the sword of execution. I guess those that do not want to accept capital punishment refuse to believe what the sword truly stands for. John the Baptist and the apostle Paul were executed by the sword, wrongly, of course, by the government.