“Police are being forced to make life and death decisions that allow some to escape prosecution.” The Islamic State’s plan and hope is to overwhelm law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Western countries, so that they simply can’t keep up with the scope of jihad activity, and collapse. It looks as if they are on their way to achieving that.
“Hundreds of Islamic State ‘extremists’ in Australia, nation’s top counter-terrorism chief reveals,” by Samantha Maiden, The Sunday Telegraph, November 21, 2015 (thanks to Kenneth):
HUNDREDS of young men and women are known Islamic State sympathisers and police are being forced to make life and death decisions that allow some to escape prosecution, according to the nation’s top counter-terrorism chief.
However, the most dangerous response to this “small but significant’’ group would be to demonise all Muslims and create a breeding ground for alienated teenage terrorists, national counter-terrorism co-ordinator Greg Moriarty warned.
Spy agency ASIO has put the number of Australians actively supporting terrorist groups overseas at 190.
But experts have advised officials that the number of Australian sympathisers would be even higher.
“Certainly hundreds, but not thousands of people who are real extremists,’’ Mr Moriarty said.
“The overall majority of these are young men and women. The average age is coming down. The majority would be pro-ISIL.’’
ASIO maps detailing hot spots for extremists have previously highlighted Lidcombe, Greenacre, Punchbowl, Bankstown, Auburn and Lakemba.
“The larger cities are where we are dealing with most of our high-risk communities,’’ Mr Moriarty said.
“The bulk are in Sydney and Melbourne. My ASIO colleagues and my law enforcement colleagues tell me they are dealing with challenges across Australia.
“There are 190 people that our agencies judge are providing support. That’s a crime. There are some other people that express views that are sympathetic to ISIL.
“They say we agree with what ISIL is doing. They are prepared to consider that violence and terror are legitimate tools.’’…