BY SARAH STEPHEN
Having spearheaded the campaign of fear and hysteria against "boat-people" for the last five years, former immigration minister Philip Ruddock is again leading a charge of racism and fear — this time as attorney-general.
As one letter writer put it in the November 4 Sydney Morning Herald, "Not content with detaining the displaced, Philip Ruddock has started locking up the locals".
After the October 17 deportation of alleged "terrorist" Willie Brigitte [see article opposite], Ruddock approved warrants for raids by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) on seven houses in and around Sydney.
The raids took place on October 26. Two people had their passports confiscated and the authorities took away documents, computers, diaries, tapes and videos for further analysis. No charges have been laid.
The November 1 Melbourne Age reported that Ruddock conceded the raids were being used to intimidate. He referred to the October 2002 police raids on the homes of Muslim Australians: "If we look at what happened with JI [Jemaah Islamiya] — the people we believed were implicated in that organisation here in Australia — numbers left [Australia], it was quite clear that what happened was disruptive of anything they may have been involved in and it was beneficial. And I would say the same of last weekend's raids."
No-one was charged as a result of the 2002 raids. There was no evidence of organised JI activity in Australia. The fact that some of those targeted decided to leave Australia is not an indication of guilt, just of harassment.
Less than a day after the latest ASIO and AFP raids, NSW Labor Premier Bob Carr and AFP commissioner Mick Keelty triumphantly announced that a "terrorist cell" had been smashed. They were quickly reined in, however, by the federal government. Stephen Hopper, a lawyer acting for one of the families raided on October 26, told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly that his information from contacts is that the federal government was "spewing" at Carr's outburst.
Hopper said, "I thought Labor stood on a platform of social justice, but after Carr's comments in the last few weeks it looks like they're more akin to Pauline Hanson and One Nation."
Hopper is critical of the accusations levelled against those who had their homes raided, arguing that there is still very limited evidence. "ASIO still has a lot of things to investigate from these raids, [things] which they have to sift through and analyse."
In the weeks since the raids, many of those targeted have endured trial by media. The corporate press has feasted on tid-bits fed to them by Ruddock and ASIO sources. One man, named by newspapers, is allegedly linked to the "mastermind" of September 11.
Hopper is furious that this "allegation" has been broadcast. "[He] says he's innocent, and there should be a proper process to determine whether or not that's true".
Many of those raided knew Brigitte just through the Lakemba prayer hall they worshipped in.
Undeterred by the lack of evidence revealed to date, supposed "international terrorism expert" Rohan Gunaratna, told the November 1 Age that he believed Australian authorities had disrupted an al Qaeda cell, and that it was certain [the cell] would attempt to "strike again".
The second "expert" given a platform in the weeks since Brigitte's deportation is Dr Greg Barton from Deakin University. He told ABC Radio's PM on October 30 about the importance of "monitoring" the Islamic community, adding, "anyone going to Afghanistan or the north-west frontier of Pakistan now needs to be treated with a degree of suspicion".
On November 2, SBS news reported Ruddock's view that Australian authorities could have detained Brigitte if the Senate had not weakened laws boosting detention powers over terrorist suspects. Never mind small details: Brigitte was detained for eight days in Villawood detention centre before being deported.
In an interview on Channel Nine's November 2 Sunday program, Ruddock explained why the immigration act was used to detain Brigitte, rather than ASIO powers: "He breached visa conditions. It's not clear, in relation to the [ASIO] powers that have been quite severely circumscribed by the Senate, ... that we would have had available evidence for us to use those powers here in Australia at this time."
In a comment piece in the November 3 Sydney Morning Herald, associate law lecturer at La Trobe University Joo-Cheong Tham points to Ruddock's admission that "'a good deal more evidence' was required to further detain Brigitte".
What this means, Tham argues, is that there is "insufficient evidence to demonstrate that Brigitte had trained with al Qaeda. ... [and] there is insufficient evidence that Brigitte had information relating to al Qaeda's terrorist activities. If there were such evidence, ASIO could have employed its new detention powers and held Brigitte for rolling periods of seven days."
But Ruddock seems set to use the propaganda surrounding the Brigitte case to force through even more draconian anti-democracy laws. A spokesperson for Ruddock said it was likely that new draft laws would be introduced before the end of the year.
Far from being toothless and ineffective the ASIO laws passed by federal parliament on June 26 are some of the harshest in the Western world.
Writing in the November 4 Sydney Morning Herald, the director of the centre of public law at the University of NSW, George Williams, noted what the laws currently allow: "The law ... criminalises anyone who does any act in preparation or planning for a terrorist act. There are new offences for receiving training or even possessing 'a thing' connected with terrorist acts... the law now contains jail terms for involvement with a terrorist organisation as determined by a court, including for recruiting members or providing support or funds".
Williams pointed out that "the powers go further than those granted to any equivalent organisation in the US, Canada and Britain".
Ruddock dreams of being able to detain suspects without trial for up to four years, as French authorities can, and of being able to outlaw an organisation even if it is not listed as "terrorist" by the Security Council of the United Nations. On November 5, with Labor support, the govenrment amended the criminal code in order to ban Palestinian organisation Hamas and Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.|> From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, November 12, 2003.
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