I may be a cynical old bugger, but past examples have shown that not all imams can be trusted to be on our side. Only a few years ago there was one young imam whose name currently escapes me, who was openly advocating jihad. I believe his Australian passport has been revoked and he will not be allowed back in the country.

David

The article is necessarily dry. As counter-terrorism legal changes are a Public Interest matter Recommendation 40 concerning weapons training is of interest. When/if Recommendation 40 is introduced into Parliament the minutiae justifying it might be lost in the rush. The following assists public debate.

The AG, Brandis in Senate Question Time on 25 June identified the major basis for the proposed legal changes to be introduced into Parliament on 14 June 2014 - see http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/transcripts/Pages/2014/Second%20Quarter/25June2014-QuestionTimeSenate.aspx .

Those changes are from 21 Recommendations in Chapter 4 of the following Report: http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=pjcis/nsl2012/report.htm

Note that 10,000s of people including those in the human rights community who commented on drafts of the Report have read Chapter 4. Chapter 4 would have been on the open internet for many months.

The text of Chapter 4 is at http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=pjcis/nsl2012/report/chapter%204.pdf .

Within the Chapter 4 text is Recommendation 40 of the Report.
Text of 40 is:

"Recommendation 40

The Committee recommends that the Intelligence Services Act 2001 be
amended to enable ASIS to provide training in self‐defence and the use of weapons to a person cooperating with ASIS."

The argument for Recommendation 40 is on pages 136 to 138 of the Report:

"ASIS co-operation on self-defence and weapons training

4.237 The Government expressly seeks the Committee’s views on amending the IS Act to enable ASIS to provide training in self‐defence and the use of weapons to a person cooperating with ASIS.

4.238 The IS Act was amended in 2004 to to enable ASIS staff members and agents to receive training in the use of weapons and self-defence techniques in certain limited circumstances.

4.239 ASIS is only permitted to provide training in the use of weapons to ASIS staff members and agents. The IS Act does not currently enable ASIS staff members to participate in joint training in the use of weapons with persons who are lawfully cooperating with ASIS. This applies even though ASIS staff members are authorised to use weapons to protect such persons."

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"4.240 To remedy this inconsistency the discussion paper proposes that ASIS would be allowed to engage in weapons training with Commonwealth, State and Territory bodies that have their own rights to carry weapons in the course of their duties.

ASIS would also be enabled to cooperate with a limited number of approved overseas authorities in the delivery of training in self-defence and weapons.1

4.241 The Pirate Party of Australia submitted that allowing the Foreign Minister to approve foreign bodies to receive such training ‘is deeply concerning’: This could be used to train insurgent armies, assassination squads and even terrorists. Such activities are not Justified under any circumstances and is contrary to Australia’s national interest. Any tool created to fight foreign enemies can be turned upon the Australian people or at minimum be justification for our enemies to adopt the same strategies against us.121

4.242 Similarly, the Human Rights Law Centre expressed concern that Weapons and self-defence training: …may pose risks to right to life contained in article 6 of the ICCPR. These proposals should have regard to human rights standards on the use of force.122

4.243 Contrarily, ASIS’s submission asserted that the current carriage of weapons by ASIS is strictly for defensive purposes in accordance with the limitations imposed by Schedule 2 of the IS Act.123

4.244 Similarly, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security noted in her submission that: Generally I am satisfied that the powers afforded to ASIS under Schedule 2 of the ISA are reasonable given the high threat environments in which it conducts some of its more sensitive activities, that the numbers of individuals who are authorised to use weapons is quite small and these authorisations are not being misused. I have been briefed on the need for joint training activities and have no propriety concerns with what has been proposed. If the proposed amendments are made I will monitor their implementation.124"

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"Committee comment

4.245 The Committee is of the view that as ASIS officers are permitted at law to co-operate with certain agencies and use weapons and self-defence techniques to protect themselves and their partner agencies, it is reasonable for ASIS to be able to train with those same partners in the self-defence techniques and with the weapons that are intended to save their lives.

4.246 Indeed, the lack of such joint training poses an unacceptable danger to ASIS officers and agents.

[Hence]

Recommendation 40

The Committee recommends that the Intelligence Services Act 2001 be amended to enable ASIS to provide training in self‐defence and the use of weapons to a person cooperating with ASIS."

END

Hi Pete,
Good article. The threat of home grown or imported terrorism should be of concern to Australians but not a constant worry. In many ways Europe s much closer geographically to the two hot spots and has a more diverse population particularly in regards to their Middle East population than Aus does and as such you would expect more recruitment from this region. What interests me is that we have Indonesia on our doorstep which has the largest Muslim population in the world.There has been little documented in regards to recruitment to the jihad from Indonesia and this may pose a greater threat to Australia's security than direct recruitment.
In regards to the proposed amendments to the Act and the new powers given as always human rights and privacy concerns must be considered as well as the personnel and expertise needed to enforce the laws.
Cheers
Teena

The war on terror is a mostly a lie. After the USSR collapsed they needed a new bogey man to keep the masses afraid and suppressed.

Zibigniew Brezezinski in his book 'The Grand Chessboard' fore told of what was coming." What we need is a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat" "We need a new Pearl Harbour" That new Pearl Harbour was the attacks of 911.They needed terrorism to subjugate we the masses. We got Howard's Sedition Laws and the USA got the Patriot Act and the NDAA.

http://www.ae911truth.org/ and http://patriotsquestion911.com/ Thousands of professionals and ex senior Military do not believe the official story.

Globally we are seeing the enactment of corporate fascism and the removal of any rights we had.