The author hits the nail on the head in the middle of the article, the Sunni insurgents are Western proxies funded and equipped through fronts in the gulf states, they're Western mercenaries whose actions are "plausibly deniable".

ARJAY:-
"the Sunni insurgents are Western proxies funded and equipped through fronts in the gulf states, they're Western mercenaries whose actions are "plausibly deniable".

No, they are not Western mercenaries, they are tribal blood brothers
to the Syrian side they fight for.

They swear allegiance to Australia but they demonstrate that their
loyalty to the Australian people takes second place to their
tribal,kin blood line in the countries they immigrated from.

LOrd help our soldiers if ever they were forced to fight in Syria
on the other side, if there were a lot of these Syrian tribal loyalists (so called Australians) in the Australian army then
you would witness all the shootings in the back of our soldiers
like the ones in Afghanistan.

So much for Multiculturalism.

Loved your scenario Joe & you are right. Most of these people that have gone to Syria to fight (Humanitarian Mission) have fled from fighting in their own country & come to Australia for safety. It seems strange that they go back to a Warzone. (The men)

The UNCHR says that when a person flees their Country & becomes a refugee they lose that status if they return of their own free will. Yet, in Australia, we have refugees gaining Australian Citizenship then returning to their country to get their relatives out or to join the fight. But because they are now Australian citizens they can't be kicked out. You are right, something is seriously wrong.

I do see these people as a future danger to our Australian way of life.

Jayb - couldn't agree more! Anyone who is an Australian citizen, whether born or accepted as an immigrant who goes as a private citizen to fight in conflicts outside our borders deserves no assistance if captured, wounded or stranded. On return they should face immediate detention pending investigation of their activities.

The biggest problem we face in this respect is the noisy PC brigade who will no doubt cry and wail about racism and the rights of people to practice their kulcha ....

Mr Wakim writes. "The real 'illegals' are arriving in planes, not boats." Sorry Joe - they're coming via both means and we want it to stop

What's wrong with mercenaries? As long as they aren't deserters I don't see the problem.

Mercenaries have a long and proud military tradition. The Swiss Guard maintain a presence in the Vatican to this very day (although it's mostly ceremonial). The French Foreign Legion are still an effective fighting force.

I really can't see the problem with foreign nationals fighting under a foreign flag, as long as they're not deserters or war criminals.

Cheers,

Tony

The "loopholes" you referred to Mr Wakim in Australian law,came about because when our laws were written, they were conceived to apply to civilised people, not Jihadi religious fanatics who want to immigrate to our country with the hope of destroying us by rotting us out from the inside.

You are correct that when these fighters return they will be given a "heroes welcome". They will not be given that welcome by Australians, but by the Muslim population now resident in Australia who think that men who fight for Islam are the highest grade of Muslim.

Any attempt to arrest these enemy "Australians" who are fighting for our enemies will be met by a storm of disapproval by your mates in the ABC, just like they did with Mamdouth Habib and David Hicks. Just like the Muslims, anyone who fights against the western world they choose to live in is a hero to the trendy lefties.

They would rather these characters return "home" unmolested and then start recruiting Jihadis to bomb and kill Australians than violate their "rights" to do whatever they please. Like Hicks and Habib, We must pretend that these "Australians" are just tourists and welfare workers unless our laws can prove beyond a shadow of doubt that they are active terrorists. This type of politically correct "thinking" got the stupid Brits in the poo with the London bombings and one wonders why we are now going to emulate their failure?

One definition of "insanity" is "making the same mistake, over and over again."

It is time that Australians, (like the Euros) realised that the importation of Muslims into Australia has been a financial, legal,and social catastrophe.

Well said LEGO. Here, Here.

as long as they're not deserters or war criminals.
Tony Lavis,
If they're doing it with my tax dollar then they definitely are criminals. They are also deserters because they did run away in the first place to come here, take our money & go back. They're not fighting the problem, they're merely prolonging the suffering.

Joe,

I would not be surprised if some of these Australian based Muslim men fighting in Syria find themselves the victim of a serious sexual assault at the hands of the very people they are fighting alongside, and if they survive such an experience that on its own or some other form of PTSD might be enough to set them off if they arrive back in Australia.

Since Islam is full of taboos I do not think it is straight forward to explain jihadist's motivations for committing attacks either in Syria or in Australia.

I support your argument to block Australian based Muslims returning from conflict in Syria or somewhere else. In the past Australians have participated in IRA activities as well as the conflict in Bosnia but nothing on this scale and consequently existing laws do not reflect the potential serious consequences of these men returning.

The real question that is not being discussed is how the peaceful practise of Islam is contributing to the war in Syria. I saw Margaret Warner (PBS News hour) earlier this year interview a 30+ year old Syrian widow with 13 kids! Guess who she blamed for the crisis...

related thread
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=6098&page=0

from
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=15687&page=0

<<a gaping loop hole..and made
a mockery of our federal laws...>>

rubbish..
but..

<<Those..opposing the Syrian government..did not want their sons to slip down this hole,..as virtually all embraced Australia..to flee from war...Those supporting the Syrian government..also opposed this loop hole..because of their general concern..over foreign mercenaries and..terrorists allied with al Nusra and al Qaeda.

One Arabic language newspaper..declared that Australia's inaction on this loophole..was driven by another policy:..good riddance to bad rubbish.

If the Australians are helping..to topple the Syrian regime, then this..is in line with the Australian partisan policy..and Bob Carr's suggestion of a presidential assassination.

If these Australians.are killed in combat,..then that
*character..never belonged..*in our country,..so either way we win.

When David Hicks was participating in para-military training in Afghanistan in 2001, the US Military Commission charged him with 'providing material support for terrorism' and he was detained in Guantanamo Bay until 2007.

But when other Australians participate in military activities in the plethora of pro and anti-government 'brigades', they return home to a hero's welcome.

The current law is articulated by the Department of Foreign Affairs travel advise: "it is illegal under Australian law for Australian citizens, including dual citizens, to provide any kind of support to any armed group in Syria.

This includes engaging in fighting for either side, funding training or recruiting someone to fight … Australians who commit these offences while overseas may be prosecuted in Australia" with heavy fines and maximum 10 years imprisonment.

So why has there not been a single arrest, prosecution of conviction reported to the Australian public since the alarm bells were sounded?

Too many of these Australians publicly claim to be offering humanitarian aid to the Syrian refugee epidemic, but their Facebook photos show them posing proudly with guns.

UOG, Mate, I try real hard to understand your posts, but I fail each time. Is it your fault or mine. I don't know, really.

I don't care. These people who are fighting on any side in the Syrian conflict should NOT be granted Refugee Status in Australia & any who have left here & gone anywhere to fight MUST have their Citizenship revoked & then kicked out of Australia.

hey*..jay..b
funny how you didnt grasp..the previous post
but mate..

it was..*ALL..a direct quote..of the author
[.see his main article].

[from..page two.]

but you clearly never read..page two

oh well..you have a chance
to do..a take two.

cheers..eh*

looks like this post applies to..you..too

ps..your no muslim..are you?
so you must..be..type one..or a type too.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=6098#176065

None of this is anything new. It's been going on for a long time.

Somalis who came here as "refugees" have been returning to fight for al-Shabaab --shows how much they are committed to Western liberal ideals,ay!

And now the US and the Scandinavian countries are experiencing similar. It shows how easy it is to fool our vetting processes.

Sorry Jay of Melbourne for
calling you ARjay

I have a steaming great headcold at the moment which
isn't helping my focus.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just declare Islam a terrorist organization, and ban it?

Could we not just close the mosques, and any private Islamic schools, on the quite reasonable grounds that these have been shown to be breeding grounds for jihadists, and that their presence has been shown to lead to dreadful social consequences in all Western democracies?

We seem to have international agreements that force us to commit cultural suicide. The boat people are almost all fleeing terrible countries, seeking refuge in Australia, seemingly unaware that they carry the virus - Islam - that made their home countries such shitholes in the first place. If we were to be seen as unfriendly to Islam, surely the boats would slow.

As Gheert Vilders of The Netherlands points out, "The more Islam you have, the less freedom you have". As the great majority of Islamic countries are most unfriendly to Christianity, let's return the favour.

LEGO, I quite often find you a lone voice of sanity in these discussions, and always look for your comments.

Never had any input from Joseph Wakim on this article. I think that if he writes an article her is obliged to give some input to argument. Otherwise he is just like all the other over paid Government parasites.

We’ll now scrutinize the terminology and notions that are involved in the debate over Palestine and expose once again the deceitful nature that is unfortunately intrinsic to the contemporary progressive discourse.
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/concealment-and-truth-in-palestine-and-beyond.html

Zionism – Palestinian solidarity members are required to avoid the ‘J’ word and to use the word 'Zionism' instead. I recently revealed that Ali Abunimah, one of my current arch detractors, advised me a few years ago to refer to Zion when I really think Jewish so he and I “might find grounds for a lot of agreement….” In fact Abunimah was not alone. Jewish Voice For Peace approached me with a pretty much similar offer about the same time.

The truth of the matter is that Israeli politics has little to do with Zionism. Israelis are hardly familiar with Zionist ideology, nor they are concerned or motivated by Zionist praxis. Zionism is largely a Jewish Diaspora discourse that vows to establish a Jewish National home in Palestine and to civilize the Jew by means of nationalism. Israel is obviously the product of the Zionist project; however, the Israelis see themselves as post-revolutionary subjects - they transformed the Zionist dream into a practical reality.

Thus, criticism of Zionism per se hardly touches Israelis or Israeli politics. If anything, it actually diverts the attention from the crimes that are committed by the Jewish State in the name of the Jewish people.

But then, why do we use the term Zionism instead of referring to Jewish power, Jewish politics or the Jewish State? Simple: we do not want to offend the ‘anti-Zionist' Jews and Jews in general. We consciously choose to let Israel off the hook. Apparently we much prefer to target a phantasmic imaginary object that means very little rather than simply calling spade a spade.

Although the Brits have many war crimes attached to their names, the British Imperial War Museum decided to allocate a whole floor to the Jewish Holocaust instead of featuring one of the British-made genocides. The Brits, like everyone else, prefer to conceal their shame.
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/11/american-speaking-opposition.html
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/11/is-history-repeating-itself.html
http://soaspalsoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/SOASPALSOC-7th-Settler-Colonialism-2011.pdf