CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter September 2014
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CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter September 2014 1 www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter September 2014 ASIO explains why Australians can fight for some terrorists and not others Source: http://muslimvillage.com/2014/08/23/57146/asio-explains-why-australians-can-fight-for-some- terrorists-and-not-others/ In the past week, the Abbott government has imposed on the Israelis … and I don‘t know revealed a new package of anti-terrorism laws whether it would happen … then there could be targeting Australian jihadists returning from Iraq a problem.‖ and Syria that aroused the resentment of The veteran ASIO chief brought along the legal several Islamic community representatives. text with the clauses relevant to the ban on Recently, ASIO chief David Irvine decided to Australians wishing to join foreign national meet with a team of Arab-speaking journalists armies under UN sanctions. Irvine specifies in Sydney in an attempt to communicate his that ―the Iraqi government is not subject to message, which centred on the distinction sanctions, so if you have a dual Australian-Iraqi between a War on Terror and a War on Islam. citizenship, you could go there and join the The number of Australians fighting in the Iraqi armed forces.‖ The Shiite militias known Mesopotamia plateau has been estimated to for committing crimes under the cloak of the be as high as 150. In order to deal with the Iraqi military are consequently allowed to potential threat posed by these 150 radicals recruit Australian militants. and radical wannabes, the Coalition has In the broader picture affecting all Australians, promised ASIO and other intelligence agencies the new anti-terrorism laws could allow up to $630 million. It has also proposed a set of two years of retention of the metadata stored measures that would enlarge the already by internet and telephone companies in order extensive powers of the whole security to make them available to the intelligence apparatus. agencies. This has predictably ignited fears In the parallel media frenzy, dual citizens and about ASIO abusing its monitoring powers young Australians with a Middle Eastern to violate civil liberties. background have been under the spotlight, to At the roots of such concerns, there are 2 the extent the government is contemplating the actually some disturbing precedents like the possibility of revoking the Australian citizenship so-called Five Eyes Agreement revealed in of those who join proscribed foreign terrorist 2013, when former NSA contractor Edward groups. Snowden leaked documents related to a But what about national armies? A legal meeting held by British, American, Canadian, loophole — generated by the distinction Australian and New Zealand intelligence between terrorist organisations and agencies in 2008. In the views of the ASIO national armies seems to allow an chief, however, Australia‘s legal system Australian to fight with the Israeli Defence prevents its intelligence agencies from abusing Forces or the Syrian Arab Army and return their powers and makes them different from the home, after having received much more American NSA with regards to mass professional training than he or she would surveillance programs. ―Our legal system is as a militant from the Islamic State (IS) or different, the rules according to which I can get Jabhat al-Nusra in Iraq. information on citizens are different from the ―That‘s true,‖ Irvine said told those assembled, US,‖ says Irvine. ―We call it the principle of including your correspondent. ―But if you raise proportionality: for me to intrude into your the case of the Syrian army specifically, that‘s private life, I have to be very convinced that a problem, because the Syrian government is you‘re of concern and that allows me to get that operating under the UN sanctions and it would far into your private life.‖ be a crime for an Australian to break those The top spy is in a good mood and he goes on sanctions.‖ Whereas in the case of the Israeli explaining the controversial issue of metadata military, the unlikelihood of any UN sanction retention on a blackboard. ―There are two imposed on the Jewish state would preserve it forms of data: this is the envelope as a free port for Australian volunteers. ―The and those are the data contained Israelis are not yet under sanctions,‖ Irvine in the letter,‖ says Irvine while clarified. ―If there were UN sanctions to be sketching on the white surface, www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter September 2014 ―the information contained in the envelope is powers and in the ten years that we‘ve had very important, because if I see a known those powers [since 9/11] we‘ve never been terrorist is in communication with another accused of abusing them. We‘ve never been Australian, that other Australian becomes very proved to have abused them.‖ interesting to me for obvious reasons.‖ David Irvine‘s proud reference to the last ten ―Now these metadata are actually kept by the years stands in contradiction with ASIO‘s telephone company, in the United States they history, including its kidnapping and false are kept by the government,‖ explains Irvine, ―I imprisonment of the medical student Izhar Ul- have the right to go to the telephone company Haque in 2007, who was under investigation and ask to look at that particular piece of for allegedly training with a proscribed information and I don‘t need a warrant for that.‖ Pakistani terrorist group. Even when ASIO did A neat presentation about metadata clarified on not enjoy these ―extensive powers‖, between a blackboard: the message conveyed looked the ‘50s and the ‘70s, the files the agency like ―It‘s all so simple, nothing hidden, you just opened on ―students, unionists, Aboriginal have to trust us.‖ In Irvine‘s words, the activists, and writers and as many as half a historical curriculum of ASIO stands as a million other citizens‖ could hardly be classified guarantee that its powers will remain subject to as anything other than an abuse of power to the rule of law. ―We are not creating a police monitor political dissent. Needless to say, this State, also because we already have extensive was not included in Irvine‘s presentation. Why the U.S. Does Not Pay Ransoms for Americans Kidnapped by Terrorists Source: http://www.newsweek.com/why-us-does-not-pay-ransoms-americans-kidnapped-terrorists-266315 Should governments pay ransoms to terrorists to free hostages? The brutal murder of the journalist James Foley by Islamist State terrorists has brought this debate to the fore. Here, in a talk given two years ago, David S. Cohen, US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Finance Intelligence, puts the argument against paying ransoms. It was delivered long before 3 the rise of Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq. It is, however, a definitive statement of the Obama Administration’s policy towards ransom paying. In some respects, there is encouraging news London, the international on terrorist financing. Since the Al Qaeda community has achieved major terrorist attacks on America of September 11 successes in limiting terrorist 2001 and the July 7 2005 suicide bombings in financing. www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter September 2014 Osama bin Laden and several of his key officials. AQIM and AQAP have turned this financial lieutenants, including Saeed al-Masri, age-old tactic into a successful money- Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, and Abu Yahya al-Libi generating scheme, turning kidnapping for have not lived to see the most recent ransom into our most significant terrorist anniversaries of their most brutal attacks. Their financing threat today. deaths, along with international efforts to The numbers speak for themselves. The US combat terrorist financing, have degraded the government estimates that terrorist ability of Al-Qaeda‘s central organization, its organizations have collected approximately ―core,‖ to raise funds and carry out new $120 million in ransom payments over the past attacks. eight years. AQIM, the Al-Qaeda affiliate that Indeed, over the past decade, close has likely profited most from kidnapping for cooperation among governments in Europe, ransom, has collected tens of millions of dollars the Gulf, and elsewhere, as well as between through KFR operations since 2008. It raised governments and the private sector, has significant funds from kidnapping for ransom enabled the international community to take operations in early 2012, and was holding nine great strides in defeating more traditional hostages as of the middle of last month. methods of terrorist financing. For its part, AQAP has collected millions of The less encouraging news is that while Al- dollars through kidnapping operations since Qaeda has experienced a decrease in funding, 2009, and was holding two hostages as of this its affiliates in the Sahel and Yemen are doing past August. And kidnapping for ransom is not better financially, in large part by raising confined to these Al-Qaeda affiliates. enormous sums of money through kidnapping Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan has raised several for ransom (KFR). million dollars in ransoms in recent years. And Al-Qaeda‘s core is not in the position to provide the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf Group, generous funding to its affiliates, such as Al- which relies primarily on criminal activity for its Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb funding, has obtained more than $2 million in (AQIM) operating in the Sahel and Al-Qaeda in ransom payments since 2008. the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operating What‘s worse, the size of the average ransom primarily in Yemen. Instead, these Al-Qaeda payment is increasing. In 2010, the average 4 offshoots are self-sufficient, raising their own ransom payment per hostage to AQIM was funds and themselves providing support to the $4.5 million; in 2011, that figure was $5.4 next generation of violent groups.