But
it’s not the terrorists who frighten me. It’s
the gung-ho way Australia is, to use a Bush-ism, “smoking
them out”: the Government is passing legislation
which barters our freedoms for our protection; police
are haunting suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne in the dark
morning hours; the media are accusing Muslim schools of
not teaching Australian values as if that breeds terrorism
and the public is calling national hotlines, alarmed.
Is
the suspicion really worth it? Seventeen men - eight from
Sydney, nine from Melbourne - have so far been arrested
in police raids on Tuesday the 8th and Wednesday the 9th
of November. One of the eight from Sydney shot a policeman
in the hand during his arrest and was henceforth shot
in the throat. He, like the others, was charged with conspiring
to commit a terrorist act.
The
Sydney group is accused of stockpiling chemicals, namely
acetone peroxide, used in the preparation of bombs similar
to those used in the London blasts. The chemical is also
an ingredient in paint stripper and is easily purchased
at hardware stores. There is speculation that one of the
accused, former extra on Home and Away Omar Baladjam,
registered his business as a spray painter in 2003 to
validate the purchase of such chemicals although no supporting
evidence of this claim has been presented.
The
men in the Melbourne group are charged with belonging
to an unspecified terrorist organization between July
2004 and November 2005. Seven News reports the
group as planning to carry out “jihad, or holy war”.
On
November 10th, Melbourne magistrate Reg Marron told the
Sydney Morning Herald there was “no clear
reason” why the men should pose a greater alleged
risk today than they did in 2004. He said it was “still
not clear to me on the evidence” why the accused
were charged last Tuesday (the 8th) and “not at
some other time”.
Prime
Minister John Howard says the successful terror raids
were not timed to vindicate the passing of much disputed
amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act rushed through Senate
the previous week.
"I knew we had to make that amendment, I knew it
would strengthen the capacity of the authorities to respond,
and I knew that we couldn't make an amendment to a law
in haste without explaining the reason," he told
the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday. "This
suggestion that somehow or other we could've effected
the amendment without any explanation is plainly wrong."
The
arrests sure explained the amendments to the skeptics.
Nationals leader Ron Boswell heckled Labor MPs who questioned
the Prime Minister’s terror warning as having “egg
all over their face”. If he were The Simpsons
bully, Nelson, a nasal “haa-haaa” would’ve
sufficed.
But
according to lawyers, the amendments leave Division 102
of the Commonwealth Criminal Code untouched. This division
relates to belonging or directing a terrorist group and
shows that legislative changes had no bearing on the Melbourne
arrests. They could have happened in 2004, as Mr Marron
said.
For
the Sydney group however, a change of wording in the Act
allows police arrests when conspiracy in “a”
terrorist act is suspected, without police having to specify
what “the” attack might be. This paved the
way for police to arrest the Sydney suspects, where they
couldn’t have a week earlier.
What
remains to be seen now is the guilt of the suspects. Are
these arrests really saving lives and do they warrant
the public hysteria? Bail has been denied the two Melbourne
suspects who optimistically applied. The Sydney suspects
have been transferred to maximum-security prisons in Goulburn
and Lithgow to await trial.
But
in the meantime their media trial continues. With police
claims of having foiled a “catastrophic” terror
attack and the Australian public breathing a grateful
sigh of relief, any presumption of innocence is blowing
around with Muslim leaders’ pleas for calm.
I
will seek that calm. I’ll try to reclaim a belief
in the good will of people and try not to narrow my eyes
at the next Muslim schoolgirl I see who doesn’t
call her friends “mate”. In fact, I’ll
take my chances on trains that might carry bombs and in
a country that might be breeding “home-grown terrorists”
because living life pointing fingers may cause full-scale
RSI. And that would be terrible.
