THE Federal Government knew Australians were training in Afghanistan terror camps for ten years before the 2001 attacks on the US, a Muslim cleric has claimed.
| "Yeah, sure. Knew it all along..." |
Melbourne Islamic leader Sheikh Mohammed Omran told the Herald Sun he was repeatedly visited by federal agents who asked him to discourage members of his group from attending the camps.
| But did you listen? NO! You DIDN'T LISTEN! |
Up to 12 Australians, including three Victorians, attended the camps, which included training with AK-47 rifles, marching and endurance drills. Sheikh Mohammed said the camps were regarded as "normal" and "good" for teaching Muslim youth discipline.
| Sure. I used to send my kids to camp so they could learn to fire AKs and march and do endurance drills. Doesn't everybody? |
But federal agents "didn’t like it and they used to tell me they didn’t like it", he said. Despite their concern, the trips continued.
| "Being a holy man and all, I lifted one cheek and farted them off. Who the hell were they to tell me what to do?" |
"The Australian Government allowed it," Sheikh Mohammed said. "It was something the Australian Government condoned by inaction."
| I thought you just said they told you not to? And you ignored them? But because it was a free society, and you have the right to do that, you just went ahead with it. But then the world changed when the civilized world noticed that the Islamic world had declared war on them, so now you're bitching. |
He said the Government now treated those who attended the camps as potential terrorists. "Post-September 11 the Australian Government changed policy when the war on terror was born . . . (they) suddenly said these camps are terrorist training," he said.
| That's true. It's also what I just said. Tough, ain't it? |
A security source familiar with the case said the camps were considered dangerous. But the source said there was a belief within federal agencies before 2001 that the Foreign Incursions and Recruitment Act, the only law then in place to prosecute such cases, was essentially weak. "It was extremely difficult to get the evidence to prosecute under the Foreign Incursions Act," the source said. "The prevailing view (by those attending the camps) was the legislation was weak and could be avoided, but they were covert about doing it so we understood they knew it was wrong."
| "But since we're a free society and they're intent on subverting us, they went ahead and did it, on the assumption that by the time we got around to doing something about it, it would be too late." |
New laws explicitly banning such training came into place in July 2002, but are not retrospective, which means those known to have trained in the camps are unlikely to be prosecuted.
| Australia's not big into ex post facto laws, either. We'll all continue being fair until one of us gets nuked. |
The source said shortly after September 11, ASIO director-general Dennis Richardson and Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty met with key government figures and asked for an urgent strengthening of laws to stop the training. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock’s spokesman Steve Ingram said the Government would not comment on the specifics of Sheikh Mohammed’s claims. "In terms of what might or might not have have transpired between him and ASIO is not something we would comment on," Mr Ingram said.
| "I can't comment on whether he farted us off or not..." |
But Mr Ingram acknowledged September 11 forced the Government to strengthen legislation.
| "... but I wouldn't advise him to do it again..." |
"Our level of knowledge of what some people have been doing has increased significantly in the last couple of years and certainly increased significantly since September 2001," he said.
| "... or we'll whack his pee-pee. If y'know what I mean." |
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