Australia - "Terror raids contain echo of Guildford Four case" Article

Terror raids contain echo of Guildford Four case 21 April 2015 | Michael Kandelaars Police carry out a raid in Melbourne on Sunday. On 18 April, 200 federal and state police officers raided seven houses in Melbourne, arresting five young men. The pretext for the raids was preventing an imminent terrorist attack. Victorian acting chief commissioner Tim Cartwright alleged that the young men “planned to carry out atrocious acts on Anzac Day”. The subsequent media frenzy, however, has already dramatically obscured the known facts of the case. Of five, three have been charged, two with terrorism-related offences. But neither has been charged with preparing an attack or planning an attack. The charge is “conspiracy to commit acts done in preparation for, or planning, terrorist acts”. This is thought crime. For instance, “conspiracy” could be telling someone that you’re going to Google something. Or perhaps more specifically, a Muslim telling someone that he’s going to Google something. For the first time in Victoria, police used a Preventative Detention Order to detain one of the men, an 18 year old from Hampton Park. Such orders give police the power to detain someone for up to 14 days without charge. This man was held in custody for three days before being released and re-arrested and charged. His father alleges that, during the initial police raid, officers beat his son, breaking his arm and ribs. Another arrestee, Aboriginal teenager Eathan Cruse, was viciously assaulted by police during one of the other raids. His father Glen told Fairfax Media that police gave him a “boot right in the head and they said, ‘Shut up, you Abo’, and I could hear Eathan … getting knocked out cold”. His sister told Fairfax how she “woke up to a sniper pointing [a gun] at my head at 4am … We had all of them come into the house, they kicked-in the doors, tear gas was used and they cleared each room. They pulled my nine-year-old brother out of his bed”. His mother Anja said that after they were done with Eathan “there was a pool of blood on the floor”. The events contain an echo of the Guildford Four case – young Irish wrongly convicted of terrorism in 1975. All of the evidence used against them was obtained under torture by British police while the four were held without charge. It took until 1991 for their names to be cleared. According to professor Greg Barton from the Global Terrorism Research Centre, speaking on ABC radio on 20 April, information gained from someone subject to a Preventative Detention Order “can’t be used in subsequent legal proceedings”. But the charges against these two men and the police powers used are among the most draconian in the Western world. Exactly what was said and done to the young injured man while he was in custody we may never know, but we should assume the treatment was awful. After all, if the police were prepared to break his arm and ribs in his own house – where there were witnesses – what might they be emboldened to do in private? Gerry Conlon, one of the Guilford Four, in 2009 compared his case to the modern treatment of Muslims: “What has been happening in Britain since 2005 has created the same sort of conditions that helped to lead to our arrest. The same procedures are being followed – arrest as many as you can and present a circumstantial case in the hope that at least some of them will be convicted.” We don’t know what the two young Melbourne men were thinking. But Conlon’s words, and the nature of the current charges, should give anyone pause before leaping to the conclusions that the police, the media and the political right want us to. https://redflag.org.au/article/terror-raids-contain-echo-guildford-four-cas COMMENT This is unbelievable.  Arresting people for thought crimes? The brutal treatment of these people is unacceptable, and whoever is responsible for this ought to be ashamed of the unnecessary abuse of power. So, basically, wherever you have power (especially in law enforcement and intelligence services), you also have abuse of power - no matter where in the world it is. I thought Australians were better than that.

Greenwald Article: Australia's Prime Minister gives a Master Class in Exploiting Terrorism Fears to Seize New Powers

AUSTRALIA Tony Abbott >> Gives a Master Class in Exploiting Terrorism Fears to Seize New Powers http://interc.pt/1r1sgC0  >> #auspol >> #FreeAssangeNow Glenn Greenwald is so funny: greater chance of being killed by following causes than you do by terrorist attack: slipping in bathtub ...LOL #auspol "It’s our acceptance that ppl can live & worship in the way they choose that bothers them, not our foreign policy” - [ABBOTT] LOL > “a sweeping suppression order will prevent reporting of ..preventative detention orders.." / No Press = No democracy #auspol -----------------------------------------  COMMENT The Greenwald article was informative and made its point; but it was also very funny.  Well, to me, it was.   The need to broaden existing powers of authorities is questionable, when they have extensive powers already. And, yes, I would have to agree that those in power use the fear-factor and 'matters of national security' to pronounce whatever laws they want. Mind you, governments tend to rush through whatever they want once they're in power, so this is probably just the extreme version of what goes on -- the extreme version that involves widening powers to ridiculous degrees (eg 'preventative detention') AND, worse yet, muzzling the press who are prohibited from reporting what's going on.   That right there is a recipe for abuse of power by the state. The state can basically do whatever it wants to do with you and there's nobody out there that can even report on it! Is this Stalinist Australia?

Summary

SUMMARY USA #USA>"US, student loan debt now totals roughly $1.2 trillion, surpassing the amount owed through credit card debt" >> http://on.rt.com/xbssud #USA "grim consequences of allowing higher education 2 be used as a vehicle for private profit" StrikeDebt Press Rel/ http://strikedebt.org/debtbuy4/ ----------------------------------------- EGYPT #Surveillance #Egypt - Deep Packet Inspection surveillance system/ 'See Egypt' affiliate to US-based cyber-security firm Blue Coat involved. Unprecedented access soc. media - penetrate WhatsApp, Viber, Skype + more - http://goo.gl/zSWiYx  - al arabiya article >> "Blue Coat detected in Iran, Sudan" + Syria / - http://goo.gl/TQUDS2  - Washington Post article #Egypt monitoring homosexual ppl's content on social media - al arabiya article (France 24 witness reference) ----------------------------------------- UKRAINE   US puppet Yatsy >1 million civil servants>new PURGE LAW - incl/ whole cabinet mins., interior min., intell services, prosecutor's office !!  [BBC] ----------------------------------------- KOSOVO  /  ALBANIA   #Albania #Kosovo CRIME CENTRAL - heroin trade / organ harvesting! - http://goo.gl/ZnER1w - ex-KLA criminal activity role / PM Hashim Thaçi >> Stand by for REPORT from Dick Marty - Paris on Thursday - wiki on Marty = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Marty >> PM Hashim Thaçi - aka 'The Snake' - wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashim_Tha%C3%A7i … - Nice photo w George W Bush .. thanks USA! --- West's "voice of reason" within the KLA" -- !! This is remarkably like all other West meddling! ----------------------------------------- AUSTRALIA   #Auspol >>> Kinky Liberal's - 150 shades of Grey - Is this the WORST Aussie govt in history? >>> http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/george-brandis-new-antiterror-law-allows-asio-to-torture-20140917-10i9hv.html … Basically, the govt’s proposed legislation enables lawful torture! #Auspol -- Is Abbott justifying M/E military action by exploiting blanket media coverage 'terrorist threat' raids? http://goo.gl/3J1ic8 “..danger of terrorism will be shamelessly invoked to divert from ..social inequality & halt opposition 2 US-AU militarism " >>>> Preventative detention powers -- to be expanded? Re:  article above / Australian raid – (https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/09/18/raid-s18.html) ----------------------------------------- COMMENT The amount of higher education debt in the US shocked me.   As it indicates, it's more than credit card debt!  The Strike Debt article is well worth a read for those in the US. Ukraine's a complete mess.  Amazed IMF advanced any money.  Amazed the US has sunk $5 billion. But I guess they're hoping to get a return in due course. Kosovo & Albania appear to be lawless.  The region's beyond me.  No understanding of what goes on.  However, there is a report due out on Thursday on the human rights abuse allegations, so that should be interesting. The goings on in Australia are shocking.  Crazy budget and crazy proposed laws. The Liberal government sounds incompetent. Massive raid on 'domestic terrorists' or something like that.  Huge operation. Sounds like a media stunt and case of fanning domestic fear to justify sending troops to the Middle East (and maybe distract from the crap budget and whatever else may be going on).   Also worthwhile noting is the issue of mass surveillance, data retention, NSA Five Eye spying on the Australian public, secret court order suppression, laws seeking to extend the of powers to those that appear to have already abused those powers, likely incursions on civil liberties given various new laws (the usual national security angle governments use), the hacking program used by NSW (ie state) police ... on and on it goes. I'm not big on anything that infringes liberties, so moves to grant intelligence organisations even more powers sounds super creepy and undesirable. Not impressed that some guy that got raided and arrested was also subjected to police brutality.   The arresting authorities aren't there to judge anyone or mete out punishment; they're there to perform a function.  In this case, it was to arrest suspects.  So what are they doing belting people? Oh, and there's more:  Australia's drafting laws where it's legal to TORTURE people! What kind of crazy is that? The government will probably get away with pushing through all these crazy laws because nobody cares.  The average person is apathetic, I'd say. The world's gone mad and I want to get off this ride.