The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/0102/08/text/pageone8.html Revealed: top troops spied on Olympic crowds Date: 08/02/2001 By David Lague, Defence Correspondent Elite Special Air Service (SAS) troops were deployed under cover in plain clothes to assist police in crowd surveillance during the Olympics, breaching the rules on the military's role in civil affairs. Secret AUSTEO (Australian Eyes Only) briefing documents prepared in the Defence Department show that the soldiers were in 15 Intelligence Collection and Enquiry (ICE) teams in an operation approved by the Chief of the Defence Force, Admiral Chris Barrie. "During daily operations, ICE teams will conduct activities such as maintaining a discreet presence within the general public at key venues to report activities which may cause a change in the security situation," the documents said. "Australian Defence Force ICE Team operations are to be low profile and are to include positive measures to avoid exposure to the broader community." It is understood that the then Minister for Defence, Mr Moore, and Federal Cabinet were not told of the operation until a senior military officer found out and reported it to a senior official in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Despite disquiet among senior military officers overusing the SAS for this role, Cabinet's National Security Committee met in Sydney during the Games and allowed the ICE teams to continue their surveillance. Under the Defence Act and associated regulations, troops can be used to help police in non-emergency law enforcement but they must wear uniforms and can be used only where there is "no likelihood" that they will be required to use force. But according to the AUSTEO papers, the troops were cleared to use force in self defence or to help defend police under attack. Under the act, if there is any prospect of force, troops must be called out under procedures which require Parliament to be told. The Tasmanian Greens' Senator Bob Brown said yesterday that the ICE operation was "totally counter" to government guarantees of liberty safeguards last year when Parliament overhauled laws governing the use of troops to assist police in an emergency. "This is just not on," Senator Brown said. "It is an encouragement to the military to increase its intervention in civil matters." The Opposition defence spokesman, Mr Stephen Martin, said that there were very clear guidelines governing how Defence Force personnel were to be used in such situations. "It is essential that the minister for defence and the chief of the defence force ensure that those guidelines and rules are adhered to at all times." The Defence Department took two days to respond to Herald questions over the ICE teams, then referred only to a press release from Admiral Barrie last year in which he said the ADF had assisted the NSW police "in a range of information and analysis tasks". A spokesman for the Prime Minister said that he was unable to add to the admiral's September press release. This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
