The following articles were published in "The Guardian", newspaper
of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday,
October 10th, 2001. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills.
Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795.
CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au>
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Enter the new secret police
Under cover of an anti-terrorist offensive, the Howard Government has
signalled new laws to enhance and reinforce the right of law enforcement
bodies and spy organisations to trample on the civil liberties and
democratic rights of the Australian people. The new laws would add to
the draconian powers given to the military in the lead up to the Sydney
Olympics last year, and to the powers handed to law enforcement bodies
and the military this year in the Border Protection Bill.
by Marcus Browning
The defence force's special counter terrorist and incidents response group,
put in place during the Olympics, has been reinstated and "significantly
enhanced" (doubled in size).
Actual details, such as the funding, location and nature of this enhanced
capability, like the rest of the planned changes, have not been made public
for "security reasons".
The spy organisation ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation)
has been given arrest and detention powers, allowing it to detain suspects
for 48 hours without charge. The right to remain silent has been waived,
with suspects facing up to five years jail for refusing to answer questions
from ASIO officers.
According to Attorney-General Daryl Williams, ASIO will be allowed to
question people not themselves suspected of terrorist activity, but "who
may have information that may be relevant to ASIO's investigations into
politically motivated violence".
The legislation "would also authorise the State or Federal Police, acting
in conjunction with ASIO, to arrest a person and bring that person before
the prescribed authority."
Although ASIO will have to go through the formality of obtaining a warrant
from a federal magistrate, it has now ceased, even officially, to be solely
a spy organisation used for collecting information and compiling data,
albeit mostly on law abiding Australian citizens. For all intents and
purposes ASIO is now the state secret police with broadly defined powers,
such as the right to arrest "suspects linked to security incidents".
There is to be a special offence of terrorism, with a maximum penalty of
life imprisonment. Such an offence will include violent attacks or threats
of violent attacks.
The Government will have the power to seize and freeze terrorist assets
using new terrorist-specific measures in the Crimes Act. There is no detail
as to what can be considered "terrorist assets".
Plain clothed armed security officers will be placed on domestic and
international flights and there is to be a more intense examination of
airline baggage, including full x-ray and physical search of cabin luggage.
Repressive measures
It was 12 months ago when, using the Olympics as a pretext, the Government
began putting wide-ranging measures for repression in place.
The September 11 attacks in the US have added to the momentum of a whole
agenda that has little to do with terrorism and everything to do with
clamping down on opposition to government policies at home, and
coordinating those same repressive measures with the ruling circles in
other countries.
In Australia this agenda involves the powers given to the military under
three defence force projects: Bluefin, Bloodhound and Greenfin. Though
labelled as counter-terrorist measures, they in fact have created military
special forces with the means of carrying out urban warfare and crowd
control measures that involve tear gas, stun grenades, short range portable
missiles, lightweight mortars and rapid response vehicles armed with
machine guns.
The Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to the Civil Authorities) Bill
introduced last year authorises the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister
and the Attorney General to advise the Governor-General (the
Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces under the Constitution) to call out
military personnel to deal with "domestic violence".
This is a vague and undefined term from the Constitution which now is
widely interpreted to mean more than "terrorism" and can include strikes,
political demonstrations or riots.
The three Ministers can call the military out when they are satisfied that
domestic violence is occurring "or is likely to occur" that will effect
"Commonwealth interests" (also undefined). Almost any political
demonstration can be rendered "unlawful".
Once deployed the military will have wide-ranging powers to seize premises,
places and means of transport, search premises and detain people. Military
forces will be permitted to cause death or grievous bodily harm where they
believe "on reasonable grounds" that such action is necessary to protect
another person, including military personnel. In essence, they are allowed
to shoot to kill.
International
These powers to the military also include the use of electronic ID systems,
a development that follows an international pattern. Parallel legislation
under "counter-terrorist" measures has emerged in the US and the European
Union (EU). Much of the new legislation proposed in the EU and Australia is
based on the UK Terrorism Act.
EU proposals for the harmonisation of anti-terrorism legislation, reports
the Belgian League of Human Rights, contains a broad scope of offenses
defined as terrorism "that aims to seriously prejudice the political,
economic and social structures of a country and could cover actions which
have nothing to do with terrorism".
Many countries, including the US, Britain, the Philippines and the
Netherlands are taking the opportunity to try and introduce a national ID
card. In Britain, the Blair Government is pushing for a compulsory ID card
which would contain a name, date of birth, photograph and possibly finger
prints, criminal record and DNA.
The Statewatch organisation in Britain warns that the EU response to the
terrorist attacks in the US, which is similar in scope to the UK Terrorism
Act, is "drawn so wide as to endanger legitimate dissent".
Also that "there is a deliberate attempt to broaden the concept of
terrorism to cover protests (such as those against the WEF, IMF and World
Bank) what it calls `urban violence'.
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