Terrorism In Australia

The trial of 11 alleged terrorists in the Supreme Court of Victoria is hearing closing arguments for the defendants. After more than five months worth of evidence the closing arguments are making for interesting listening and reading. The first of the closing arguments is in defence of the alleged head of the group, Abdul Nacer Benbrika. Benbrika also goes by the aliases Abu Bakr and Sheikh.

Benbrika is alleged to have directed the activities of a terrorist organization. However, his counsel, Remy Van de Wiel QC, is painting the picture of a man who was all talk and no action. Van de Wiel is portraying his client as unworldly and inept because of his lack of knowledge of certain things. This lack of knowledge includes such classics as thinking you can drive to Tasmania, not being able to spell "Google", not knowing that the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was bombed in 2004, and that there was a Federal election that same year.

My question is a simple one; just because you do not know geography, cannot spell, and unknowing of certain events, does this mean you cannot be a terrorist? I never realized that there was an IQ requirement to be a terrorist.

This chap may well be a "gunna" man. A man who talks the talk but never quite lives up to that talk with action. Yet, this does not mean he did not lead an organization of budding wanna be terrorists. Abu Bakar Bashir is the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyya and it is clear that he does not do the dirty work. He has a whole lot of minions that will do that work for him.

I will post the decision when it is handed down.

Indonesia and Jemaah Islamiyya

There have not been any terrorist bombings in Indonesia for some time. Hopefully, it will stay like this for some time into the future. It seems the Indonesian police are on a bit of a roll and in particular the anti-terrorist unit, Detachment 88, who have arrested a further 10 suspected Jemaah Islamiyya followers and wanna be terrorists. The Spiritual Head of Jemaah Islamiyya is Abu Bakar Ba'asyir (Bashir) (make whatever interpretation you will of the cartoon / caricature).

The police allege that the 10 were planning to bomb a cafe somewhere in Sumatra. The police did not say where, but I would of thought the most likely place would have to be Medan. However, if the attack was to be directed at tourists then places like Danau Toba and Bukit Tinggi might be likely. The Bedudel Cafe in the Chinatown district of Bukit Tinggi has been listed as a target in the past.

The suspects are linked to Mas Selamat bin Kastari. Mas Selamat is alleged to head up Singapore's JI operations and recently embarrassed Singaporean authorities with the ease of his escape from custody. One of the suspects is an English teacher, not that that is important on its own, who is also the chief bomb making instructor.

Police spokesman, Abubakar Nataprawira, said that the teacher was arrested in South Sumatra on Saturday "based on a red notice issued by the Singapore government for involvement in the terrorist network of JI, which is a forbidden terrorism organisation in Singapore". This is likely to mean that the suspect is Singaporean but he could easily be Indonesian. The police have only released his initials, MH, so far. However, the belief is that MH is closely linked to Mas Selamat. Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group believes that MH is most likely a member of the Singaporean JI cell.

Mas Selamat was arrested and detained in Singapore as intelligence at the time indicated that the JI cell in Singapore were advanced in a plan to hijack a plane and crash it into Changi airport back in 2001.

Although the arrests will prove to be another setback to JI in Indonesia and perhaps the region, the threat still remains with Noordin Mohammad Top still at large. Top is known to be committed to targeting places that are frequented by foreigners and civilians.

The suspects also include the Head of a local hard-line religious group who was once accused of trying to murder a priest in 2005. Another of the suspects is the Head of a local Pesantren or Islamic Boarding School who is alleged to have received terror training in Afghanistan in the 1980's.

These are significant arrests but with the real leaders still at large it is a bit premature to say that the end is nigh for JI. Nevertheless, 10 arrests at once is sure to make a significant dent in the operational capabilities of JI. Perhaps some of the suspects might be knowledgeable enough that the bigger fish might be caught as well.

But credit must be given where credit is due. Credit is due here because the planning for a terrorist bomb attack by these clowns was well advanced. The police have saved lives with these arrests and for that we must be grateful.

Bashir and Tourists

This is old news but I just found this cartoon while surfing the Internet for other interesting cartoons to publish and offend my readers with. It is OK to publish cartoon depictions of Muslims, right? Just not of the Prophet, right?

Bashir (Ba'asyir) is somewhat renowned for his calls to violence against the infidels and his desire to form a pan-Islamic Caliphate in Southeast Asia. So, his comments implying that foreigners are nothing more than worms, snakes, and maggots is hardly surprising! Pretty tame stuff really. I would have thought each of these things are one of God's creatures and have been created with a purpose in mind. I might have been a little more offended if he had have called me Satan's love child or something similar!

However, his calls to violence and statements to the fact that it would be OK to beat tourists up is extreme and must be considered as an incitement to violence. He should be called on this and be punished according to the law if the alleged statements are proven true. There is supposedly a video of this speech but in a quick search before writing this post I could not find it. If I do track it down I will post it as a link.

This is not an issue of free speech. As I have posted many times, with free speech comes great responsibility. This is not a man exercising his right to free speech but rather an abuse of free speech to preach hatred and violence. Free speech must be protected and hate speech and vilification must be prosecuted. This is simply not a case of one person's free speech being another person's vilification!

I have been pinged recently on another forum for quoting from the movie Forrest Gump! Apparently, quoting from a movie casts some degree of doubt on my ability to make rational or logical argument -- essentially I was an intellectual minnow in the big scheme of things, oh well.

Anyway, as Forrest would say in this case "stupid is as stupid does!"

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!