Our Chief Security Agency Denies the Link Terrorism Has with Refugees and Islam
The main job of Australia’s security agencies to keep us safe from both domestic and international terrorist threats. However, if you if were looking for reassurance that they are alert to the main threats you would be disappointed. This was demonstrated at Senate Estimates last night when the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Duncan Lewis was question by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson (whom the media claims never shows up to Senate Estimates).
Hanson asked him if the terrorist threat was being “being brought in” via our refugee intake. His response was staggering “I have absolutely no evidence to suggest there’s a connection between refugees and terrorism’’. He added there was ‘’no evidence’’ to suggest that children of refugees were more likely to become adherents of radical Islam.
I’m no spy chief, but I don’t need access to classified intelligence to debunk this astounding claim, simply by looking at terrorist events that have occurred over the past few years. The Lindt Café siege gunman Man Haron Monis was a refugee from Iran. The shooter of police accountant Curtis Chang 15 year old Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar was the son of refugees. The man who was shot dead after attempting to stab two policemen in Endeavour Hills in 2014, 18-year-old Numan Haider was the son of Afghan refugees. Yet the head of ASIO sits there and denies any connection.
But it got worse when Hanson pressed on by asking about the link between terror attacks in Australia and Islam. Lewis’ response was “But I’ve got to stress, senator – this is very important – ASIO does not make its inquiries or its assessments on the basis of somebody’s religion’’. Really? You don’t look at what a terror suspect may be inspired by? He was also quick to highlight that one of the alleged terror plots “involved a right-wing extremist” as if that one case meant that the threat from the so called far right was on par with Islamism.
He further added “We are only interested in people who are exhibiting or offering violence, and to the extent that there is violent extremism – which is very frequently inspired by a warped version of Sunni Islam – that’s when our interests are invoked.” It would appear he buys the line that Islamic terrorist are not exhibiting true Islam and that it is a religion of peace.
It is extremely alarming that our chief security agency appears to deny link between both our refugee program and Islam. But of course, we have a federal government that does its best to deny this as well so we shouldn’t expect its agencies to be much better even though they claim they are above politics.
The leftist media is reporting this as Pauline Hanson getting shut down. However, all it demonstrated is we have a security agency that is incapable of understanding where the terror threat is coming from.
Lewis’ closing assessment does not fill the Australian people with confidence that ASIO is successfully countering the terrorist threat “So this is not the end, it’s not the beginning of the end, it’s more like the end of the beginning. We don’t see this finishing any time soon’’. The truth of this exchange is that Pauline Hanson has yet again exposed how our government is covering up the threat posed by both Islam and our current immigration policies.
