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A thwarted terror attack in Perth on Australia Day has sent the chattering left into a tizz. That’s because the wannabe bomb-thrower attempted to attack an ‘Invasion Day’ rally and appears to be white. Never mind that it was the second terror attack thwarted that day and that the other was a jihadist. They’ve found themselves, they think, a real, live ‘white supremacist’ and they’re gonna flog it for all they’re worth.
Firstly, let us all be thankful the Perth attack didn’t succeed. Showing all the brains and skills terrorists are known for, the would-be attacker’s bomb luckily failed to go off.
Secondly, let’s not kid ourselves that the exception disproves the rule, here. Even on this one Australia Day, 50 per cent of the thwarted terror attacks were Islamic. In the broader scheme, over the last 25 years, some 90 per cent of terror attacks and planned attacks were Islamic. The very first terror attack in Australian history, way back in 1915, was Islamic.
There’s a long and undeniable nexus between terrorism and Islam in Australia, as around the world. That some apparently genuinely far-right scumbags are apparently willing to jump on the terror bandwagon doesn’t take away the fact that the main game is and will continue to be Islamic terror.
The newly appointed top intelligence official has warned Islamic extremism is “absolutely not a thing of the past”, that its “persistence is remarkable”, and that it is at the top of the agenda for the nation’s intelligence agencies following the antisemitic Bondi terrorist attack at the end of last year.
Office of National Intelligence director-general Kathy Klugman, who used to serve in Anthony Albanese’s office as his principal international adviser, on Monday also backed in her predecessor’s assessment that the “Indo-Pacific is now the epicentre of global systemic rivalry” and has warned that increasing domains of conflict threaten “democratic resilience”.
“The problem globally of Islamic extremist terrorism remains right up the top of the list when it comes to global extremist action and terrorism threats,” Ms Klugman told Senate estimates.
Absolutely security agencies should monitor that the genuinely far-right loons don’t try and turn their edgelord LARPing into bloody reality, but taking the eyes off the ball of Islamic terror only risks another Bondi slipping under the radar.
Note, too, that Klugman’s reference to the “Indo-Pacific is now the epicentre of global systemic rivalry”. What does that mean? It means that Helen Clark’s ‘incredibly benign strategic environment’ is anything but. In fact, it’s the new grey battleground for global dictatorships who want to weaken the West.
Previous ONI chief Andrew Shearer – who former prime minister Scott Morrison also appointed from his office – at the end of his term last year warned the world faced a “new axis of authoritarian powers” that rivalled the world’s democracies and that the strategic contest was increasingly being fought in grey-zone warfare.
“Grey-zone warfare” is partly what we used to call ‘proxy war’, only this time the great powers’ cats paws are terror groups. As retired Taiwanese admiral Lee Hsi-Ming puts it, “gray-zone conflict is characterised by using the threat of force to create fear and intimidation”. By non-state actors against states.
Terrorism, in a word.
It’s worth noting, here, that the Bondi jihadists appear to have trained in a known Islamic terror hotspot in the Philippines.
Klugman also had a veiled barb for Anthony Albanese.
Ms Klugman was also questioned about the antisemitic Bondi terrorist attack in December last year.
“Director-General, are you the expert that would have been advising the PM on whether or not to hold the royal commission into the Bondi attack?” Liberal Senator Jessica Collins asked, referring to “experts” Anthony Albanese cited in his refusal at the end of last year to call a royal commission.
“No, senator. The announcement of the royal commission predated the end of my medical leave and starting in the Office of National Intelligence,” Ms Klugman said.
“Okay. Is that something that the Office of National Intelligence would have done, though?” Senator Collins asked.
“I don’t think there’s a role for ONI there,” Ms Klugman said.
So much for Albo’s mystery ‘experts’, then.
