Sydney siege: a tense coda to a year of Australian counter-terror | Richard Ackland | Comment is free | The GuardianSydney siege: a tense coda to a year of Australian counter-terror | Richard Ackland | Comment is free | The Guardian










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Sydney siege: a tense coda to a year of Australian counter-terrorism





Richard Ackland








Much depends on the fate of the unfortunate souls trapped in a Sydney cafe – the future of Australia’s burgeoning security state not least of all

















A police officer in Martin Place, Sydney, Monday 15th December 2014. Photograph: Mike Bowers





Monday 15 December 2014 05.12 EST







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Today, the NSW counter-terrorism and security command took control of the centre of Sydney, clearing entire office buildings and closing streets in the centre of Australia’s busiest city.
At least one gunman has taken people hostage in the Lindt cafe. The exact number held is not known and has been put variously at between 13 and 30. A black Shahada flag has been raised in the window of the Swiss chocolatier. 
The backdrop noise from our politicians has been uncharacteristically muted.
Remember that three months ago there was a huge show of force by police across western Sydney and parts of Brisbane. Those raids involved 800 police, helicopters, and an accompanying media pack. One man, Omarjan Azari, was charged with a terrorism-related offence. It was an overreaching display of state power, with very little to show for it. 
Occurring just after the terror threat was raised a notch to high, the government’s commitment of Australian troops to fight Isis in Iraq, and the announcement of a new wave of punitive counter-terrorism measures, the impression was that the orchestration was far too neat not to be regarded sceptically. 
Certainly, there has been much discussion about whether the government’s actions might have contributed to the trouble, as well as having been a response to them. In any case, in September the statements from politicians were red in tooth and claw. 
Tony Abbott, the prime minister, had already found the charged man guilty. Speaking in Darwin as he waved goodbye to troops on their way to Iraq, he said: “So this is not just suspicion, this is intent.” 
Mike Baird, the premier of New South Wales, adopted George Bush-style rhetoric. “We will hunt you down,” he said. 
The NSW police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, was the only one trying to underplay the theatrics. “We don’t need to whip this up,” he said, after his officers had done precisely that.
Indeed, the September raids were accompanied by the uncorroborated suggestion by the prosecution in court that a lone assassin was wanting to stalk an innocent citizen in Sydney’s main financial thoroughfare, Martin Place, and behead them in view of the public. 
At the time, Abbott chimed in: “The advice of our police and security agencies was that an attack of this nature could take place within days.” 
And as the national security show was being cranked up in Canberra, the then-head of Australia’s spy agency Asio, David Irvine, appeared forlornly at a media conference.
He said something that has been borne out today. 
“I worry, and I’ve worried for five-and-a-half years, about lone wolves popping up who’ve avoided the radar in some way or another.” 
Here we have the greatest security apparatus in Australia’s history, with new powers served up on a silver platter by the parliament and more to come, and still a man can walk into a coffee shop and hold a city to ransom. 
Today’s political tone was remarkably downbeat. The day began with another terror-related arrest, this time in the Sydney suburb of Beecroft, and as it draws to a close the siege is ongoing. But we have not seen the paranoia that typified the September raids.
“Australia is a peaceful, open and generous society,” Abbott said, encouraging us to go about our business.
Baird was equally comforting. He was asked whether the siege would change the way people approach their everyday life in Sydney. 
“No it won’t and no it shouldn’t. We are incredibly proud of this city. The values we hold dear and we will continue at every point to protect them,” he said. 
Later he tweeted that he valued the support of Islamic leaders and “reassured them we are in this together”. Australia’s Grand Mufti, Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, said in a statement that “such actions are denounced in part and in whole in Islam”.
It wasn’t quite the message Sydney’s tabloid, the Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph, wanted to sell. A special afternoon edition did its best to put the fear of god into susceptible readers with the wrap-around headline: “Death Cult CBD Attack - The instant we changed forever.” The strap line said: “IS takes 13 hostages in city cafe siege.” 
Death cult has been one of Abbott’s favourite war-like rallying phrases. 
At this stage no one knows whether this is the work of an Isis adherent or not. The flag displayed was not an Isis flag. No, Australia hasn’t changed forever. 
The vacuum of hard facts has been filled by beat-ups and off-the-peg prejudice. However, the media overall have complied with police requests not to publish the demands of the hostage taker. 
Suddenly, Abbott’s clumsy performance and woeful polls results are no longer the headlines. After early equivocations, the dreaded mid-year economic and fiscal outlook, confirming the worst about the government’s budget, was quietly pushed out.
What we do know by now is that after a tense few months and much debate, the form of Australia’s burgeoning security state is still very much in question. And much depends on the fate of the unfortunate souls who remain in the Martin Place cafe. 



Topics



Australian security and counter-terrorism




Sydney siege




Sydney




Crime - Australia








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