Sydney siege represents sum of all Australian fears over terror threat | Australia news | The GuardianSydney siege represents sum of all Australian fears over terror threat | Australia news | The Guardian










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Sydney siege



Sydney siege represents sum of all Australian fears over terror threat









Regardless of suspect’s motives, there is nagging concern over new breed of jihadists inspired by Isis extremism • Rolling coverage














Police near the scene of the siege in Sydney. Photograph: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images




Martin Chulov


Monday 15 December 2014 15.17 EST







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For more than a year, Australian police and intelligence agencies have feared they could do little to stop the lone-wolf scenario. In that time, an increasing stream of citizens who were not on their radar have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight. And though the motivation of the suspect in the Sydney cafe siege is unclear, individuals never before associated with radical causes have regularly been emerging as threats.
From the 9/11 attacks and the Bali bombings 13 months later until mass terror arrests in Sydney and Melbourne in 2005, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian federal police developed a strong understanding of the radical Islamist scene across the country. Even as the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns wound down over the next five years, the threat matrix barely moved. While allies such as the US and UK were dealing with a constantly evolving target, the risk to Australia was more or less contained.
But Syria changed all that, and when Islamic State took over north-west Iraq it quickly became clear that a generational shift had occurred. The Pendennis generation – as security officials dub the 18 men jailed as part of the 2005 terror operation of the same name – are no longer the core of the extremist risk to Australia. And nor are their acolytes who remain on the streets, most of them closely watched.
The new threat comes from unknowns who have been galvanised by a fight on another faraway battlefield and to whom the virulent messages of Isis have proved appealing. At least 90 Australians are known to have travelled to Syria to join Isis or the al-Qaida-aligned group Jabhat al-Nusra. About 20 of them are known to have died.
Dozens more are thought to be acting in support of the new breed of jihadists or not yet sure whether to make the journey themselves. Some have had their passports confiscated - at one stage this year security officials were seizing up to four passports a week. Others have gone more quietly down a path of radicalisation that masks their potential danger.
There is another small and ill-defined number of citizens in the mix – those who have developed grievances over the past decade and are willing to hitch themselves to a terror group’s cause to settle personal scores. The Martin Place gunman, Man Haron Monis, appears to fit this category. The self-proclaimed cleric was on bail facing dozens of charges of indecent and sexual assault, all of which he denied, and has also been accused of being an accessory to the killing of his ex-wife – run-ins with the justice system that he resented.
To many Australians, regardless of the suspect’s motivations, the siege was the sum of all fears – an event that has moved from being considered fanciful in the post-9/11 days to almost inevitable just over a decade later. More Australians per capita than almost any other nationality have travelled to join Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, a statistic that disturbs the government and preoccupies the intelligence community.
Australia’s Secret Intelligence Service has devoted a large swath of its resources to staying on top of the threat in the region, but there is a nagging fear that not enough can be done despite best intentions.



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more on this story














Sydney siege: Australian PM Tony Abbott warns of rise in 'terrorist chatter' - video

Australian prime minister Tony Abbott warns of a rise in 'terrorist chatter' in the aftermath of the cafe siege in Sydney



Published: 23 Dec 2014




Sydney siege: Australian PM Tony Abbott warns of rise in 'terrorist chatter' - video












Sydney siege victims Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson mourned at memorial services

Survivors of Martin Place Lindt cafe siege join victims’ families and NSW premier, governor and police commissioner at memorial services



Published: 22 Dec 2014




Sydney siege victims Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson mourned at memorial services












Sydney siege floral tributes to be removed before wet weather hits city

Flowers will be mulched and used in a memorial to be established in consultation with the families of the victims of the Lindt cafe attack in Martin Place



Published: 22 Dec 2014




Sydney siege floral tributes to be removed before wet weather hits city












Sydney siege: videos show gunman's wife a risk to public, say prosecutors

Amirah Droudis faces a bid to revoke her bail pending her trial over the killing of Man Haron Monis’s former wife



Published: 21 Dec 2014




Sydney siege: videos show gunman's wife a risk to public, say prosecutors














Partner of Sydney siege gunman arrives at court - video




Published: 22 Dec 2014




Partner of Sydney siege gunman arrives at court - video








Siege survivor Julie Taylor tells of heartbreak over loss of Katrina Dawson




Published: 18 Dec 2014




Siege survivor Julie Taylor tells of heartbreak over loss of Katrina Dawson








Man Haron Monis lawyers and judges receive death threats and other abuse




Published: 18 Dec 2014




Man Haron Monis lawyers and judges receive death threats and other abuse








On guns, David Leyonhjelm is neither a champion nor a villain. He's a libertarian

Eleanor Robertson




Published: 18 Dec 2014







On guns, David Leyonhjelm is neither a champion nor a villain. He's a libertarian
















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