I WILL NEVER COME NEAR YOU AGAIN
Lightning Ridge, NSW, Australia.
"I will never come near you again,"one of his most persistent pursuers finally declared.
The man had been a blustering bastard from the beginning; but Old Alex's natural naivety led him to suggest, "We could work together to ensure what happened to me never happens to anybody else."
That was never going to happen. These people, full of bluster, were too deeply compromised, too embarrassed, had misled so many people and brought discredit to the agencies for which they worked, they were never going to work to change things for the better.
They would go off into some other bluster, their puffed bantam chests.
He was more than glad to be rid of the bastard.
The ceaseless, demonic pursuit by secret police and national agencies, the complete and total misuse of information to spread rumours and lies. The dishonest, aggressive targeting of an individual. Ruthless, tedious, determined, they never stopped.
And then came the Prime Minister.
Malcolm Turnbull was well in the running for worst prime minister in Australian history. Supercilious, determined, a lawyer to his bootstraps, he had zero understanding of the people he purported to represent.
And in that ancient place, that far centre, a strange dizziness gripped all the denizens, a dementia oozing across broken ground.
The gods were roiled, far away, but even here, there were the lapping tides of some kind of insanity; for everyone had been sold out, nobody understood what had happened to their country, and they grabbled to make sense of it all.
But in that far off day: not a single solitary conversation made sense. They were shattered.
THE BIGGER STORY:
THE DUNCAN LEWIS ASIO REFUGEE TERROR IMBROGLIO
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/asio-branded-asylumseekers-as-security-risks/news-story/982bd6b95b90ec7393372113fbee93a2
Almost 100 asylum-seekers who arrived in Australia by boat or sought entry to escape the Syrian civil war have been issued adverse security assessments by ASIO or knocked back after being flagged by the Five Eyes intelligence network.
A week after ASIO chief Duncan Lewis denied a connection between the refugee intake and an increased terror risk, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton confirmed that “close to 30 people” seeking entry through the one-off resettlement of 12,000 Syrian refugees had been disqualified on security grounds.
“We had national security concerns about them,” Mr Dutton said.
“We do rigorous tests.”
The Australian can also reveal that more than 60 asylum-seekers who arrived by boat under the former Labor government were issued with adverse security assessments by ASIO, including a large number of Sri Lankan Tamils deemed members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elan — a proscribed terrorist group.
Defending the personal integrity of Mr Lewis amid fierce criticism from Coalition MPs, led by Tony Abbott who appointed the spy boss in 2014, Mr Dutton described him as a “good (and) decent man” who had the “best interests of our country at heart”.
He said Mr Lewis had since modified his initial comments made in a Senate estimates exchange with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson last week, but stopped short of endorsing his statement there was no link between refugees and terrorism,
“If people want to criticise this government in relation to the refugee program, criticise me. I’m the person in charge of this portfolio,” Mr Dutton said.
“The point Mr Lewis was making ... and I’ve made on a number of occasions, is that we do have problems where people are indoctrinated online, where they have an impressionable young mind. They can be of any background, they can come to this country on any visa.”
MINISTERS RALLY BEHIND ASIO
https://www.msn.com/en-au/video/news/ministers-rally-behind-asio-chief/vp-BBBLfBL
ABBOTT CALLS FOR SPECIAL COURTS FOR RETURNING JIHADISTS
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-01/abbott-calls-for-special-courts-for-returning-jihadists/8579084
Tony Abbott calls for 'special courts' for jihadists returning to Australia
By political correspondent Louise Yaxley
Updated yesterday at 4:20pm
PHOTO: Mr Abbott says evidence rules may be changed so returning jihadists can be charged and convicted.(ABC News: Marco Catalano)
RELATED STORY: Coalition MP wants 'champagne on ice' in case Trump ditches climate deal
MAP: Australia
Islamist fighters returning to Australia should face special courts with a different standard of proof, according to former prime minister Tony Abbott.
Returning jihadis are a "massive problem", Mr Abbott wrote in an opinion piece for News Corp today.
"The only safe jihadi is one who's been lawfully killed, lawfully imprisoned or thoroughly converted from Islamism," he wrote.
He said the Government had stripped dual national terrorists of their right to return to Australia, but that "we need to find ways to keep all the others out of the country or in jail".
The war in Syria and Iraq makes it all but impossible to collect evidence that is admissible in Australian courts about the activities of returning foreign fighters.
Follow the day's political developments in our live blog.
Mr Abbott argued that is why evidence rules might need to be changed.
"We need to ensure returning jihadi can readily be charged and convicted, possibly through the creation of special courts that can hear evidence that may not normally be admissible," he wrote.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said he was not aware that special courts were being contemplated.
"And if there was policy work being done in that regard, I would not have any comment to make in relation to it," he said.
"There is a system that operates in the United Kingdom along those lines but that is an issue for the Attorney-General or for the Prime Minister."