Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton. Picture: Getty Images.
While Victoria's Police Commissioner Graham Ashton is being praised for putting away George Pell, one wonders what he might have achieved to keep us safe from terrorism had he devoted that same energy to policing jihadis.
Ashton is regarded as an expert in terrorism,having spent time working with Indonesian police, and apparently fluent if not proficient in Bahasa Indonesia.
Yet, it was the Singaporeans , not Ashton who detained and are keeping us safe from Melbourne resident Zulfikar Shariff:
Singapore saved Melbourne from a potential jihadi,when Graham Ashton refused to act
The failure to act on the threat of Zulfikar Shariff was not the only instance where Ashton failed to act,if not missed crucial and somewhat obvious evidence.There was, not too long ago,the matter of the Bali bombing and Jemaah Islamiah's Hambali (see story below).
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Thursday, June 29, 2017
Vic Police Chief Graham Ashton appears to have ignored crucial evidence of Hambali, Abu Bakar Bashir's network of supporters
by Ganesh Sahathevan
These facts concerning Hambali, the Bali bombers, and Jemaah Islamiah have long been a matter of public record.,Victoria Chief Of Police Graham Ashton was chief Australian Federal Police investigator of the Bali bombings and ought to know these facts by heart (we do). The evidence of a strong level of passive support,at the grassroots and above is evident:
Nowhere in official AFP and other Australian Government reports have the above AND the their implications and consequences for the future of Australian national security been discussed. It must be assumed that Ashton and others have either suppressed if not are totally ignorant of the facts and/or the issues they raise.
That Ashton has ignored all this must break the hearts of those whose lives have been lost or otherwise affected by both Bali bombings.It also discloses an appalling lack of skill and knowledge, evidence most recently in the matter of Zulfikar Shariif.Of course, it is also likely that Ashton is more interested in preserving his "diversity" credentials.
These facts concerning Hambali, the Bali bombers, and Jemaah Islamiah have long been a matter of public record.,Victoria Chief Of Police Graham Ashton was chief Australian Federal Police investigator of the Bali bombings and ought to know these facts by heart (we do). The evidence of a strong level of passive support,at the grassroots and above is evident:
JI Training in Malaysia
The JI has been conducting training camps in Malaysia since 1990. Up to 1994, the training was focused mainly on maintaining physical fitness like jogging and trekking. From 1995, however, the training camps held in Gunung Pulai and Kulai began to also teach "military" skills (without firearms training). For instance, JI members were taught to make Molotov cocktails, learn knife-throwing skills, topography, jungle survival skills and trekking. In 1997, additional modules like guerrilla warfare, infiltration and ambush were included. Around 2000, reconnaissance and observation courses were conducted in Kota Tinggi; these classes were dubbed "urban warfare". The JI even conducted "Recall and Operation exercises" to ensure that members were operationally ready. 14 (which includes the 3 who went to Afghanistan) of the 21 arrestees participated in such training camps in Malaysia.
According to Malaysian officials, the so-called school of terror,Luqmanul Hakiem school, was established more than a decade (before 2002, that is before 1992 by Abu Bakar Bashir and Hambali.2
Malaysian authorities say Bashir, Hambali, Samudra and Mukhlas had used the Luqmanul Hakiem school in Ulu Tiram, in the southern state of Johor, since 1993.3
According to report in a Government-owned and controlled newspaper in Singapore, Abdullah Sungkar, was also among the founders of the Luqmanul Hakiem school. Mukhlas, brother of the Bali bomber Amrozi (who helped out at the school), helped set it up. Shahril Hat, an ex-engineer arrested by the Malaysian police, was the principal, while his assistant was Noor Din Mohd Top, a fugitive member of the Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (KMM).Three other Bali bombing suspects , Idris, Imam Samudra and Dulmatin - were said to have met and studied at the same school in the early 1990s.A course instructor there was bomb-maker/trainer, Fathur Rohman Al Ghozi - now in custody in the Philippines4.
That Ashton has ignored all this must break the hearts of those whose lives have been lost or otherwise affected by both Bali bombings.It also discloses an appalling lack of skill and knowledge, evidence most recently in the matter of Zulfikar Shariif.Of course, it is also likely that Ashton is more interested in preserving his "diversity" credentials.
Endnotes
1 Home Affairs Singapore-JI White Paper,located at http://www2.mha.gov.sg/mha/detailed.jsp?artid=550&type=4&root=0&parent=0&cat=0&mode=arc.See also http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/speeches/view-html?filename=2002091903.htm
2Mark Baker,” Revealed: school that bred the Bali bombers” The Age(Melbourne) November 22,2002 .Located at http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/11/21/1037697807092.html
3 JASBANT SINGH, Associated Press ; Bali Suspects Used Malaysia As Base, 4 December 2002
4 Melvin Singh, “ TERRORIST SCHOOL IN JOHOR “;The New Paper - 01 Dec 2002,
located at: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,8982-1038758340,00.html
SEE ALSO
Police report into suicides linked to Catholic abuse was exaggerated
A confidential police investigation into claims of suicides linked to Catholic sex abuse that helped trigger the downfall of George Pell found the issue had been exaggerated and lacked evidence.
Police claimed in early 2012 that dozens of people killed themselves as a result of Catholic clergy sex abuse, mainly in the diocese of Ballarat in western Victoria.
The claims rocked the church and were instrumental in the formation of the state parliamentary inquiry into sex abuse, which ultimately played a major role in Pell’s downfall. It was during that inquiry that police set up the operation to investigate whether there were abuse allegations against Pell that could be prosecuted.
When senior police initially investigated the suicide claims, they found the original 2012 report had vastly overstated the number of clergy-related suicide deaths. Police ordered another examination of the claims with the aim of providing information to the coroner to update records. The Australian has seen a confidential letter written by now Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton in which he is critical of the original police claims and confirms that only one case was officially established of a Catholic abuse victim killing themself as a result of the offending.
The first police review of the report, Operation Plangere, found serious deficiencies. It was written in November 2012 and Leading Senior Constable Tania Siegemund was damning of the original claims. “There are significant limitations to the data supplied by (the force) which have resulted in a significant number of the nominated premature deaths for review remaining unable to be verified, as the persons of interest are unidentifiable,’’ she found.
After Operation Plangere was finished, Mr Ashton, then a deputy commissioner, wrote to the parliamentary abuse committee in July 2013 after police conducted further inquiries for the coroner. He declared in the letter, seen by The Australian, that the original police report claiming widespread clergy suicides was “overstated, lacking in evidentiary basis and detail’’.
The original suicide report also had lacked meaningful detail, Mr Ashton said. “As earlier indicated, the level of detail provided in the original list was minimal at best and very much based on anecdotal information from varied sources,’’ he wrote to the committee.
The later police report determined that 23 of 43 people identified had died from suicide but only one suicide could definitely be linked with Catholic abuse.
A spokesman for Mr Ashton said yesterday that while only one case of suicide could be conclusively linked to child sex abuse at the hands of clergy to the coronial standard, there were other cases of suicide that could never be attributed “one way or another’’.
“Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton remains grateful to the police in Ballarat for their tireless work thoroughly investigating these matters,’’ the spokesman said.
If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide, call Lifeline (13 11 14) or the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), or see a doctor
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