Australia yesterday raised its terrorism threat level to “probable,” with the nation’s top intelligence official citing a homegrown rise in “extreme ideologies.”
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess said there was no indication of an imminent attack, but there was an increased threat of violence in the next 12 months.
“Australia’s security environment is degrading, is more volatile and more unpredictable,” Burgess told reporters. “You’ve heard me say many times that espionage and foreign interference are our principal security concerns ... intelligence suggests that is no longer accurate. Politically motivated violence now joins espionage and foreign interference as our principal security concerns.”
Photo: AP
Burgess said more Australians were being radicalized and they were increasingly willing to use violence to advance their cause.
“Individuals are embracing anti-authority ideologies, conspiracy theories and diverse grievances. Some are combining multiple beliefs to create new hybrid ideologies,” he said.
Australia’s threat level had until yesterday been classified as “possible.”
Burgess said extreme ideologies had increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently during the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“An escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, particularly in southern Lebanon, would inflict further strain, aggravating tensions and potentially fueling grievances,” he said.
In the past four months, eight “attacks or disruptions” had alleged or potential terror links, he said, declining to comment on them in detail.
In one high-profile attack in April, a 16-year-old boy allegedly stabbed an Assyrian Christian bishop during a live streamed Sydney church service.
Burgess said none of the terror plots investigated by the ASIO in the past year had been inspired by events in Gaza, although the conflict had an impact by fueling grievances, protests, division and intolerance.
“It would also be inaccurate to suggest the next terrorist attack or plot is likely to be motivated by a twisted view of a particular religion or a particular ideology,” he said. “The threat is across the board.”
The spy chief said social media and encrypted apps were making the threats “harder to predict and identify.”
The Internet and social media were “the primary platform for radicalization and the use of encryption by every single one of our investigative subjects,” he said.
In the new threat landscape, attacks were most likely to involve individuals or small groups with rudimentary weapons, often acting with little or no warning or planning, Burgess said.
He also cited a “resurgence” in the involvement of minors, with one recent perpetrator aged just 14.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS