For the third time in two months, the Australian Senate has signed off another “counter-terrorism” bill that grants unprecedented powers to the intelligence and military apparatus.
The latest laws, rubber stamped this week, allow the government to designate individuals and “classes” of Australians who can be attacked, and potentially killed, during military operations on the basis of information supplied by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), the overseas spy agency.
Fully backed by the Labor Party opposition, the Liberal-National government’s legislation also dramatically widens the capacity of the government and the security services to impose control orders, a form of detention without trial.
On the pretext of combating the alleged dangers posed by a relatively small number of Australians—reportedly about 200—supposedly fighting for, or supporting, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s government is again introducing provisions that can, and will, be used against anyone perceived as a political threat to the ruling establishment.
Citing an Australian Federal Police submission that the involvement of Australians with ISIS “totally changed” the “security environment,” the government insists that it must have powers that go far beyond the barrage of “anti-terrorism” laws already introduced over the past decade.
All the false claims made by Washington and its allies to launch the fraudulent “war on terrorism,” exploiting the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, are being revived and magnified. Then, the US government and its partners declared that “everything has changed,” in order to both invade Afghanistan and Iraq, and erect police-state frameworks domestically.
Today, under the cover of fighting ISIS, a renewed war is underway to secure hegemony over the Middle East, and fundamental legal and democratic rights are being further dismantled at home.
The latest bill allows a single government minister, or in “emergency” situations an intelligence chief, to authorise ASIS to give the Australian Defence Force (ADF) intelligence on “one or more members of a class of Australian persons” and to assist the ADF in activities likely to “have a direct effect” on them. This is a euphemism for being targeted for military attack or assassination.
In effect, government ministers will be able to place Australians on “kill lists,” like those drawn up by US President Barack Obama for drone attacks. Without any criminal charges even being laid, let alone proven in court, designated people or “classes” of people can be executed. Due to overwhelming public opposition to it, the death penalty was abolished decades ago in Australia, but now it is being authorised by military means.
Nothing in the provision confines its operation to Iraq, ISIS or even terrorism. “Classes” of people can be specified on the basis that they “are, or are likely to be, involved in an activity or activities that are, or are likely to be, a threat to security.”
“Security” is defined by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Act. That definition is sweeping. It includes “politically motivated violence,” which is also defined in far-reaching terms, such as “acts or threats of violence or unlawful harm that are intended or likely to achieve a political objective, whether in Australia or elsewhere.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-australian-terrorism-bill-to-facilitate-targeted-military-killings/5417140
In case you haven't noticed, the countries which comprise "the Five Eyes" (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States) all have become players in the Global War On Terror (or whatever it's being called these days).
We may never know exactly why these allegedly democratic nations decided to conduct "targeted killings", but one thing is certain - among others, these laws are aimed at anyone and everyone involved in insurrection or revolution anywhere. This spells the end of national and/or religious struggles of liberation.
Read if you will the US Declaration of Independence. Everything mentioned in that document and everything its signers did is now by definition illegal. Were the Founders alive today and were they to attempt the kind of revolution we had in 1776, they would be put on a kill list and terminated.
From now on, what we'll have until the Global War On Terror is over (if it ever is) will be the following:
(1) There is only one sustainable true and right model for all peoples and countries, and that is based on “freedom, democracy and free enterprise” and is the non-negotiable demand from which no nation is exempt.
(2) The U.S. will extend the peace on every continent and promote economic freedom beyond America’s shores.
(3) The U.S. will act against threats before they are formed and act alone and preemptively, as the best defense is an offense, recognizing that enemies can not be permitted to strike first.
(4) Russia is in transition to a society which hopefully will conform to U.S. values, and China will in time recognize that this is the only path to national greatness.
(5) The concept in international law of “imminent threat” must be adapted to meet the danger of current adversaries.
(6) Rogue states who hate the U.S. and everything for which it stands must be stopped.
(7) Poverty is not the source of terrorism.
(8) U.S. strategy will be based on a “distinctly American internationalism”.
(9) When openings arrive the U.S. can encourage [regime] change.
(10) The United States will rid the world of evil.
(11) The U.S. must dissuade any future military competition and develop access arrangements for long distance deployment of U.S. forces.
(12) The U.S. will continue to oppose the application of the International Criminal Court to its personnel in the discharge of its global commitments.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-new-global-ideological-order/5416960
The Five Eyes are watching, and they know what's good for you. If you don't like that, too bad.
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