BY SARAH STEPHEN
The recent raids by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) of the homes of Muslim families received widespread media coverage. However, similar raids following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US went largely unreported. Green Left Weekly obtained accounts of four raids that took place in Sydney in the weeks following 9/11.
Case 1: A Muslim family, including a baby and a young girl, were at home when five heavily armed AFP officers raided their house. A man was searched at gunpoint as he lay on the floor. The mother, who was upstairs and wearing only night clothes, was breast-feeding her baby when she heard the commotion. AFP officers raced up the stairs and held their guns within centimetres of her face while she was holding the baby. She was forced into the lounge room without time to dress herself properly.
The AFP searched the house and seized bank and phone records, a computer, mobile phones, leaflets, diaries, books and videos. A video of the baby's birth was among the possessions taken.
When ASIO officers arrived, the man was interrogated. He was targeted because he had spent up to two months in Pakistan to assess whether it would be suitable for his family to move there. The family were willing to cooperate with ASIO, and had done so before the Sydney Olympic Games.
The media were tipped off about the raid, and were able to get some footage of the incident. In following days, the family's windows were spat at and they found the pictures of the family published in the newspapers stuck to their window. They were forced to move house; the man lost his job.
Case 2: The flat of a man who had visited Pakistan many years before — to spend five months at an Islamic school to learn the Koran — was raided by 14 armed AFP officers. The man was at work at the time and his wife awoke to find the cops inside. They claimed her four-year-old child had let them in.
The federal police indicated that they knew the man had gone to work early and had waited until he had left. They searched the family's home for three hours, taking two mobile phones, computers, passports, personal letters and water and electricity bills. The seized property was not returned.
Case 3: A teacher at an Islamic school was visiting Syria for a week to visit his sick father. It was the man's only trip overseas for many years. While he was away, three AFP officers and an ASIO agent visited the school. Teachers were asked questions such as: Did you know about the September 11 bombing before it happened? Do you have connections with terrorists?
Case 4: AFP officers went to a man's home after he had gone to work. He had come to Australia four years earlier as a skilled migrant and was now an Australian citizen. The man's wife answered the door and gave the police his work details. She was frightened by their manner and asked them what they wanted, but they wouldn't tell her.
When the police rang the man at work, they again refused to explain why they wanted to speak to him. Two police officers and an ASIO officer arrived at his work to interview him. They asked him if he knew anything about the September 11 attacks and if he knew any "terrorists". They also asked where he was born, if he had learned how to fly a plane and where he got his news from. They asked him to report any information he might receive about the attacks.
The incident severely affected his wife and two-and-a-half year old daughter, who now says "police, police" every time there is a knock at the door.
Of the 30 or so raids that took place after 9/11, no arrests followed. Most accounts reported that unnecessary force and deliberate intimidation were employed by the AFP and ASIO. In each case, the men who were raided or questioned could have been asked to attend an interview.
From Green Left Weekly, November 20, 2002.
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