Contributed by
Dr Jim Saleam
In a public address yesterday at the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s Canberra headquarters, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess, gave many warnings (sic) about espionage” and jihadi terrorism in our country. Some of that is probably true, as far as it goes. But he also lashed out at “far-right groups”. And then he singled out those neo-Nazis!
The latter – inevitably – caught the attention of the usual media suspects, from professional ‘anti-racists’ at the ABC and SBS, and of course, the redoubtable Nick McKenzie of the (ex) Fairfax stable – who gave it the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald.
But what is the truth?
Mr Burgess said far-right extremism had been in “ASIO’s sights for some time”, but it came into “sharp, terrible focus” following last year’s mass shooting at a Christchurch Mosque. The killer had some very loose Australian connections, though it should be said, they were not of any terrorist interest. Mr Burgess added too, that the Aussie far-right is now more organised and aware of security risks compared to just a few years ago. So, is it ready to act? Yet, we might say too, is it really that organized?
A couple of months ago, I was in discussion with an academic who writes on political violence and the so-called far-right. The person is also a licensed Federal investigator. He asked me whether I thought this far-right had an “intelligence capability”, meaning the capacity to collect intelligence, refine it and employ it to perform a terrorist act. I said “no”. I added that most of the far-right groups being discussed by certain academics in a welter of books and articles did not exist any longer and were in any case, not equipped in any way to do violence. In the case of the ‘leftover’ people attached to small far-right bodies that survived the great extinction of the far-right milieu after 2017, no evidence had been advanced by any of these academics that they had any interest in violence. The sad and singular case of Phil Galea in Melbourne, who was convicted over a hair-brained scheme to attack some anarchist bookshops (while recently Melbourne anarchists attacked a militaria store running it out of business – ED), could hardly make out their case. I challenged this particular academic to front the groups and delve into them – and my points would become clearer.
So, either the far-right is here and active in our country, or it is not? We say, essentially it is extinct.
But it isn’t the far-right per se which gives the ASIO claims as to their colour. According to Mr Burgess: “In suburbs around Australia, small cells regularly meet to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons, train in combat and share their hateful ideology.”
Really? Like Combat 18 which has ten grog-head members nationally and that reputedly are now led by a confidence trickster? Like the Antipodean Resistance which is a mini online club, that has done no violence and merely talks of a Fantasmic (sic) future? Like a split from a split of the (Alt-Right) Lads Society, which has kept this name, and that writes bad articles about their wanting to be “National Socialists” (read: neo-Nazis). Now, yes, its leader did make a silly statement almost a year ago about “violence” being an option for a distant future, but it seems to have been simple dumb bravado that, if someone can be induced from within his circle (and I say ‘induced’), to do a little violence, it will undoubtedly be quoted against him at his trial for conspiracy. Such a trial might indeed make for a conviction, but it would be in substance just bad theatre.
The truth is Neo-Nazism has a questionable history. How about Squadron 88 of just a few years back that was occasionally funded by a Liberal Party operator? And whose leader was caught out on tape admitting a plot to attack the homes of Penrith City councillors – but who was never charged? What about the links of bad spin-out Michael Holt who hatched a violence plan to just gun down some normal folk in a shopping mall, but who just happened to be an employee of a neo-Nazi militaria salesman long ago exposed as a Special Branch police informer? What of Klub Nation, a collection pool for a variety of psychopaths and sociopaths that was really a money-making enterprise and fantasy waffle club, but which also had Liberal Party connections? Was that the real point? In other words, could Aussie neo-Nazism be basically, a black operation?
This writer personally and the nationalists generally, have been saying that over and over for decades and have continued to adduce evidence to support the proposition. Indeed, I once ran a webpage ‘Kangaroo Reich’ about that very subject. Linked here.
Mr Burgess said that a far-right attack in Australia would likely take the form of a “knife, gun or vehicle attack”, but he did not exclude more “sophisticated attacks.” Well, who knows? Will ASIO supply the weapons?
What disturbs the nationalists is the thing that no journalist will touch with the proverbial barge pole. It is that neo-Nazism has no substance and has had political police and Liberal connections far back over time. Add that to the obvious present facts of its miserable circumstances and the essentially ‘extinct’ nature of this far-right – and we might indeed wonder what Mr Burgess is truly up to.
This little black duck says it’s all just one big ASIO lie. Petrov MkII.
