{"id":235,"date":"2006-06-01T03:21:23","date_gmt":"2006-05-31T17:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=235"},"modified":"2006-06-01T03:21:23","modified_gmt":"2006-05-31T17:21:23","slug":"the-huns-war-on-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=235","title":{"rendered":"The Hun’s “War on Terror”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The corporate media is always eager to do its bit for the ‘war on terror’, on this occasion aiming its not-very-smart bombs on innocent civilians: the wives and children of 13 “allegedly ‘would-be’ terrorists”…<\/em><\/p>\n

Families benefit as accused go to jail<\/a>
\nBy LINCOLN WRIGHT
\n28may06<\/p>\n

AUSTRALIA’S 22 terror suspects and<\/strong> their families receive more than $1 million a year in taxpayer-funded welfare and<\/strong> legal aid.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Tax-payer funded” eh? Gee, I always wondered where the money comes from…<\/p>\n

And simply because the men were locked up, their families received a social security pay rise of as much as $1700 a year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A fact which, as is revealed by Wright below, is perfectly un<\/strong>exceptional.<\/p>\n

One of the jailed Melbourne men, Abdul Nacer Benbrika — leader of a radical group of Islamists — has been in Australia for 10 years and has never had a job.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SFW? John HoWARd’s been Prime Minister for 10 years, an MP for 32, and consequently wouldn’t know an honest day’s work if it bit him on the arse. But I somehow doubt the fact that he’s been paid a small fortune<\/a> to lie to the Australian public for that length of time will ever be breathlessly revealed in an article published by The Hun<\/em>, do you?<\/p>\n

Taxpayers provide his wife with almost $50,000 a year in welfare.<\/p>\n

A Sunday Herald Sun<\/em> investigation uncovered generous<\/strong> payments to the families of men charged with plotting terror in Australia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, the families <\/em>of the 22 men charged; is The Hun<\/em> suggesting that they too, should be on trial?<\/p>\n

Obviously, yes.<\/p>\n

By media.<\/p>\n

As for Wright’s ‘investigatory’ (sic) skills, little other than access to Centrelink<\/a>‘s website and knowledge of the composition of the men’s families is required in order to compose this <\/em>particular kind of filler.<\/p>\n

And that $50,000 is presumably intended to support not only that one <\/em>woman, but her seven <\/em>children as well.<\/p>\n

What’s $50,000 divided by eight, Lincoln?<\/p>\n

Adding tens of thousands of dollars in parenting payments, rent assistance and family tax benefits to the cost of legal services for the accused makes a total bill to taxpayers of more than $1 million<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Since November, 22 allegedly would-be terrorists have been arrested in Melbourne and Sydney under Operation Pendennis<\/a>, a joint ASIO, AFP and state police forces operation.<\/p>\n

Mr Benbrika was among 13 Melbourne men charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n

Of Algerian descent, he has a Lebanese-born wife and seven children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(OK, so that’s one million dollars<\/strong> divided between seven <\/em>children, and two <\/em>adults.)<\/p>\n

Does the fact that Benbrika’s wife was born in Lebanon alter her entitlements?<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

But it does <\/em>reinforce the notion that, not only are the families of “would-be (sic) terrorists” profiting<\/em> from terror <\/em>— at the expense of the Australian tax-payer — they’re foreigners to boot!<\/p>\n

Subtle as a brick.<\/p>\n

Under Centrelink rules, she is entitled to almost $50,000 a year in welfare while her husband is in prison, awaiting trial.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As is customary in the extensive corporate media reportage of such cases, Wright is using figures drawn from Centrelink, not the family in question. Thus Benbrika’s wife’s entitlement <\/em>is not necessarily the same as her actual income<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Ahmed Raad, another Melbourne suspect, has a child and his wife is entitled to about $21,500 a year, as are the wives of Ezzit Raad and Abdullah Merhi.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, so that’s one million dollars<\/strong> divided between eight <\/em>adults and eight <\/em>children.<\/p>\n

The wife of another suspect, Hany Taha, who has three children, is entitled to up to $30,000 a year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which now makes it one million dollars<\/strong> divided between ten <\/em>adults and eleven <\/em>children.<\/p>\n

Among nine Sydney suspects charged with conspiracy to carry out a terrorist attack was engineer Mohamed Ali Elomar, 40. He has five children and his wife is entitled to about $38,000 a year in taxpayer payments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s see… that’s one million dollars<\/strong> divided between twenty <\/em>adults and sixteen <\/em>children.<\/p>\n

Omar Baladjam, a former actor on the ABC TV program Wildside, has two children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which brings our tally to twenty <\/em>adults and eighteen <\/em>children.<\/p>\n

A Centrelink spokeswoman said the fact someone had been jailed for terrorist offences did not stop their spouse or children receiving welfare. The maximum parenting payment increases from $377.50 a fortnight to $444.20 when a spouse is in jail, she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I apologise for doubting Wright’s talents as an investigative journalist: he not only looked at the Centrelink website, he actually asked a Centrelink spokesperson their legal opinion<\/em>. Still, as strenuous as Wright’s efforts have been to uncover important, one million dollar<\/strong> facts, and to place these before the Australian public for their intense critical scrutiny, I somehow doubt there’ll be a Walkley waiting for him at the end of it.<\/p>\n

Two so-called “Anglo” terrorist suspects, Jack “Jihad” Thomas and Shane Kent, also have children and benefit from Centrelink payments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“So-called”? By whom? Is Wright implying that the two men in question are not<\/em>, in fact, of “Anglo” descent? Or is this merely intended to reinforce the notion that “Anglos” — unlike ‘foreigners’ — are incapable of “terrorism”?<\/p>\n

Subtle… very subtle.<\/p>\n

Mr Kent has two children, while Thomas, who is appealing against a conviction for receiving funds from a terrorist organisation, has three children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ooops. That’s one million dollars<\/strong> divided between twenty-two<\/em> adults and twenty-three <\/em>children.<\/p>\n

Now, according to my calculations, one million dollars<\/strong> divided by forty-five is $22,222.20.<\/p>\n

Not much of a headline really, is it?<\/p>\n

Victims of crime groups expressed outrage at the payments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, no surprises there then. And, I suspect, precisely why Wright bothered to contact them for their opinion in the first place.<\/p>\n

I mean, he couldn’t actually ask the families of any victims now could he?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The corporate media is always eager to do its bit for the ‘war on terror’, on this occasion aiming its not-very-smart bombs on innocent civilians: the wives and children of 13 “allegedly ‘would-be’ terrorists”… Families benefit as accused go to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-war-on-terror"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-3N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}