{"id":626,"date":"2007-03-15T12:46:22","date_gmt":"2007-03-15T02:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=626"},"modified":"2007-03-15T13:19:52","modified_gmt":"2007-03-15T03:19:52","slug":"g20-police-fight-terrorism-arrest-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=626","title":{"rendered":"G20: Police fight terrorism; arrest protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"

In George II<\/a><\/em>‘s ongoing and everlasting War on Terrorism<\/a><\/strong>\u2122, in a joint operation involving members of the Federal, NSW and Victoria police, and acting under the direction of the ‘Police Terrorism Investigation Squad’, five people were arrested yesterday in dawn raids on a number of houses in Sydney. The five — “Sunil Menon, 25, from Darlington, Daniel Jones, 20, from Balmain East, Timothy Davis-Frank, 22, from Bronte… Daniel Robins, 24 [from Newtown]”, and an unnamed teenage male — appeared in Sydney’s Central Local Court, and were bailed to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, March 20. (“The 17-year-old from Haberfield, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was granted bail in Bidura Children’s Court.”) According to AAP<\/strong>, “They have been charged with a variety of offences, including aggravated burglary, riot, affray, unlawful assembly, criminal damage and conduct endangering person”: with the possible exception of aggravated burglary, the same charges currently facing dozens of others arrested since G20<\/a><\/strong> as a result of the efforts of Operation Salver<\/strong> — the police taskforce established immediately following the meeting in Melbourne last November 18–19. (‘Five charged over G20 protests’<\/a>, [AAP], Herald Sun<\/em>, March 14, 2007.)<\/p>\n

Another, triumphant account in Murdoch’s Herald Sun<\/em>, titled ‘Anti-terror cops swoop in raids’<\/a> (Mark Buttler and Paul Anderson, March 15, 2007), reports that:<\/p>\n

The dramatic arrests followed a four-month search for activists allegedly associated with Arterial Bloc<\/a>, a radical protest group blamed<\/a> for much of the violence at the meeting of 20 of the world’s economic powers. Police from the NSW anti-terrorism unit<\/a> joined Victorian detectives in the pre-dawn raids. Supporters of the arrested men accused police of kicking down doors. They said dozens of police ransacked the homes. It is believed three of the men are Sydney University students and a fourth is a librarian there…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to one unconfirmed report<\/a>, the warrants authorising the arrests were applied for by ‘Gary Charles Lowe’ of the ‘Terrorism Investigation Squad’; a NSW police officer by the name of Gary Lowe<\/a> may work for the NSW State Crime Command<\/a><\/strong>. Then again, the only online reference I can find to anything like the above squad is the “terror investigation squad” referred to in the following account of the ongoing trial of The Sydney Nine<\/a>:<\/p>\n

‘Ethnicity question in terror trial’<\/a>
\nTracy Ong
\nThe Australian<\/em>
\nMarch 9, 2007<\/p>\n

THE lawyer of one of nine Sydney terror suspects has accused police of not laying terrorism charges against a 10th man because he is not a Muslim. Paul King, the barrister for Mazen Touma, yesterday asked James Pratt, a detective senior constable attached to the terror investigation squad<\/strong>, why George Lord was not “sitting here in the dock with everybody else”…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Still, it’s worth noting that the draconian legislation rushed through Parliament by the HoWARd Government following 9\/11 defines ‘terrorism’ in extremely broad terms<\/a>, and it may be that — in the context of state preparations<\/a> for the upcoming APEC<\/a><\/strong> Summit in Sydney (September 7–9), and at which George II himself will be making an unwelcome appearance, in addition to other war criminals such as Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a><\/em> — authorities are going to want to send a very clear message that any form of active opposition will be crushed: by any means necessary…<\/p>\n