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ADDRESS BY DENNIS RICHARDSON
AUSTRALIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND STUDIES
WASHINGTON DC
4 OCTOBER 2006
Check against delivery
"AUSTRALIA-UNITED STATES RELATIONS AND THE WAR ON TERROR "
• Thanks to Alan Tidwell and the Center.
• Wish to make a few comments about Australia, the work of the Embassy, and some of the strategic issues in Australia-US relations, with special reference to the war on terror.
Australia
• Sixth largest country in land area, about the same size as Continental US
• A little over 20 million people, making it the 48th most populous country in the world – about 190 in total.
• 14th largest economy
• 11th or 12th biggest defence budget
• A diverse immigrant population. 24 per cent born overseas, compared to 12 per cent overseas–born in the US
• A people who travel widely. 20 million have 12 million passports; 300 million have 50 million passports
• About a million Australians or 5 per cent of our population are overseas at any one time, equivalent to 15 million Americans being overseas at any one time.
• Not surprising that we are a country with global interests and regional priorities. Too often seen in terms limited to the latter.
Australia and the US
• A depth and breadth to the relationship unmatched by any other we have. A snapshot:
- US by far the largest foreign investor in Australia; Australia 8th or 9th largest foreign investor in the US
- US our second largest trading partner
- 100-130 thousand Australians live in the US
- Australia the 5th largest destination for US students studying abroad. Some 1500 Australian academics and scholars teach at American tertiary institutions
- A formal alliance dating back to 1951, based on shared interests and shared values; a relationship which has seen us fight in all major conflicts together since 1917.
The Embassy
• Employed by the Australian taxpayer to be the Australian Government’s think-tank in Washington, and to be the Australian Government lobby group in Washington. We also provide a range of functional services to both Americans and Australians, eg trade and investment information and facilitation, visas, educational information and services and consular assistance to Australians.
Strategic Issues for the Embassy
• Within the framework of what an embassy does and the wider bilateral relationship, we have four broad priorities
- Trans-Pacific relationships. US, China, Japan and India
- Implementation of FTA, Doha Round and the 2007 Farm Bill
- Defence. Information and technology sharing within the context of enhanced interoperability
- Counter-terrorism cooperation encompassing areas of diplomacy, defence, law enforcement, and intelligence.
• Counter-proliferation is also an important priority, encompassing the issues of trans-Pacific relationships and counter-terrorism cooperation.
Terrorism and Australia
• Often get asked about this, with some surprise about Australia as a target.
• Australia is an interesting case study because I think it illustrates very well the global nature of the challenge and what lies at the core of that challenge. And the latter is central to any understanding of why the challenge is going to be with us for a long time.
• In my following comments, I use the al-Qa’ida more as a shorthand to describe those groups and individuals who are in part motivated by and share bin Laden’s philosophy and ideology.
• Since 9/11 more Australian civilians have been killed in terrorist attacks than Americans, British, French or German.
• In the 6 years between 2000 and 2005 inclusive there was at least one aborted, disrupted or actual attack against Australian interests abroad, or in Australia itself.
• There are currently about 22 people in prison in Australia who have already been tried, convicted and sentenced for terrorism offences, or who are awaiting trial for such offences.
• Following 9/11 Australian agencies embarked on a systematic program to identify Australians world-wide connected to terrorism. That work has taken Australian agencies from Indonesia to inside the Arctic Circle and to all continents but Antarctica. It is work which continues to this day.
• Overwhelmingly, those people in Australia who have undertaken terrorist training have done so beyond South East Asia and their continuing links and motivations come from beyond the region. Also, of the Australians so far who have been convicted of terrorism offences, or who are facing terrorism charges, only one has a strong connection to South East Asia.
• The extent to which Australia was considered a target by al-Qa’ida well before 9/11 only became evident subsequently
- a JI investigation in Australia in 2002 led to the identification of an aborted plot to attack Israeli diplomatic interests in Australia in 2000
- a raid in Pakistan in late 2002 uncovered details of the casing, before 9/11, of a number of airports, including one in Australia. This does not mean that there was an actual plan to attack an Australian airport, but that consideration of an attack in Australia was within al-Qa’ida’s strategic vision
- during 2002 Australian agencies also established that al-Qa’ida’s chief operational planner, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, had been issued with an Australian visa in August 2001. The visa, which was applied for under a then-unknown alias, had not been utilised and was cancelled. The only reasonable assumption is that Khalid was planning to go to Australia for some operational purpose.
• The obvious question is, why is Australia a target?
• One possibility is simply to take at face value what terrorists like bin Laden and his deputy, al Zawahiri, say. In which case we are a target because of our alliance with the United States, and because of our involvement in East Timor in 1999, Afghanistan since 2001 and Iraq since early 2003.
• While, I believe, we should take seriously any statement by al-Qa’ida leaders declaring particular countries to be targets, their claims as to why, are puzzling, except if you interpret their claims as being directed, not at their enemies but at their followers or potential followers.
• In this context, I think bin Laden’s first known reference to East Timor in November 2001 was designed to strike a chord in South East Asia, especially Indonesia, and his subsequent references to Afghanistan and Iraq must be seen in terms of al-Qa’ida propaganda and recruitment purposes. That is not to diminish the significance of his references to East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq, but to question whether our involvement in those countries is the central driver in al-Qa’ida’s targeting of Australia. Otherwise, how do you explain al-Qa’ida’s very real interest in Australia, and the targeting of us, before our involvement in those countries. It simply does not make sense.
• Perhaps then, we are a target because of our alliance with the United States. The fact that we are in close alliance with the United States does contribute to us being a target
- but that is very different to any claim that we are a target because of our alliance with the United States
- but even if we were a target only because of our alliance with the United States, on what basis would any self respecting country allow terrorists to determine such central policies, in this case one which has had bipartisan support in Australia for over 50 years?
• And as Kenya and Indonesia know, you do not need to be in alliance with the United States for your citizens to be murdered by the likes of al-Qa’ida and Jemaah Islamiyah.
• So if East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq and our alliance with the United States are, to varying degrees, only contributors or add-ons, what is it that lies at the centre of those who provide the intellectual and strategic drive of our enemies?
• I believe the answer lies in the world view of terrorist leaders such as Usama bin Laden, al Zawahiri, and JI’s spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir. A world views shaped and driven by a militant, literal interpretation of the Koran. A world view which seeks to hijack one of the world’s great religions. A world view which predates the Afghanistan of the 1980’s, which reaches back to the teachings and ideologies of Sayyid Qutb, a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1950’s and early ‘60’s, and which reaches back many centuries before that.
• It is a world view in which we and others are seen as part of a Jewish-Christian conspiracy, a world view in which the United Nations and its Secretary-General are declared enemies and legitimate targets, and a world view in which Muslim countries ruled by other than Taliban style governments are declared enemies and legitimate targets.
• It is a world view so removed from our own values, traditions and experiences that it is tempting to dismiss it as empty, meaningless rhetoric and so unreal as not to be taken seriously. It is so much easier to explain the challenge in terms of root causes such as poverty, or in terms of our own failures. Such explanations have a familiar shape and give us something concrete to address within a somewhat comforting framework. It gives us a sense of some control, a sense that, if only we can get our side of it right, it will go away. So much more confronting to be challenged by people who have a totally different frame of reference, who are playing a different game on a different playing field.
• I appreciate that my perspective is but one, and that some scholars and terrorist experts would disagree. I also acknowledge that the resolution of issues, such as Palestine, would deny al-Qa’ida some significant oxygen and is an vital goal, provided we do not fall into the trap of seeing al-Qa’ida merely as an outgrowth of the Palestinian issue.
• Nor am I seeking to pretend that our involvement, in Afghanistan and Iraq, is irrelevant. Indeed, our then Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, stated in the House of Representatives on 17 September 2001, that ‘we must be acutely aware that our own active involvement in the fight (against terrorism) could well bring terrorism closer to our own shores’. And, in answer to a question in our Parliament on 24 March 2003, the Prime Minister stated that our involvement in Iraq had increased the threat to Australian interests in the Middle East.
• I referred earlier to the 22 or so Australians currently in prison either serving sentences or awaiting trial on terrorism offences. They vary in age from their early 20’s to late 40’s, from high school drop-outs to university educated, from Australian-born to foreign-born (South Asia, Middle East, North Africa and UK), and from unskilled labourer to professional. The stand-out common denominator is a shared belief in the philosophy and ideology at the root of al-Qa’ida and like-minded groups.
• In my view we have no alternative but to continue to meet the challenge of al-Qa’ida and groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah, with their world view which allows for no compromise or conciliation. People such as Abu Bakar Bashir are terrorists masquerading as good Muslims, who seek to hide their hatred in the language of the pious. It is essential to come to terms with the fact that we are a target, not so much because of our own sins, but because we stand in the way of al Qa’ida and like minded groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah, being able to give substance to their own world view. We either represent countries not governed under laws consistent with their militant interpretation of the Koran, or we are non-believers. Too often, the starting point of some analysts and commentators is a hair shirt, which would have us believe that if only we could be perfect, so would everyone else. If only it was that simple.