LETTER TO THE AGE MELBOURNE
Shire Ali, like the three men arrested Tuesday, had his passport cancelled to keep him from joining ISIS in the Mideast. Victorian Police Commissioner Graham Ashton said this may have led to their actions at home.
A federal counterterrorism expert, Ian McCarthy added that if it's difficult for would-be terrorists to get to a conflict zone with ISIS, "often the view will be to change tack and commit an act in the country in which they live."
This begs the obvious question: why cancel their passports to prevent them leaving Australia? Why not wait until they have gone overseas to join ISIS and then cancel their passport to prevent them returning to our country? Where they seek to wreak their murderous rage on our own innocents?
Presumably the human rights issue regarding passports' cancellation has already been sorted. It's just a matter of the timing.
Pf
