Out in the cold
AUSTRALIANS have grown used to the idea that the al-qaeda attacks in 2001 permanently changed Western attitudes to security, especially to intelligence gathering. Just how farreaching those changes have been in Australia itself, however, is unknown to many.
Our report on the clandestine activities of SAS members in countries with which Australia is not at war is disturbing, even to military and strategic analysts, because of its implications for the soldiers themselves, and because it indicates the extent to which Australian security planning has followed a US model that may not be in the national interest.
As The Age’s report reveals, 4 Squadron troopers also operate alone in countries where Australia is not officially engaged in military operations, including Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe. These covert activities, in which the soldiers have assessed sites for possible military incursions and routes for the evacuation of Australian citizens, were authorised by Defence Minister Stephen Smith.
The soldiers in Africa do not wear uniforms. SAS teams in Afghanistan may also work undercover but carry valid identification, and their operations are authorised by a UN mandate and agreement with the Afghan government. That is not the case with the 4 Squadron teams in Africa. Australian law allow Australian Secret Intelligence Service officers to carry false passports and to deny whom they are working for if they are arrested, but 4 Squadron soldiers do not have these rights.
The African operations have collapsed the longestablished distinction between soldiering and spying, placing the SAS troopers in a legal no man’s land. Because they are not openly engaged in military operations, they are deprived of the protections that international law accords uniformed soldiers. And, because they are not intelligence officers, they do not have even the minimal protections that Australian domestic law grants to Australian secret service operatives, such as assumed identities.
Yet Australia is asking its soldiers to act as spies in countries where, if they are caught, they may well face summary justice or none at all. – Melbourne Age