IT’S an agonising paradox: no matter how much money Western governments pour into counter-terrorism programs or how much they toughen laws, terrorist violence around the world continues to grow.
In the meantime, think tanks, committees, academics and police forces, to name a few, are frantically hunting for new and innovative ways to counter terrorists who have proved to be patient, resilient and very adaptive.
But lessons have been learnt since September 11, 2001. It’s no longer just about countering terrorism. Halting the process of radicalisation is now a priority for police and intelligence agencies everywhere.
In the UK, a new approach that is gaining significant traction tries to bring the principles of community-based policing into national security. It’s a significant shift from an international approach that has generally relied on "hard power" or "exceptional powers" of the type that are common in the "war against terror".
A new report released in Melbourne today, argues Victoria Police is committed to community-based policing to counter the threat of terrorism, but it fears the Commonwealth’s approach is undermining its efforts and fuelling a drift towards extremism.
The report, by Monash University terrorism experts and Victoria Police, effectively calls into question the Federal Government’s entire counter-terrorism strategy, warning that "hard-power" tactics risk fuelling alienation, particularly in Muslim communities.
More ominously, it warns there is credible anecdotal evidence of concern "that there already existed in Victoria individuals who had progressed to the extremist end of the radicalisation continuum and who were actively probing society for alienated individuals who might become recruits to their cause".
So how is the Commonwealth’s strategy, which relies on tough legislation, covert surveillance and secret intelligence gathering, among other things, potentially adding to the risk of terrorism?
The report says there is ample evidence that laws granting police and security agencies broad powers to investigate and prevent terrorism are unlikely to be effective.
"If such powers are used in ways that are repressive or discriminatory, or in ways that are perceived to be repressive or discriminatory, they risk creating an environment conducive to the spread of terrorist sympathies," the report says.
Since September 11, 2001, anxiety had led some in the media and government bodies to unfairly target communities as inherently suspect and being sympathetic to terrorism and its causes, it says.
It warns the Federal Government’s use of tough legislation and secret intelligence gathering will inevitably scoop up more innocent people than the traditional approach to dealing with crime. "Evidence from the UK and USA suggests that the impact of this may be significant in terms of fuelling a process of alienation, social exclusion and, ultimately support for terrorism."
It says the net effect is the spread of feelings of alienation from mainstream society, with those who feel under assault retreating into isolated enclaves as a form of self defence. Terrorists then penetrate these enclaves and prey on fears to recruit more people to their cause.
"There are worrying signs that this pattern of self-defensive isolation might be taking root in Australia," the report warns. "Such a development is a matter for significant concern … because it threatens to erode what in Victoria has been a long and successful tradition of community police co-operation.
"The erosion of this tradition in the face of public fears and moral panics will have significant costs in terms of the ability of Victoria Police and other agencies to deal effectively with the threat posed by terrorism in Victoria and Australia more generally."
Community policing and social cohesion, the report argues, is more likely to win over communities, especially Muslim communities, so that people are more willing to co-operate with police by sharing information.
Community policing emphasises community co-operation and human rights, with police work focusing on social objectives as well as law and order. This empowers communities and improves their contribution to police investigations, the report says.
Furthermore, creating a positive spiral of police-community relations around intelligence based on trust and co-operation will diminish the need to use "harder" methods of intelligence gathering. This has the advantage of being more consistent with liberal democracy than other forms of intelligence gathering.
The report, Counter-Terrorism Policing and Culturally Diverse Communities, is the result of a three-year research project initiated by the Victoria Police Counter-Terrorism Co-ordination Unit. It was funded by the Australian Research Council and Victoria Police, with research conducted by terrorism experts at Monash University.
The researchers spoke to more than 1000 people, including those from culturally diverse backgrounds across Victoria. Victorian police were also interviewed and surveyed.
Associate Professor Sharon Pickering, who headed the research team, told The Age Victoria Police was more confident responding to terrorist events than preventing them. Nevertheless, a strong track record of multiculturalism and community policing in Victoria provided police with the capacity to effectively use community policing to counter terrorism.
In the report, Victoria Police officers express concern with the evidence-gathering process under Commonwealth laws. Some said they preferred to use the Victorian Crimes Act over the Commonwealth legislation because they found the federal laws confusing and ill-suited to their needs. Half of all respondents surveyed from the Counter-Terrorism Co-ordination Unit considered the legislation "barely workable".
There was also concern over what they considered to be the Australian Federal Police’s lack of experience in dealing with everyday crime. One officer is reported as saying: "They (AFP) have got some people there who were out of Barton College two months ago. Now, whilst they are good people … none of them have investigated a murder. It’s like throwing them into the deep end."
A former AFP agent with 20 years’ experience, who now works for a private company in the Middle East, told The Age he believed a lack of cultural literacy among federal police officers was also part of the problem.
The agent, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he had met officers "who had no idea" about social, cultural, religious and language issues pertinent to their work.
He recalled an incident where senior AFP officers, insensitive to the fact that pork and alcohol are prohibited under Islam, visited him in the Middle East and offended local Muslims by asking for ham and cheese sandwiches and talking about brewing beer at home.
He said better training of different cultural norms would improve the ability of the AFP and state police to build bridges with culturally diverse communities.
While the report calls for better training, it also says Victoria Police counter-terrorism specialists believe a commitment to multiculturalism is crucial to preventing terrorism, but that this needs to be better communicated to stations.
Indeed, Victoria Police is in a good position to integrate community policing into counter-terrorism policing, and to promote this approach nationally, the report says.
Dr David Wright-Neville, one of the authors of the report and co-convener of the global terrorism research project at Monash University, told The Age the lack of a hearts-and-minds approach at the federal level was not deliberate, merely a reflection of the struggle to understand the problem.
"They didn’t really understand the problem and as a result there was a tendency to leap to stereotypes … It was dominating some of the academic literature, so I’m sure it was dominating some of the advice that the Federal Government was getting: that the spread of terrorism was overwhelmingly a religious threat. That is not the case and that is starting to be reflected … There’s a more nuanced, more culturally sensitive approach to the problem."
He said many mistakes were made in the handling of the Mohammed Haneef case and this would loom as a reminder of the tendency to stereotype. Terrorism-related charges against Dr Haneef, a medical doctor from India, were withdrawn in July after the case collapsed due to a lack of evidence.
But despite Victoria Police’s track record in building links with communities, there are still difficulties that lie ahead. In the report, counter-terrorism specialists agree developing trust with the community is their greatest challenge.
One officer says: "The biggest challenge is trust because a lot of these communities come from an environment which is a totalitarian state, where the secret police knock on your door and you’re never seen again. And sometimes new migrants think we are similar to that here, so they are wary.
"You just have to reinforce that its totally different … here, that we’re a pretty democratic state here and that we’ve got rights, where police can’t just abduct you and take you away and shoot you in the head."
Although the research findings indicated a high level of trust in Victoria Police, the mountain police will have to climb to win deeper trust, particularly among Muslim communities, is evident in the remarks of those who participated in the research.
All respondents expressed doubts about the extent to which they would voluntarily offer important information on suspected terrorist activities to the police. The report outlines two reasons for this.
First, many Muslims come to Australia from societies where police are associated with repressive and brutal regimes, so there is a reluctance and fear about dealing with police. Many also fear the possibility of "guilt by association". Second, there are cultural and religious sensitivities. For example, a person may be concerned that information he or she has, if passed to police, might embarrass them, their family or their community.
A view consistently expressed by members of culturally diverse communities throughout the three-year research project was that "federal bodies seemed to have crowded out Victoria Police on counter-terrorism".
The report says the views of a youth leader from Melbourne’s inner-west summarised a popular view: "From where we stand the Federal Government looks like the enemy, they act like they hate us and we don’t know why … the State Government looks more like a friend, but one that is pretty weak compared to the bully."
In the race to find new and more effective ways of dealing with the threat of terrorism, ideas are important. National security will require the co-operation of Australia’s Islamic communities, which represent 1.7 per cent of the population.
"What is needed," says the report, "is a more nuanced blend of hard and soft policing powers than has been attempted in many other jurisdictions."