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Here come the ISIS brides – and the political spin · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It's Friday, September five, twenty twenty five. Daniel Andrews has
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: used his highly contentious trip to China to sprook the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: benefits of a closer economic relationship with Australia and invite
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: senior Chinese officials to Melbourne. But sources say the former
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Victorian premiers trip is really about access, influence and big money.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: That exclusive story is live right now at the Australian
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: dot Com dot a U. The High Court is thrown
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: out a bid by Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts Smith
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to appeal a judge's finding he committed war crimes in Afghanistan.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: The former essays soldier is out of chances to overturn
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the findings made by Federal Court Judge Anthony Bisanko in
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: defamation proceedings initiated by Robert Smith. Here come the isis
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: brides and the political spin. Multiple agencies of the Commonwealth
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and state governments are making plans for the repatriation of
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Australian women and children stranded in the Middle East. Prime
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Minister Anthony Alberanezi is trying to dodge The Australian's revelation
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: this will be the third cohort of wives and kids
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: returning to Australia from the remnants of the so called caliphate. Today,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: how police revealed what's really going on behind the attempts
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to manage the message those reports are not accurate. Liam
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Mendez is the Australians journalist who broke this story on Tuesday. Liam,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: it must be quite startling to hear the Prime Minister
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: denying something that you've had on page one of the Australian.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: It was it was an interesting choice of words from
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister. He said, in very very few words,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: essentially that the story is not accurate. If it was
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: completely wrong, he would have said that, you know, there
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: is no truth to this. But what I think is
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: happening is that, you know, the government is really trying
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: to argue at semantics here. They're essentially complaining that we're
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: missing a comma at the bottom paragraph eight. They're trying
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: to find something small to deny the entirety of the story.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: And the reason for that is that the last time,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: in October twenty two, when a similar operation occurred, the
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: government received a huge amount of blowback we're talking about
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: in for example, Western Sydney, where a lot of these
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: people were repatriated, it was described as a dumping ground.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: But the fact of the matter is Satan federal agencies
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: are preparing for Isis bride stranded in northern Syria to
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: be returned home before Christmas.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: We've seen this movie before, haven't we.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: I think it's appalling that Australians have gone and fought
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: against our values and our way of life and peace
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: loving countries of the world and joining the days fight.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: I think it's even more despicable that they put their
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: children in the middle of it.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, the first cohort of Isis families came home.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two another group. But every time the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: federal politicians are caught between their desire to resolve a
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: very difficult issue. Countries like Syria don't want these people
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: on their hands anymore. They're getting pressure from the humanitarian
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: organizations that run these camps saying you have a responsibility.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: These people are Australian passport holders, and yet the government
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: doesn't want to be blamed if ultimately these families back
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: here in Australia find themselves caught up in a terror event.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Let's say fifteen years into the future, one of these
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: children grows up arrested and accused of plotting a terror
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: attack because they were radicalized as a child. That's the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: night Miss scenario for the government, isn't it.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Well, that's right. There are very dangerous people who are
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: radicalized in these camps. Now, the people that are coming
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: back to Australia are very young, very easily influenced. These
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: people returning are going to have to be very carefully managed.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: There's specific deradicalization programs that are run by the state governments.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: They are in place to keep us safe and to
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  Speaker 2: ensure the people that are more influenced by some of
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: the more radical elements of Islam are not a danger
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: to our society.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like witness protection on steroids, isn't it. On
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: one hand, there has to be privacy for these people
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: new identities. They have to be able to explain to
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: their new neighbors where they've been for the past decade.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: And then also there has to be high levels of
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: help and support to help kids reintegrate to school, to
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: help women find their way back in society. Probably now
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: as widows. Let's talk about the details of some of
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: these families. It's been reported that one of the Isis
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: brides in this cohort, and of course we haven't got
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: this confirmed because there's so much secrecy about it, is
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  Speaker 1: a Sydney woman called Nesrine Zahab who kind of tricked
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  Speaker 1: her family and escaped from a family holiday in Lebanon,
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  Speaker 1: went to the war zone, married an Australian man who
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: was fighting with Islamic State. He's now dead. She's in
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: a refugee camp with her child, and her family wants
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: her to be able to come home. She did make
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: a choice to go to this place. She's now in
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: this awful situation. It's a hard one for policymakers.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: It absolutely is. But I think what we have to
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: do is and as absurd as it might sound, is
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: really try and put ourselves in the position of a
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: twenty one year old who's possibly very easily influenced. And
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: you know, sitting here as a thirty year old male,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: you do think, you know, how on earth does that happen?
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  Speaker 2: But you also think back at some of the things
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: that you did at twenty one. Sure I didn't head
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: over to Syria and get married to someone. But what
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: if that was your sister, What if that had just
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: gone off and made that horrific, horrific choice. A lot
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: of people think that, you know, you make your bed,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: you lie in it. But at the end of the day,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: she's Australian and so is her child. And like Scott
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Morrison said in twenty nineteen, children shouldn't be punished for
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: the sins of their parents. We're talking about five year
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: old children who couldn't say their parents, I don't want
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  Speaker 2: to go here or I didn't want to be born here.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: And that's I think for me, is the saddest part
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: of this story.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: So then another twist when a senior in New South
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Wealth Police officer Dave hards It appeared before New South
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Wales Parliament's budget estimates, where he's required to answer any
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: questions that have put to him. He was asked kind
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: of as a matter of fact, what role the New
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: South Wales Police would have in repatriating this group of people,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and he started talking about it as though it was
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: an accepted fact that this was happening.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you, commissioner. We are still working through that
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: issue with the Commonwealth. If the AFP don't play as
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: significant role as they have previously. We will, We'll have
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: to work that out.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Which what's some.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: Meetings next week in Canberra has aligned with Australian New
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: Zealand Counter Terrian and Committee meeting where I'll try and
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: explore that further. Obviously, New Southwal's government have a huge
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: role with justice and health and education and everyone else
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: in the reintegration of these individuals back into New South
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: Wales society, as we have done previously.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: That must have given you some comfortly and after the
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister and den't I your story?
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Yes and no, I mean I was pretty comfortable with
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: the story in the first place. And you know this
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: is something that multiple agencies have been dealing with quite
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: closely in the last week. Dave Hudson is a very
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: matter of fact type of guy. He was just sitting
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: there and he answered the question. He's not a politician.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: He wasn't trying to skirt around the answer. This is
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: business is usual for the New South Wales Police and
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: they are very good at keeping very close eye on
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: anyone that possibly might be exposed to violent extremism.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Can the Prime Minister explain this contradiction?
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: Thank hid there is no contradiction between my answer. Yessay
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: was absolutely correct.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Communist.
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  Speaker 4: Are you calling the New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: David Hudson aliar that is an outrageous suggests you.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: I confirm that the Australian government is not providing assistance
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: to this.
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  Speaker 1: Cohort coming up the horrific copeal of ISIS for some
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: foreign fighters and whether things should be different for the
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: women and children. It's easy to forget how awful ISIS
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: was and how scary. I think we remember those images
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: of journalists being burnt alive in cages, of people being
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: pushed off buildings, and one of the scary things about
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Australians who went to fight with ISIS was that they
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: were radicalized, often on social media by these kinds of videos,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: by absolutely horrendous things happening. But I think the reality
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: when they got there, for particularly the women and children
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  Speaker 1: who they took with them, was that ISIS was a
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: horrendously misogynistic and dangerous organization. Life was hell. They never
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: achieved the caliphate that they were seeking to establish. They've
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: lived through an awful period of time. This is a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: very different conversation, isn't it to the one we'd be
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: having if we were talking about repatriating men who had
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: been fighters.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. You bring up an interesting point there.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: I a couple of years ago spent a fair bit
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: of time with a fellow named na I Mean, and
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: he spent five years in jail after pleading guilty to
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: preparing for a terror attack in his parents' homeland of Bangladesh.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: I think he's an example of someone who has been
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: released from prison and has been able to successfully reintegrate
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: himself into society. He's made some new friends, He's got
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: himself a laboring job. This was about two years ago
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  Speaker 2: when I spoke to him. Advocates would say that we
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: have a duty to these women and children. You know,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: if the men are able to be reintegrated into society,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: then why can't these women and children, who often cases
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: have been forced to the Middle East.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Mendez is a journalist with The Australian. You can read
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: his series of exclusives right now at The Australian dot
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: com dot au