David Elliott: Ex-soldier turned terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar is security services worst nightmare

Shamsud-Din Jabbar used extremism to justify terrorising the very people he had previously sworn to defend. David Elliott warns that Australia could open itself up to the same danger.

One of the constants across Western democracies is the desire to provide opportunity to those who are marginalised. It’s what sets us aside from people who wish to do us harm, but it also means that our intelligence agencies are forced to remind the political classes that the lack of opportunity and justice are the main fertiliser for extremism.

In the past 24 hours these observations rang true, as the world again faces the tragedy of terrorism in a peaceful city celebrating the New Year, and again innocent bystanders, who may not even fully understand the motives behind such an evil act, become the latest casualties.

The left will no doubt make apologies for the culprit and play down the death of innocents on the streets of New Orleans as terrorism lest it “offend”.

We must set aside this ill-informed attitude as being more suited to the likes of Neville Chamberlain in 1938 than it does to the complexities of the 21st century.

Indeed, news that the latest perpetrator was actually trained in the profession of arms by the United State military will send shock waves across the Defence policy writers in Canberra, who have just deemed it acceptable to recruit non-Australian citizens into our own military as a way of fast-tracking their naturalisation (a foreign legion maybe, but never a legion of foreigners).

Deceased New Orleans terror attack suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar when he was in the US Army. Picture: 82nd Airborne Division

The fact of the matter is that as the facts stand now, Shamsud-Din Jabbar used extremism to justify terrorising the very people he had previously sworn an oath to defend — and by his own admission the skills he learnt in the military continued to serve him well.

When I was made the state’s first Minister for Counter Terrorism in January 2017 I was immediately informed that the likelihood of a terrorist attack was “probable” and there was no way law enforcement and intelligence agencies could guarantee the safety of our communities. That didn’t, however, mean that we were powerless.

A camera on Bourbon St in New Orleans, showing people desperately trying to get out of the way of the F-150 driven by Shamsud-Din Jabbar.

In fact an essential tool we had was an honest and frank relationship with religious leaders which we used to reassure them that the focus would be on those who wanted to use religion, and the politics of religion, to justify terrorism.

Whilst our agencies used high-end technology to regularly deter and interrupt acts of terrorism, there is no way even the most sophisticated predictive measures could have stopped Din Jabbar from undertaking his act of hatred without the intervention of those around him.

The fact the husband of Din Jabbar’s ex-wife quickly admitted that he was acting “all crazy” in recent times should have been the first sign of his evil ambitions, and similar intelligence gathering is the only way to prevent future acts.

David Elliott is a former army officer and previously served as NSW Minister for Counter-Terrorism