Clandestine forces have saved us many times since 9/11

Al-Qa’ida leader Osama bin Laden. Picture: AP

All of us past a certain age remember 9/11. It’s seared into the psyche of many Australians like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was indelibly etched in the minds of a generation of Australians before. My father told me he knew exactly where he was when JFK was killed, that it felt like the world had changed forever. I felt exactly the same watching the plane crash into one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre, the awful sight of the towers collapsing, the attack on the Pentagon and the thwarted attack on Capitol Hill.

My political life was driven by that event and the subsequent Bali bombings. For nearly 20 years I’ve worked in the national security space. I’ve worked alongside the incredible men and women of the clandestine services and security agencies who have worked day and night to defeat the evil we saw on display on 9/11, in Bali, London, Barcelona and elsewhere in the world.

These unnamed heroes stopped al-Qa’ida and its hateful ideology in its tracks. Al-Qa’ida is not really known to you because of these amazing men and women

Because this terrorist organisation and its demented followers were stopped from flying a plane into a packed MCG, saved the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Opera House from being levelled, stopped planes being shot out of the sky by stinger missiles, or blown apart by explosives.

In understanding 9/11 and what led to it I would commend to you a book by Lawrence Wright called the Looming Tower and a brilliant TV mini-series based on the book. The book details that Osama bin Laden, the architect of 9/11, believed that abominable acts of terror on US soil would demoralise the US, leading it to withdraw from the Middle East and elsewhere and thus enabling him and his evil followers to export his perverted version of Islam throughout the Muslim world.

He saw America as a threat because it was a beacon of hope that needed to be snuffed out. He was convinced that America would run.

It was a catastrophic misjudgment that would result in the destruction of his hosts in Afghanistan, the Taliban, the smashing up of al-Qa’ida, the death of his followers and in the end himself.

I saw the great will of America and its unique connection with Australia when I flew aboard the colossal aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson in 2003. The first retaliatory strikes on Afghanistan were launched from the decks of this ship. Each bomb dropped on the Taliban/al-Qai’da from that ship had the name of one of those who had perished in 9/11 painted on to it. I stood on the decks of this behemoth as fighter jets were launched and retrieved not far from where the body of bin Laden would be brought eight years later after he was killed by US Seal Team Six in Pakistan.

On this trip I was with an Australian soldier dressed in combat fatigues. Upon landing he was greeted like a brother by the crew and the US Fleet Commander who repeatedly praised the work of this man and of our Special Air Service in our fight against al-Qa’ida and the Taliban. He spoke fondly of the enduring bond of our two nations. That Australian soldier was Major General Duncan Lewis, then commander of our SAS, later director-general of ASIO.

I knew then that this mighty force, and our unique coalition, would prevail in its mission to destroy the Taliban and disintegrate al-Qa’ida and prevail it did.

Almost 20 years have passed and now US and Australian forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan.

But the Taliban has returned and with it I suspect al-Qa’ida.

Notwithstanding the now conventional wisdom about pivoting out of Afghanistan to allocate resources to the growing threat of China it’s worth keeping in mind what the former CIA director and US defence secretary Leon Panetta recently said about 9/11 and our need to remain vigilant.

“I think today that memory has faded. We’re focused on other issues. We’re now focused on China and Russia. I think it’s very important for those protecting our country to never just go with the times, but to always ask the question: What are the potential threats that are out there?”

Anthony Byrne is the deputy chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and is the federal Labor member for Holt.