Refugee-radical link a reality, but AFP and ASIO bosses continue to squirm over terror

‘They are terrorists is not because they are refugees’: ASIO Director-General Duncan Lewis. Photo: Kym Smith

ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis would like to clear up one tiny thing. The spy boss on the ABC’s RN Breakfast, yesterday:

The reason they are terrorists is not because they are refugees but because of the violent, extremist interpretation of Sunni Islam that they have adopted.

It looks like someone has upset the cab­inet. The Australian, yesterday:

Attorney-General George Brandis has defended ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis over controversial comments claiming there are no links between refugees and terrorism as other senior cabinet ministers last night distanced themselves from the remarks.

Lewis’s remarkable claim at Senate estimates, last Friday:

I have absolutely no evidence to suggest there’s a link between refugees and terrorism.

No link? No link at all? Like … none?The Weekend Australian, last Saturday:

Islamic State-inspired gunman Man Haron Monis, who took hostages and killed one of them during the Lindt cafe siege in 2014, came to Australia on a business visa before successfully applying for asylum.

AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin at the National Press Club in Canberra. Photo: Kym Smith

Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin goes in to bat for Lewis. Colvin at the National Press Club, yesterday:

I think we have to be careful to draw absolutes in this discussion.

Speaking in absolutes got the ASIO director-general in trouble. The Australian, December 31 last year:

Iraqi refugee Omar Al-Kutobi, who was sentenced this month to 20 years’ jail for his role in planning a deadly attack of a person in Sydney with either a machete or a knife, arrived by plane in Australia using a fake passport in 2009 before he was granted a permanent protection visa just two months later.

There’s really a lot out there that suggests a bit of a link, hey? Herald Sun, December 17, 2011:

Justice Betty King said the families of Saney Aweys, 28, and Nayev El Sayed, 27, had fled civil war in Somalia and Lebanon, while Libyan Wissam Fattal, 35, came to Australia to further his kickboxing career … Justice King jailed the three for 18 years, and set minimum terms of 13½ years. The judge said Fattal, Aweys and El Sayed were all unrepentant radical Muslims and would remain a threat to the public while they held extremist views.

Colvin is also struggling to link refugees and radicalism. National Press Club, yesterday:

The majority of person of interests (sic) that come across my officers’ desks are first and second-generation Australians. These are people who are born, educated and raised in Australia. Yes, they may be from migrant families but that’s an extremely broad brush to paint in our landscape if that’s the lens we’re looking through.

Chris Kenny gives Lewis and Colvin a tip for the next estimates. The Australian online, yesterday:

Yes, refugees and the children of refugees have perpetrated terrorist violence, not just here but in many European countries. This is difficult for us to comprehend because these people have been given freedom and a new beginning. But it demonstrates the pernicious influence of this radical Islamist ideology — usually even their parents are unaware and appalled by their radicalisation. We screen our refugee intake very carefully to ensure we do not import extremists but what we are seeing is that even refugees or their children can become radicalised on our shores.