AFP’s global operations team thwarts six terror attacks

The AFP’s global operations team have disrupted or prevented six planned attacks in our region in the past 15 months.

AFP Assistant Commissioner for International Operations Scott Lee. Picture: Kym Smith

Australian counter-terrorism agents deployed to joint operations overseas have disrupted or prevented six planned terrorist attacks in our region in the past 15 months.

Amid an escalation in terrorism activity in the region as ­Islamic State-inspired fighters flee the Middle East, several of the operations are known to have involved “real-time” threats of mass-­casualty attacks that were just hours from taking place, either in Australia or in neighbouring countries.

The Australian has been told that the Australian Federal Police’s global operations team had helped to disrupt a number of potential attacks in Indonesia, which has experienced its busiest year in thwarting terrorist plots.

According to figures released to The Australian, the AFP has played a role in thwarting six terrorist attacks in the planning since July last year, one involving “heavy engagement”.

The most recent was a domestic plot to smuggle a bomb aboard an aircraft at Sydney ­Airport, but it was also classified as an “offshore disruption” involving AFP officers embedded in the policing network under the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, acting on intelligence from the UK Metropolitan Police special operations branch known as SO15.

The details of the offshore operations preventing attacks in Southeast Asia have not been released as they were joint disruptions with foreign agencies and police forces.

In an exclusive interview, AFP Assistant Commissioner for International Operations Scott Lee said the growing threat in the region would ultimately require more AFP resources to be deployed overseas. “There were five last (financial) year … one I would flag goes to the disruptions in the region in Southeast Asia … on a couple of occasions we were involved in joint operations to disrupt attacks in the ­region,” he said. “There is one in particular that involved heavy engagement.”

Mr Lee said the AFP’s offshore operations were focused on the immediate region.

“We are working heavily with The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia to a lesser degree,” he said. “It’s (also) starting to occur around Myanmar on the border with Bangladesh. We are looking at the evolving situation around Myanmar. But Indonesia is the main one.”

Mr Lee said while the AFP’s terror-disruption focus was on working with Indonesian authorities, The Philippines had become a “complicating” factor.

Security sources said the task was to stop the southern ­Philippines from becoming the “Mosul” of Southeast Asia and a beacon for Islamic State combatants fleeing the Middle East or those being prevented from reaching Syria.

“When you look at the military situation (in the Middle East), once you have more of these foreign fighters … it will change the dynamic to the threat elsewhere,” Mr Lee said. “With people self-radicalising … our information process had to be minutes and hours, not days. We will need to do more … we will have more ­people overseas and increase our investment in those regions.”

The global operations of the AFP total 230 officers serving in the areas of counter-terrorism, ­organised crime, drug trafficking and child protection.

The presence in the region has grown to 80 officers, with most involved in intelligence and operational assistance to host-nation security forces.

Mr Lee, a former counter-­terrorism commander who led the AFP operation following the 2002 Bali attack, said intelligence sharing at a policing level with the Five Eyes security partners — the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand — as well as with Europol, was becoming increasingly vital to the situation evolving in Southeast Asia and the Indo-­Pacific.

“The key to us disrupting attacks is the strength of the Five Eyes intelligence,” he said.

“Our view of the future is we will have more people overseas.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan told The Australian ahead of a Council of Australian Governments meeting tomorrow on counter-terrorism that the international operations of the AFP were vital in preventing attacks not only in the region but in Australia as well.

“Terrorism does not just operate within national boundaries; it is a global issue,” he said. “This is why the AFP joins forces with our international partners to prevent and respond to terrorism, and share important intelligence information. Our co-operation with international law-enforcement partners is also important in preventing terrorism in Australia.

“We know groups like (ISIS) have comprehensive networks who have sought to direct attacks in Australia. Receiving real-time information on the ground from our officers based overseas is an invaluable tool for our law enforcement and intelligence agencies that allows us to identify and disrupt attacks in Australia. ­Information is our most ­potent weapon in this fight and we have worked hard to ensure seamless intelligence is ­exchanged with friends and allies.”