Ex-Home Affairs chief Mike Pezzullo warns ISIS will ‘exploit Palestinian anger’ after New Orleans terror attack
The nation’s former home affairs chief is warning that a revitalised Islamic State is seeking to exploit Muslim communities, as fears grow the terror group is on the cusp of a second global wave of carnage.
The nation’s former home affairs chief is warning that a revitalised Islamic State is seeking to exploit anger over Palestine in Muslim communities, as fears grow the terror group is on the cusp of a second global wave of carnage after a US terror attack killed 15 people, including the perpetrator, and injured more than 30.
Just two weeks before US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, a former US army officer with an ISIS flag on his car mowed down pedestrians in New Orleans, one of America’s biggest tourist destinations, and left the FBI scrambling to find his associates.
Australian authorities are taking advice from US security agencies on the implications of the attack, with security experts growing increasingly concerned ISIS will try to test the second Trump administration following the President-elect’s success in neutering their expansion in the Middle East in his previous term.
Outgoing President Joe Biden on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) said he was grieving with the people of New Orleans who were rocked by the actions of US citizen and Texas resident Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, who drove a rented pick-up truck into new year revellers about 3.15am (8.15pm AEDT) on Bourbon Street in the city’s French quarter.
The incident was being investigated by the FBI as a terror attack, with Mr Biden confirming that Jabbar was inspired by ISIS and that an Islamic State flag was found attached to the vehicle he used to mow down the crowd.
Jabbar was firing shots as he ploughed into a large crowd celebrating the New Year on Canal and Bourbon Streets, before being killed by police after he crashed the car and stepped out armed with an assault rifle and began to shoot at officers. Two police were wounded in the shootout.
As the Coalition seized on the terror attack to warn that in the wake of the Middle East conflict the Albanese government’s migration policies could open Australia to similar “vulnerabilities” as the US, ex-Home Affairs Department secretary Mike Pezzullo declared: “We cannot afford to take our eye off al-Qa’ida, ISIS and their spin-off groups. These groups will also look for opportunities to exploit sentiment within large Muslim populations in western countries that the treatment of Palestine and Palestinians is evidence of purportedly ‘deep’ anti-Muslim antagonism in the West.”
While Mr Pezzullo said the main strategic game from the US and Australia remained “great power competition”, he warned that it was likely Americans and the world would see more events like the rampage in New Orleans.
“They hate Trump for the killing of (ISIS founder) al-Baghdadi in 2019; they would also sense that the US will have its hands full with Ukraine, Israel (and) Taiwan,” he said. “Now would be the time to strike. The remnants of al-Qa’ida need also to be watched. We don’t really know what the Taliban are tolerating or enabling in Afghanistan.”
Experts have warned that the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria last month will open the way for ISIS to regrow as a terror force.
Anthony Albanese said all Australians would be “appalled” by the US attack, which he described as a “shocking act of violence”.
“Our first thoughts in this moment are with the victims and their loved ones,” the Prime Minister said. “Our nation stands with the people of the United States.”
The attack follows the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation last August increasing the national terrorism threat level to “probable”, with the spy agency declaring there was “a greater than 50 per cent chance of a terrorist attack or attack planning in Australia in the next 12 months”.
“ASIO assesses the most likely terrorist attack in Australia is an individual or small group moving to violence with little or no warning and using a readily available weapon such as a knife or vehicle,” an ASIO spokesperson said on Thursday.
Although no Australians are known to be involved in the incident at this stage, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was closely monitoring the situation in New Orleans.
“The Australian Embassy in Washington DC and the Australian Consulate General in Houston are engaging with US authorities and partners on the ground,” a DFAT spokesman said.
“Our heartfelt sympathies are with the victims and their loved ones.”
Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman said the government was taking advice from the US. “We all have a responsibility to be on the lookout for potential things that don’t seem quite right,” he said on Sky News.
“There are phone numbers that people can call if they see things that they think need to be investigated further, and, of course, we will continue to do everything we can as the Australian overnment to keep Australians safe at home.”
Nationals leader David Littleproud said the incident highlighted the need “to continue to be vigilant as governments and as legislators” and made a swipe at the Albanese government for “opening up” Australia to vulnerabilities that could lead to similar attacks at home.
“We need to … make sure that we’re making the right decisions and particularly about who’s coming to this country,” Mr Littleproud told Sky News.
“What we’ve had concerns about is the vulnerabilities that the Albanese government has opened Australia up to.
“While there’s been a conflict in the Middle East, we’ve taken in thousands of refugees without the proper background checks, more so than any other country in the world.
“I think it now reinforces to this government, they need to do more about making sure that every check is undertaken of anyone that comes into this country and we make sure that we’re giving those agencies the resources to also monitor those that are already here to make sure that they won’t do us harm.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke criticised Mr Littleproud for his comments, which he said were “dripping in hypocrisy”.
“We have adopted a higher level of scrutiny than Mr Dutton ever showed when he was issuing visitor visas in Syria, Afghanistan, or Palestine and he knows it,” Mr Burke said.
The row over the implications of the New Orleans attack come after the Coalition insinuated that Albanese government policy and language were to blame for the burning down of a synagogue in Victoria last month, with the perpetrators of what has been characterised by authorities as a likely terror attack yet to be found.
Mr Pezzullo was dismissed as Home Affairs secretary in 2023 when it was found he had breached the public service code of conduct over leaked texts.
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