Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Is the minister aware of the transfer of 14 terrorists to Guantanamo Bay, and what is the government’s response?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest. We are—I think it is next Monday—five years on from 9-11, in which 10 Australians were killed. It is nearly four years since 88 Australians were killed in Bali. We are two days from the second anniversary of the bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta and we are pretty close to the first anniversary of the so-called second Bali bombing. In that circumstance, we obviously remember very much those who were killed. We mourn those who have died and we share the pain of the families of those who were killed. We recommit ourselves to the struggle against terrorism; to doing all we can as a country; to trying, in working with our allies and our friends, to bring terrorists to justice; and to stopping acts of terror.

There is, of course, no country on earth more important in this fight against terrorism than the United States of America, and, as the honourable member said in his question, President Bush made a speech overnight about some of the successes that have been achieved through a CIA program of detention and questioning. Information from one detainee in this program has been important to Australia because it led to the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was the al-Qaeda linkman with Jemaah Islamiah, and Hambali, who was the Jemaah Islamiah linkman with al-Qaeda. It was Hambali who helped to plan and was really the mastermind behind the first Bali bombing.

Others detained in this program include one of Hambali’s key lieutenants, who facilitated the transfer of al-Qaeda funds which funded the Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta in 2003. In addition to that, information from these detainees also led to the capture of Hambali’s brother and the closure of a Jemaah Islamiah cell in Pakistan—and it told us a good deal about al-Qaeda’s plans to obtain biological weapons capability. That came through a Jemaah Islamiah member.

I mention all that because a great deal has been achieved through these kinds of programs. President Bush announced that the 14 terrorist suspects in the CIA program are now being transferred to Guantanamo Bay, where they will be held in detention, pending prosecution by the United States Department of Defense, along with around 450 others who are already there. He has also sent to congress legislation to authorise the creation of a military commission to try these people. Once the congress acts to authorise these commissions, those who are believed to have orchestrated acts of terror or to be associated with acts of terror, or are alleged to have committed war crimes or attempted to murder people will of course be charged and prosecuted before the military commissions.

I can simply state that, for all the criticism of the United States that you sometimes get in this country and internationally on the actions it is taking in the fight against terrorism and the controversy about these particular sorts of measures, it is important to bring them back home, bring them back to the war against terrorism in our immediate region and understand how important it has been to get information from detainees that has led to the capture and, in some cases, the killing of terrorists who might have otherwise killed innocent people.