Was the Islamic State Really Behind the Beheading Plot in Australia?

Australian law enforcement arrest a suspect in the kidnapping operation. Screenshot via YouTube

Australia's biggest-ever anti-terror police raids took place on Thursday morning at 4 AM, as nearly 900 law enforcement officers arrested 15 suspects police say were involved in a plot to kidnap and behead a random citizen in the name of the Islamic State and put the footage of the killing online.

The Australian Federal Police, along with state police and intelligence operatives, hit 25 locations in the outer suburbia of Australia's largest city, Sydney, in a coordinated operation that Prime Minister Tony Abbott said broke up an alleged terror plot. Omarjan Azari, a 22-year-old, was quickly charged at Sydney central local court, where the prosecutor explained the plan was “clearly designed to shock, horrify, and terrify the community.”

The government says that members of the Islamic State (IS or ISIS), the extremists who have taken control of parts of Iraq and Syria and Iraq, ordered or were involved in the plan. The Australian media has mostly run with this narrative, the feeling being that IS has reached Australia's streets. But a senior international security analyst working on the Syrian crisis who spoke to VICE from Lebanon on condition of anonymity said that this story doesn't quite add up.

“It just isn't consistent with any ISIS operations, strategies, or tactics,” the analyst said. “ISIS's philosophy and organization is based on quite traditional ideas of force and warfare; they aim to seize and hold territory in Iraq and Syria. Western countries are still seen as key recruitment grounds and sources of finance, but I don't believe the organization would order a random homicide in a country like Australia.”

The purported ISIS agent who ordered the attack is Mohammad Ali Baryalai, an immigrant from Afghanistan who formerly made a living as a nightclub bouncer in Sydney's party district. He is alleged by authorities to have recruited up 60 people in Australia to travel to Syria and fight for the Islamic State. One of his recruits, Khaled Sharrouf, is now famous for tweeting a photo of his seven-year-old son holding a decapitated head in the conflict zone. (Sharrouf reportedly turned to radical Islam after LSD and amphetamine use exacerbated his mental-health problems.)

“Most of the beheadings that ISIS have committed have been internal, almost religious sacrifices,” explained the analyst. “The only cases of beheadings that were committed with external, political, propaganda purposes were two journalists and an aid worker who had been held for up to 18 months—meaning, they were in no rush. This sounds to me like it is more likely someone attempting to emulate what they think ISIS is, rather than someone within ISIS.”

While no terrorist acts have taken place in Australia since the war on terror began, several large raids have thwarted attempted attacks.

The first, in 2005, was foiled by law enforcement, who said Sharrouf and eight others were plotting to bomb several Sydney landmarks the day after Australia's first anti-terror laws were introduced. Sharrouf was charged with possessing items to be used for a terrorist act, including six clocks and 140 batteries he stole from a department store. He was given a sentence of three years and 11 months, while the other eight received up to 15 years.

“You have to bear in mind that his crime, although a serious crime, was a pretty pathetic crime," the judge in the case told a reporter recently. "Stealing some clocks, some batteries, and potato chips from the supermarket doesn't really warrant a long time in jail."

Recalling the case today, prominent Sydney Lawyer Charles Waterstreet described the convicted terrorists as rank amateurs: “To start with, they went in and bought hydrogen peroxide in their flowing white robes from the local shops.”

Waterstreet had represented another terror suspect, Belal Khazaal, who at the time of his arrest was accused of authoring a terrorist manual for Australian-based jihadists.

“He basically copied and pasted it together off the internet. It's sort of the equivalent of posting Playboy images to Redtube,” Waterstreet said.

Khazaal was handed a 12-year sentence for his manual, won one appeal, and lost a subsequent one that has put him back behind bars.

Australia has generally been a magnet for keyboard jihadis who are inspired, rather than trained by, international terror cells.

“As far as a terrorist plot goes, beheading someone in Sydney doesn't take much more organizing than borrowing 20 dollars to buy an ax from Bunnings,” explained the anonymous analyst. “So as far as a conspiracy or an ISIS plot goes, it'll be interesting to see how direct that connection is.”

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