The Funeral of Private Greg Sher

Dignified end … members of the SAS, whose identities must be masked, prepared to carry
the body of Private Greg Sher from the hearse at a Jewish cemetery in Melbourne yesterday.

Mourners gathered at Melbourne’s Chera Kadisha Cemetery in Lyndhurst this afternoon for the funeral of Private Greg Sher, who tragically was fatally wounded in Afghanistan on 4 January, 2009.

Private Sher’s family, partner and friends joined members of Melbourne’s Jewish community to honour the memory of a great Australian who passed the toughest of trials to earn the title of Australian Army Commando.

Present to pay their respects to Private Sher were the Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd MP; the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP; the Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP; Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, the Hon. Peter Lindsay MP; Member for Melbourne Ports, Mr Michael Danby MP; Member for Isaacs, Mr Mark Dreyfus; Acting Premier of Victoria, The Hon. Rob Hulls; and Member for Lyndhurst, the Hon. Tim Holding.

Also in attendance were Acting Chief of the Defence Force, Lieutenant General David Hurley; Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie; Special Operations Commander Australia, Major General Tim McOwan; and Commanding Officer 1st Commando Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Vance Khan.

At the request of Greg’s family, members of the 1st Commando Regiment were present at the funeral, comforting the family and providing the formal military ceremonial contribution.

The Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon said Private Sher’s service and sacrifice will never be forgotten.

“Private Sher was a man who served his country as a proud and highly skilled member of the Australian Army. He understood the risks but willingly did what his country asked of him. He is truly an Australian hero,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

Source: Australian Government Defence Department

'We won't take Guantanamo inmates'

January 03, 2009

AUSTRALIA will not take any former inmates of the US' Guantanamo Bay detention centre, acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.

Ms Gillard said the Federal Government advised the US late night that Australia would refuse the American request.

It was the second time the administration of US President George W. Bush had asked Australia to resettle detainees from the War on Terror camp.

"We have considered that request and last night Australian time, Friday US time, we advised the US Government that we would not be agreeing to those resettlement requests," Ms Gillard said.

"Those resettlement requests were considered on a case by case basis against Australia's stringent national security and immigration criteria.

"Assessing those requests on a case by case basis (they) have not met those stringent national security and immigration criteria and have been rejected.

"(As) for the future, we will consider any future requests on a case by case basis against these stringent criteria for both national security and immigration."

She said both requests had been made by the administration of George W. Bush, not of US President-elect Barack Obama.

The second request came as incoming Mr Obama plans to shut the prison, located at a US sovereign naval base in Cuba, within two years.

The US has cleared about 60 Guantanamo Bay detainees for release, but they cannot be returned to their home nations due to security concerns.

Yesterday, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull called on the Federal Government to resist the US request.

The Times of London reported this week that Britain was preparing to take detainees to allow Mr Obama's Government to shut down the prison.

Source: The Australian

PM warned: don't take men from Guantanamo Bay

Paul Maley and Geoff Elliott | January 03, 2009

A TOP US general has warned of the risks of taking terror suspects from the notorious Guantanamo Bay military prison as the Rudd Government yesterday admitted it was considering the move after a second request from the Bush administration.

Major General John Altenburg, formerly an appointing authority to the US Military Commissions - the body that oversees the prosecution of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay - told The Weekend Australian that a significant number of former detainees had subsequently undertaken terrorist acts or had been recaptured on the battlefield.

His warning came as Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard revealed Australia had rejected a request early last year from George W. Bush and was "examining (a) second request" made last month to "assist with relocation" of a small group of the remaining 250 inmates.

Having earlier told The Australian that any request would be considered on a "case by case basis", Ms Gillard yesterday said it was "unlikely" the Rudd Government would agree to the latest Bush request.

"Notwithstanding that it is unlikely Australia would accept these detainees, given the fact that the Bush administration has formally approached Australia with this request, the request demands proper consideration," she said.

However, Ms Gillard yesterday noted the request had been made by the Bush administration - in December after the US election - and not from incoming president Barack Obama, who is committed to shutting down the island prison.

Her tempering remarks came after Malcolm Turnbull declared it would be "completely unacceptable" to accept former detainees as migrants. The Australian revealed yesterday that the Rudd Government, and Gordon Brown's Government in Britain, were considering requests from the US to resettle detainees as part of a plan to close Guantanamo Bay.

General Altenburg yesterday said there was a significant degree of reoffending among the detainees who had been released from the Cuban prison.

"About 30 of them have been captured or killed or are known to be back on the battlefield," he said. "These are people who were released because they thought they weren't dangerous. To me, it's a fair comment to say, 'we don't want these people. Now we've got the burden of watching them and we don't know whether they're dangerous or not'."

Mr Turnbull demanded the Government detail any negotiations about the plans for Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

"Mr Rudd must rule that out and if he is not prepared to rule it out he must tell us exactly what plans he has for dealing with these inmates in our community," the Opposition Leader said.

The Rudd Government has promised that any detainees allowed into Australia would be "rigorously" vetted.

According to a report issued by the US military last June, a total of 37 detainees are known or suspected to have re-engaged in terrorist activities or been killed or captured on the battlefield following their release.

One man, Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, conducted a suicide attack that killed seven people in Mosul, Iraq, in April last year.

The Kuwaiti national had been released from Guantanamo Bay in 2005.

Another detainee, Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar, was alleged to have become the Taliban's regional commander in Afghanistan's Helmand and Oruzgan provinces - where Australian troops operate - after being held at Guantanamo Bay for eight months in 2002.

Ghaffar was later killed by Afghan security forces while planning an attack against the Afghan police, the US alleges.

About 7 per cent of those transferred from US custody have engaged in, or are suspect to have engaged in, terrorist activity, US officials allege.

Generally, detainees transferred to Afghanistan or Pakistan re-engaged in local fighting, often against coalition forces, the report says.

Of those Guantanamo Bay recidivists transferred to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, most reconnected with transnational terrorist networks, such as al-Qa'ida.

General Altenburg said there appeared to be some confusion in the public about Mr Obama's pledge to shut Guantanamo Bay's prison facility and the shutting-down of the system of Military Commissions used to try terror suspects, including Australian David Hicks.

He said the incoming administration had yet to make a decision on the future of the commissions, which General Altenburg said remained the best method of trying detainees.

He said trying high-value detainees such as alleged Bali bomber Hambali in US civilian courts could easily result in acquittals - not because the defendants were innocent, but because the evidence against them had not been managed in ways required by civilian courts.

According to a study on the remaining detainee population by US think tank Brookings, there are 248 detainees in Gitmo from more than 30 countries.

More than 70 per cent of the detainees are citizens of Middle Eastern and North African nations, including 94 Yemenis, the study said. Guantanamo also houses 20 Saudis, 10 Algerians, 10 Tunisians, nine Syrians, eight Libyans, six Kuwaitis, six Iraqis, three Palestinians, three Egyptians, two Moroccans and one detainee each from the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon.

Detainees from the region immediately surrounding the South Asian theatre of war include 27 Afghans, four Pakistanis, four Uzbeks and one Tajik.

The remainder of the population includes a far-flung collection of 17 ethnic Uighurs of Chinese citizenship.

Source: The Australian