A Four Corners investigation into the secret lives of the alleged Bondi shooters in the lead-up to the nation’s worst terrorist attack will go to air on Monday night despite a preemptive claim by Asio that the episode contains “significant errors of fact”.
Path to Terror examines whether there were failures in intelligence and counter-terrorism leading up to the antisemitic massacre on Bondi beach on 14 December, and tracks the paths to radicalisation of father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram.
Asio took the unusual step on Sunday of publicly releasing the statement it provided to the ABC in response to multiple questions the investigative program put to the intelligence agency ahead of broadcast.
The ABC confirmed the agency had not seen the program but has made a series of assumptions based on the detailed questions put to them, including an allegation that the ABC used an unreliable source.
Asio has also denied that it received intelligence about Sajid being part of a group that discussed a plan to establish a pro-Islamic State community in Türkiye and that Naveed was “a close associate” of known terrorists.
“If the ABC chooses to publish claims it cannot substantiate – particularly ones it has been told are untrue – we will reserve our right to take further action,” the Asio statement said.
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The ABC confirmed Asio’s intervention would not affect the planned 8.30pm broadcast and defended the program as a “comprehensive” seven-week investigation.
“Four Corners spoke to numerous people and provides a number of sources of information for a detailed picture of the Akrams’ actions and associations in the years leading up to the Bondi attack,” an ABC spokesperson said.
“Detailed questions were put to Asio and its response is reflected in the story. The public will be able to watch the full investigation tonight.”
Reporter Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop told the ABC in interviews on Monday the investigation has uncovered new information about the years leading up to the attack and asks whether Asio’s assessment of Naveed not being a threat was the “right call”.
“Tonight, we present an astonishing inside account of the Akrams’ connections to an Islamic State network in Sydney dating back several years and revealing some of what authorities were told, and when Naveed Akram, as a 17-year-old, was associating with members of an Isis terror cell,” Rubensztein-Dunlop said.
Asio assessed Naveed, then 17, in October 2019 for alleged associations with individuals involved in a reported Islamic State cell but concluded he was not an ongoing threat.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was the first to indicate something might have gone awry, saying that “quite clearly” there were issues.
“We need to examine exactly the way that systems work,” Albanese said. “We need to look back at what happened in 2019 when this person was looked at, the assessment that was made,” he said.
Path to Terror is the second of a two-part series on the Bondi massacre. Last week investigative journalist Mark Willacy presented a minute-by-minute account of how the tragedy unfolded at Bondi beach on the first day of Hanukah.
ABC managing director Hugh Marks will appear before Senate estimates on Tuesday where the intervention of Asio ahead of an ABC program will almost certainly be raised.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
