Australian Feds Spent More Than $500,000 Trying To Lock Up An Autistic 13-Year-Old On Terrorism Charges

We learned earlier this year, it's not just the FBI targeting extremely vulnerable people with the intent of radicalizing them into arrests on terrorism charges. The FBI has been a world leader in this particular category, apparently incapable of being shamed (or sued) into altering its tactics, which often appear to be on the wrong side of the term entrapment."

In one particularly infamous case, the FBI targeted an 18-year-old with an IQ of 51 in one its investigations." After easily and successfully steering him down the path of affirming his support for terrorist acts, the FBI dumped Alabama resident Peyton Pruitt on local law enforcement's doorstep and walked away from the tragedy it had created. Pruitt was arraigned and his bail was set at $1 million - more than twice the amount set for two accused murderers and a teacher accused of sexual misconduct with a child combined.

The same sort of miscarriage of justice happened in Australia. Members of the Federal Police's (AFP) counter-terrorism task force targeted a 13-year-old autistic teen after his parents approached local law enforcement to express their concern about the their child's interest in the Islamic State. They gave local cops access to their home, their child's room, his phone, their phones, and any personal information collected by the school their son attended.

While some local officers did actually try to get social workers involved, one officer decided this would be better handled by the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team (JCTT) composed of local officers and AFP officers. This steered the teen (Thomas Carrick) away from the help he needed and into the hands of law enforcement officers who knew an easy when when they saw one.

Then they held off on charging Carrick until he turned 14, denying him the opportunity to raise the doli incapax" defence - one that says children cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions because they are, at that young age, incapable of fully understanding what they're doing or the consequences of their actions. As the court order overturning the criminal charges noted, officers deliberately steered Carrick away from anything that would have helped him and towards actions that would have seen the rest of his life destroyed.

The community would not expect law enforcement officers to encourage a 13-14 year old child towards racial hatred, distrust of police and violent extremism, encouraging the child's fixation on ISIS," magistrate Lesley Fleming said in the decision.

The community would not expect law enforcement to use the guise of a rehabilitation service to entice the parents of a troubled child to engage in a process that results in potential harm to the child.

The conduct engaged in by the JCTT and the AFP falls so profoundly short of the minimum standards expected of law enforcement offices [sic] that to refuse this [stay] application would be to condone and encourage further instances of such conduct."

Thanks to additional reporting by The Guardian, we now know just how much the government is willing to spend to ruin an autistic 13-year-old's life.

Documents provided under freedom of information laws show the total cost of Operation Bourglinster, theAFP investigation into a boyknown as Thomas Carrick, was $507,087. No further breakdown of the cost was provided.

[...]

Answers to questions on notice from Senator David Shoebridge to the commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions also revealed that the CDPP spent a further $72,614 in external costs in relation to the case.

Great job being stewards of the public trust, much less their money, coppers. This was a slam-dunk case because it took next to no effort to radicalize" a teen with an IQ of 71 who was already fixated" on ISIS-related content. And it still took nearly $600k to get the job done, only to see it immediately undone once a real judge got a chance to look at the case.

That's not the only ugly thing in the documents obtained from these public records requests, although it's the most immediately eye-grabbing (and eye-watering) detail. There's also this bit of communication, which was sent by a counter-terrorism force official to make the cops who had busted an autistic teen feel better about themselves in the face of outside criticism. Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett apparently felt the officers might possibly feel bad about what they'd done, so she took the time to assure them that they were still a valuable part of the AFP's radicalization program Joint Counter-Terrorism Task Force.

It is really important to note that this was a very difficult and complex investigation for everyone involved, and one which threw up many challenges," she said in the email.

I recognise and thank everyone involved for their tenacity, professionalism and commitment to duty.

I also use this opportunity to acknowledge the fantastic work that our covert online operatives do, under very difficult circumstances, to keep the community safe."

Ah. Many challenges." So, that's what I'm tasting when I throw up a little in my own mouth while reading this GO TEAM TERROR missive. This was a waste of time and money. And, without the intercession of the court, this would have been the end of Carrick's life - one already filled with actual challenges that certainly didn't need the application of unearned challenges from gung-ho War on Terror operatives who apparently feel no sacrifice is too great to keep the country safe, so long as it's other people making those sacrifices.