The two-year operation represents an extraordinary abrogation by the state of the right of citizens to participate in public activities and join political organisations without fear of police harassment. It underscores the extent to which basic democratic rights and established legal norms have been torn up under the banner of the so-called war on terror. Political dissent—any form of disagreement with the existing social and political order—is now being effectively criminalised.

The police agent who infiltrated the various political organisations was working with the Victorian Security Intelligence Group (SIG)—the police counter-terrorism unit. The SIG is also responsible for protection of dignitaries, strategic threat assessments, and monitoring so-called "issue-motivated groups". Formerly operating as the Operations Intelligence Unit, then re-badged as the SIG, the unit has been expanding its operations in line with increasingly draconian federal and state anti-terror legislation.

The activities of another SIG provocateur were critical in securing the recent convictions of seven men on terror charges in Victoria's Supreme Court. The prosecution's case revolved around the evidence of "Security Intelligence Operative 39" who befriended Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika. The covert agent then offered Benbrika cheap ammonium nitrate, and took him to a remote hilltop to demonstrate how to detonate a small container containing the explosive.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/poli-n15.shtml