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AN AUSTRALIAN WOMAN rescued from a squalid Syrian detention camp faced court today on charges linked to her former husband’s role within the Islamic State group.
Mariam Raad was repatriated in October as part of a humanitarian mission to free Australian women and children from the notorious camps at Al-Hol and Roj.
The women were in most cases the wives of vanquished ISIS fighters, who claimed they were forced or tricked into following their husbands to Syria.
Australian police, who arrested Raad on Thursday, allege the 31-year-old knew her former husband, Muhammad Zahab, was a high-profile ISIS recruiter and that she had “willingly travelled to the conflict region”.
Raad has been charged with travelling to parts of Syria that were controlled by IS – a crime under Australian law – and could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
She was granted bail after a brief hearing this morning and will return to court in March.
Her bail conditions included surrendering her passport as well as a ban on watching “propaganda” for any “terrorist organisation”.
“We have zero tolerance for Australians, or anyone, who seek to commit acts of violence or extremism, and those considering doing the wrong thing will come under our notice,” counter-terrorism commander Mark Walton said.
Zahab, a former math teacher in Sydney, was believed to have been killed in an airstrike in 2018, Australian Federal Police said.
Raad returned to Australia alongside three other women and 13 children.
It was the first in a series of planned missions to bring back about 20 Australian women and 40 children detained in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria since the 2019 collapse of the IS “caliphate”.
The repatriation of the so-called “ISIS brides” has been controversial in Australia, where some politicians have claimed the women pose a risk to national security.
Others, such as Human Rights Watch, have praised the government for rescuing Australian citizens from “horrific” conditions.
After being repatriated, Raad settled in Young, a small town about 370 kilometres west of Sydney.
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I’ve seen the movies. It doesn’t end well. Only John Connor can save us.
@R: We are watching the origins of skynet.
@Jaymes Moynihan: are you an AI? Is that why you have no sense of humour??
Even working in the software industry, it makes me very wary, although the genie ain’t going back in the bottle.
We had a presentation recently about how AI is going to “help” Developers with the presenter quickly saying “not replace Developers of course just assisting them” but it rang kind of hollow.
I joked with a colleague, who doesn’t see the risk about how “First they can for the Product Managers…..”
But it’s more then that. Our data is making us very predictable, and more easily manipulated to those with the know how. Allowing us to be targeted. Don’t be naive and think you’re immune.
@Tricia G ☘️:
Learn other languages and you’ll be fine.
@Tricia G ☘️: We need it. Badly. We’re pretty useless. traffic lights were invented in the late 1800′s etc.
@zephyrum: Yeah. Chinese.
AI won’t replace you, the people using AI will.
If anyone should be worried, it should be journalists.
@Garret Fawl: Not if CNET’s experience is anything to go by.
Because of my upbringing AI to me meana Artificial Insemination. Or, to an older generation, ‘The Bull Man’.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Don’t be giving the bots ideas!
They should have called it Skynet for the craic.
But on a more serious note, I for one welcome our new robot overlords.
@Handsome McWonderful: Biggle, Biggle, Right on Buck.
Imagine it! We could get a journal article summarised.
Can’t stop modern tech. from enhancing the world. The possibilities are endless. Imagine what our fore father’s thought of tech advances. Were they worried? Did it stop progression? Imagine a world where modern techs hadn’t helped medical advances for example…
@Thomas Meaney: Kinda ruins graphic design when AI seems to come up with all the possibilities you could ever want.
@Paul Cunningham: Does Graphic Design in general contemporary terms need to be ruined? Yes it does.
We still haven’t figured out how to deal with the massive problems from Facebook etc generally and high speed internet more generally
Misinformation, polarisation, social isolation, sexual impotence, espionage etc
Is this like Hal the computer in Kubrick’s film ’2001: a Space Odyssey’ deciding to take over from those malleable humans? I’ll be wary. We should all aim to do our own thinking and cultivate our own feelings.
I’ve been using plenty of these AI tools in recent months, ChatGPT, DeepStory, Stable Diffusion, Play.ht ,etc, they are all incredible tools, but people don’t wanna bother learning about how useful they are, they’d rather just reference terminator, which only proves to show how ignorant and uninformed they are.
@Jaymes Moynihan: Such a pity none of the AI software that you’ve been using for months taught you that name calling is childish and the lowest form of intelligence.
@Ann Reddin: He used ChatGPT to make that comment. Didn’t spot that, did you. :)
Great, super, wonderful. Can’t wait to get my hands on it.
No-one should interact with any AI technology as our interactions will only increase its power as it is just learning more and more about us.
The option ‘Nothing at all’ sums it up. Not that I feel nothing at all, but that AI will feel nothing at all, bar it’s algorithms. But same could be said about many humans. But yes, excited, but hopefully apprehensive. Hurry up with the robots so.
The idea of a job will change. Could AI middle manage the HSE? Almost definitely, can AI drive better? yup, but what do we all the do? Maybe do what you’re interested in but then most people aren’t interested in anything. There’s a few theories smashing about, I like Fully Automated Luxury Communism :) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/07/world-without-work/395294/
@thesaltyurchin: You don’t need “AI” to implement logic.
We’re all doomed, I tell ye…..
New AI is all showy algorithms and snazzy coding. Not like the old days, that was real AI.
@Davis Payne: Right on.
Intelligence, noun.
1. the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.
2. the collection of information of military or political value.
Artificial, adjective:
1. made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural.
2. insincere or affected.
One would be forgiven for considering the secondary definition as the primary, these days. But do not fear, even the inimitable John Carmack calls BS on the whole thing, apart from the (above) secondary definitions.
Anything that replaces humans in Jobs, is a no no. A step to far. While these make billions it leaves people vulnerable, just look at last few months in tech sector.
@Colette Byrne: The popular notion that anything artificial could ever conceivably replace something natural, demonstrates the abject materialism and conceitedness of modern thinking.
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