Expert says Dural caravan explosives plot a ‘power move’ to create chaos and make government look incompetent

An explosive-laden caravan discovered on Sydney’s outskirts was likely set-up by foreign actors who want to create chaos and make the Australian government appear incompetent, according to experts.

Janya Eighani, a managing partner at Lehman Walsh lawyers, suspects the caravan — abandoned at Dural in New South Wales — was never intended to be detonated.

“The purpose of that wasn’t to actually be executed,” she said.

“It was just to create fear, to show that it is doable, and to say ‘we have infiltrated your communities, we can buy anybody and do whatever we want, so be careful’.

“It was to send the message that ‘the van could explode if we wanted it to explode. We just didn’t want it to’.”

In December a caravan, containing industrial explosives and names of Jewish sites, was abandoned on the side of Derriwong Rd before being eventually reported to police.

News of its discovery broke on January 29, a week after Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw revealed his agency was investigating whether “overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs” amid the scourge of anti-Semitism sweeping the country.

Ms Eighani, who has decades of experience specialising in financial compliance, anti-money laundering and counter terrorism funding, believes foreign actors are orchestrating the attacks here.

The Sydney-based lawyer said the caravan was likely set up to confuse police and government about “what is going on and where’s this money coming from?”.

“It was designed to get them busy trying to investigate terror plots, and getting their attention focused on that, while various other things are happening in the background,” she said.

The head of cross border compliance and litigation at her law firm said the abandoned vehicle was an escalation in a campaign against the Jewish community.

“It was a message to the Jewish community that you’re relying on a government to support you and they don’t even know what’s going on,” she said.

“They couldn’t even spot a van unless somebody called and said ‘there is a van’, which makes the Jewish community feel vulnerable.

“It creates a lot of disunity in the country and it puts us in a very weak position as a nation. We are disunited. We have a government that has no idea what is going on.

“We have intelligent police officers who are doing an amazing job and briefing the government but the government is not doing anything about it.”

The masterminds behind the caravan plot want to create fear and confusion, she said.

“It’s a mission they want to complete in creating disunity,” she said.

“They’ve got the war going on in Lebanon, and they’ve got the Muslim and the Jewish communities disunited in Australia . . . It’s a great way to create chaos in the world.”

Former ASIO operative Dan Halpin agrees the abandoned caravan was “designed more for creating fear than conducting an actual attack”.

“Obviously, they’ve recruited silly criminals to set it all up,” he said.

“They were disposable with no real leads as to who was responsible.

“So yes, it’s an escalation, but I’m not convinced that they actually intended to set the bomb off.

“It’s a very strange situation from what I’m seeing and doesn’t match the usual terror plot activities or preparations.”

Mr Halpin — who spent 24 years working in Australian law enforcement, government intelligence and private investigations before founding Cybertrace — said a lot of police resources have been assigned to the investigation due to political pressure.

This comes as Commissioner Kershaw briefly mentioned the caravan case during Senate Estimates on Tuesday, but refused to provide an update on the investigation.

“I expect you will want to ask the AFP questions about Operation Kissinger, which is our investigation into a caravan found in January in NSW and Operation Hillfield, the investigation into the arson of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne last year,” he said.

“I understand there is great interest in these investigations, however, I will not provide updates in public forums.

“Detail provided, whether it seems innocuous or not, can have an impact on investigations, including giving suspects an insight about what we knew and when, and what processes triggered expected tasks.

“We are unapologetic that our main priority remains on identifying the offenders and bringing them before the courts.

“The AFP and partners will provide an update at an appropriate time.”