Seary adds, a minute later, that while he’s not exactly sure if Kapil Arn would be in a position to authorise a violent action, he is absolutely positive that the Acharya (Abhiik) Kumar, despite being overseas, would be the one to green-light it. ‘Any violence, activities done in the name of Ananda Marga anywhere in the world, he has to sanction. So any activities which they have done anywhere in the world, he is privy to it.’7
I wonder sometimes whether the rising fractiousness within the Australian Margiis begins to mirror exactly that going on between the various investigative agencies. If so, what is about to occur over the next five days is an epic and unavoidable collision in which everyone shares the blame.
There is no more direct evidence of how utterly at cross-purposes the separate investigative organisations have become by early to mid-June than the calculated leak (fuelled by Seary’s 24 May revelations) to the newspapers on 11 June. It is clear that ASIO and possibly Sheather’s team are responsible for the information that appears in the Sun-Herald. The headline shrieks:
SECURITY MEN SURE THEY KNOW HILTON HOTEL BOMBERS: Security chiefs believe they know the identities of the terrorists responsible for the Sydney Hilton bomb outrage.
With a refreshing lack of equivocation it seems the ‘security chiefs’ know the bombers to be a young man and a young woman, both members of the religious sect Ananda Marga. The young woman is currently in Australia but the man is overseas. It seems obvious that anyone within the sect would imagine they are referring to Abhiik Kumar. The ‘security experts’ quoted go on to declare that while they ‘have no doubt who the bombers are’, they have ‘no real evidence against them’. These two bombers are radical members of the sect who also follow the Proutist movement and do not represent the majority of sect members.8
What are they trying to achieve with this leak? To unnerve this suspected female bomber? To encourage a reasonable sect member to break ranks? To send a message to Kumar in India that they are on to him? To rattle his chain?
Whether by design or coincidence, in mid-June Ananda Marga members seem agitated, or at least intent on increasing the number of their public demonstrations and actions. In addition, the focus of the sect feels split and chaotic. Also at this time there is an abrupt change of tack and the focus on protesting against the National Alliance is put on hold in favour of organising demonstrations and actions in support of fellow Margii John William Duff, on trial in Canberra. It is through these latter actions that Ross Dunn is thrust forward as a significant character in Seary’s confessions. By 12 and 15 June, in the seventh and eighth tape-recorded debriefs, according to Seary the focus of the Margiis is a variety of actions to be staged in Canberra to support Duff. None of the activities Seary is to be involved in have particularly clear goals — lock picking, flag tampering — and it’s not exactly clear who Dunn is, besides, allegedly, a member of or leader of Prout. Seary describes a frantic amount of activity and meetings in this four-day period that feels directionless.
This rush of alleged Margii actions in Sydney, none as yet demonstrably violent, are played out for real, with demonstrable violence, across the ocean when on 14 June, 25-year-old Swiss-born Elizabeth Weniger, wrapped in saffron robes, strolls down to Rizal Park in Manila. She sits down and begins to pray. Witnesses watch as she then pours petrol over herself and strikes ‘a match, turning herself into a human torch’. As this horrific image, a protest against Stephen Dyer’s and Victoria Shepherd’s convictions, is seared into the retinas of the onlookers, they recall Elizabeth chanting rhythmic prayers, then collapsing ‘crying “Baba”, [the] name of the Ananda Marga God’.9
The madness of the day
So finally we arrive at 15 June, a day on which no one can agree on anything. It’s simply impossible to determine the absolute truth of this day and night. All the events that are known are perfectly ambiguous. Like an eternal conundrum or an ouroborus, the ‘evidence’ seems to reflect the testimony of whoever is making the argument — before flipping over and reflecting the exact opposite — leading one back to start all over again trying to winnow out who did what to whom. Something happened. Someone lied. Seary? The police? Anderson, Alister and Dunn? All of them?
One thing’s for certain, the events of the day destroy any chance for Sheather’s team to proceed coherently with the Hilton investigation as it is. He, like everyone else, will be compelled to follow a completely new path, swept along by the monumental force of what occurs. After the deluge, there will be nuggets to dig out that will eventually lead us back to our quarry, but for now — enter the madness of the day.
It begins normally enough this Thursday. Well, normal within the framework of the Special Branch running their man in the Ananda Marga. That morning Seary and Krawczyk sit down face to face for their eighth tape-recorded debrief. It’s full of inconclusive conversations and descriptions of meetings with Anderson, Alister and Dunn, with whom he has suddenly been spending more time. There’s talk of actions planned for Canberra — something involving a flagpole — and renewed interest in action against Robert Cameron. According to Seary, Anderson has asked him to locate the neo-fascist’s home address. Other than that, there’s mention that Seary has offered to stand in for Alister at the following night’s Ananda Marga soup patrol.1
Having once again unburdened himself to his confessor, Seary wanders back to the Ananda Marga. And then …?
If you’re the accused Margiis, at some point that afternoon Seary, Alister and Dunn, with Anderson’s knowledge and approval, decide to drive out to Robert Cameron’s home in Yagoona (about 45 minutes’ drive from the centre of Sydney) after 11 pm with the purpose of daubing the exterior of his house with anti-racist slogans.
If you’re Seary and the police, at some point on Thursday afternoon Anderson, Alister and Dunn decide that, with Anderson’s approval and Seary’s assistance as driver, Alister and Dunn will travel to Yagoona with the intent of blowing up the home of Robert Cameron and everyone inside it. After the blast they will phone Anderson at the sect’s headquarters and he will issue statements to the press claiming the murder in the name of UPRF.
It’s easy to be sucked into the minutiae of these competing versions and to marvel at the complete incompatibility of the two accounts. God, it occupied journalists and commentators for years. Details about Anderson sleeping in an office at No. 9 Queen Street, Newtown, and not No. 5 where he lived, either because he had to leave for work early the next day and did not want to wake his son, or as proof he was waiting to send press releases claiming responsibility for the bombing. Or about Anderson sitting in the car with them all on nearby Carillon Avenue and getting out at the corner prior to the trek to Yagoona — either because Anderson is just finishing a chat to his mate Paul about the Margii soup patrol before Alister, Seary and Dunn embark on their anti-racist campaign, or giving the trio their final instructions on the operation to blow up the Nazi bastard.
This day, so picked apart and interrogated through two trials, two appeals (one to the High Court), an inquest and an inquiry, can never be seen afresh. Questions as to what was most plausible, probable or likely lose their currency under the suspicious gaze of the warring parties. Everything can be attacked, everything is questioned. Depending on whose side you’re on, whatever is coming out of the other party’s mouth is just pure invention and gobbledygook. For the accused, the position is that Seary basically conjures up this conspiracy to murder Cameron in order to frame the trio and then makes it real by stealing a car and bringing a bomb with him on the harmless sign-painting jaunt. Anderson, Alister and Dunn will propose that Seary, in order to get out of his suffocating relationship with Special Branch, invents this ludicrous tale, tips off the police and supplies the evidence — the bomb, the letters to the press — himself. The police, while not colluding at the outset, will then fabricate evidence and confessions to support the convictions of the three.
For Seary, after ten weeks in the sect, six as an initiated member, that Thursday afternoon he is sud
denly thrust into the centre. He has been selected to drive these conspirators to the scene of their intended crime. In Seary’s version, Anderson, Alister, Dunn and Seary meet on a university oval in order to discuss a violent action at the home of Robert Cameron; in Anderson, Alister and Dunn’s version, they meet with Seary on the university oval because one of them wants to hire it for a soccer match. You can go on about this stuff ad nauseam. It’s a bit like listening to two aggrieved lovers reiterate each other’s imagined betrayals — part of you doesn’t want to get involved, as some of it comes across as petty and irritating. Except, of course, in this case the stakes are much higher than a broken relationship. For Anderson, Alister, Dunn, and even Seary, the consequences of the day are devastating.
There is a single piece of independent intelligence from ASIO that day, from one of their agents within the sect. It too is maddeningly elusive. Their informant had detected that something was up within the Ananda Marga that afternoon. So concerned was the agent he contacted his superiors to communicate a warning that, ‘Something funny was going on, something he couldn’t understand.’2
These are the few agreed upon facts:
At 5.15 pm on the fateful day, Richard Seary rings Detective Krawczyk and says he has to meet him urgently. They meet. Seary blurts out that he has just come from a meeting in which Anderson, Alister and Dunn have outlined their plot to murder Cameron and that furthermore they don’t care who dies in the explosion — family, pets, small children. Even more alarming is that all this is to take place that very night, in a matter of hours. Seary declares he has been ordered to obtain a car and to pick up the Margii men at 11 pm in Carillon Avenue, alongside Sydney University, and then drive them to Cameron’s home. This is to take place in less than six hours.
I have to ask: if you were Detective Krawczyk, how would you respond to this kind of information? Seary is your agent, your recruit, you’re not exactly sure of the value of all his intelligence but you think some of it is pretty good. You think that members of the sect are involved with terrorist bomb threats. You know that some of the international members have been caught carrying out similar activities. True, the Nazi target is a wild card, a variation on the theme of targeting Indian nationals that you have come to expect. What do you do? What if the threat, however unusual, is true?
You do things by the book. You go to see your boss.
Krawczyk shuttles Seary to police headquarters to see Inspector Perrin, the head of Special Branch. While Seary’s existence is known to Perrin, they have never met. The three men sit down. Krawczyk starts talking. The conversation is recorded. Alas it will be the last one that is for the next 24 hours.3
K: This is Inspector Perrin. This is Richard Seary. Now tell the inspector what you told me earlier.
S: There is going to be a bombing in Sydney tonight. The Margiis are going to blow up the fellow Cameron from the National Alliance.
Perrin is like a hound dog, sniffing quizzically, and starts barking out a series of questions at Seary: when, where, what and who. Seary doesn’t blink in the face of this barrage. Instead he elaborates on the plot:
Well it was decided to bomb Cameron’s home and kill him and anyone in it. I was told to get a car and meet Narada [Alister] and Vishvamitra [Dunn] at 11 o’clock at Carillion Avenue near the uni gates, then we would go to a house, I wasn’t told where, and pick up a device and then we were to go to 16 Gregory Street [Yagoona]. I was told I had to drive past the house and pull up near a reservoir and the other two would walk back and put the bomb in the house. After the bomb had gone off we were to ring Govinda [Anderson] at Newtown. Narada is to ring the number which is 5-- 2174 and say is that 5-- 2177 and Govinda will say ‘No you have the wrong number.’ Govinda will then know that the job has been done and will issue press and radio releases in the name of The One World Revolutionary Army, claiming responsibility for the job.4
Perrin doesn’t even attempt to hide his scepticism:5
Perrin: Are you sure this is right? It seems incredible that anyone would consider blowing up a man and his family simply because he is the leader of a political organisation like the National Alliance, it’s only got a few members.6
Again Seary doesn’t flinch. They are going to do it and he has to get a car and pick them up.
‘What if [you don’t] get the car?’ Perrin retorts.
‘They would do it without me,’ says Seary.
What Perrin can’t get his head around is why the hell this perplexing man is so willing to assist the police.
Perrin: Now I want to get this straight. You are prepared to borrow a friend’s car and drive it and pick up these men and then a bomb and take it to Gregory Street. Why?7
To which Seary makes the heroically civic answer, ‘Well, I think these people have to be stopped from doing this.’ Perrin isn’t persuaded and keeps up his interrogation. What will happen if the police intercept the car en route?
Seary answers, ‘I feel sure Narada will detonate the bomb. They say you have to be willing to die for your cause.’
‘Are you prepared to die?’ demands Perrin.
‘I don’t want to die, no. I just hope the police know how to handle the situation,’ Seary replies.
Perrin tries to get some kind of bead on this situation. Will these men be armed? Which route will they take to Gregory Street? Seary says he has no idea. He imagines it will depend on where they collect the bomb. Perrin seems particularly annoyed that Seary seems so certain of the plot to kill Cameron in a few hours’ time but so utterly vague on specifics of the bomb’s whereabouts.
Perrin: You have no idea where that is?
Seary: No, I haven’t been told.
Perrin: Do you have any idea at all?
Suddenly, Seary might: ‘I think, but it’s only a guess, that it would be Kapil’s place in Balmain.’8
Poor Inspector Perrin. Now Krawczyk has ‘delegated up’, he has to deal with this poisoned chalice. It’s now Thursday night, mere hours away from the execution of this supposed plot to blow up a household of people deep in the suburban sticks. How would it reflect on him if he let his doubts take root and he did nothing? Would he be derided like the hapless Superintendent Reginald Douglas,9 who sent the directive not to check the bins outside the Hilton for bombs? Imagine being that guy, the one that failed to act. While the public can probably be counted on to have little sympathy for the neo-Nazi being blown up, they’re not going to feel the same way about the man’s wife and kids, are they?
Perrin is trapped. He can only go forward and act, no matter how unconvinced he may feel. Harder to explain is the series of procedural oversights that follow this decision. Seary is sent off unaccompanied to borrow a friend’s car. He is not fitted with a listening device. They don’t procure a car for him and fit it with a listening device. Allegedly all they say is something along the lines of, ‘We will have you under surveillance once you arrive to pick up the men in Carillon Avenue.’10 Maybe Inspector Perrin is reluctant to go all out until he can actually have the police eyeball the suspects together at 11 pm. Maybe it’s the lateness of the hour, the lack of time to scramble expert teams to handle a threat such as this, that leads to mistakes. There is so much to do. As soon as Richard Seary completes his tale of imminent terror, Perrin has to assemble three sets of police to cover the operation. Naturally in the spirit of ‘delegating up’, Perrin first informs his bosses, Police Commissioner Wood and Superintendent Black.11 Next he has to locate some cops. Thursday evening on a frigid night in Sydney 1978 — senior expert police such as the Special Weapons and Operations Squad aren’t exactly standing in a room downstairs ready to vault into action. Some are at home, some are at the pub. Miraculously, they are rounded up swiftly, brought in and briefed.
The briefing prepared by Special Branch at CIB underlines the belief that this operation is critically linked to the ongoing investigation into the Hilton bombing: ‘All the persons [who are to be picked up by Seary] are members of the Ananda Marga sect and at this
stage it is suspected that two of them, namely, O’Callaghan [Alister] and Dunn, would have vital information concerning the Hilton bomb inquiry.’12 Independently of Seary, Special Branch have their suspicions about these two individuals. Alister has been arrested in the past for attacks against Indian nationals and he is associated with VSS. Dunn is believed to be part of Prout, and while they can’t yet prove it, they believe Prout members to be involved in the bombing.
It is pointed out that the sect members are constantly involved in physical, possibly military, training, they are known to carry daggers, and at least one member has a degree in Mining Engineering and is an expert in explosives. The final point in the Special Branch briefing that night literally drops from the sky and reunites us with our old comrade Abhiik Kumar, who once again has an unerring capacity to arrive in or depart countries immediately before or after bombings or attempted bombings.
Sect leader Michael Luke BRANDON (number of alias) currently overseas and informant in Bangkok, Thailand states that he has made approaches for the purchase of explosives and also RADIO CONTROLLED TIME DEVICES. Sect Leader due to arrive in Australia 8.35am on Thailands flight on Friday 16 June 1978. 13
In 11 hours’ time.
Imagine how on edge you’d be if you were a member of either police squad. You’d be thinking about the Hilton. Thinking about zealots and the potential horror of the whole thing going badly. After all, this is a likely scenario from what Seary is suggesting — that if the Margiis think the cops are going to stop the car, Alister will set the bomb off. Perrin and Helson of Special Branch bring the squad up to speed on what they know of the sect. It can hardly instil confidence in the Weapons Squad to discover that Margiis believe their god is on trial, that they occasionally set themselves on fire, or that almost ten of them have been arrested around the globe for terrorist acts. Add to this that the whole enterprise is going to take place in Yagoona, a graveyard-quiet suburb of fibro houses on quarter-acre blocks, and that the target is the leader of the Australian wing of the National Alliance, and this must make the whole operation seem even more peculiar and disturbing.
Who bombed the Hilton? Page 16
