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Fake Osama Bin Laden Arrested At APEC

The Daily Telegraph
September 6, 2007

ELEVEN members of The Chaser have tonight been charged after causing the first embarrassing APEC security blunder.

Among those charged under new APEC legislation was Chaser Chas Licciardello, who dressed as Osama bin Laden and managed to ride a fake motorcade through two police cordons into the red zone.

Licciardello and the other were charged with “enter restricted area without justification” after the bogus motorcade made it down Macquarie Street into the fenced off area not far from the Intercontinental Hotel where President George W Bush is staying.

“While it appears it was a prank, the current APEC security environment isn’t the place to do it in,” said Detective Superintendent Ken McKay, head of the APEC Investigation Squad. “Who they are is irrelevant – they were charged like anyone else who breaks the law.”

All were granted conditional bail and are due to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on October 4.

The team from the satirical TV program The Chaser’s War on Everything were in a convoy of three cars and two motorbikes which was reportedly ushered through two checkpoints in Sydney’s APEC security “red” zone.

The convoy was pulled over in Macquarie Street on a block adjacent to the InterContinental Hotel, where US President George W Bush is a guest during the APEC summit.

“It’s fair to say we never intended to break the law, if we have broken the law, which we don’t think we have done,” said Chaser Craig Reucassel.

Despite their arrest, The Chaser managed to get their footage back to the studio. A team of ABC staffers have been arguing with detectives as to the legality of them being in the area.

The Chaser stunt, however, has angered senior police and the NSW Police Minister David Campbell.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Dave Owens said police were investigating “a possible breach of the restricted area”.

As a result of today’s breach, new measures were being added to what he described as a multi-layered security operation.

“I’m not embarrassed at all. What I am is very angry that such a stunt like this would be pulled,” Mr Owens said.

“We have 21 world leaders here and while I enjoy, like everyone else, a good laugh, this wasn’t funny.”

NSW Police Minister David Campbell said he was particularly disappointed The Chaser production team had disregarded specific requests from police not to go too far in their pursuit of satire.

“I don’t see a funny side to what’s happened today. I don’t see a funny side at all,” Mr Campbell said.

“I’m extremely concerned people would take the sense of security so lightly.”

Mr Campbell refused to criticise the police who reportedly waved The Chaser team through checkpoints. He congratulated officers who made the arrests.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer denied The Chaser team had revealed a chink in APEC security, saying as they were arrested, the system worked.

But he told an APEC news conference: “Whatever you think of the humour of The Chaser … they were clearly not going to harm anybody in a physical way.

“They presumably were, as is the nature of their show, aiming to humiliate a lot of well-known people.

“In my particular case on this one, I managed not to see them, so it just shows how lucky you can get,” Mr Downer said, smiling.

“The point is they were in any case arrested, so I think the security works.”

Explaining how they executed their stunt, Chaser members said they had dressed up a convoy to look like an official Canadian motorcade, on a day during which a number of official motorcades crossed the city.

Southern Cross Broadcasting reported that the convoy carrying the Chaser team passed “through two checkpoints around the hotel before one of The Chaser pranksters jumped out (dressed) as Osama Bin Laden”.

“They had been waved through, they had three cars … big black Hummer-style cars decked out with Canadian flags on the front,” a reporter said.

“A couple of Chaser team members were in the back of each of these cars and rest of the team were dressed up as bodyguards.

“As many as 11 people were detained and two of those were Chaser team members.”

Chaser team member Chris Taylor told a Fairfax publication the motorcade comprised “three cars, a couple of motorbikes, and a lot of crew”.

He said the Chaser convoy had Canadian flags attached to the cars and “Canada” signs visible in the front windscreen. “No particular reason we chose Canada,” Taylor said.

“We just thought they’d be a country who the cops wouldn’t scrutinise too closely, and who feasibly would only have three cars in their motorcade – as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him.”

He said the motorcade had been allowed into the red zone, past two sets of gates, before being pulled over on the corner of Bridge and Macquarie streets.

Chaser crew members had initially been detained in their cars while “police on the ground” waited for special units to arrive, Taylor said.

ABC spokesman Peter Ritchie said ABC lawyers and management were in discussions with police.

“They were shooting for the program, they were at the hotel, police detained them and ABC lawyers and management are with the boys,” Mr Ritchie said.

The Southern Cross Broadcasting report said “security services went crazy when they realised something had gone wrong. They very quickly detained these people,” a reporter said.

Authorities have warned there will be a presumption against bail for people arrested in the APEC security zone.

“The simple message that everybody needs to understand is that if you misconduct yourself during the APEC period in a security zone, there is a jail bed waiting for you,” Attorney-General John Hatzistergos said last week.

The Chaser’s War on Everything resumed on ABC TV last night and included a number of stunts aimed at testing APEC security.

Morrow had revealed last weekend the Chaser team was planning something “extreme” for APEC.

Chaser team members yesterday staged a stunt during an anti-APEC protest, with Taylor appearing as a police officer on a pantomime horse – a dig at the fact equine flu has prevented NSW police horses being used for APEC security.