Manufacturing a Situation

[boxy]

The Australian Federal Police has rejected the claims of a whistleblower who says it pulled riot squad staff from Christmas Island for political reasons.

Sergeant Brendan Thomson told the ABC's 7.30 program that he repeatedly warned his seniors about increasing tensions on the island in the run-up to riots in 2011.

But the AFP withdrew its riot squad from the island at the end of 2010, just three-and-a-half months before the March unrest.

Sergeant Thomson secretly recorded an admission from a senior officer that the force withdrew the squad partly to "manufacture a situation" on the island.