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| Down Under |
| 200-300 extremist supporters in Australia |
| 2005-11-21 |
| Australian police have their best understanding ever of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah after studying attack plans made by the militant Islamic organisation, national police chief Mick Keelty said Monday. Speaking at a counter-terrorism forum, Keelty said Indonesian authorities had given Australian Federal Police access to plans taken from JI, the organisation behind a series of bombings in Bali, Jakarta and elsewhere which have left scores dead. "We now... have a better understanding of Jemaah Islamiyah than what we ever had," Keelty said. "We now have... access to some of their plans (and)... the future plans that they had in place." Keelty said the JI attack plans included sophisticated intelligence and surveillance of targets. A considerable amount of planning went into operations, he said, adding: "We`ve got to make sure we are equal to those sort of plans by the terrorists. "We`ve obviously said that there`s nothing that we`ve done in this country to make us immune and I think the important thing for us is that we are prepared and that we maintain our preparation," Keelty said. Terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna earlier told the conference that Australia would probably experience a terror attack within a few years by "home-grown" extremists. "The most dangerous threat to Australia today comes from home-grown networks -- what we call the resident threat," he said. "The threat that primarily stems from the radicalised segments of the community in Australia -- this is the primary threat." Gunaratna said there were between 200 and 300 Muslims in Australia who supported violent extremism as well as a "small but robust" terror network operating within the country. Australian police this month arrested 18 men in Sydney and Melbourne on terrorism-related charges. All were Australian-born or naturalised citizens and officials accused them of plotting a "catastrophic" act of terrorism, although no precise targets were specified, AFP reported. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |