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| Down Under |
| Australian hard boyz linked to LeT |
| 2005-11-08 |
| EXTRA counter-terrorism police have arrived in Sydney to take part in the 24-hour surveillance of two suspects believed to be planning an attack on Australian soil. The Australian understands a command post has been established in Sydney to monitor the men, one of whom has been linked to the outlawed terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. A parallel operation is under way in Melbourne and it is believed raids are imminent on the properties of the six suspects, even though it would not necessarily lead to arrests. Anti-terror police have asked for advice from the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in the light of a one-word amendment to federal anti-terrorism legislation passed by parliament last week. Police declined to comment last night on the operations, which involve dozens of police in NSW and Victoria. The group have been electronically monitored for the past 12 months. Several of them are closely linked to fugitive Sydney man Saleh Jamal, who was arrested on weapons charges in Lebanon after the Australian Federal Police warned their Lebanese counterparts that Jamal intended to become a suicide bomber. Police sources indicated some of the group first came to the attention of authorities before the Sydney Olympic Games. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock yesterday defended the rushed amendment to the legislation while admitting arrests were not imminent. "Authorities needed to be able to act if there was information about a potential terrorist act but where you didn't know the detail as to where and when it might occur," Mr Ruddock told the Ten Network's Meet the Press. "The information we had suggested it would be desirable to have it in place now. That doesn't mean in any way that I or the Prime Minister influence operational issues. They are matters dealt with independently by the police and other authorities. Whatever will happen will happen at an appropriate time, if at all." Mr Ruddock said the important thing was for police to have the capacity to deal with the threat -- which they now had. He refused to comment on reports that spy agency ASIO was aware of a new radical cell comprising the Australian-born offspring of Muslim immigrants. "Typecasting is never helpful," he said. "To suggest it is a particular group and to characterise it in a particular way isn't helpful either." It was revealed in The Weekend Australian that John Howard's decision to publicly reveal the terror threat last week had caused a rift between the spy agency ASIO and state and federal police over the security of the counter-terrorist operations. Senior police claimed the Prime Minister's announcement had jeopardised their monitoring and surveillance work. But NSW and federal police were not officially commenting yesterday. One of the Sydney men, who is a target of the current operation, had allegedly been identified by a US terrorist informant who claimed to have met him at a military training camp run by the outlawed militia group Lashkar-e-Taiba. It is believed the man is the key link to another group of men in Melbourne who had been seen filming Melbourne landmarks including the stock exchange and tram stations. The group were all the subject of ASIO raids in June this year. One of the Sydney men who was raided was highly distressed after the agents spent more than 24 hours searching his home in the western suburbs. A relative of the young man said the agents even searched the roof of his home, leaving him and his family very upset. The relative, who did not want to be identified, denied the man had done anything wrong, and claimed the raid was an example of the authorities unfairly targeting Muslims. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 Norwich Prison has an opening...send them there Oz. Wouldn't that be rich lol. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-11-08 09:44 |
| #2 Surveilling criminals is expensive. Get a Gitmo, Oz. |
| Posted by: Fde Fda 2005-11-08 03:08 |
| #1 good for Howard. John Howard's decision to publicly reveal the terror threat last week had caused a rift between the spy agency ASIO and state and federal police over the security of the counter-terrorist operations. The spies would have just sat back and watched until they "lost contact" with their suspects and something blew up, like always happens. While I doubt it was helpful to give all the details that we are reading, it is more helpful than doing nothing but watching and waiting until Kingdom come. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-11-08 01:14 |