Seventeen people have been arrested in Sydney and Melbourne and charged with various offences with relation to an intention to commit terrorist attacks on Australian targets. Police found chemical stockpiles in their raids which were similar to the sort used in the London bombings in July.
There is no indication as yet as to what the terrorists had in mind as targets, but it does appear as if the groups had reached an advanced stage of planning. As a result, a co-ordinated surveillance effort of 18 months was turned into a massive police operation involving domestic security services, the Australian federal police and state police forces. They swooped in co-ordinated raids to apprehend the suspects.
The suspects all appear to be followers of one Abdul Nacer Benbrika, a radical Muslim cleric based in Melbourne.
This is a major tactical victory against terrorists in Australia, because it demonstrates the ability of police and security agencies to effectively counter bomb-making efforts before they have a chance to succeed. Islamist extremists who wish to strike in Australia now clearly know that they will have to devote greater efforts to security and that in turn means less efforts can go into creating mayhem. This in turn means that international groups are less likely to devote resources like bomb-makers, money and propaganists towards a ‘hard’ target like Australia.
In the long term, though, it is nevertheless of concern because this affair reveals that even in faraway Australia, Islamic hatemongers can find willing tools that can be manipulated into fulfilling their murderous fantasies. Until the hatemongers are stopped, it seems that the terrorism will continue, with all the loss of life, liberties and humanity that follows.
Thank God at least one country is doing something proactive about these dreadful people. We had some rather unsettling revelations here recently that the security services had observed the 7/7 bombers together, in league with an Al Queda fixer, yet decided that they “posed no threat”. Obviously the security imbecile responsible for that judgement call has never been held to accountability for his actions; I would hazard a guess that under the Tony, Cherie and Ian Blair Show he or she has probably been promoted instead.
Abdul Nacer Benbrika. One word for this individual and his acolytes: fishfood.
Or vapour, Verity?
Messy, but OK in a pinch.
Slightly O/T, but the House of Commons has struck a rare blow for civil liberties by kicking out T Bliar Esquire’s ‘Abolish habeas corpus’ bill by 31 votes! It’s the creep’s first parliamentary defeat since he came to power eight years ago.
Despite all the overnight spin from the jailer-mongers about how the bill’s passage was assured, MPs refused to accept that chief constables should be dictating legislation to them. They blew Bliar a nice fat raspberry.
Special anathemata for the handful of Tory authoritarians such as Michael Mates and Anne Widdecombe who voted against their own leadership and for socialist penal laws.
Hopefully not in the EU where they would have to be killed in an approved manner – not involving being chopped on a wooden board …
Does anybody happen to know the length of the allowable period of detention without charge in Australia?