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Down Under

Police: 2 Sydney men planned ‘imminent’ terror attack

2015-02-11

[IsraelTimes] Authorities seize hunting knife a machete, an Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... flag and other items from suspects Two Sydney men were charged on Wednesday with planning to launch an imminent terrorist attack, after police seized a homemade flag associated with the Islamic State group, a machete and a hunting knife in a counterterrorism raid. The men, aged 24 and 25, would have carried out the attack on Tuesday if they had not been placed in durance vile Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! that day in the raid in the Sydney suburb of Fairfield, New South Wales state Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn told news hounds. A video that was seized in the raid showed one of the men making threats, though Burn declined to detail exactly what was said. Prime Minister Tony Abbott later told Parliament that the video depicted one of the suspects kneeling in front of the Islamic State flag with the knife and machete while making a statement in Arabic. Asked whether they were planning a beheading, Burn replied, "We don't really know what act they were going to commit." "What we are going to allege is consistent with the IS messaging," she said, using an abbreviation for the Islamic State group. "We believe that the men were potentially going to harm somebody, maybe even kill somebody, and potentially using one of the items that we identified and recovered yesterday, potentially a knife." Police were trying to determine whether the men were in contact with anyone from the Islamic State movement. "Yesterday, our focus was to act on information that we received about something that was imminent," Burn said. "We believe that we have stopped that threat from occurring. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... there are further investigations that now we will need to follow through." Omar Al-Kutobi and Mohammad Kiad were charged with undertaking acts in preparation or planning for a terrorist act, which carries a maximum punishment of life in prison. Their lawyer didn't apply for bail and it was formally refused during a brief court hearing Wednesday. Neither man appeared in the courtroom. Police don't believe there is any link between the alleged plot and another plot that prompted a series of counterterror raids in Sydney in September. One man arrested during those raids was charged with conspiring with an Islamic State leader in Syria to behead a random person in Sydney. Australia's government raised the country's terror warning level in September in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of the Islamic State group, which has threatened Australia in the past. In September, its front man Abu Mohammed al-Adnani issued a message urging attacks abroad, and specifically mentioned Australia. The prime minister said he suspected the terror threat in Australia was going to only worsen. "As we have seen again and again in recent times, the death cult is reaching out all around the world, including here in Australia," Abbott told Parliament. "There are people in this country who are susceptible to these indictments to extremism and even terrorism." The government believes about 90 Australians are fighting alongside the Islamic State movement in Syria and Iraq, with another 140 supporting the group from Australia. The proliferation of Islamic State-style attack plots in countries such as Australia is not surprising because such plots are generally simple and low tech -- which makes them harder to stop, said Clive Williams, a counterterrorism expert at the Australian National University and a former military intelligence officer. "To drive a car into a group of coppers takes no planning whatsoever," Williams said. "It's a lot different from what al-Qaeda was encouraging people to do, which was to do sophisticated bombings which would result in lots of casualties but took lots of preparation and organization. There was a better chance of detecting them, but they were more dangerous -- whereas these are less detectable but less dangerous." Much more, including quotes from an unsuspecting neighbour from Australia's ABC News here.

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Down Under

Australia home to 50 suspected terrorists

2006-04-19

A terrorism expert says Australia is home to at least 50 suspected terrorists - five times the number questioned by ASIO last year. The claim came as an audit of the terrorist threat in Britain by intelligence agency MI5, conducted after the July 2005 London bombings, revealed there were an estimated 400 al-Qaeda terrorist suspects in the country. Media reports quoted British officials as saying the 400 include a hard core of between 40 and 60 trained fighters with the capability and the intention to carry out attacks, as well as Islamic extremists on the fringes who could become active at any point. Australian National University terrorism expert Clive Williams said the figure for Australia was likely to be about 50. ASIO questioned only 10 terror suspects under warrant in 2004-05, according to its most recent annual report. "I would say the figure is somewhere around the 50 mark," Dr Williams told AAP. "A friend of mine (in a spy agency) went through the same thought process and came up with the same figure. "These are people who have been overseas and come back, or are of interest and we don't know where they have been, or there are suspicions about their travel and they had contact (with terror groups) previously. "So there's a range of reasons why people would end up on the list." He said some suspects could also have shown up on telephone records or be related to people who had been arrested on terrorism charges. Dr Williams said the high number created a problem for spy agencies such as ASIO. "You can't maintain surveillance on that number of people, because you need eight people to do a continuous surveillance and lots of resources and no one's got that kind of resources," he said. "That's why control orders are desirable from the point of view of trying to track people." New terror laws allow police and spies to seek control orders of up to 12 months on terror suspects, which could include electronic shackles or geographical limits on their movement. The British report also said MI5 had started developing a map of terror hotspots. But Dr Williams said he did not believe Australian intelligence agencies used such maps.

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Terror Networks

Expert sez Binny could be dead

2006-01-16

A terrorism expert says he has seen evidence showing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is either seriously ill or dead. Dr Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University, says documents provided by an Indian colleague suggested bin Laden died of massive organ failure in April last year. "It does seem reasonably convincing based on the evidence that I've been provided with that he's certainly either severely incapacitated or dead at this stage," Dr Williams said. Dr Williams said Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy who was the target of a US air strike in Pakistan last week, has been making all statements on behalf of the terror network for the past year. Dr Williams said proving whether the terrorist leader was still alive might be impossible. "It's hard to prove or disprove these things because there hasn't really been anything that allows you to make a judgment one way or the other," Dr Williams said. "But it does seem strange that Dr Zawahiri has been making all of the statements since then, and nothing's been heard from bin Laden since, I think, the December of the year before." Dr Williams said even if bin Laden was dead, those who upheld the same philosophies would continue to fight for their cause.

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Down Under

Australia keeping tabs on 6 hard boyz

2005-11-04

AT least six people suspected of planning a Sydney terror attack are under surveillance. One of the suspects was the part-owner of a property in country NSW raided by police and spy agencies before the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Security sources have described the property as having all the signs of being a terrorist training camp after neighbours alerted police to automatic weapons being fired. The Middle Eastern father of two furiously denied his farm was being used to train terrorists. No arrests were made but it is believed Operation Pandanus has shifted ASIO's attention back to the man's activities in the past 12 months. The man has lived on a secluded property in a Sydney suburb with his wife and two children for at least three years. He is rarely seen in the street. There was no sign at the home yesterday of ASIO or AFP agents, who were expected to begin raids after Prime Minister John Howard warned of a direct terrorist threat and rushed through legislation to assist arrests. The Saturday Daily Telegraph revealed yesterday that home-grown terror cells had been stockpiling explosives and other material ahead of possible attacks on sites such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Kurnell oil refinery and Melbourne Stock Exchange. Armed agents are understood to be ready to swoop once the green light is given by authorities. Prime Minister John Howard yesterday refused to give more information about the threat for fear he could jeopardise police and ASIO operations. "It should not be assumed there are going to be arrests. Whether there are arrests is a matter for police," he said. "We are kept informed if anything in particular is going to occur." Mr Howard said security agencies knew much more than they did six months ago about people in Australia who want to inflict harm here or support terrorist attacks overseas. "There have been people in our community for some time who would want to do harm, who were pleased about the terrorist attacks in Bali and in London and pleased about some of the terrorist attacks elsewhere in the world," Mr Howard said. "They have been within our community for some time – a tiny minority. The authorities have a greater understanding of what people are about now than what they did six months ago." Mr Howard said he faced a dilemma in signalling to the Australian public that there was a specific terror threat but denied he was playing politics. Terrorism expert Clive Williams said yesterday the fact the threat level had not been changed to "high" meant an immediate attack was unlikely. "Otherwise the threat level would change," Mr Williams said.

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Down Under

Islamist way or no waySteyn:

2005-10-04

IT'S not just the environmentalists who think globally and act locally. The jihadi who murdered Newcastle woman Jennifer Williamson, Perth teenager Brendan Fitzgerald and a couple of dozen more Australians, Indonesians, Japanese and others had certain things in common with the July 7 London Tube killers. For example, Azahari bin Husin, who police believe may be the bomb-maker behind this weekend's atrocity, completed a doctorate at England's Reading University. The contribution of the British education system to the jihad is really quite remarkable. But, on the other hand, despite Clive Williams's game attempt to connect the two on this page yesterday, nobody seriously thinks what happened in Bali has anything to do with Iraq. There are, in the end, no root causes, or anyway not ones that can be negotiated by troop withdrawals or a Palestinian state. There is only a metastasising cancer that preys on whatever local conditions are to hand. Five days before the slaughter in Bali, nine Islamists were arrested in Paris for reportedly plotting to attack the Metro. Must be all those French troops in Iraq, right? So much for the sterling efforts of President Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, as the two chief obstructionists of Bush-Blair-Howard neo-con-Zionist warmongering these past three years. When the suicide bombers self-detonated on Saturday, the travel section of Britain's The Sunday Telegraph had already gone to press, its lead story a feature on how Bali's economy had bounced back from the carnage of 2002. We all want to believe that: one terrorist attack is like a tsunami or hurricane, just one of those things, blows in out of the blue, then the familiar contours of the landscape return. But two attacks are a permanent feature, the way things are and will be for some years, as one by one the bars and hotels and clubs and restaurants shut up shop. Many of the Australians injured this weekend had waited to return to Bali, just to make sure it was "safe". But it isn't, and it won't be for a long time, and by the time it is it won't be the Bali that Westerners flocked to before 2002. I found myself behind a car in Vermont, in the US, the other day; it had a one-word bumper sticker with the injunction "COEXIST". It's one of those sentiments beloved of Western progressives, one designed principally to flatter their sense of moral superiority. The C was the Islamic crescent, the O was the hippie peace sign, the X was the Star of David and the T was the Christian cross. Very nice, hard to argue with. But the reality is, it's the first of those symbols that has a problem with coexistence. Take the crescent out of the equation and you wouldn't need a bumper sticker at all. Indeed, coexistence is what the Islamists are at war with; or, if you prefer, pluralism, the idea that different groups can rub along together within the same general neighbourhood. There are many trouble spots across the world but, as a general rule, even if one gives no more than a cursory glance at the foreign pages, it's easy to guess at least one of the sides: Muslims v Jews in Palestine, Muslims v Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims v Christians in Nigeria, Muslims v Buddhists in southern Thailand, Muslims v (your team here). Whatever one's views of the merits on a case by case basis, the ubiquitousness of one team is a fact. "Men of intemperate mind never can be free; their passions forge their fetters," wrote Edmund Burke. And, in that sense, Bali is more symbolic of the Islamofascist strategy than London or Madrid, Beslan or Istanbul. The jihad has held out against some tough enemies: the Israelis in the West Bank, the Russians in Chechnya; these are primal conflicts. But what's the beef in Bali? Oh, to be sure, to the more fastidious Islamist some of those decadent hedonist fornicating Westerners whooping it up are a little offensive. But they'd be offensive whoever they were and whatever they did. It's the reality of a pluralist enclave within the world's largest Muslim nation that offends. It's the coexistence, stupid. So even Muslims v (your team here) doesn't quite cover it. You don't have to have a team or even be aware that you belong to any side. You can be a hippie-dippy hey-man-I-love-everybody-whatever-your-bag-is-cool backpacking Dutch stoner, and they'll blow you up with as much enthusiasm as if you were Dick Cheney. As a spokesman for the Islamic Army of Aden put it in 2002, explaining why they bombed a French oil tanker: "We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels." No problem. In our time, even the most fascistic ideologies have been savvy enough to cover their darker impulses in sappy labels. The Soviet bloc was comprised of wall-to-wall "people's republics", which is the precise opposite of what they were: a stylistic audacity Orwell caught perfectly in 1984, with its Ministry of Truth (that is, official lies). But the Islamists don't even bother going through the traditional rhetorical feints. They say what they mean and they mean what they say. "We are here as on a darkling plain ..." wrote Matthew Arnold in the famous concluding lines to Dover Beach, "where ignorant armies clash by night". But we choose in large part to stay in ignorance. Blow up the London Underground during a G8 summit and the world's leaders twitter about how tragic and ironic it is that this should have happened just as they're taking steps to deal with the issues, as though the terrorists are upset about poverty in Africa and global warming. So, even in a great blinding flash of clarity, we can't wait to switch the lights off and go back to fumbling around on the darkling plain. Bali three years ago and Bali three days ago light up the sky: they make unavoidable the truth that Islamism is a classic "armed doctrine"; it exists to destroy. The reality of Bali's contribution to Indonesia's economic health is irrelevant. The jihadists would rather that the country be poorer and purer than prosperous and pluralist. For one thing, it's richer soil for them. If the Islamofascists gain formal control of Indonesia, it won't be a parochial, self-absorbed dictatorship such as Suharto's but a launching pad for an Islamic superstate across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Can they pull it off? The reality is that there are more Muslim states than a half-century ago, many more Muslims within non-Muslim states, and many more of those Muslims are radicalised and fundamentalist. It's not hard to understand. All you have to do is take them at their word. As Bassam Tibi, a Muslim professor at Gottingen University in Germany, said in an interesting speech a few months after September 11, "Both sides should acknowledge candidly that although they might use identical terms, these mean different things to each of them. The word peace, for example, implies to a Muslim the extension of the Dar al-Islam -- or House of Islam -- to the entire world. This is completely different from the Enlightenment concept of eternal peace that dominates Western thought. Only when the entire world is a Dar al-Islam will it be a Dar a-Salam, or House of Peace." That's why they blew up Bali in 2002, and last weekend, and why they'll keep blowing it up. It's not about Bush or Blair or Iraq or Palestine. It's about a world where everything other than Islamism lies inruins.

Link

Terror Networks & Islam

Mark Steyn: Islamist way or no way

2005-10-04

IT'S not just the environmentalists who think globally and act locally. The jihadi who murdered Newcastle woman Jennifer Williamson, Perth teenager Brendan Fitzgerald and a couple of dozen more Australians, Indonesians, Japanese and others had certain things in common with the July 7 London Tube killers. For example, Azahari bin Husin, who police believe may be the bomb-maker behind this weekend's atrocity, completed a doctorate at England's Reading University. The contribution of the British education system to the jihad is really quite remarkable. But, on the other hand, despite Clive Williams's game attempt to connect the two on this page yesterday, nobody seriously thinks what happened in Bali has anything to do with Iraq. There are, in the end, no root causes, or anyway not ones that can be negotiated by troop withdrawals or a Palestinian state. There is only a metastasising cancer that preys on whatever local conditions are to hand. Five days before the slaughter in Bali, nine Islamists were arrested in Paris for reportedly plotting to attack the Metro. Must be all those French troops in Iraq, right? So much for the sterling efforts of President Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, as the two chief obstructionists of Bush-Blair-Howard neo-con-Zionist warmongering these past three years. When the suicide bombers self-detonated on Saturday, the travel section of Britain's The Sunday Telegraph had already gone to press, its lead story a feature on how Bali's economy had bounced back from the carnage of 2002. We all want to believe that: one terrorist attack is like a tsunami or hurricane, just one of those things, blows in out of the blue, then the familiar contours of the landscape return. But two attacks are a permanent feature, the way things are and will be for some years, as one by one the bars and hotels and clubs and restaurants shut up shop. Many of the Australians injured this weekend had waited to return to Bali, just to make sure it was "safe". But it isn't, and it won't be for a long time, and by the time it is it won't be the Bali that Westerners flocked to before 2002. I found myself behind a car in Vermont, in the US, the other day; it had a one-word bumper sticker with the injunction "COEXIST". It's one of those sentiments beloved of Western progressives, one designed principally to flatter their sense of moral superiority. The C was the Islamic crescent, the O was the hippie peace sign, the X was the Star of David and the T was the Christian cross. Very nice, hard to argue with. But the reality is, it's the first of those symbols that has a problem with coexistence. Take the crescent out of the equation and you wouldn't need a bumper sticker at all. Indeed, coexistence is what the Islamists are at war with; or, if you prefer, pluralism, the idea that different groups can rub along together within the same general neighbourhood. There are many trouble spots across the world but, as a general rule, even if one gives no more than a cursory glance at the foreign pages, it's easy to guess at least one of the sides: Muslims v Jews in Palestine, Muslims v Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims v Christians in Nigeria, Muslims v Buddhists in southern Thailand, Muslims v (your team here). Whatever one's views of the merits on a case by case basis, the ubiquitousness of one team is a fact. "Men of intemperate mind never can be free; their passions forge their fetters," wrote Edmund Burke. And, in that sense, Bali is more symbolic of the Islamofascist strategy than London or Madrid, Beslan or Istanbul. The jihad has held out against some tough enemies: the Israelis in the West Bank, the Russians in Chechnya; these are primal conflicts. But what's the beef in Bali? Oh, to be sure, to the more fastidious Islamist some of those decadent hedonist fornicating Westerners whooping it up are a little offensive. But they'd be offensive whoever they were and whatever they did. It's the reality of a pluralist enclave within the world's largest Muslim nation that offends. It's the coexistence, stupid. [Blocked Ads] So even Muslims v (your team here) doesn't quite cover it. You don't have to have a team or even be aware that you belong to any side. You can be a hippie-dippy hey-man-I-love-everybody-whatever-your-bag-is-cool backpacking Dutch stoner, and they'll blow you up with as much enthusiasm as if you were Dick Cheney. As a spokesman for the Islamic Army of Aden put it in 2002, explaining why they bombed a French oil tanker: "We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels." No problem. In our time, even the most fascistic ideologies have been savvy enough to cover their darker impulses in sappy labels. The Soviet bloc was comprised of wall-to-wall "people's republics", which is the precise opposite of what they were: a stylistic audacity Orwell caught perfectly in 1984, with its Ministry of Truth (that is, official lies). But the Islamists don't even bother going through the traditional rhetorical feints. They say what they mean and they mean what they say. "We are here as on a darkling plain ..." wrote Matthew Arnold in the famous concluding lines to Dover Beach, "where ignorant armies clash by night". But we choose in large part to stay in ignorance. Blow up the London Underground during a G8 summit and the world's leaders twitter about how tragic and ironic it is that this should have happened just as they're taking steps to deal with the issues, as though the terrorists are upset about poverty in Africa and global warming. So, even in a great blinding flash of clarity, we can't wait to switch the lights off and go back to fumbling around on the darkling plain. Bali three years ago and Bali three days ago light up the sky: they make unavoidable the truth that Islamism is a classic "armed doctrine"; it exists to destroy. The reality of Bali's contribution to Indonesia's economic health is irrelevant. The jihadists would rather that the country be poorer and purer than prosperous and pluralist. For one thing, it's richer soil for them. If the Islamofascists gain formal control of Indonesia, it won't be a parochial, self-absorbed dictatorship such as Suharto's but a launching pad for an Islamic superstate across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Can they pull it off? The reality is that there are more Muslim states than a half-century ago, many more Muslims within non-Muslim states, and many more of those Muslims are radicalised and fundamentalist. It's not hard to understand. All you have to do is take them at their word. As Bassam Tibi, a Muslim professor at Gottingen University in Germany, said in an interesting speech a few months after September 11, "Both sides should acknowledge candidly that although they might use identical terms, these mean different things to each of them. The word peace, for example, implies to a Muslim the extension of the Dar al-Islam -- or House of Islam -- to the entire world. This is completely different from the Enlightenment concept of eternal peace that dominates Western thought. Only when the entire world is a Dar al-Islam will it be a Dar a-Salam, or House of Peace." That's why they blew up Bali in 2002, and last weekend, and why they'll keep blowing it up. It's not about Bush or Blair or Iraq or Palestine. It's about a world where everything other than Islamism lies inruins. Mark Steyn, a columnist with the Telegraph Group, is a regular contributor to The Australian's Opinion page.

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Southeast Asia

Focus returns to JI after Bali

2005-10-03

The latest wave of bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali shows that the al Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah is still active, despite the Indonesian government's attempts to put its key leaders behind bars, terrorism experts in the region said Sunday. Powerful bombs ripped through three crowded restaurants in Bali on Saturday, killing at least 26 people and wounding more than 100 -- the second time terrorists have brought carnage to the tropical paradise in three years. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Australia's leading terrorism expert Clive Williams said it bore all the hallmarks of Jemaah Islamiyah, or JI. Since then, dozens of key members of the group have been convicted, including its alleged spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir -- now serving a two-year sentence for conspiracy in the 2002 attacks. Williams, Director of the Strategic and Defense Studies Center at the Australian National University, said the arrests had failed to cripple the group and the latest bombings showed it was still able to recruit new members. "Clearly, they are still able to mount small-scale operations, or in this particular case, it seems they probably would have had half-a-dozen people involved," Williams told The Associated Press. He said the most likely masterminds were fugitive Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top, both implicated in a 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta which killed 10 people and injured more than 200. Azahari, a former physics lecturer, is believed to be a skilled bomb maker and key organizer in the organization, while Noordin is believed to be the group's top recruiter, he said. Williams said the two were believed to be hiding in Indonesia. "I think they (Indonesian authorities) are actively looking for them, but they're obviously being protected by sympathizers or members of the organization and that's made it more difficult," he said. Another likely mastermind of Saturday's bombing included Zulkarnaen, also known as Aris Sumarsono, who is believed to have taken over as Jemaah Islamiyah's operations chief in 2003 after Hambali, said to be the group's link to al Qaeda, was arrested. Singapore-based terror expert Rohan Gunaratna of the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies said only JI had the ability to carry out coordinated attacks in Bali. "The JI is the only group with the intention and capability to mount an attack on Bali on such a coordinated level," Gunaratna said. "There should be no doubt that they did it. No other groups can carry out multiple attacks like that." Gunaratna, a Sri Lankan national and author of "Inside al-Qaida: Global Network of Terror," added that the group chose to attack Bali to send a message that it was still active and plotting attacks despite a string of arrests. "They chose Bali in order to embarrass and humiliate Indonesia," Gunaratna said. "Especially in light of reports that said JI has been dismantled, they're now proving that JI is still capable." In fact, Saturday's blasts were likely to attract would-be terrorists to join regional JI cells or other extremist groups, Williams said. "It's good for JI in the sense that it shows they're still in business," he said. "It also does encourage more people to join them." "If they see that there's an ongoing level of activity, most people who are disposed to that point of view might be more prepared to support it," he said.

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Southeast Asia

Experts say JI responsible for Bali bombing

2005-10-02

There is no doubt the al-Qaeda linked terror group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) is responsible for the latest Bali bombings, a terrorism expert said today. At least 32 people, possibly three Australians were killed overnight in bombings which hit Jimbaran beach and Kuta beach with more than 100 injured. Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, said JI was the only group capable of such an attack. "Jemaah Islamiah is the only group that has the intention and the capability to mount a coordinated simultaneous attack against Western targets in Indonesia," Professor Gunaratna told Channel Nine. Western intelligence in the lead-up to the latest attacks had been good, especially as Indonesia was currently in the midst of the so-called bombing season, he said. "The Indonesians and the Americans, the Australians and other regional countries provided quite good intelligence that an attack was in the making. It is especially because this is called the bombing season. Usually JI becomes active from August until December." But Australia had to step up its offshore counter-terrorism policy. "I believe that Australia is playing a very decisive role in strengthening Indonesian capacity to respond to the terrorist threat. But I also believe that Australia needs to be more decisive in its offshore counter-terrorism policy because if JI continues to survive certainly Australia and Australian interests will suffer." Prof Gunaratna said Australia needed to push to have JI declared illegal in Indonesia. "Australia has been very successful in building counter-terrorism tactical capabilities in the Indonesian police, but still at the legislative level, JI is still a legal organisation in Indonesia," he said. "JI must be proscribed and designated as a terrorist group and the Indonesians will do this only if there is international pressure and I hope that Australian leaders will now raise this issue with the Indonesian authorities." One of Australia's leading terrorism experts, Clive Williams, said today the latest wave of bombings in Bali shows that JI is still active, despite the Indonesian Government's attempts to put its key leaders behind bars. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Mr Williams, director of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, said it bore all the hallmarks of JI. Mr Williams said the arrests had failed to cripple the group and the latest bombings showed it was still able to recruit new members. "Clearly, they are still able to mount small-scale operations, or in this particular case, it seems they probably would have had half a dozen people involved," he told The Associated Press. Mr Williams said the most likely masterminds were fugitive Malaysians Azahari Husin and Noordin Top, both implicated in a 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, which killed 10 people and injured more than 200. Azahari, a former physics lecturer, is believed to be a skilled bomb maker and key organiser in the organisation, while Noordin is believed to be the group's top recruiter, he said. Mr Williams said the two were believed to be hiding in Indonesia. "I think they [Indonesian authorities] are actively looking for them, but they're obviously being protected by sympathisers or members of the organisation and that's made it more difficult," he said. Another likely mastermind of yesterday's blasts included Zulkarnaen, also known as Aris Sumarsono, who is believed to have taken over as JI's operations chief in 2003 after Hambali, said to be the group's link to al-Qaeda, was arrested. The blasts were likely to attract would-be terrorists to join regional JI cells or other extremist groups, Mr Williams said. "It's good for JI in the sense that it shows they're still in business," he said. "It also does encourage more people to join them. If they see that there's an ongoing level of activity, most people who are disposed to that point of view might be more prepared to support it." The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, says the Malaysian terrorists believed to have built the Bali bombs three years ago may have had a hand in the latest attacks. "It wouldn't be a surprise if this attack was tied up with those two people, but you can't be certain at this stage," Mr Downer told ABC television. "It's just got the characteristics of an al-Qaeda, well al-Qaeda but a Jemaah Islamiah style attack, and an attack that might have involved those two people. It's mere speculation at this stage." Security officials say Azahari is the author of the Jemaah Islamiah bomb manual, which was used in the Bali and Marriott bombings. Apart from providing technical expertise, he was allegedly a key figure in planning the attacks. Azahari was widely named as a possible successor to JI operations chief Hambali, an Indonesian who was arrested in Thailand last year and is in the custody of the United States.

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Terror Networks & Islam

Hiding in the shadows

2005-05-03

THE shadowy militants who abducted Douglas Wood allowed a Turkish prisoner to walk free last year - after he agreed to convert to Islam. The Shura Council of the Mujahedeen has been linked to hardcore insurgents who sparked the battles of Fallujah, some of the bloodiest fighting in the Iraq war. Last September, Turkish hostage Aytulla Gezman was allowed to walk free after he appeared on video promising to spread the word of Islam. A masked man on the same video makes clear that the group's patience is limited and that future perceived traitors in Iraq would not be spared. "The Shura Council of the Mujahedeen decided to release the Turkish hostage after he has converted to Islam and has repented for working with the infidel American occupation forces," the insurgent said. Like the myriad other insurgent groups in Iraq, the Shura Council wages campaigns of violence then goes to ground. The group was formed in the last 1990s by Muslim cleric and father of five Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi, who once held the title Emir of Fallujah. "I am the Emir of Fallujah! I have a sharp sword and no sense of humor." Saddam Hussein in 1998 suspended him from delivering his Friday sermons because they were critical of Saddam's regime. Al-Janabi resurfaced after the fall of Saddam and became a leading force in Fallujah. There were reported sightings of him spurring on frontline insurgents with his sermons during last year's siege of the city, but it is not known whether he survived the fighting. Although the Shura Council has shown compassion in the past, terrorism experts fear they could be preparing to make an example of Mr Wood. "It could be an Islamist group or it could be it's a Sunni insurgent group. Normally the Sunni insurgents have something which identify them to a particular area," said Clive Williams, a terrorism expert at the Australian National University. "I would say it is more likely an Islamist group. Their agenda is simply to publicise their cause then execute the hostage in the way that gets them the best coverage, which is usually beheading on video." Mr Wood is the fourth Australian to be kidnapped in Iraq. Journalist John Martinkus was taken last October, while an Australian cleric and an unnamed security contractor was abducted a month earlier. All were released.

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Southeast Asia

Indonesian coppers to question sprung Wan Min Wan Mat

2005-03-24

The National Police are considering seeking from Bali bombing suspect Wan Min Wan Mat -- who was released by Malaysian authorities on Monday after being detained since September 2002 -- more information on terror attacks in the country over the past few years. Spokesman for the National Police Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boedihardjo said the police had not yet arranged a meeting with their Malaysian counterparts to ask them for access to Wan Min. "Since our investigation of bombing incidents here is not yet complete, we might try to seek information from him (Wan Min) and find out how knowledgeable he is on the terror network in the country," Aryanto said. Wan Min had testified in a written statement read out by prosecutors in the trial of one of the Bali bombing suspects that he had sent around US$30,500 to a member of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) to finance "operations" in Indonesia. AFP reported that after his release, Wan Min, who was a lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said he had repented and renounced violence. Wan Min, who was held under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial, will be restricted to Kota Baru, Malaysia's northern Kelantan state's capital, and must report daily to police. However, there has been no official explanation as to why he was released and not prosecuted instead. According to a source in the Malaysian government, Wan Min is no longer considered a threat to national security. It remains uncertain as to whether Indonesian Police will use all information from Wan Min to build a new case against alleged JI spiritual leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, or to locate the country's most-wanted fugitives, Malaysian duo Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Moh. Top. Terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna of the Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, said that Wan Min was well established as an important member and leader of the JI and that it was very important that he should be prosecuted for his activities. Similarly, head of terrorism studies at the Australian National University Clive Williams, said news of Wan Min's release would be received with concern, particularly because 88 Australians were among those killed in the Bali nightclub blasts.

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Iraq-Jordan

Incursion doomed Care chief

2004-11-18

THE US-led offensive on the Iraqi city of Fallujah could have been the final straw that led to the execution of CARE Australia's Baghdad chief, Margaret Hassan. Or she could have been toast when the Lions of Islam kidnapped her... ... not that they needed any excuse, being defenders of the faith and all ... Ms Hassan's death was made public early yesterday when Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera revealed it had received a video showing a militant firing a pistol into the head of a blindfolded woman wearing an orange jumpsuit. Ms Hassan's kidnapping on October 19, as she drove to CARE's offices in Baghdad, was part of a string of kidnappings by insurgents and Islamists designed to drive out Coalition forces. The unnamed group later released several videos to Al-Jazeera in which Ms Hassan pleaded for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and the release of Iraqi women from prison. Al-Jazeera did not air the latest execution video but the Scotland Yard counter-terrorism squad the British deployed to Iraq was able to identify Ms Hassan by her height and identifiable markings after watching the video. The director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University, Clive Williams, said yesterday that negotiators in Iraq might have had a chance to secure her release if the US had held off their onslaught in Fallujah. Yesterday it emerged that Scotland Yard believed there was a genuine chance of securing Mrs Hassan's release when an unnamed group holding her threatened to hand her over to terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has been responsible for grisly beheadings of Westerners in Iraq. Surprisingly, the Jordanian-born terrorist responded with a statement that if Mrs Hassan - who worked tirelessly to help her fellow Iraqis over 30 years - was handed over to him he would immediately release her.

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Israel-Palestine

And they say Higher Education broadens the Mind?!

2004-09-12

Terrorism has been around for centuries. The sword has been upgraded to the bomb, the actors have changed, the targets have changed and the number of victims has escalated, but terrorism is as part of the political landscape now as it has been always. Stay vigilant and get used to it, say the experts. Vigilant OK, but USED to it?? "There has been politically motivated terrorism since the year dot," says terrorism expert Professor Clive Williams from the Australian National University. "It's just it wasn't always called terrorism in those days." In the name of religion, the Crusaders slaughtered women and children, and Guy Fawkes has a day of celebration named after him, even though his plot to blow up the British Parliament failed. Israel was born out of two terrorist groups, Irgun and the Stern Gang; the Palestine Liberation Organisation was born out of displaced Arabs and the desire for an independent state, their message passed on by the hijacking of international airliners. Clever twist of the truth. Untwist it and it reads like this: "The PLO was born out of terror. Israel was born out of displaced Jews and the desire for an independent state." Campaigns of terror have worked. One of of the most successful was waged by Jews against the British in Palestine, culminating with the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, - "that's an example of a considerable success". The Jewish group Irgun, which fought British rule, in 1946 blew up the hotel which was a British military post. Ninety-one people were killed, including women, children and Jews. The British left Palestine and in 1948 Israel was an independent state. I believe one or two women died and I'm not aware of any deaths of children. The British were WARNED beforehand that the hotel was going to be blown up, but chose not to evacuate. I never knew the birth of the State of Israel was such a ridiculously simple affair: bomb a hotel, the British leave, establish the state. Irgun leader Menachem Begin stressed his desire to avoid civilian casualties and said three telephone calls were placed, one to the hotel, another to the French Consulate, and a third to the Palestine Post, warning that explosives in the King David Hotel would soon be detonated. On July 22, 1946, the calls were made. The call into the hotel was apparently received and ignored. Begin quotes one British official who supposedly refused to evacuate the building, saying: "We don't take orders from the Jews." [From msn search - Irgun] Other terrorist groups have not been so successful, such as the ideologically driven Bader-Meinhof group. "Those sorts of people have been less successful because they've got older and they've got mortgages and, you know, have settled down." Huh? The guy's a PROFESSOR? Professor of WHAT?? Link fixed.

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