Australia halts imminent large scale terror attack

[Templar Knight]

Sydney (dpa) - Arrests during a dawn raid of homes in Sydney and Melbourne have averted a "large scale" terrorist attack, police said Tuesday.

The suspects had reportedly carried out surveillance of targets such as the world-famous icons Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and rail stations and the stock exchange in Melbourne.

The 15 arrests came four days after an amendment to the terror laws was rushed through in a special session of parliament to deal with a "specific threat" to national security. The new law made it easier to detain suspects believed to be in early stages of planning attacks.

The change came at the insistence of intelligence agencies, who feared a group of locally born Moslem extremists were planning a terrorist attack.

"I am satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a large scale terrorist attack or the launch of a large scale terrorist attack in Australia," New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Maroney said.

Fifteen men were arrested after helicopters and 400 police swept through suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne.

"They are currently being interviewed by police and my expectation is that they will appear in Sydney courts this morning," Maroney said.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_...s.php?id=60372
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdeta...?storyID=83629
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17159600-2,00.html

[Papewaio]

Yeah, it was on the radio this morning.

Remarkable calm responses overall. People are just waiting for more information... more people are alarmed about the law changes on the whole...

[Templar Knight]

Is it an on-going operation or has it finished? You would think there should be a news blank.

Police are raiding homes in Sydney and Melbourne in a counter-terrorism operation involving federal and state officers. Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the raids were continuing....

[Papewaio]

No they are revealing who has been arrested.

[Samurai Waki]

Well thank god Australia got something right that the America couldn't... had this happened four years ago I doubt it could have been averted... bloody terrorists!

[Crazed Rabbit]

Huzzah! Well done, mates!

Crazed Rabbit

[Xiahou]

Good job Australia.

[GoreBag]

I'll wait until I've heard more information.

[bmolsson]

Very good news for everyone......

[Templar Knight]

The clerics followers seem to be a violent crowd, attacking people outside the court.

[Tribesman]

I'll wait until I've heard more information.

Might be a good idea , look at what happened to Britain , massive arrests lots of publicity , despicable terrorists intent on chemical slaughter of Londoners thwarted .
Turned out to be a pile of crap , meanwhile they gave up surveilance on some of those that turned out to be real terrorists who carried out the London bombings .

edit to addThe clerics followers seem to be a violent crowd, attacking people outside the court.

Yeah that fat bloke was quite fast for his size .

[Radier]

Those who planned the attack ought to be shot...

[Papewaio]

Actually I would prefer life... and that to mean actual length of life.

Also those who are found guility should not be considered muslims, they are terrorists who have contorted the faith of muslims to something evil. As such they should not get told which direction Mecca is, no prayer mat, no Koran and no Halal food. They if found guilty have proven that they are not Muslims by being terrorists and as such should not be treated as Muslims.

If the violent sects within the Muslim community on the other hand still thinks that convicted terrorists should be treated as Muslims then we should have a serious review on immigration of the more violent sects.

[yesdachi]

Actually I would prefer life... and that to mean actual length of life.

Also those who are found guility should not be considered muslims, they are terrorists who have contorted the faith of muslims to something evil. As such they should not get told which direction Mecca is, no prayer mat, no Koran and no Halal food. They if found guilty have proven that they are not Muslims by being terrorists and as such should not be treated as Muslims.

If the violent sects within the Muslim community on the other hand still thinks that convicted terrorists should be treated as Muslims then we should have a serious review on immigration of the more violent sects.

They should be feed hamburgers and fries and their cells should be painted red white and blue.

[Leet Eriksson]

I saw it on the news

I'm immensely relieved.

[Papewaio]

They should be feed hamburgers and fries and their cells should be painted red white and blue.

Actually I would get Queer Eyes For A Straight Guy to decorate their cells...

[AntiochusIII]

They should be feed hamburgers and French fries and their cells should be painted red white and blue.

Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité?

In that former British colony?

I could not comment on the situation until more information is recieved.

[SomeNick]

Actually I would prefer life... and that to mean actual length of life.

Also those who are found guility should not be considered muslims, they are terrorists who have contorted the faith of muslims to something evil. As such they should not get told which direction Mecca is, no prayer mat, no Koran and no Halal food. They if found guilty have proven that they are not Muslims by being terrorists and as such should not be treated as Muslims.

If the violent sects within the Muslim community on the other hand still thinks that convicted terrorists should be treated as Muslims then we should have a serious review on immigration of the more violent sects.

Totaly agree.



Quote:
Originally Posted by yesdachi
They should be feed hamburgers and fries and their cells should be painted red white and blue.


Actually I would get Queer Eyes For A Straight Guy to decorate their cells...


Uhm dunno 'bout this one though lol! That could be considered terrorising them which would be sinking to their level wouldn't it. :O

[Fragony]

The clerics followers seem to be a violent crowd, attacking people outside the court.

Ya, maybe I need to move to australia after all, feels just like home.

[Adrian II]

It seems that some of the gentlemen arrested in Australia were eyeing the country's only nuclear power plant at Lucas Heights, in southern Sydney, as a likely target. If all of this is true and if the prosecution can make it stick (and it is increasingly looking as if they will) I hope they will be given an exemplary sentence.

What is the maximum sentence for planning a terrorist attack in Australia?

[English assassin]

What is the maximum sentence for planning a terrorist attack in Australia?

Wouldn't it be ironic if it was deportation to the UK...

[Adrian II]

Wouldn't it be ironic if it was deportation to the UK...

It would tie in with what a friend recently said to me, i.e. that the U.S. are now using the Brits in the same way the Brits used the Gurkhas one hundred years ago.

[English assassin]

Not 100 years ago. We still do have Gurkhas. About 3000 of them and very nice, polite, and dangerous men they are too.

Anyway, the difference is we pay for the Gurkhas. What we do for Uncle Sam seems to be more in the way of a favour, or possibly an aged parent eager still to be needed.

[Tribesman]

We still do have Gurkhas. About 3000 of them and very nice, polite, and dangerous men they are too.

Yep drinking in a pub full of Gurkhas is a real eye opener , so different from other squaddies down the pub , though I always found the Paras well behaved aswell , unless some non-Para squaddies turned up .

[Papewaio]

Sentence... probably about 25 years max served concurrently ... I would prefer a ruling that terrorism/treason cannot be served concurrently... but I will have to wait and see what really happens.

=][=

On a lighter note apparently the Terrorists had to get parental permission to join the Jihad... not sure if it means the parents are accomplacies... but it makes for a very strange mind space of the would be mass murderers.

Mums' permission needed for terror plan

Extracts from transcripts of secretly recorded conversations, produced in evidence yesterday before Sydney's Central Local Court, show that the terror suspects were allegedly ordered by their spiritual leader, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, to consult their parents before waging jihad.

"Some people claim to love jihad but don't respect their own parents," Mr Benbrika allegedly said. "You need permission from your parents to go to jihad. If your mother says no jihad, then no jihad."