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ASIO watches 800 'extremists'
AUSTRALIA faces a serious new home-grown terror threat, with ASIO estimating that up to 800 Muslim "extremists" living here could be motivated to carry out a London-style attack.A year ago, the nation's security agencies revealed they were closely monitoring the activities of 70-80 Australians known to have trained with terrorist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But now, in the wake of the July 7 London attacks carried out by four suicide bombers previously unknown to British intelligence agencies, ASIO has identified a much larger number of Australians - between 700 and 800 people - who previously were not deemed a potential security risk. State premiers and the two chief ministers were yesterday briefed on threats to Australia's security by ASIO director-general Paul O'Sullivan and Office of National Assessments chief Peter Varghese during the COAG terror summit in Canberra. Another major security concern - which helped secure the unanimous agreement of the states and territories to a raft of new anti-terror legislation - is the resurgent strategic influence of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Security officials say al-Qaeda's "network of networks" continues to inspire, train and recruit new bands of terrorists around the globe, with the internet playing a vital role. The need for enhanced surveillance of a big number of home-grown extremists is driving a further expansion of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police, as well as the new counter-terrorism laws agreed to yesterday. The latest intelligence assessments also point to a possible direct role by al-Qaeda in the July 7 London bombings. Another looming worry for Australia's security agencies is the prospect of a chemical, radiological, biological or nuclear attack on Australia. The risk of a so-called CBRN attack, particularly bio-terrorism, prompted the Prime Minister to announce yesterday the creation of a $20 million CBRN research facility, as well as a national network of analytical laboratories. John Howard said terrorism had become the "shadowy, elusive and lethal enemy" confronting Australia and it had forced the Government to revamp its security regime in the wake of the London bombings. Mr Howard, who was in London during the July 7 attacks, said the "chilling reality" that terrorism could be homegrown had a lot to do with the new wave of counter-terrorism legislation. Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World 2005-09-27 |
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