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Terrorists planning for attack in Ocean Grove
THE sleepy coastal Victorian town of Ocean Grove is just a stone's throw from the hamlet made famous by the hit television series SeaChange.As such, it's one of the last places on earth you would expect to find terrorists training for an attack. Not so, according to Prosecutor Richard Maidment QC, who today told the Melbourne Magistrate's Court that nine men arrested in suburban raids overnight formed a terrorist group to kill innocent men and women in Australia. Mr Maidment said the Melbourne suspects had been planning terror crimes for more than 12 months, had undertaken military training, and were planning another training weekend in Ocean Grove. But the court was told the Ocean Grove plan came unstuck because of a troublesome landlord. Locals said the strip from Queenscliff to Barwon Heads, not far from the start of the famed Great Ocean Road, is more likely to field groups on a golf or bowls trip. While a massive influx of holidaymakers doubles the population of the region to some 80,000 people at the height of summer, a group of men acting suspiciously would surely be noticed. "It's a great place â warm, friendly, it's still one of your old school neighbourhoods," Ocean Grove Hotel general manager Ashley Kreig said. "I mean 20 years ago or 10 years ago you used to be able to leave your front door open and the kids could play in the street â that's what Ocean Grove's still like today." Besides, one of those arrested in Melbourne was Abu Bakr, a Muslim cleric who already has a public profile after attracting headlines in August for publicly stating his support for al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. "There's plenty of other places to go â if they wanted to blend in they'd be much better off going to a bigger place like Ballarat or even Geelong," Mr Kreig said. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-11-08 |
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