|
Australia deploys loudspeakers and sneak raids against terror
Australian authorities on Wednesday revealed new anti-terror measures ranging from loudspeakers on city streets to plans to secretly search and bug homes and businesses. The proposal to give police unprecedented powers drew immediate criticism amidst concerns over the handling of a recent case against an Indian doctor accused of links to failed car bombings in Britain.Police and security agencies would be allowed to search the homes and computers of suspects without their knowledge and intercept communications under legislation to go before parliament next week. Police and security officers would be able to assume false identities to gain entry and conduct the surreptitious searches, seize equipment and plant listening devices. The suspects would not have to be informed of the raids for up to 18 months under delayed notification warrants, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Senator Kerry Nettle of the opposition Greens party said an inquiry was needed into the bungled terrorism case against Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef before police were given new powers. Now is not the time to be proposing extensive new powers for the Australian Federal Police, she said. Haneef was held in Australia for more than three weeks and charged with providing support to a terror group in connection with Junes failed car bombings in London and Glasgow. But the case collapsed last week due to a lack of evidence against the doctor, who had been working in a state government hospital, and he was allowed to fly home to Bangalore. The installation of loudspeakers on the streets of Australias biggest city Sydney, meanwhile, was greeted more lightly by the media as a sign of the sort of citizen control employed in countries like North Korea. Dozens of speakers have been installed around Sydneys central business district to tell people what to do in the event of a major emergency like a terror attack, the state government said. The complete system is due to be in operation ahead of the summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Sydney next month, which will draw 21 leaders including the US President George W Bush. But it was not designed specifically for the summit and could be used to deliver a range of messages to people in the city, said Police Minister David Campbell. If there were a terrorist event or a major building fire and there were people in the streets, this is a way of giving them information, Campbell said. Posted by: Fred 2007-08-02 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=195089 |