The Federal Government is set to name a new batch of terrorist organisations that ASIO believes have developed links with Australia. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock told The Sunday Age yesterday that an announcement would be made soon about "a number of organisations" but declined to name them. These groups, one of which is believed to be based in Pakistan, may be receiving significant amounts of money from Australia or providing terrorist training to Australians.
| That'd likely be Lashkar e-Taiba... |
Mr Ruddock confirmed that the arrest of Sydney medical student Izhar ul-Haque, 21, on terrorism training charges last week was just "one element" of a wider investigation into possible terrorist activities in Australia. An Australian group representing a Pakistani political party said yesterday it had alerted federal police that four men who arrived in Australia from Pakistan this year, posing as delegates, may be linked to the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET). The president of the Sydney-based Pakistan Muslim League in Australia, Mohammed Malik, said authorities had interviewed one of them in Melbourne and he believed the others were in hiding in Sydney. He said he understood the men, aged between 20 and 28, had arrived in Australia with visitors' visas about two months ago. Waseem Aslam and Farooq Khan arrived in Sydney, while Azher Hussain and Ashfaq Ahmed arrived in Perth. Mr Malik said the four had contacted his Sydney-based community group, a small organisation representing a party in Pakistan that supports President Pervez Musharraf, claiming to be visiting delegates. Mr Malik said checks with the party's central secretariat in Islamabad had revealed this was not so.
| Couldn't even get their cover stories lined up? Hafiz Saeed's falling down on the job... |
He said that background checks on each man in Islamabad suggested they were possibly LET members. Mr Malik accused the men of "misusing our letterhead" and said the four had fled after the organisation alerted federal police that they were posing as delegates. Mr Malik said it was unclear how the four men had obtained visas. "There is no 100 per cent (certainty) that these are the terrorists," he said. "But there is suspicion. They are suspected (by) the authorities and . . . us too that they belong to the terrorist group LET."
| Chances are probably better than 90 percent that they are... |
He said he feared some people may be hiding suspected terrorists in Australia. He was concerned at news of Ul-Haque's arrest, and would be "disappointed if Pakistani people are involved" in terrorism.
| "Surprised, no. Disappointed, yes." |
Mr Ruddock said yesterday that links between any terrorist organisation and Australia - including the transfer of money, recruitment for terrorist training or sending equipment or other goods overseas - would be grounds for the Government to arrest anyone who was a member of that group or associated with it. "There are other organisations to which I am giving some consideration . . . they are at various stages of consideration," Mr Ruddock revealed. "They are organisations that are known terrorist organisations, where we believe there are linkages with Australia." After advice from ASIO, Mr Ruddock must inform Opposition Leader Mark Latham and the premiers. A majority of states can block the move, but it is expected federal Labor and the states will support a listing recommended by ASIO. Mr Ruddock said he was concerned about Australians helping to finance overseas terrorist activities - sometimes believing they were helping charity. "There are allegations that significant amounts of money are shifted in a variety of means to a variety of organisations and often communities here in Australia that have linkages to communities abroad are vulnerable to that sort of pressure to support offshore activities," he said. Several government agencies were "vigorously" trying to crack the flow of funds.
Neil Fergus, head of a private Australian security firm that has provided anti-terrorism training in Athens for this year's Olympics, said "There is no doubt that there are a small handful of people that have been intimately involved in Lashkar-e-Taiba for a period of time, including some of them having trained there and it is a major focus of investigations by authorities." Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University, agreed it was possible al-Qaeda and affiliate groups such as LET now had a latent terrorist capability in Australia. He also warned that tightened security measures for international travel may have raised the threat from sleeper elements already in Australia. Those who might have previously provided only logistical support may now be called on to carry out terrorist attacks. |