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| Down Under |
| Keelty shocked at suicide-baby bomb plot |
| 2006-08-13 |
| AUSTRALIA'S top police officer has described an alleged plan to use a baby in the foiled British terror bombing plot as a chilling development. But Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty has backed away from tougher security measures at airports, saying the idea of testing infant's milk before air travel should be left up to regulators. Scotland Yard police are questioning a husband and wife who allegedly planned to hide a liquid bomb in their baby's bottle to bring down an airliner. They are among the 23 suspects arrested over the plot to blow up airliners headed for the United States in mid-flight. Mr Keelty today expressed dismay at the alleged plan to use a child in a suicide mission. "The phenomena of suicide bombings as a new way of taking part in terror attacks is in itself concerning, but to think or imagine that anybody would use an innocent child to join them is even more disconcerting," he said on Channel 9. "And I think it just goes to show you the sorts of difficulties that we're now facing in the environment that we're all in." But Mr Keelty was cautious about the state of airport security and brushed aside the question of testing babies' milk. "That's an issue for the regulatory authorities, for the airline operators, you know, we've got to think about a lot of people here, a lot of interests," he said. "We've got airlines that need to fly, we've got a lot of people employed by airlines and in the airline industry. "We need to take advice from the airline operators and also the regulatory agencies like the Department of Transport and Regional Services." Mr Keelty said shutting down airports in the wake of the UK plot would hand victory to the terrorists. "The important thing here is that we get on with life, that if we shut everything down, if we make it so hard to travel by air or by any other means, if we shut our lives down it means that the terrorists have won," he said. "What we've got to do is work within a balance, we've got to risk manage it, we've got to understand where the risks are and deploy resources appropriately to where those risks are. "But the reality of life is that this is a new world order and nobody's got an easy fix solution to this. We're all dealing with it." Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb. Cossor took her baby with her to the police station during last week's raids but her son is now being cared for by grandparents. Cossor's grandfather, Nazir Ahmed, 84, said Abdula had travelled to Pakistan about four weeks ago. "We didn't understand what the hurry was and why he needed to go," Mr Ahmed said. A neighbour at the flats where the married couple lived said he would be stunned if claims were true. "I simply cannot believe he could have been involved in a plot like this. He is religious and seemed to love his family," the neighbour said. "I would never have dreamed he could have been involved in anything like this." A family friend of Cossor said she had known the arrested mother 12 years and believed her to be innocent. "I think it is a case of mistaken identity. The last thing she'd be interested in is terrorism. They are just simple day-to-day people going about their own business," she said. Police in England have reportedly recovered bottles containing peroxide, including some with false bottoms, from a recycling centre close to the homes of some of the arrested suspects. It has emerged MI5 agents launched covert intrusions on the homes of some suspects several weeks ago in "sneak and peek" operations to plant listening devices and gather evidence ahead of the arrests last week. Links between suspects in the jet bomb plot and those behind the London 7/7 attacks have also come to light. There are reports as many as five of those arrested attended the same terror training camp in Pakistan as two of the July 7 London suicide bombers. And US intelligence sources said they believed at least two of the suspects had trained in Karachi and met al-Qaeda operatives in the lead up to the 7/7 attacks. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |
| #3 Any more depraved? Hang around. I'll bet they can top it. Easy... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-08-13 23:38 |
| #2 Just when I thought they couldn't get any more depraved... |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie 2006-08-13 23:35 |
| #1 Welcome to the new reality people babies as bombs this F*ckers have got to go. |
| Posted by: djohn66 2006-08-13 22:23 |