Dunno if this made the news overseas, but it looks like they caught them in time.
Hopefully thats all of them....but I doubt it.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian police launched fresh raids after officials said they had foiled a "catastrophic act of terrorism" inspired by a radical Islamic cleric with the arrest of 17 suspects earlier in the day.

Federal police said they searched a home in the southwest Sydney suburb of Revesby Tuesday night as part of the sweep begun before dawn.

A spokesman would not comment on a radio report that a woman and two children had been taken from the house and that a second home in a nearby suburb was also raided.

The pre-dawn raids in the two largest cities of Melbourne and Sydney involved more than 450 heavily-armed officers backed by helicopters in Australia's largest anti-terror operation.

Police said one suspect was shot and seriously wounded after he fired at them.

The raids came less than a week after Prime Minister John Howard said he had credible information an attack was being planned and pushed an amendment to counter-terrorism laws through parliament.

The suspects were rushed to court within hours of their arrest. Prosecutors said chemicals seized in the raids were similar to those used in July's London suicide transport bombings which killed more than 50 people.

A court in Melbourne was told the suspects were committed to holy war and prepared to kill Australians and had discussed staging suicide bombings.

At least five of the accused are Australian citizens.

"Thankfully, the police forces of this country might just have prevented a catastrophic act of terrorism in this country," New South Wales Police Minister Carl Scully told reporters.

Police said they arrested seven people in Sydney and nine in Melbourne as a 16-month investigation culminated in pre-dawn raids on more than 20 homes.

Several hours afterwards another suspect was shot in the neck and critically injured after he fired at police who ordered him to stop as he walked along a suburban Sydney street near a mosque, police said.

NSW police commissioner Ken Moroney said the operation was ongoing and he expected further arrests in coming days and weeks.

Among those arrested in Melbourne was Algerian-born cleric Abu Bakr, also known as also known as Abdul Nacer Benbrika.

Prosecutors said he was the leader of both the Sydney and Melbourne groups, which were "committed to the cause of violent jihad" or holy war.

The 45-year-old cleric, who has previously praised Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as "a great man", was charged with directing activities of a "terrorist organisation" while the other Melbourne suspects were charged with membership of the organisation.

Prosecutors allege one of the men, named in court as Abdul Amahi, discussed becoming a suicide bomber because he wanted revenge on "infidels" for the war in Iraq, where Australia has sent troops.

The Sydney suspects were charged with preparing to manufacture explosives in preparation for a terrorist act. All those charged in both cities were refused bail.

The authorities did not detail any targets selected by the group but have said in recent months that suspects had carried out surveillance on the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, railway stations and the Melbourne stock exchange.

Victoria state police commissioner Christine Nixon said the alleged plot did not involve next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Federal police said they were examining computers seized during the raids for any evidence of links to international militant groups.

The arrests came days after the government passed an urgent amendment to anti-terrorism laws making it easier for police to prosecute suspects involved in the early stages of planning attacks.

The amendment was passed in response to Howard's warning of a credible threat of attack, which critics had suggested was scaremongering to distract attention from his conservative government's political problems.

Howard, a close ally of US President George W. Bush who contributed troops to the invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, said after the arrests that he would never exploit security issues for his own political ends.

Australia has not been attacked on its own soil in recent years but its citizens have been targeted elsewhere.

A suicide bomber hit the Australian embassy in Jakarta last year, and dozens of Australians were killed in attacks on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in 2002 and earlier this year

It is the beggining of "lost"

@ Squiddy,

I have no tolerance for people who would want to be involved in terrorism.

The saddest part of this whole story is that some of the people whom have been arrested with Australian Citizenship, had obtained it under refugee status. These people had left their war torn or poverty stricken countries to start a new life.

Here in Australia we offer them a better way of life that they would have otherwise not had in their own countries. We offer them free health, free democracy, free education, etc. And this is how they repay us.

I will stop here as I am afraid that if I continue I might say something that I might regret later on.

Peace,

SK

 

^ I hear ya mate.

Its scary stuff. At least today they are discussing removing citizenship from these people found guilty of terrorism and deporting them.

I just feel sorry for the islamic community in australia who 99.99% of are great people and get tainted by the actions of these extreme knobheads.

Peace and stay safe people

Squido

Squiddy,

I have a number of good friends, and who are of the Muslim faith... The story is simple - It's a shame that 1% of their Muslim population wreck it for the 99% of the population.

How do you control a disease with no cure? Ho do you control an epidemic that is out of control?

SK

^ dunno mate... I dunno. :(

 

Neither do I guys... I live near where they caught a guy bringing explosives across the CDN border into the US a few years ago. He was planning on driving down to LA to help some terrorists set 'em off at the airport there.

Scary stuff, but I'm not going to change my life over it.

@ Flea,

 

 

LOL!!!

SK

@ Squidsy And Serial Killa,

Welcome to the crap the USA has been putting up with for the last 50 years, you think it's bad now, it only escalates from here fella's. Austrailia is a great country thriving in Democracy which means guess what? Your hated by the brain washed, rebrobate, Koran living, inconsiderate, Buddist, Muslim, faction that is set out to destroy the infidel. Which is you guys. Now think about this, they hate us because we are rich, but these same people are to freaking stupid to recoginize the ones that lead them live in lush palaces. With an aresenal of 20 or so Roll's Royces. So think again if you even begin to imagine your appreciated for your tax contribution that they live on. Hate all infidels has been pumped into them since birth and the terrorist are very good at blending, we learned that on 9/11. Good luck to you all down under..

RS

Finally, a nice move on our part.

Last edited: Thursday, November 10, 2005 at 1:03:07 PM

@ Flea

Evcer heard of Alkatraz?

They must have heard sub moved there.... I think Bolos in on all this

Watch your back Squidy....let us know if you need back-up and we'll come in with the tanks.

@ Tanskter
That's in a bay not an ocean :)

Serial Killa

Depends what you would class as a terrorist. I for one would not class the PIRA or ETA and such groups as terrorist but others would. I'm also sure that the Spanish & English governments justified the murders of thousands yes thousands of people because they were offering a "better way of life" or more correctly their way of life.

Some people "my realtives included" in our so called democracies have been burned out of our houses & had relatives shot in frount of them because we wore the green in the wrong streets in Ireland or went to the wrong church. "Police" their to protect our rights? Did they help? No they stood by and watched & in some cases were an active part of the atrocities. What choice do such people have but to take up the gun.

Of course both groups would never have survived without the majority support of their respective communities. The IRA also never had active service units in the USA or Scotland due to communities that supported their cause. ETA likewise had no active units operating in dispiuted areas of Spain such a Catalonia.

The IRA has finally stood down as have pretty much the Basque sepratists and in both cases the bomb helped realise the goals of equality & a better safer way of life without fear for all people in the community. In the case of the IRA it has taken 83 years of justified military action to finally change from the bomb to the ballot box.

If countries such a France are now seeing race riots due to inequality of life & muslim groups are now targetting countries then there is still something definately wrong with the so called democracies or the leaders of the democracies & the policies they are enforcing on the rest of the world. These radical groups "terrorists" however will eventually fail in their aim as they do not have the majority of support from the population or religous ideology they claim to be defending.

Allowing an Israeli soldier to be cleared of emptying a magazine into a 7 year old girl as was the case yesterday certainly does not make a good case for a democraticcountry in action but confirms a valid case for taking up Nationalist action to defend your country and your way of life. Who would you class as the terrorist here the Israeli and the state that has cleared him of such an action or the little girl's brother for taking up arms?

I too was shocked at the Bali bombings, 9/11 etc... But these group will continue until such time as US & G8 policy is radically changed.

Last edited: Thursday, November 17, 2005 at 5:54:41 AM