Terror suspects arrested in Melbourne after bomb plot uncove

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Terror suspects arrested in Melbourne after bomb plot uncovered

Staff writers

August 04, 2009 06:20am


UPDATE 8.52am: FOUR people have been arrested after police swooped on a suspected terror cell during raids across Melbourne this morning.

Police swooped about 4.30am, executing 19 warrants on homes in Glenroy, Carlton, Meadow Heights, Roxburgh Park, Broadmeadows, Westmeadows, Preston, Epping and Colac.

Four people - a 26-year-old Carlton man, a 25-year-old Preston man, a 25-year-old man from Glenroy and a 22-year-old man from Meadow Heights - had been arrested and were being interviewed by police.

Police said several more were assisting them with their inquiries.

The raids came after a suicide bomb plot by suspected Islamic extremists in Melbourne was uncovered.

Police said all those arrested were Australian citizens

The group is thought to be linked to extremists in Somalia.


Police believe the group was planning to launch an attack on an Australian army base, possibly in Victoria.

Victoria has four army bases – in Albury-Wodonga, Puckapunyal, Watsonia and Broadmeadows – as well as three RAAF bases and a Navy base at Crib Point.

Victoria Police Commissioner Simon Overland said: "I can assure the Victorian community that we are doing everything in our power to ensure the state remains one of the safest in the country."

Emily Howard, 21, lives about four doors away from where one of the warrants was executed in View St, Glenroy.

She said it was scary to think something like this could be happening in her own street.

Ms Howard said she didn’t hear any police sirens or noise during the raid.

The first she heard of it was this morning when her boyfriend told her after seeing it on TV.

“I thought it was a joke,” she said. “To think someone in your street could do something like that. It’s just horrible.”

She said she had lived on the “quiet” street for 15 years.

The mass counter-terrorism operation, the second largest ever in Australia, involved the Australian Federal Police, Victoria and NSW Police, the NSW Crime Commission and the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation.

At least 400 officers were involved in the raid.

A spokesman for Premier John Brumby said: "The Premier has received a preliminary briefing. The Government will await further advice before commenting further."

The Australian reports the members of the group had been discovered carrying out surveillance on the Holsworthy Barracks in Western Sydney.

The group is reportedly inspired by the Somalia-based terrorist movement al-Shabaab, with two Melbourne members thought to have travelled to Somalia to train with the al-Qaida aligned terror group.

One of them has since return to Australia while the other remains in Somalia.

Al-Shabaab, which is using suicide bombers and jihadist fighters in an attempt to overthrow the Somali government, seeks to impose a pure, hardline form of Islam, and sees the West as its enemy.

The organisation controls much of southern Somalia, excluding the capital, Mogadishu. The group is led by Sheikh Mohamed Mukhtar Abdirahman "Abu Zubeyr", but it is believed a core group of senior leaders is responsible for plotting the group's actions.

Al-Shabaab been declared a terrorist organisation by the US and it has close links with al-Qaida leaders, including Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, an architect of the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which 223 people died.

The suspects include Australians of Somali and Lebanese decent, most of whom are labourers employed in Melbourne's construction industry, or taxi drivers.

It is understood that several members of the Melbourne-based group also wanted to travel to Somalia to fight with al-Shabaab, but when travel became difficult, they turned their attention to carrying out a terrorist attack in Australia.

Al-Shabaab is currently searching for jihadist recruits around the world, including in Australia.

Authorities fear that Australian Muslims who travel to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab could return to Australia as sleeper agents for future attacks in this country.

- By Cameron Stewart, Sarah Wotherspoon

[charlou]

I approve of Rudd's low key, non-alarmist approach to this in a statement he made earlier today. Also he emphasised that 'under Australia's justice system all persons are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law'.

Australians will be concerned to hear about arrests of this nature in our midst. Our assessment of the terrorist threat in Australia is that it comes from a small number of individuals who in no way should be taken as a wider reflection of any group within Australian society. Nationally, Australia has well developed plans and procedures to deal with terrorist threats. I am advised that events today do not at this time warrant any change to our national counter-terrorism level which remains at medium as it has been since the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States.

[Hermit]

I approve of Rudd's low key, non-alarmist approach to this in a statement he made earlier today. Also he emphasised that 'under Australia's justice system all persons are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law'.

Australians will be concerned to hear about arrests of this nature in our midst. Our assessment of the terrorist threat in Australia is that it comes from a small number of individuals who in no way should be taken as a wider reflection of any group within Australian society. Nationally, Australia has well developed plans and procedures to deal with terrorist threats. I am advised that events today do not at this time warrant any change to our national counter-terrorism level which remains at medium as it has been since the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States.

The way the current Australian government handles the issue is in stark contrast to the scare mongering approach of the previous one. I am also impressed by Rudd's repeated mention that, like everybody else, the people arrested are deemed innocent until or unless proven guilty. I wish he was in charge when the twin towers were destroyed. He might have spared us the repressive anti terrorism laws.

[Trolldor]

I thought he was alright... I suppose he's a little better but I'm not going to call him the change we need.

[Hermit]

I thought he was alright... I suppose he's a little better but I'm not going to call him the change we need.

Quite so. The main reason I like him is the alternative. If the so called Libs had not lost the last election, Howard would not have retired. Fancy yet another term with him?

[Trolldor]

To be honest I don't think there's much of a difference.

[Hermit]

To be honest I don't think there's much of a difference.

Once again: agreed. There is no great deal of difference between the Libs and the Labs, but once again again: given the choice between two slightly different government platforms I sure know which one I prefer.