Action plan for doomsday threat
The News Review:
- Action plan for doomsday threat
- Alarmed by 7/7 attacks, Australia reaches out to Muslims
- One for the pot
Action plan for doomsday threat
NEWS.com.au – Aug 27, 2005
Authorities have recorded the emergence of a growing number of men and women willing to champion violence in the name of Islam. Australia, in their view, is at real risk of an attack that could well come from within, as with the London bombings. The home-grown threat is not an assessment that sits comfortably with intelligence chiefs who have for the past three years kept the national security threat level anchored at medium. Nor has a rethink been forced by the arrest of six Australians on terror charges, the capture of three alleged home-grown terrorists in Afghanistan, two more in the Middle East, and the recent emergence of a balaclava-clad jihadi with a suburban Australian accent threatening to rain more bombs on non-Muslim nations. While the mastermind of history’s most devastating act of terror, Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, was putting the finishing touches to the jet hijackings in the US, he found time to drop into the Australian High Commission in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, to apply for an Australian visa. As The Australian revealed on September 22 last year, KSM, as he is now known, was granted a multiple entry visa, but never got around to using it…
In the weeks that followed the Bali bombings of October 2, 2002 – which claimed 202 lives, among them 88 Australians – the homes of 12 people across the three cities were raided and their occupants linked to Jemaah Islamiah, the network behind the Bali atrocity. Within weeks, the first home-grown terrorist was arrested. Jack Roche, a former taxi driver, admitted to plotting to bomb the Israeli embassy in Canberra after he had met bin Laden and his inner circle in Afghanistan. By then, former Sydney cleaner Mamdouh Habib and Adelaide man David Hicks had been rounded up in Pakistan and Afghanistan and flown to the US-run prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In 2003, the interest in Australia by foreign jihadis and the willingness of locals to dabble in their causes escalated. The visit in May that year of Frenchman Willie Brigitte has been assessed by ASIO to be the most serious terrorism threat Australia has yet faced.
Alarmed by 7/7 attacks, Australia reaches out to Muslims
Khaleej Times – Aug 27, 2005
It would have produced chaos instead of tackling Howard’s agenda. How could Howard have welcomed to Parliament House Melbourne’s outspoken Shaikh Mohammed Omran when the Prime Minister has condemned the cleric’s praise of Osama bin Laden as appalling? Howard called the summit to discuss how to “eradicate inflammatory exhortations to violence and intolerance”. The government is particularly concerned about the threat of home grown extremists making copycat attacks in the style of the London bombings. When the summit finally got underway, it was overshadowed by Australia’s participation in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some delegates said pulling Australian troops out of Iraq could reduce the growth of Islamic extremism. Muslim Women’s National Network president Aziza Abdel Halim said many young people were attracted to radical preaching because of Western involvement in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One for the pot
Telegraph.co.uk – Aug 27, 2005
Beetroot, radishes and spring onions all grow easily from seed, planted directly into pots, as do some lettuce varieties and childhood favourites such as mustard and cress. Look out for seed selections that contain mixes of coriander, chervil, cress, rocket, parsley and mustard. Herbs Good cooks know that there is nothing like home-grown herbs and most will thrive on a balcony. Some, such as parsley, coriander, tarragon and basil, can be bought ready-grown in pots from supermarkets. A great tip when growing basil is to put the pot in a polystyrene container for extra insulation, or put it in a larger tub, then pack polystyrene in the gap between the pots.