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Politics : Bush Administration's Media Manipulation--MediaGate? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (5488)	11/7/2005 7:48:33 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 9838

Those pesky Methodists..... 17 held in Australia terror swoop Monday, November 7, 2005; Posted: 7:23 p.m. EST (00:23 GMT) SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Australian authorities have arrested 17 people Tuesday on counterterrorism charges in Melbourne and Sydney and credited their 18-month investigation with averting terrorist bombings. "We believe that we've been able to significantly disrupt a proposed terrorist attack here in Australia," New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney told Australia's Channel 7 Television. Australia's Sky News services reports that one suspect who had been under surveillance was shot and wounded by police involved in the raids. Police did not immediately confirm the man was a terror suspect. An Associated Press photographer on the scene said a bomb squad robot was being used to examine a backpack the suspect was wearing when he was shot, The Associated Press reports. The men have been charged with offenses "that include sections of Commonwealth legislation that have not been previously used, relating to being a member of a terrorist group, conspiring to commit a terrorist act and directing a terrorist organization," the Australian Federal Police said in a written statement. The arrests followed the execution of 22 search warrants across Sydney and Melbourne Tuesday morning during which a range of material "including unidentified substances, firearms, travel documents, computers and backpacks" was seized, the statement said. "By working collaboratively, Australia's law enforcement and intelligence agencies have managed to disrupt the alleged activities of this group and therefore protect the Australian community from a potential terrorist threat," Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner John Lawler said. Police arrested eight people in New South Wales state and nine people in Victoria state. The charges include acts in preparation of a terrorist act, being a member of a terrorist group, and conspiracy to commit a terrorist act. One man also has been charged with directing a terrorist organization. "Today's arrests follow a lengthy operation where law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been monitoring and investigating the activities of a group allegedly intent on carrying out what we assess as some sort of terrorist act in Australia," NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said. "It will be alleged in court that following months of discussion, individuals had moved to the point of planning some sort of activity including the purchase of potentially dangerous materials." Asked if bombings had been planned, Moroney said, "Certainly so." Chemicals that, when mixed, could have made a bomb, were confiscated, he said. Those arrested "don't appear to belong to an organization by name, per se," but the two groups were closely connected, Moroney said. At least five of the eight taken into custody in New South Wales were Australian citizens, though they were born elsewhere, he said. "It's not so much the nature of the ethnic origin or any religious issue; the prime issue for us as law enforcement agencies certainly has to be the prevention and investigation of acts of terrorism." The warrants are part of a joint counterterrorism operation by the Australian Federal Police, New South Wales Police, Victoria Police, the New South Wales Crime Commission and Australian Security Intelligence Organization. The arrests come less than a week after Prime Minster John Howard held a nationally televised news conference in which he said Australia had received intelligence about a "terrorist threat." Howard also recalled Australia's upper house of parliament so it could pass urgent amendments to controversial anti-terror laws on Thursday which now allow police to charge people in the early stages of planning an attack. Australia, a steadfast ally of the Bush administration, has never suffered a major terror attack on home soil but its embassy and citizens have been targeted in neighboring Indonesia. Eighty-eight Australians were among the 202 people killed in the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings. The country has been on medium security alert since shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.