Australian Terrorist Plot Foiled

Tuesday morning, at 2:30 am, 15 people were arrested in the planning of a terrorist attack meant to do much damage to Australia, but no specific target was released to the public. When 400 police officers set out to search for these men, they found 9 of them in Melbourne and 6 of them in Sydney.

While the Red Bluff Daily News claims that 16 people were arrested, a woman in a live interview with Al Rantell at KABC 790am around 6pm claims there were only 15. News may be disputed at this early moment.

Prime Minister John Howard had stated last week there was information about a terrorist plot to attack Australia. This prompted the Parliament to rush through a bill allowing the search to find these, and other, terrorists.

"I was satisfied that this state was under an imminent threat of potentially a catastrophic terrorist act," said New South Wales Police Minister Carl Scully.

Just last week, Howard warned that Australian authorities had received specific intelligence about an attack on the country and pushed through Parliament changes to existing anti-terrorism laws to allow police to arrest people involved in the early stages of planning an unspecified terror attack. Nixon said some of the arrests Tuesday were made possible by the new legislation.

One of the people captured is Imam Abdul Nacker Ben Brika, also known as Abu Bakr, who favors Osama bin Ladin. He is an outspoken radical Muslim cleric.

"The members of the Sydney group have been gathering chemicals of a kind that were used in the London Underground bombings," Maidment said. He said Bakr was the group's ringleader.

They will now have plenty of time to think about what they were planning. Thankfully, so will we.