AL-QAEDA THREAT APPEARS TO BE AUTHENTIC, SAY AUSTRALIANS

The Canberra Times
Tuesday, 13 September 2005

An al-Qaeda threat singling out Melbourne for a terrorist attack, the first time an Australian city has been targeted, appeared to be authentic, the Federal Government said yesterday.

Terrorism experts said the latest warning should be taken very seriously, while the Victorian Government advised people not to panic. The threat, made on the anniversary of the 2001 bombings in the United States, came in a video aired on the American ABC network which says it obtained the tape in Pakistan.

The tape shows a masked United States-born member of al-Qaeda, believed to be Californian man Adam Gadahn, threatening attacks on Melbourne and Los Angeles.

"Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne," the speaker says, warning attackers will show no compassion. Australia's terrorist alert will remain at medium as ASIO examines the video. Last month a balaclava-clad English-speaking man, with an apparent Australian accent, appeared in a videotaped message calling for war on the West after the terrorist attacks on London.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock suggested there should not be undue alarm despite the new tape's likely authenticity. "Relevant agencies are currently assessing the statements made in the video but at this stage indications are that it is authentic, but that does not mean the statements in it are anything more than rhetoric," he said. "I take every act of this sort seriously, it could be a hoax or it could be very serious. "The information contained in the video does not provide any basis to change the threat levels to Australia or Australian interests overseas."

Mr Ruddock said the video message could be the second from Gadahn, who first made statements against the West in a tape in October 2004. This was the first time an Australian city had been named, although Australian interests and embassies had been targeted by terrorists in the past.

"I agonise about whether or not we have taken sufficient steps to deal with what I know is a real threat in broad terms," he said. Melbourne could have been singled out because it is hosting the Commonwealth Games next year.

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said he was confident of the security arrangements in place for a series of upcoming events, including the AFL grand final, the Melbourne Cup and the Commonwealth Games.

"We would be playing into the hands of the people who perpetrated this media exercise in producing a video, we would be playing into their hands if all of a sudden we said, 'Oh yes, we're fearful'," he said.