Howard rules out Iraq role as risk factor

By GREG ANSLEY Herald correspondent

CANBERRA - The Madrid bombings have sent new tremors through Australia, with warnings yesterday of an inevitable terrorist attack because of the nation's intervention in East Timor and its alliance with the United States.

The Spanish tragedy has also widened the wounds over Australia's participation in the Iraq war after Prime Minister John Howard rejected Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty's view that Madrid may have been attacked because it sent troops to Iraq.

Labor, outpolling the Government in election year, has in turn attacked Howard for dismissing the views of a man who has played a significant role in Australia's counter-terrorism drive in Asia since the Bali bombings.

Although popular support swung behind the troops after Howard committed them to Iraq, most Australians opposed the war and any evidence that Australia had been put in greater danger by the decision would damage the Prime Minister.

The Government said when it joined the United States-led Coalition that the ousting of Saddam Hussein would make Australia safer from terrorism, and Howard yesterday repeated his assertion that involvement in Iraq had not increased the risk of attack.

"There is no direct link between what has occurred in Spain, and Australia," he said.

The assessment of the domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, was that al Qaeda - now among the leading suspects in the Madrid bombings - did not see Iraq as "particularly relevant" to its intent or purpose.

"It is my very strong view, and the view of the majority of experts in this area, that we are a terrorist target because of who we are, rather than because of what we have done."

The Government has not increased the level of terrorism alert, but after the attack on the Spanish trains Howard convened a meeting of the National Counter-terrorism Committee - the nation's key anti-terror co-ordinating body - to review transport security arrangements.

The nation's rail chiefs have also met to review the safety of their systems.

But although Howard and other senior officials, including Defence Force Chief General Peter Cosgrove, have ruled out a direct link between involvement in Iraq and the danger of attack by Islamic extremists, there is still concern over Commissioner Keelty's remarks at the weekend.

"The reality is, if this turns out to be Islamic extremists responsible for this bombing in Spain, it is more likely to be linked to the position that Spain and other allies took on issues such as Iraq," he told Channel Nine's Sunday programme.

Labor Leader Mark Latham attacked the Prime Minister for publicly dismissing Keelty's views.

And the executive director of counter-terrorism for America's Federal Bureau of Investigation, John Pistole, said yesterday that if al Qaeda was responsible for the Madrid bombings, Spain's support for the US in Iraq was likely to have been a factor.

He also told Sydney radio station 2UE that Australia's role in Iraq could attract attacks by Islamic militants, although they may prefer the nation's operations in the Gulf rather than attack within Australia.

But Pistole said he would agree that a terrorist attack on Australia was inevitable as any Western nation that was not an Islamic state was a [potential] terror target for al Qaeda.

"Any country that allies itself with the US, unfortunately, is a target. Australia was a target before the war and continues to be so."

Pistole's view that alliance with the US increased the risk of attack was echoed by a number of Australian experts, and in an analysis of the Madrid bombings by the American intelligence analyst group Stratfor.

Stratfor said countries in Spain's position included Australia, Britain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, the Netherlands and Hungary.