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CANBERRA - Australian counter-terrorism agencies have stepped up their scrutiny of potential homegrown terror cells as Sydney gears for the arrival of world leaders for September's Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit.
A report said yesterday that a group of up to 25 Australians were under constant surveillance because of known "evil intentions".
And the New South Wales counter-terrorism chief, Assistant Commissioner Nick Kaldas, warned that security forces may not be able to prevent an attack by a person acting separately from known extremists. "It has to be something that worries us - the so-called lone wolf factor, someone who doesn't communicate with anyone else. [There's] no way of knowing ... what it is they're intending."
This follows a Government-funded study that last week said radical Islamic clerics had influenced as many as 3000 young Australian Muslims to a point dangerously close to militancy. It also follows warnings by the domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio), that internet-based propaganda by al Qaeda is fuelling the growth of autonomous, self-sufficient terror groups.
In Brisbane, Australian and British counter-terrorism agents are still questioning 27-year-old Indian-born doctor Mohamed Haneef, arrested on Monday last week in connection with the failed bombings on London and Glasgow.
In another development, 40-year-old Sydney accountant Arumugam Rajeevan has been extradited to Melbourne to face charges of being a member of the banned terror group the Tamil Tigers, providing support or resources to the group, and making an asset available to a proscribed entity. Melbourne Magistrates Court was told yesterday that he was a signatory for the Tamil Tigers' co-ordinating committee's bank account, which had forwarded A$600,000 to the organisation. Two other Melbourne men will appear on similar charges later this month.
The Tamil Tigers are among 19 proscribed terrorist organisations in a list that includes al Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah, and Abu Sayyaf.
Another group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, is again being investigated by Australian counter-terror agencies after earlier avoiding inclusion on the list because of lack of sufficient evidence. It operates openly in Australia and Britain despite bans elsewhere in Europe, China and Saudi Arabia. It claims to be non-violent and opposed to terrorism.
But British reports claim members of the alleged doctors cell were linked to the group, and a paper by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said the organisation used the language of al Qaeda and advocated revolutionary change to Australia's social and political system. "It uses Australian tolerance to promote racial propaganda even against Australia itself."
The report of security surveillance of a new potential terror cell appeared in the latest Bulletin magazine, citing un-named intelligence and Government sources. They said that the group had not yet recruited a bomb-maker, but was still considered a threat. "We don't have any specific intelligence on any plot," one source told the Bulletin. "But there are people in Australia, perhaps 22 to 25, who we know have evil intentions and who are capable of carrying out very bad acts."
Security expert Neil Fergus told the Nine Network there were possibly even more Australian extremists who could be regarded as a threat to the Apec summit, but that the security blanket drawn around the meeting was a significant deterrent.
But fears remain wildcard extremists could still attempt an attack. "Jihadi doctrine asserts the individual duty of Muslims to undertake jihad in any country in which it is possible to do so," Asio's most recent annual report warned. "Adherence to the doctrine underpins the development of autonomous, largely self-sufficient homegrown terrorist groups."
