TERROR ATTACK THREATENS MULTICULTURALISM

AAPJune 7, 2011

A terrorist attack in Australia would significantly damage the country's vibrant multicultural community, federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland says.

While the threat of terrorism was small, an attack would be extremely damaging to community harmony, Mr McClelland said on Tuesday.

He was speaking at a conference about the decade since the attacks of September 11, 2001, hosted by the United States Studies Centre in Sydney.

Australia had not been immune to the planning and activities of violent extremists in the past ten years, Mr McClelland said.

"Since 2000, there have been four major terrorist plots disrupted in Australia," he said.

In that time, 23 people had been convicted on charges relating to terrorism plots and 38 had been charged.

"Significantly, 37 of the 38 people prosecuted are Australian citizens and 21 of the 38 were born in Australia.

"For this reason, the government has focused on the risk of vulnerable individuals in Australia becoming radicalised to the point of being willing to use violence."

Mr McClelland mentioned the US government's belief that the country's 'melting pot' culture meant it was immune to recruiters trying to radicalise American citizens.

"We too in Australia have a vibrant multicultural community and those who would commit extreme acts are very small ... they are active but fortunately very small," he said.

"But the damage they could do, not only to our physical environment - and of course loss of life and injury would be a tragedy - but what they would do to that community harmony and that vibrant multicultural community would be another thing altogether."

Addressing the causes of radicalisation leading to violent extremism was a priority for the federal government, Mr McClelland said.

A unit in the attorney-general's department was dedicated to engage with community leaders "from a range of religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds", he said.

These community leaders had expressed concern that they had "the most to lose" in the event of a terrorist attack.

Since 2001, the Australian government had increased the national security budget from $18 billion to $33 billion, he added.

AUSTRALIA HAS AGREED TO ESCALATION OF MILITARY CO-OPERATION WITH THE US: "US FORCES TO SHARE OUR BASES"

Global Research, November 6, 2010

Australian Associated Press

-The Australian development is part of a new US strategy to step up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region after reviews of strategic policy concluded that the Bush government's attempts to project power from North America were not working.

Australia has agreed to a major escalation of military co-operation with the US.

This will include more visits by American ships, aircraft and troops and their forces exercising here regularly, The Weekend Australian says.

Access to Australian Defence Force facilities will allow the US to step up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region as it comes under pressure to wind down its key bases, such as Okinawa, as concern grows about China's military expansion.

Increased numbers of US personnel in Australian facilities are expected within months, and the tempo of military exercises will be stepped up as that happens.

Likely early sites are Townsville, as the primary base for army operations, the port of Darwin, the Bradshaw Field Training Area in the Northern Territory and HMAS Stirling naval base in Western Australia.

Three big announcements on military and security co-operation will be made after Monday's AUSMIN defence and foreign policy talks in Melbourne involving delegations headed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Australia's Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Defence Minister Stephen Smith.

Sources close to the talks say US forces will not establish new bases on Australian soil but they will be welcomed into existing facilities.

The Australian development is part of a new US strategy to step up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region after reviews of strategic policy concluded that the Bush government's attempts to project power from North America were not working.

POLICE BLITZ TO PROTECT FOREIGN STUDENTS

Brigid O'Connell

From:Herald Sun

September 18, 2010 8:38AM

POLICE made three arrests in Melbourne’s inner east last night during a state-wide operation to reduced anti-social behaviour and crimes against international students.

More than 75 officers hit the streets, pubs and stations in Stonnington as part of Operation Guardian, which also aims to give police the chance to listen to the concerns of overseas students.

Victoria Police spokeswoman Belinda Batty said one person was arrested for assault and two for being drunk in a public place.

Twenty public transport offences were recorded and more than 70 penalty notices were issues for traffic offences.

The operation has also run in Moreland, Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Dandenong, Melbourne, Kingston and Darebin.

VILLAGERS ATTACK DIGGERS AFTER KORAN BURN RUMOUR

Ian McPhedran

From:Herald Sun

September 18, 2010 12:00AM

AN Afghan man is dead and relations between Australian troops and local villagers have soured after a violent protest by several hundred men sparked by a rumour that Diggers were burning copies of the Koran.

The soldiers were conducting a regular burn off of rubbish and documents in a pit outside the secure blast walls of forward operating base Mirwais in the Chora Valley north of the main base at Tarin Kowt on Thursday when all hell broke loose.

An angry mob was on the rampage and raining rocks down on the Diggers as they retreated back into the base.

Somehow word got around the village that troops were burning copies of the Islamic holy book the Koran.

"They were doing a burn in the pit and the suggestion spread that they were burning the Koran," a source told the Herald Sun.

The dispute, just two days before local parliamentary elections, escalated from rock-throwing when a man brandishing an AK-47 assault rifle allegedly aimed the weapon at troops in a guard tower.

An Afghan soldier attached to Australian forces responded according to the rules of engagement - which allow "maximum force" to be employed if a weapon is aimed at them - and shot the protester.

The gunman was taken away before troops could check his condition, but according to sources he died from his wounds.

No soldiers were injured in the melee.

According to intelligence reports the protest was sparked by the high-profile plan by American pastor Terry Jones to burn copies of the Koran outside his church on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Jones, from Gainesville, Florida, backed away but was unrepentant yesterday saying he had no "conviction from God to repent".

The Chora Valley has been a hotbed of insurgent activity and during a visit in April last year then Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon was ordered by his security detail to don body armour at Buman forward base just down the valley from Mirwais, after a local fighter threatened to shoot the minister.

It is believed that experts regarded the threat as real and he was whisked out of the base on a Chinook helicopter.

Mirwais is also known as Fort Locke and was named after dead SAS Sergeant Matthew Locke and is 500m from the village of Chora.

It is the biggest Australian base outside Camp Russell at Tarin Kowt.

The Herald Sun visited Mirwais, which has guard towers at each corner, twice last year. Two days before national elections the local police chief and several of his men were killed by a suicide bomber.

Several locals wounded in Thursday's attack were treated by medics at Mirwais, who included Private Jacqui de Gelder, the sister of Sydney-based Navy shark attack victim Paul de Gelder.

Meanwhile, new Defence Minister Stephen Smith yesterday welcomed the prospect of a parliamentary debate on Australia's involvement in Afghanistan.

"I think that's a very important thing to do when Australian troops are committed overseas particularly in a theatre of war," he said.

AUSTRALIA-POLICE STATE