Critics blast Australian security raid as `political'

[dArKeR]

Secret service raids on two southern Australian cities in the past week were politically motivated and aimed at boosting support for the government's new counterterrorism laws, a Muslim community leader said yesterday.
Police and the spy agency -- Australian Security Intelligence Organization, or ASIO -- used search warrants to raid homes in Sydney and Melbourne on Monday and last week yesterday.

Attorney General Philip Ruddock has refused to reveal the purposes of the raids but said Monday "issues they are addressing are the ones of utmost seriousness."

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/06/30/2003261481

[Adrian Luca]

1. Around the corner from my house....

The raid in Melbourne was just around the corner from my house. Somehow the media were tipped off as to where the raid occured, and the house was identified on every news report. The occupants haven't been charged, even though the Attorney General claims they were planning to blow up a major train station and the stock exchange here in Melbourne. The government also says charges are unlikely!

The "suspects" are barred under anti-terrorism laws from making any statements to the media, even if they want to proclaim their innocence.

It just looks so much like a stage-managed stunt by the Attorney General's office to keep the fear factor high.

[LivingInTheBubble]

2. here in the UK

they arrest muslims every couple of weeks in full protective suits and cordon off the entire block in a big noisy operation. It ends up as a major story with footage on every channel... then a week later they release them with no charges and the story of their release is a paragraph buried away somewhere. The uneducated masses think that there are hundreds of muslims that have been stopped from blowing up stadiums/releasing chemical weapons etc... by our heroic police and government..

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Just like this one?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4627463.stm

The release without charge got far less prominence than the original arrest. Release stories: BBC, Reuters, Manchester Evening News, Edinbugh Evening News. Arrest stories: about 30, across the world.
http://news.google.co.uk/news?q=manchester+iraq+suicide+bomber&hl=en&lr=&biw=1016&tab=nn&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. Search warrents? How quaint of the Aussies...

I knew I loved those guys for something.