Posted on 07/22/2005 4:42:13 AM PDT by naturalman1975
PRIME Minister John Howard says it's too early to say how Australia will revamp its anti-terror laws, but he will keep a close watch on changes introduced by Britain.
After London's second bomb attacks in a fortnight yesterday, Mr Howard announced plans to beef up anti-terrorism laws, saying those in place had to be changed to keep up with the threat of terrorists using technology to commit crimes.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been urged by police to strengthen their powers to hold terrorists for up to 90 days without charge.
During a meeting with police chiefs, Mr Blair was also asked to consider establishing a special border force, and to introduce a new offence of failing to disclose encryption keys, gadgets used by terrorists to hide secret computer files.
Mr Howard said it was too early to say if such ideas would be part of the Federal Government's review of security following the July 7 bomb attacks in London, which killed 56 people including an Australian man.
He said he had talked with Mr Blair yesterday about Britain's plans to strengthen its laws.
"It's too early for me to make any specific judgments about (possible changes), except to say that when something like July 7 occurs, you need to keep anti-terrorist laws under constant review," he told the BBC's Radio 4 in London.
"We certainly can learn a lot in relation to the security of our mass transit systems.
"They're not as extensive because our underground rail network is not as extensive as London's, but there are none the less some similarities and we are very ready to pick up what we can."
Mr Howard reiterated that existing anti-terrorist laws were drawn up long before terrorists had access to technology such as computers and mobile phones to help them carry out their plots.
"We essentially have 19th century legal responses to 21st century terrorist behaviour," he said.
"The world has had terrorists for a long time but we tend to forget that.
"It's the reality, though, that they're more lethal now because of technology and the speed of communications."
Mr Howard was with Mr Blair in his study at Downing Street yesterday when news of the latest bomb attacks on three Underground rail lines and a double-decker bus broke.
Mr Howard praised the calm responses of Mr Blair and London's emergency service workers in dealing with the attacks.
He also stood by his remarks earlier this week to Australian woman Louise Barry, who was badly injured in the July 7 attacks.
Mr Howard said the bombings were not linked to the war in Iraq.
"I reckon so far as Australia is concerned that we were a target for terrorism long before Iraq," Mr Howard said.
"September 11th occurred before Iraq, 88 Australians died in Bali before Iraq. (Al-Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden specifically singled out Australia for criticism in November 2001 because of our help in liberating East Timor.
"Whenever groups associated with al-Qaeda claim responsibility, they bracket Iraq and Afghanistan together. Yet whenever I'm questioned, as I suspect whenever Mr Blair or (US) President (George W.) Bush are questioned, there's never any reference to Afghanistan with the implication that we shouldn't be there.
"It's always about Iraq. So I think these events are not incident specific.
"They are the consequence of the mindset on parts of people. I think we make a mistake if we see them as incident specific."
Mr Howard is due to meet Britain's Defence Secretary John Reid today.
Mr Reid said last weekend that he believed Britain could start pulling its troops out of Iraq sometime next year.
Sounds like the British version of the Patriot Act the liberals hate so much.
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