Posted on 10/27/2003 10:14:49 AM PST by blam
Australia raids homes to thwart 'terror cell'
October 27 2003 at 10:21AM
By Belinda Goldsmith
Canberra - Australia may have broken up a terror cell with a series of raids launched after the deportation of a French national suspected of training with al-Qaeda.
Bob Carr, premier of the state of New South Wales where the man was detained, told reporters on Monday the presence of the 35-year-old Frenchman, arrested on October 9, deported to France and now being held there on suspicion of terror links, had been worrying.
Police and intelligence officers from the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation raided at least six homes and some vehicles in Sydney on Sunday in a search for the man's contacts in Australia.
No charges have been laid "It's likely that they are breaking up now some cell that has existed in Sydney," Carr told reporters. "I think it is likely we have prevented something."
New South Wales police commissioner Ken Moroney said a number of "useful items of property" were seized during the raids.
Six people, all understood to be Australian citizens, were interviewed but no charges have been laid.
"Further intelligence in respect of the activities of (the Frenchman) were gleaned by those agencies," Moroney told Sydney radio station 2UE, declining to elaborate on the investigation.
Justice Minister Chris Ellison told parliament that France alerted Australia in September to the presence of the man, who was suspected of training with Muslim militants in al Qaeda camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Criticised for being heavy-handed Australian authorities detained the man in Sydney for working illegally in breach of a tourist visa on which he entered the country in May. He was escorted back to France by federal agents on October 17.
Carr praised the fast police response, describing the suspect as a "serious character whose presence here was worrying".
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said French intelligence services had reported to Australia that the man may have been in Sydney for terror-related activity.
Australia has been named as a possible target by militant Islamic groups because of its military involvement in the US-led war in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks, and for sending troops to Iraq.
One year ago, police conducted raids in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth looking for links to the militant Southeast Asian Muslim group Jemaah Islamiah following the Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people including 88 Australians.
Those raids, most of them on Indonesian families, were criticised for being heavy-handed. No charges were laid.
But Ruddock said a number of people suspected of being involved with Jemaah Islamiah left the country after those raids and the action after the Frenchman's deportation could have a similar impact.
"The people who may have had some linkages with this gentleman in Australia would be aware that they were under surveillance," Ruddock told a news conference.
Australia seems to be doing a pretty good job containing this.
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