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Australian police are conducting what they called the largest counter-terrorism operation in the nation's history, with more than 800 police officers participating. Officials announced early Thursday that 15 people had been detained and one person charged "with serious terrorism-related offenses" allegedly related to plans for at least one beheading. The action comes less than a week after the Australian government raised its National Terrorism Public Alert level to "high" from "medium." Officials did not immediately offer details about what prompted Thursday's mass operation in the northwest suburbs of Sydney and in Brisbane. The suspects were planning to grab a random...

SECURITY is being ramped up at Parliament House, homes will be searched closely and ASIO has seized passports of Melbourne men, amid Australia’s largest counterterrorism raids in history. This morning the The Daily Telegraph revealed Australian Federal Police (AFP) will ramp up security at Parliament House after intelligence agencies picked up “chatter” about a potential random attack on Canberra. There are fears among national security and intelligence agencies the Prime Minister and other senior government officials are prime targets. Senior intelligence sources confirmed the building had been “scoped out” for a “Mumbai” style attack involving automatic weapons. It’s also believed...

Feiz Mohammad, the radical preacher cited by dead Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is a former boxer who blames women for being raped and called for a prominent Dutch politician to be beheaded. Widely known as ‘Sheikh Feiz’, the preacher was born in Australia circa 1970-1 but fled to Lebanon, the homeland of his parents, eight years ago after becoming one of the world’s most controversial Islamic lecturers. He has been investigated by Australian police for inciting violence and terrorism, and was even captured on a British TV documentary encouraging children to become martyrs for Islam six years ago. Feiz...

Five Muslim men were Friday found guilty of plotting a violent jihadist attack in Australia using guns and explosives after the country's longest extremist trial. The men, who are facing possible life sentences after the 10-month trial, showed little reaction to the verdict. "They were motivated to pursue what they probably saw as a religious cause, that is that of jihad,"

Islamists stockpiled explosive chemicals and weapons in plan to launch major attack to avenge wars in Iraq and Afghanistan The men, all from Sydney's south-west, were arrested in a series of raids on their homes in 2005. They were accused of conspiring between July 2004 and November 2005 to carry out a violent jihadist act, possibly targeting the then Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, to force the government into changing its policies on the Middle East. They spent months working to acquire chemicals, firearms, and bomb making equipment, the court heard. Materials found at the homes of some of...

MOST Australians believe we are locked in a losing war against Islamic terrorists and an attack on our home soil, most likely Sydney, is inevitable. For the first time, The Daily Telegraph can reveal how ordinary Australians feel about living under the shadow of terrorism – and the results are chilling. Three quarters of the Australian public believe we are losing the war against terrorists, while more than half believe it is "very likely" or "fairly likely" we will be attacked in the next 12 months. "We recently had a bomb scare at work and it has made me start...

TERRORISM suspects hoarded computer how-to guides on making explosives and articles about al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and jihad, a court heard yesterday. Aimen Joud, 21, also had graphic video footage of the execution and decapitation of a man said to have come from Chechnya in 1998, Melbourne Magistrates' Court was told. Federal police found the manuals on terrorism and militant Islam when searching the homes of Mr Joud and Shane Kent, 29, in September 2004. Sen-Constable Paul Madden told the court one handbook, known as the Vortex Cookbook, was later shown to the group's alleged spiritual leader, Abdul Nacer Benbrika....

AFGHANI security forces arrested nine people suspected of plotting attacks including two Pakistanis preparing to become suicide bombers, a provincial governor said overnight. "They were captured in three separate raids over the past 48 hours in Kandahar," the restive southern province's governor, Assadullah Khalid, said. Seven of the suspects, who were believed to be working for the Taliban and al-Qaeda, were Afghani and two were Pakistanis preparing to become suicide bombers, he said. The two had identified themselves as Pakistanis, he said. A vehicle rigged up as a car bomb was seized in one of the raids. Dozens of people,...

ONE of two Melbourne men seeking bail on terrorism charges trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden in the months before the 2001 September 11 attacks, a court has been told. Shane Kent, 28, of Meadow Heights, along with Amer Haddara, 26, of Yarraville, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court today. Both have been charged with being members of a terrorist organisation. They were two of 10 Victorian men charged following a series of raids in Melbourne and Sydney last month. The prosecution opposed bail for both men. Kent had attended Al Farooq terrorist training camp in Afghanistan...

TERRORIST suspects under house arrest will be sent to anger management school, given psychological counselling and offered training and education in a bid to turn them from violence. The Federal Government is developing a program to rehabilitate potential terrorists who authorities have deemed a threat to public safety and placed under control orders. The measures were approved last week by Parliament as part of the new anti-terrorism laws and will apply to those detained without charge on suspicion that their movements should be restricted to prevent an attack. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock believes the measures will address alienation and help impressionable...

THEY are the new global warriors of militant jihad. Their battleground now stretches in a vast crescent from the old world to the new, from the once thriving industrial towns of Leeds and Bradford in northern England to Gallipoli St, Bankstown, in the western suburbs of Sydney. This virtual community of radical Islamists, united by the internet and divided by a ravine of hate from unbelievers, is the sinister face of globalisation, altering our perceptions of a borderless world. In the past week they have helped inspire an orgy of arson in the Muslim ghettos of northern Paris, mounted murderous...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Australian police arrested an 18th suspect Thursday in an alleged terror plot that a lawmaker said involved a large quantity of explosives. A lawyer for eight of the suspects - Muslims from Sydney - accused authorities of holding them in "shameful" conditions and said prosecutors have produced no evidence of an imminent terror attack in the country. Police threw a security cordon around the Sydney courtroom where the men's cases were being heard. The eight were expected to appear in court via video links. The latest suspect to be arrested was a 25-year-old man who was...

Abdul Nacer Benbrika / Abu BakrAge: 45Lives: Dallas, MelbourneBorn: Algeria; arrived in Australia in 1990; Australian citizenship in 1998.Family: Married Rakia Abdullah in 1992. Accused of being spiritual and organisational ringleader of terror cells in Melbourne and Sydney. Praises Osama bin Laden, advocates "violent jihad". Targeted by ASIO and the AFP since last year. Home raided in June. Charge: Directing and being a member of a terrorist organisation.Maximum penalty: 25 years' jail. Shane Kent / YasinAge: 28Lives: Meadow Heights, Melbourne Born: AustraliaFamily: Married to a Turkish-born wife with three children. Travelled to Pakistan in mid-2001, attending al-Qaeda training camps with...

AUSTRALIA faces new terrorist threats from a radical group that has only this week been identified by ASIO, according to intelligence sources. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is investigating the new terrorist cell. It is said to be planning attacks - designed to cause mass casualties - in Melbourne and Sydney. Sources say security services were surprised by revelations of the group's existence. The group is believed to be made up of Australian-born children of Muslim immigrants. An intelligence source said: "This is a disturbing development. "This new group appears to have been planning or considering carrying out extremely violent...

IT was an observant lawyer going about his business in Collins Street, Melbourne, who noticed something that struck him as odd - a man filming the Australian Stock Exchange building with a small home video camera. Not long afterwards, another Melburnian spotted someone filming a city train station and also reported it. Police found the same car had been used and when they traced its owner, alarm bells starting clanging. The vehicle used on both occasions belonged to the father-in-law of a man high on the watch-list of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. The suspect was a member of...

FEARS terrorists are moving closer to an attack on Sydney and Melbourne have forced the Howard Government to rush through an emergency law to make it easier for police to arrest suspects. John Howard said the Government had received "specific intelligence and police information this week which gives cause for serious concern about a potential terrorist threat". The Australian has learned the intelligence relates to home-grown terror suspects in the country's two biggest cities who are believed to be building the capability to mount an attack. The Prime Minister refused to divulge any details, stressing he could not talk about...

INTELLIGENCE agencies have received specific information about a terrorist threat to Australia which today prompted the Government to rush through its anti-terror laws to help avert a possible attack. Prime Minister John Howard said today intelligence authorities had received specific information about a terrorist threat and was urging Parliament to enact the laws without delay. "We have seen material," Mr Howard said. "It is a cause of concern." The Prime Minister would not give details on the nature of the threat, citing security reasons. ASIO has warned this week for the first time that there may be a serious threat...

Laws will expose 80 Muslim suspects UP to 80 Australian Muslims could immediately be placed under effective house arrest under the Government's proposed anti-terror laws. The laws mean they could each be required to wear tracking devices, or prevented from working, or using the telephone or internet, or communicating with certain people. For the first time, the laws will cover the estimated 80 Australians who have received or provided training with a listed terrorist organisation before 2002. Previously, the Government has had no effective powers over these people, almost all of whom are Muslims, because laws prohibiting training with terrorist...

Hicks first to face US commission AUSTRALIAN terror suspect David Hicks will be the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be tried at a US military commission, with the Pentagon announcing today he will face a hearing on November 18. Hicks' first scheduled motions hearing would take place at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – where the Adelaide-born man has been detained since January 2002. The 30-year-old pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy at a commission hearing in August last year. His father, Terry Hicks, said today his son would not...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2005 – Proceedings will resume within the month at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the military commission trial of David Hicks, the so-called "Australian Taliban," Defense Department officials announced Sept. 20. An Australian citizen, Hicks allegedly trained in Kosovo and then traveled to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban government. He was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan and has been held at Guantanamo Bay since early 2002. His was one of four war-crimes cases to begin the military commission process in August 2004. Proceedings in the four cases were halted in December, after a November ruling in...