Australia says ‘catastrophic terror act’ foiled

[tyler101]

Keep safe down there Aussie's ...

17 suspects arrested in two cities; radical cleric charged as mastermind

SYDNEY, Australia - Police arrested 17 terror suspects in Australia’s two biggest cities Tuesday in raids authorities said foiled a plot to carry out a catastrophic terror attack. A radical Muslim cleric known for praising Osama bin Laden was charged with masterminding the plot.

More than 500 police backed up by helicopters were involved in raids across Sydney and Melbourne, arresting eight men in Sydney and nine in Melbourne and seizing chemicals, weapons, computers and backpacks.

One suspect was in critical condition after being shot in the neck during a gunfight with police, said police Commissioner Graeme Morgan. An officer was also slightly wounded.

Rest of story at ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9960362/

[doughesson]

I knew they hadn't locked up ALL the nogoodniks.
You'd expect that they'd be wanting to hit the US and I am sure that they are thinking about it.
However,maybe the security ramp ups have them at least thinking that maybe there's more to what they can see on the news and are having second thoughts about it.
I doubt that they'll suddenly become good Republicans and Democrats from the bombs we've dropped and land operations they've seen.
I'd rather they leave us alone and we leave them alone.Til then,keep the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan until things cool down and their respective governments can deal with terrorists on their own.

[stillPSFB]

Obviously they were raiding these houses quietly - my sister only moved into her new house a few weeks ago and awoke yesterday morning to find the street full of police - they had raided the house two doors down a few hours earlier.

[PattyV]

I heard from somewhere that their defence was that "they were just paintball enthusiasts that were sympathetic to the men fighting in Iraq"

I was afraid that John Howard had said too much and might have foiled their operations when he mentioned it to get the emergency laws put in place.

[MEck51]

It seems that I am under a no news rock lately. Has anyone heard what the massive threat/attack may have been?

[stillPSFB]

Amongst other things they had lots of chemicals for making bombs, plus "How to make Bombs" web page printouts, and the floor plans for a large highrise office block in Melbourne that houses a lot of Federal Government agencies. I think that we can safely put 2 + 2 together and ......

[SteveDude]

Jesus...My fear is...they will get lucky!!!

We had a number of very successful anti-terrorist operations in London, masterminded by the Met Police who are acknowledged (even by the Israeli's I was told) as some of the best anti-terrorism detectives in the World.

But still they got through on July 7th.

No one anywhere in 'Our World' can afford to let their guard down.

[stillPSFB]

More information is coming to light - apparently another target was a nuclear reactor in the suburbs of Sydney

[PattyV]

I can see schoolies being a very soft and effective target for terrorists.

(schoolies is where all the yr 12s graduating school this weekend go to the gold coast and get maggoted for a week.)

[tanker5117]

"(schoolies is where all the yr 12s graduating school this weekend go to the gold coast and get maggoted for a week.)"


That doesn't sound very good.


Tanker

[MEck51]

Maggoted?? What in the world is that?