Australian police have studied JI attack plans, official says

Australian police have studied JI attack plans, official says

Agencies, Sydney

Australian police have their best understanding ever of the Southeast Asian terror network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) after studying attack plans made by the militant Islamic organization, national police chief Mick Keelty said on Monday.

Speaking at a counter-terrorism forum, Keelty said Indonesian authorities had given Australian Federal Police access to plans taken from JI, the organization behind a series of bombings in Bali, Jakarta and elsewhere which have left scores dead.

"We now... have a better understanding of Jamaah Islamiyah than what we ever had," Keelty said. "We now have... access to some of their plans (and)... the future plans that they had in place."

Australian police have been working closely with Indonesian officers to crack down on Islamic militants since October 2002 bombings of a Bali nightclub strip left 202 people dead including 88 Australians.

Earlier this month Indonesian police killed master bombmaker Azahari Husin, who was suspected of involvement in the Bali bombings of 2002 and the Oct. 1 blasts on the island, in a shoot- out in an East Java town.

Keelty said the JI attack plans included sophisticated intelligence and surveillance of targets.

A considerable amount of planning went into operations, he said, adding: "We've got to make sure we are equal to those sort of plans by the terrorists.

"We've obviously said that there's nothing that we've done in this country to make us immune and I think the important thing for us is that we are prepared and that we maintain our preparation," Keelty said.

He did not disclose any of the group's potential targets.

Keelty's comments came after a video was aired last week in which a masked man believed to be key Jamaah Islamiyah leader Noordin M. Top threatened attacks against Australia, the United States, Britain and Italy.

The video was among several seized recently from Noordin's hastily abandoned safehouse in Indonesia's Central Java province. It was not clear if the plans Keelty referred to were recovered at the same time.

"As long as you keep your troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and intimidate Muslim people, you will feel our intimidation and our terror," the man believed to be Noordin said in the video.

Terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna earlier told the conference that Australia would probably experience a terror attack within a few years by "home-grown" extremists.

"The most dangerous threat to Australia today comes from home- grown networks -- what we call the resident threat," he said.

"The threat that primarily stems from the radicalized segments of the Muslim community in Australia -- this is the primary threat."

Gunaratna said there were between 200 and 300 Muslims in Australia who supported violent extremism as well as a "small but robust" terror network operating within the country.

Australian police this month arrested 18 Muslim men in Sydney and Melbourne on terrorism-related charges.

All were Australian-born or naturalized citizens and officials accused them of plotting a "catastrophic" act of terrorism, although no precise targets were specified.