A day that forever changed our lives
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 9 November 2005
HOME-grown terror cells in Melbourne and Sydney accused of plotting a "catastrophic" chemical or explosive attack were smashed during early morning raids yesterday. - http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17185324%5E661,00.html [9]

Imam at odds with Howard over raids
SMH, 10 Nov 2005
The leading Sydney Muslim cleric Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly, has publicly disputed the Prime Minister's assertion that the anti-terrorism laws were not aimed at the Muslim community. - http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/imam-at-odds-with-howard-over-raids/2005/11/09/1131407700552.html [10]

New terror laws could strip citizenship
SMH,  November 10, 2005 - 2:34AM
The federal government is considering introducing laws to strip Australian citizenship from convicted terrorists, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said.
However, he said no final decision had yet been made on such a law and conceded it would be impossible to deport stateless people. - http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/New-terror-laws-could-strip-citizenship/2005/11/10/1131407712195.html [11]

Terror raids spark call for visa review
SMH, November 9, 2005 - 9:31PM
Liberal MP Sophie Panopoulos is calling for multiple entry visas to be reviewed to stop "mad-men" clerics visiting Australia.
Ms Panopoulos says she has written to Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Minister John Cobb, calling for changes to existing laws to enable multiple entry visas to be cancelled easily. - http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Terror-raids-spark-call-for-visa-review/2005/11/09/1131407700330.html [12]

Beattie steps up implementation of anti-terrorism laws
ABC Online, Australia - 9 November 2005
The Queensland Government will accelerate preventative detention legislation through State Parliament before the end of the year.
Premier Peter Beattie says officers from his department and the Department of the Attorney-General have been meeting with police.
I've instructed them, despite the short timeframe, to have Queensland's preventative detention provisions ready for enactment by the end of the year - http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1501093.htm [13]

Australian press horrified by home-grown terror threat
Mail & Guardain online, 09 November 2005 08:22
The alleged emergence of a home-grown terrorist threat was a chilling development that dispelled any lingering misconception Australia was immune to attack, newspapers said on Wednesday. - http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=256048&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/ [14]

Politically manipulated police raids in Australia
Asian Tribune,  2005-11-10 By Mike Head - World Socialist Web Site
In the largest such operation yet seen in Australia—reportedly involving 850 federal and state police and intelligence personnel—heavily-armed officers burst into at least 23 homes in Sydney and Melbourne in the pre-dawn hours of yesterday morning and arrested 17 Islamic men on vague and unspecified terrorism charges. Today, raids are still continuing in Sydney, amid angry protests by family members. - http://www.asiantribune.com/show_article.php?id=2835 [15]

Blog Views

Votes, Polls and Bills
Ninth space
A bizarre poll in today’s Times newspaper implies that 50% of Conservative Party voters support David Davis as the new leader of the party, compared to 37% for David Cameron. Why is this bizarre? Two reasons:
_1 _Conservative Party voters, i.e. those that support the party, don’t vote in the leadership election. It’s only members, and previous polls have indicated that they prefer David Cameron.
_2 _The same Times/Populus poll shows that 45% of voters think that David Cameron is more likely to win a general election, compared to 11% for David Davis.
Australia is also debating this issue, however, they are discussing extending... Secretary Jack Straw is coming back from Russia for a crucial vote on the Terrorism Bill. Chancellor... as that. Which brings me to the Terrorism Bill. The core issue appears to be the length of time suspects should - http://www.ninthspace.org/blog/archives/2005/11/09/votes-polls-and-bills/ [16]

Australians All Let Us Rejoice...
I, Mary Jo
Anti-terror laws have been passed in Australia. Hurrah. Democracy at its best. Hurrah. IMG Former Family Court chief justice Alastair Nicholson described the legislation as, "the greatest... the freedom of people suspected by authorities of terrorism or sedition. http://akoozaf.blogspot.com/2005/11/australians-all-let-us-rejoice.html [17]

Finally Malaysia Beats Australia and the UK
MalaysiaWatch
In the wake of September 11 and the Iraq War, many countries have passed laws to combat terrorism.
In Australia they want to change the laws so a person can be held for 14 days before being charged. - http://malaysiawatch.blogspot.com/2005/11/finally-malaysia-beats-australia-and.html [18]

Australia - Honorable Or Hostile?
Spaces
This is a fairly general rant, to do with this 'glorious' country we call our own. But what makes it so glorious? Absolutely nothing. I am ranting today to prove that Australia is a little less than 'glorious'.
I am ranting today to prove that Australia is a little less than 'glorious'. I could... to Australia wanting to be like America. No doubt John Howard is the biggest suck-up to George W. Bush that we have ever seen. We have evidence of this with the War on Iraq, the new Anti-Terrorism Laws - http://spaces.msn.com/members/scizzorz/Blog/cns!1pGC2NvgFCL5XmLdzN5BGZtA!740.entry [19]

Australia Says Two Cells Were Competing
The O'CONNOR Factor
Two Islamic terrorist cells were competing to become the first to stage a major bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said Tuesday after police arrested 17 suspects in a series of coordinated pre-dawn raids in two cities. - http://cruelkev0.blogspot.com/2005/11/australia-says-two-cells-were.html [20]

Perception & Acceptance of Anti-Terrorism Laws
Mooiness!
For the new and "enhanced" anti-terrorism laws to be accepted by the Australian public... targetted specifically. This is inevitable. It has taken quite a few years for us Chinese in Australia... and what our PM had done today. From this article :Mr Howard told Muslims in Australia they were - http://mooiness.blogspot.com/2005/11/perception-acceptance-of-anti.html [21]

The Hangman - Not a Game this time.
Welcome to your senses
Do not read this if you are very kind-hearted and flimsy to emotions.
Well, Ive warned you enough. Go further at your own risk. I am going to Cut and paste an article that I read on a web-site that spoiled my day. It gave me the effect of watching a Virumandi Movie.
So, the Australian Magazine has come out with the interview of the Executioner who... forces. In recent years, special courts have also extended the penalty to cases of terrorism under - http://avyukta.blogspot.com/2005/11/hangman-not-game-this-time.html [22]

Is this a contrast?
rANT, rAVE eTC Tom Reynolds
I am vigorously opposed to terrorists. In this country they are not freedom fighters (and that is not to say they are freedom fighters in other countries), they are little more than brainwashed morons:
"All stand," they were told, but someone said: "He's not allowed to."
Abdullah Merhi, a sharp-featured 20-year-old apprentice electrician from Fawkner, leaned forward from the front row of the dock. "Nobody can ask me to stand up but God," he said.... They had all been bugged, investigated, followed and sorted out. When they left Australia, the Federal Police handed the Indonesians a dossier that even they couldn't f*** up... the AFP has to share information with police forces in the region if Australia is to stop drug smuggling - http://thomasr.blogspot.com/2005/11/is-this-contrast.html [23]

Indonesia

Indonesia police say key Asia terror suspect killed Reuters, UK, Wed Nov 9, 2005 5:26 PM GMT15By Heri Retnowati
MALANG, Indonesia (Reuters) - One of Southeast Asia's most wanted Islamic militants, Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, was killed along with several other suspects in a fierce gunbattle with Indonesian police on Wednesday, officials said.
National police chief General Sutanto said Azahari might have been shot dead by police or could have killed himself after a crack anti-terrorism unit surrounded his villa hideout in the town of Batu in East Java province. - http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-11-09T172638Z_01_WRI957901_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SECURITY-INDONESIA-AZAHARI.xml [24]

UK

The collapse of Teflon Tony
Times Online, Nov 9 2005 by Peter Riddell
Tony Blair no longer commands. Teflon Tony is dead. He can now only survive as Prime Minister by the consent of Parliament, and his own Labour MPs. Forget all the excuses, the vote yesterday afternoon was a turning point. It was not only Labour’s first defeat in the Commons since 1997, but it was by a huge 31 vote margin. The result is a huge blow not just for Mr Blair’s authority but also for Labour’s credibility as a governing party. - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1053-1865582,00.html [25]

We have to resist Blair's arm-twisting to protect civil liberties
Scotsman, United Kingdom - 9 November 2005
THE threat of terrorism is real and the impact of any attack devastating. That is the clear lesson of the strike on London in July and the lingering lesson of the 9/11 attacks. It is why, today, MPs are discussing a range of new anti-terror measures. There isn't a single serious politician who does not want to give our police sufficient powers to identify, track and disrupt the terror networks. But that does not mean we must accept, without question, the most extreme measures now insisted upon by the Prime Minister. - http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=2215132005 [26]

Blair’s bill and civil liberties
Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates - 7 November 2005
By Mohammed A. R. Galadari
THE Tony Blair government is going ahead with its plans to push the anti-terrorism bill through in parliament. This, despite the fact that Opposition Conservatives and large sections within the ruling Labour are opposing the bill. - http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/comment/2005/November/comment_November8.xml&section=comment [27]

Four questioned after terrorism raids
Scotsman, United Kingdom - 9 November 2005
FOUR people are being questioned at a Glasgow police station after they were arrested in an anti-terrorism operation, it emerged yesterday. - http://news.scotsman.com/glasgow.cfm?id=2216102005 [28]

US

Rumsfeld can authorise exceptions to torture law
The Age, Washington November 10, 2005 - 7:06AM
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld can authorise exceptions to a new Defence Department policy on military interrogations that bars torture and calls for "humane" treatment of detainees, a spokesman said today. - http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/rumsfeld-can-authorise-exceptions-to-torture-law/2005/11/10/1131407725825.html [29]

From the papers

Webdiarist Peter Croft asks if this headline from the West Australian yesterday is worth a complaint to the Press Council. The headline says:

Australia gave this illegal Algerian migrant a job and a safe place to bring up his six children. He showed his gratitude by telling us Osama bin laden was a great man, and now police say Abdul Benbrika leads a gang of Muslims who want to blow their countrymen to smithereens.

Peter says: "I don't like the guy either, but to me, this headline is designed to incite and stir up the race haters among us ( a tiny minority, for sure!). I'm considering making a Press Council complaint. Am I taking offence at nothing? This isn't reportage. Does it matter?"

What do other Webdiarists think?