Al-Qaeda targeted Aus - Howard

2003-05-29 10:34

Sydney - Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network was plotting to attack targets in Australia months before launching the September 11, 2001, onslaught against the United States, Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday.

Howard told the Australian parliament new intelligence had surfaced recently indicating al-Qaeda was looking for targets in Australia in 2000 and 2001.

"New information has come to light very recently," Howard said, without elaborating on the nature of the information or what targets in Australia may have been considered for attack.

Howard said the new intelligence contradicted critics who have charged that his conservative government had made Australia a target for terrorists by contributing troops to the US-led wars against al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan and against Iraq.

"Al-Qaeda's targeting of Australia does not derive from our military involvement in Afghanistan or Iraq... but from the fact we are a Western nation with Western values that are abhorrent to the militant theology which is at the heart of al-Qaeda," he said.

Howard went on to reassure the public that there was no need "at this stage" to increase the level of terrorist alert in Australia, which has been on high alert since being named publicly as an al-Qaeda target last year.

"No specific or other intelligence has been received indicating any current plan for an attack in Australia by al-Qaeda or any other group, that might warrant a change in assessed terrorist threat level within our country," he said.

- AFX