[NYTr] Australia deploys loudspeakers and sneak raids against terror

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Dave Muller - southnews - Aug 1, 2007

AFP - Aug 1, 2007

Australia deploys loudspeakers and sneak raids against terror

SYDNEY (AFP) - - Australian authorities Wednesday revealed new 
anti-terror measures ranging from loudspeakers on city streets to plans 
to secretly search and bug homes and businesses.

The proposal to give police unprecedented powers drew immediate 
criticism amidst concerns over the handling of a recent case against an 
Indian doctor accused of links to failed car bombings in Britain.

Police and security agencies would be allowed to search the homes and 
computers of suspects without their knowledge and intercept 
communications under legislation to go before parliament next week.

Police and security officers would be able to assume false identities
to gain entry and conduct the surreptitious searches, seize equipment
and plant listening devices.

The suspects would not have to be informed of the raids for up to 18 
months under "delayed notification warrants", the Sydney Morning Herald 
reported.

Senator Kerry Nettle of the opposition Greens party said an inquiry was 
needed into the bungled terrorism case against Indian doctor Mohamed 
Haneef before police were given new powers.

"Now is not the time to be proposing extensive new powers for the 
Australian Federal Police," she said.

Haneef was held in Australia for more than three weeks and charged with 
providing support to a terror group in connection with June's failed
car bombings in London and Glasgow.

But the case collapsed last week due to a lack of evidence against the 
doctor, who had been working in a state government hospital, and he was 
allowed to fly home to Bangalore.

The installation of loudspeakers on the streets of Australia's biggest 
city Sydney, meanwhile, was greeted more lightly by the media as a sign 
of the sort of citizen control employed in countries like North Korea.

Dozens of speakers have been installed around Sydney's central business 
district to tell people what to do in the event of a major emergency 
like a terror attack, the state government said.

The complete system is due to be in operation ahead of the summit 
meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Sydney 
next month, which will draw 21 leaders including the US President
George W. Bush.

But it was not designed specifically for the summit and could be used
to deliver a range of messages to people in the city, said Police
Minister David Campbell.

"If there were a terrorist event or a major building fire and there
were people in the streets, this is a way of giving them information," 
Campbell said.

                            ***


AAP - Aug 1, 2007

Terror laws will allow secret searches

SECURITY agencies will be able to search people's homes, work and 
computers without telling them for 18 months afterwards under terror 
laws being considered by parliament.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer defended the Bill today, saying the 
"delayed notification search warrants" might be necessary to prevent 
terrorist attacks.

Mr Downer said the Government was trying to find a balance between
civil liberties and preventing fatal terrorist attacks.

"You know how it is. If people get killed everyone will want to know
why we didn't have tougher laws to stop attacks happening," he said on 
Southern Cross radio.

"The laws we have and the work that's been done by the federal police 
and our intelligence agencies and some of the state police forces up 
until now have protected us from terrorism, at least within Australia.

"But we need to listen to them If they want more powers, they need more 
scope to investigate terrorism or alleged terrorist activities, well we 
need to listen to them and then in the end the parliament will have to 
make a judgment about whether laws should be changed or not."