Raids spark anti-terror law concerns

CANBERRA - New concerns over the powers of the domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, have been sparked by a second series of raids against people suspected of links to terrorist organisations.

The raids on houses in Sydney and Melbourne on Monday followed others last week, in a swoop called Operation Pandanus, targeting Islamic radicals allegedly planning attacks against such icons as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. But Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said yesterday that no arrests had been made and refused further comment. It is believed the raids, conducted under tough new laws passed in the wake of the September 11, 2000, terror attacks, were designed to head off any serious preparations by Islamic militants.

They follow earlier raids by ASIO agents, Australian federal and state police units that outraged Islamic, Middle Eastern and civil liberties organisations.

The new laws hand ASIO broad powers of search, arrest, detention and interrogation, deny suspects the right of silence and withhold other basic rights.

But the Government has maintained a hard line, and unclassified intelligence briefs continue to highlight the risk to Australia and the inevitability of an eventual terrorist outrage. Ruddock said yesterday some Australians regarded the nation's counter-terrorism laws as excessive but necessary.

New South Wales Premier Bob Carr also defended the measures. "It is very, very important that federal and state authorities send a powerful message that, if you are mucking around with terrorists or you've got any reason to be suspected, you can anticipate being raided."

A federal parliamentary review of ASIO laws passed after September 11 is under way, and groups such as the Australian Council for Civil Liberties and Amnesty International have criticised 'the removal of basic human rights'. Former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser added his weight to the debate yesterday, warning that powers given to ASIO and other counter-terrorism authorities were undermining Australia's democratic values. "You can be arrested because ASIO thinks you know something which you don't know - and then your defence is to prove you don't know it," he said. "How can you prove a negative?"

Rob Stary, the Melbourne lawyer for Jack Thomas, the first Victorian to be arrested as a terrorist under the new laws, also said people picked up in raids had no way of defending themselves, and accused the Government of using the raids "to justify the millions of dollars that have been invested in counter-terrorism".