Following the questioning of two Gold Coast doctors in relation to the attempted car bombings in the UK, terrorism experts provide comment on the latest developments.
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Associate Professor Robert Heath, School of Management, University of South Australia. Robert is a consultant in risk, intelligence and crisis and emergency management.
The bombs
“The bombs uncovered in the UK are not at all sophisticated and show that the technology has come down a notch in an attempt to make devices that can’t be traced. If they had been successful they would have become powerful car bombs. A cell phone was to be used to ignite petrol fumes which would create an explosive fire heating the propane gas in cylinders which would explode, turning nails and car parts into shrapnel. A cell phone can be used as an ignition trigger in a couple of ways that I won’t go into, but it is not as easy as many people think.”
The investigation
“The cell phones recovered from the two London car bombs would have revealed the names of a number of people recently in contact with that phone. They will all be investigated and the chances are that most will be released without a stain on their character. At this stage there is no suggestion that the people the police are talking to from the Gold Coast are terrorists or have contributed to terrorism.”
Doctors as possible terrorists
“There seems to be some surprise that educated people such as medical professionals could become terrorists. However, a terrorist is a cognitive creation. People are not born terrorists and extreme behaviour does not depend on education or wealth. You can have extreme beliefs no matter whether you are a doctor, a religious person or a politician.”
Nick O’Brien is an Associate Professor of Counter Terrorism at the Australian Graduate School of Policing, Charles Sturt University.
“Last year the outgoing head of the British Security Service, Eliza Manningham-Buller, stated that the service was looking at some 1,600 people involved in 30 different terrorist plots. In this day and age, all terrorist investigations have an international dimension. Although I cannot comment on the guilt or innoceJanuary 9, 2008take into account the number of people being investigated by the police and security services in a number of different countries, it is almost inevitable that there will be an Australian connection to one or more of the enquiries.
Australia has been mentioned as a target by a number of senior Al Qaeda figures including the deputy leader of the organisation Ayman al Zawahiri.
There have been a number of people arrested and convicted in Australia of involvement in terrorism. It should come as no surprise that further terrorism related arrests have been made in Australia.
Terrorism is an enduring phenomenon that will impact on Australia now and well into the future.
Australians have been arrested abroad, allegedly for being involved with terrorists. The UK saw a number of its citizens involved in terrorism abroad (Richard Reid, the Shoe Bomber, Sajid Badat, tasked to be a second shoe bomber and Omar Sharif and Asif Hanif, both who died following an attack on Mike’s Place, a bar in Tel Aviv in 2003). It is likely that any Australians working as terrorists abroad will be tasked to operate in Australia.
As good as the State and Federal police and ASIO are, I am reminded of the IRA terrorist who commented post the Brighton Hotel bomb, ‘you have to be lucky all the time, we’ve only got to be lucky once’.”
Dr Michael McKinley is Senior Lecturer in International Relations with the Australian National University and Strategy and a terroism analyst for more than 30 years.
The Australian arrests
“We know very little about the possible Australian connection with the UK car bombing attempts. We should be very careful about labelling the two people picked up as ‘terrorists’. They will by now already be on a watch list as persons of interest to Australian police on terrorism matters and that could severely affect their careers. It is likely their names came up as a result of investigating the calls from mobile phones recovered in those UK cars. They are doctors and the contact may well be merely a result of a professional association.”
The UK Bombs
“The bombs were incompetently done. This may mean they were amateurs that just wanted to make a statement or they may have been acting on behalf of an overseas group who can no longer get into Britain because of the anti-terrorism measures there.”