4 ARRESTED IN MORNING TERROR RAIDS ACROSS VICTORIA

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 MELBOURNE 000090

NOFORN
SIPDIS

STATE PLEASE PASS TO HOMELAND SECURITY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/03/2019
TAGS: PTER PINR PREL AS
SUBJECT: 4 ARRESTED IN MORNING TERROR RAIDS ACROSS VICTORIA

REF: A. A) MELBOURNE 18

B. B) 08 MELBOURNE 117

C. C) 08 MELBOURNE 66

D. D) 08 CANBERRA 909

Classified By: JIM COLE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B),(D)

SUMMARY
--------------


1. (SBU) Four men were arrested and 19 homes were raided
in Victoria this morning by federal and state police as a
result of an ongoing terror investigation. The four men
were allegedly planning suicide attacks against Australian
targets. Victorian Chief of Police Simon Overland praised
the efforts of state and federal police. More details are
expected be forthcoming when the suspects appear in court
either today or tomorrow. Prime Minister Rudd
made a statement reassuring the population that the
Australian terror-threat level would not need to be raised.

END SUMMARY

Embassy Canberra alerted by Australians
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2. (S/NF) August 3, the day before the arrests, the
Australians briefed Embassy LEGATT, RSO and ORA on the
upcoming police action in Melbourne and gave them the names
of six Persons of Interest (POIs),NAYEF EL SAYED; WISSAM
MAHMOUD FATTAL; YACQUB KHAYRE (just returned from Somalia);
SANEY EDOW AWEYS; ABDIR AHMAN MAHMUD AHMED; AND WALID OSMAN
MOHAMED, among whom Mr. Fattal, the Lebanese recruit to the
movement, was already in custody on another charge and the
last (Walid) remains in Somalia although with an
outstanding warrant for his arrest. The other four are the
persons of Somali descent arrested on August 4 in
Melbourne.


3. (S/NF) The men had been shopping in Somalia for a fatwah
that would justify their planned terrorism in Australia
although the imams they approached were not ready to give
them what they wanted. Moreover, they used the outcome of
the Benbrika case and Australia's presence in Iraq and
Afghanistan as the justifying motives for their intended
suicide attacks.

Phone Call Ignites Arrests
--------------


4. (SBU) News media sources report that four men, all
Australian citizens, were arrested this morning in a series
of police raids on homes across Victoria. According to
Simon Overland, chief of the Victorian Police, and
Australian Federal Police (AFP) acting commissioner Tony
Negus, the men will be charged with crimes in the next 24
hours. Overland and Negus confirmed in a press conference
that the men were planning to enter Australian military
facilities and barracks with the intent to carry out a
suicide mission using semi-automatic weapons. The
Australian reports that the authorities observed the men
carrying out surveillance on Australian Defense Force (ADF)
bases in Victoria and Holsworthy Barracks near Sydney.


5. (SBU) Overland stressed that the raids were a
culmination of a long investigation and cooperative effort
by state and federal authorities. The Age reports that more
than 400 officers from the AFP, Victorian Police, New South
Wales Police, New South Wales Crime Commission, and the
Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) were
involved in the investigation, dubbed Operation Neath. The
Australian reports Operation Neath began after authorities
intercepted a phone call from a Lebanese man who wished to
go to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab, an extremist Islamic
militant group based in Somalia with close links to Al
Qaeda. (Comment: Al-Shabaab is not listed as a terrorist
organization by Australia, though it is in the United
States. End Comment.) Authorities were keeping close tabs
on the man after he espoused extremist views in a mosque in
the northern suburbs of Melbourne late last year. The
Australian says that the Lebanese man, after being unable
to gain access to Somalia, discussed with other hardliners
carrying out attacks on Australian targets. Authorities
decided to carry out the raids after a Somali man returned
to Australia after training with Al-Shabaab in Somalia.


MELBOURNE 00000090 002 OF 002


Flap over Alleged Leak
--------------


6. (SBU) The Australian newspaper reports that 4 men were
arrested from the suburbs of Carlton, Preston, Glenroy, and
Meadow Heights, all between the ages of 22 and 26.
Additionally, raids were carried out in the suburbs of
Roxburgh Park, Westmeadows, Broadmeadows, Epping, and
Colac. Simon Overland was livid and said The Australian ran
an exclusive on Operation Neath that went public at 1:30AM
the morning of August 4, nearly three hours before the
raids commenced. He said the story "jeopardized the
operation and the lives of (his) officers" and vowed to
launch an internal investigation into the leak. The
Australian Editor in Chief Chris Mitchell disputes that any
edition was published before the raids.

Comment
--------------


7. (SBU) The recent arrests of the Somali Australians, will
likely bring international terrorism once more to the
forefront of the public eye. The terror investigation is
being called the second largest in Australian history,
after the Benbrika terror case that ended with verdicts in
September 2008 (reftel). It will focus on elements within
the Somali community. According to the 2006 census, there
were only 4314 Somali-born persons in Australia, though
fully 60.7 percent resided in Melbourne. Overland and Prime
Minister Rudd have both made express statements attributing
the investigation to a few individual extremists only, and
not to any larger community. ASIO's claim in its 2007-2008
Year in Review that terrorism represented the "most
significant threat" to Australian security could again
surface. It is also probable that close attention will be
paid to the Attorney General's upcoming rollout of reforms
for Australia's national security and counterterrorism
laws. End Comment.


8. (SBU) Consulate Melbourne and Embassy Canberra
coordinated on this cable.
THURSTON