http://smh.com.au/news/national/well-close-islamic-group-if-its-a- threat-pm/2005/08/08/1123353234248.html
We'll close Islamic group if it's a threat: PM August 8, 2005 - 10:33AM Prime Minister John Howard says the Government will ban a radical Islamic group operating in Australia if authorities find it is a terrorist threat. The Government's hard line on Hizb ut-Tahrir has not tempered the group's language, with a spokesman warning the Government would pay a price for its support of countries occupying Muslim lands. Spy agency ASIO is investigating Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has been banned in Britain, and is expected to deliver an assessment on its activities within days. Mr Howard said the Government would act to stop any organisation that was assessed as a potential threat. "If ASIO tells us that an organisation like this ... does represent a threat, then we'll take action to ban it," Mr Howard told Macquarie Radio today. The Prime Minister is planning a summit of Australia's Muslim leaders in the next few weeks to enlist their help in exposing extremist cells, and Hizb ut-Tahrir says it wants a seat at the table. The meeting will take place ahead of an emergency security summit with state and territory leaders next month and comes as the Government considers whether to beef up counter-terrorism legislation. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock today confirmed Hizb ut-Tahrir was the subject of a security assessment. The group has described suicide bombers as martyrs and has said Muslims had a duty to resist the occupation of Iraq. Mr Ruddock also denied Labor's claim that a leak to a weekend newspaper about the ASIO investigation might have compromised the probe. He said he had not been alarmed by the activities or statements of the organisation. "No, I've asked that the banning of this organisation by the United Kingdom, which is a new factor, be taken into account in the consideration that we give to these questions in relation to whether or not organisations should be proscribed under the criminal code," he told the Nine Network. Hizb ut-Tahrir's Australian spokesman Wassim Doureihi said the group would co-operate fully with investigators, but warned the Government would suffer because of its support of the occupation of Iraq. "We have to expect that, if this Government continues to ally itself with those countries that are destroying entire countries, that are uprooting entire peoples, that are bombing entire villages, then you have to expect that it will come at a price," he told the Nine Network. He confirmed the group's support for the insurgency against the occupation of Iraq and refused to condemn suicide bombings. "It's unfair to condemn the reaction when we do not condemn unreservedly the conditions which gave rise to those reactions," he said. "If we talk about occupied land then we have to expect the people to resist the occupation." Mr Doureihi said ASIO had been in contact with his group for several years and the group had nothing to hide. "What is disturbing is that the party is being portrayed as a secretive cell when in reality we have been very open," he said. AAP ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hvg9v1k/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123499899/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
