Southeast Asian terrorists may have decided to suspend attacks in Indonesia since the devastating tsunami, but their overall objectives were unchanged, Australia's spy agency said yesterday.
"In Southeast Asia the tsunami that so tragically affected parts of Indonesia and other countries did not lead and has not led to any fundamental rethink by terrorists in that region," said Ian Cousins, deputy director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
"It is likely that in Indonesia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, they may have taken tactical decisions to lay off attacks in Indonesia and Sumatra after the tsunami," Cousins told a Canberra conference. "But we can be certain the tsunami has not resulted in any change of strategic direction. We must expect that Australia and its overseas interests will continue to be targeted."
Cousins noted there had been at least one actual or disrupted terrorist attack against Australian interests each year for the past five years. These included the Bali, Marriott and embassy attacks in Indonesia, the failed terror plot of Frenchman Willie Brigitte, and a thwarted plot to attack the Australian High Commission in Singapore.
ASIO was still tracking Australians who had undergone terrorist training abroad, he said, adding that 17 people had been refused entry to Australia since Sept. 11, 2001.
Cousins said Brigitte illustrated the global nature of the challenge.
"Born in the Caribbean -- Guadeloupe -- introduced to militant Islam in France, trained as a terrorist in Pakistan, Brigitte came to Australia to carry out a terrorist attack," he said.
Without the cooperation of French authorities, ASIO and Australian police, he may have succeeded, Cousins said.
"All that boils down to the fact that the challenge will be with us for a long time," he said.
Brigitte was deported from Australia in late 2003 and is being held in a French jail, where authorities believe he was planning an attack "of great size" in Australia.
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