Australians should carry on with their lives and not be cowed by a purported al-Qaeda threat against their country's second-largest city, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday.
Australian security officials have yet to verify a purported al-Qaeda videotape delivered to US television network ABC News over the weekend showing a masked man making terrorist threats against Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, the officials said.
ABC News reported that the man is believed to be Adam Yahiye Gadahn, an American purported to be an al-Qaeda member and wanted by the FBI.
"Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing. And this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint and compassion," the man says on the 11-minute tape.
Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, will in March host the Commonwealth Games, one of the world's biggest sporting events, drawing thousands of competitors from 71 countries that were part of the former British empire.
Howard questioned whether Gadahn had the means to carry out his threats.
"It could well be authentic," the prime minister told Australian reporters who have accompanied him to New York for a UN summit.
"But it could also be the case that the person who has made these comments in the past has not -- how shall I put it -- demonstrated to have had the capacity to deliver through on those statements," he added.
Howard predicted the terrorist threat would not deter Melbourne residents from supporting the two-week Commonwealth Games.
"The best response to things like this is to redouble our protective efforts, which we are doing, but also to get on with life, which we are also doing," he said.
Attorney General Philip Ruddock, who is responsible for the nation's top spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), said the threat was taken seriously, although the nation's security threat level remained unchanged at medium.
"We have no specific information that would cause us to change the alert at this time," Ruddock told the Southern Cross Radio in Melbourne.
Victoria state Premier Steve Bracks has urged Victorians not to fear a terrorist attack, saying adequate security measures were in place for the Commonwealth Games as well as other major sporting events scheduled in Melbourne this year.
"This video is designed to instill fear," Bracks told journalists in Melbourne.
"We would be playing into their hands if all of a sudden we said, `Oh yes, we're fearful,'" he added.
State police assistant commissioner Kieran Walshe said no authorities in Australia had yet seen a full copy of the video.
ASIO and police launched raids on houses in Melbourne and Sydney in June hoping to foil Muslim extremists plotting attacks against the Sydney Opera House as well as landmarks in Melbourne, media reported at the time.
Ruddock confirmed the raids at the time but refused to reveal their purpose.
The federal government is seeking support from state governments for tough new counterterrorism measures in response to the July 7 London bombings. They would ban public support of Australia's enemies and allow suspects to be monitored with tracking bracelets for up to a year.
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