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As the terror alert has gone up a seperat thread is in order.
Tony Abbott announces Australian terror threat raised from ‘medium’ to ‘high’
Australia's terror threat level has been raised from medium to high, meaning a terror attack on home soil is now officially considered "likely".
The nation's outgoing spy chief ASIO Director General David Irvine says an attack could manifest itself in a "Bali-style attack, although Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Friday that the agencies had not detected any "particular plots".
Mr Abbott expressed confidence that the authorities are "smarter than terrorists and would be terrorists," and would remain "one step ahead" of their malice.
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Mr Abbott made the much anticipated announcement at a media conference with the Attorney-General George Brandis and Mr Irvine four days after the ASIO chief flagged the escalation.
Mr Abbott stressed that raising the terror threat level did not mean a terror attack was "imminent" but said it meant there are people in Australia with the "intent and capability" to carry out at terror attack.
He said it would "not make any difference to daily life" for the vast majority of Australians but it would mean "more security" at airports, ports, military bases, public buildings and large public events, including the upcoming AFL Grand Finals. But he said football fans should not be deterred from attending the games
Normal life in Australia can and must go on," he said. "We want people to go about their normal lives and we certainly want to people to enjoy the football if their teams are lucky enough to be in the grand final," he said.
Acting Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said sports fans "fortunate enough" to have tickets to the grand final should still attend as police have "well worked" plans for securing major matches.
PM Tony Abbott watches as ASIO chief David Irvine explains the increase in terror threat level. Photo: Luis Ascui
"You may expect to see heightened police presence but it won't be intrusive, I'm sure," he said.
Mr Abbott also said a "modest information campaign" would begin within weeks.
Mr Irvine said the events in the Middle East over recent months had activated people at home who support the extremism propagated by ISIL militants in Iraq and Syria.
He said 60 to 70 Australians were among the 10,000 foreign fighters fighting alongside the terrorists in Iraq and Syria and some had returned home.
@lightningdance wrote:
@steppefjordwyfe10 wrote:Just heard ISIS beheaded another, this time a British aid worker.
agree: Another atrocity but hey what harm can they do to us in our country eh?
So... no threat to innocent people, no threat to aid workers, so we should just ignore this and also ignore the home grown threat to an Australian soldier who was walking down the street in Sydney and threatened a group iof muslims that they would kill him.
We saw a young soldier behedaed on an English street but hey, that won't happen here, best to ignore it and say nothing.
I don't think anyone is ignoring the threat. But, how do you stop it? I'm asking a serious question. You can have all the security you like but if one person takes it upon themselves to kill another, there's not a lot anyone can do regardless of how much security is in place.
Saudi Arabia has beheaded 113 people in the past 10 months. Why aren't we rushing into their territory? Or do we ban all Saudi Arabians from coming to Australia. There is no easy answer it seems.
