Australia: Major terror attack highly possible; anything can happen any time: Counter-terrorism police

A major attack in Australia is “inevitable”, one of the nation’s top counter-terrorism police officers said today, warning that “anything can happen at any time”.

Australian authorities say they have prevented 13 terror attacks on home soil in the past few years, including an alleged plot in July to bring down a plane using poisonous gas or a crude bomb disguised as a meat mincer.

Canberra also released a national strategy last month to help venue operators prevent vehicle terror attacks carried out in crowded public places following deadly assaults in Europe.

“I don’t like to say it but it will happen. It’s inevitable,” New South Wales Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch, the state’s counter-terrorism boss, told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

“Despite everything that is being done and the good work that law enforcement and intelligence is doing, without wanting to create unnecessary fear within the community, it’s going to happen.”

Canberra has become increasingly worried about homegrown extremism, and raised the national terror alert level in September 2014. It stands at “probable”, the third in a five-level scale.

That means “credible intelligence, assessed by our security agencies, indicates that individuals or groups continue to possess the intent and capability to conduct a terrorist attack in Australia”.

Murdoch said …read more