Howard pledges Aussie crackdown on terror threat

Prime Minister John Howard vowed today to crack down on potential terrorists in Australia but said his administration would not take “extreme” steps to check the threat.

In the aftermath of the London bombings, Australia – a long-time ally of the US and Britain – is considering toughening its counter-terror laws, including widening powers to prosecute people deemed to be inciting terrorism.

Today, one of the Muslim leaders Howard has in the past singled out as not being critical enough of terror attacks by Islamic extremists lashed out at the prime minister.

Sheik Mohammed Omran accused Howard of fanning religious tensions by saying he cannot rule out the possibility of suicide bombers in Australia.

“This statement does nothing but entice fear into the hearts of Australians,” Omran wrote in an open letter to Howard that also was released to media. “It is your statement which is ’inflammatory’.”

Omran, who in the past has described al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden as a great man, also denied religious ideology was behind many suicide attacks.

“Most suicide bombers are not driven by religion but rather by secular and political goals,” he said.

Earlier, Howard said his administration’s moves to rein in the terror threat would not “go to absolute extremes. We’re not going to erode fundamental freedoms.

“But we have to recognise that the people who perpetrate terrorist attacks hate our society,” he added.

Howard, who is on a visit to London and was meeting last week with Prime Minister Tony Blair when the latest round of attacks on the city’s public transport system was launched, said he would be moving to use more closed circuit television cameras in public places.

“They can, in certain circumstances, act as a deterrent and I think they are a very valuable weapon and they are things that potentially we may need to look at expanding in Australia,” he said.

“I have been mightily impressed with the great capacity of the British police within 24 hours to identify people,” he added.

Earlier, Justice Minister Chris Ellison branded a radical Islamic group that has refused to denounce the London terror attacks “irresponsible.”

Wassim Doureihi, the leader of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir group in Sydney, told The Sun-Herald newspaper there was no evidence to support allegations that the group was involved in the bombings and refused to denounce the attacks.

“What we know for sure, and what is obvious to the rest of the world, is the reality of what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan ... and for that reason, we can squarely point the blame at Western governments, whether it’s America, the U.K. or Australia,” he told the newspaper.

Ellison condemned the statements.

“This sort of comment really is quite irresponsible and, of course, that is something that the Australian community has to make a very clear statement on, particularly those people who are close to those people making those comments,” Ellison told Australian television’s Seven Network.