Canberra slams cleric terror talk
By Grant Holloway, CNN Sydney
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- The Australian government has been forced again to hose down fears that its close ties to the Bush administration has increased the nation's risk of terrorist attack.
The damage-control moves follow a media interview aired Wednesday night with jailed Indonesian radical leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir in which the firebrand cleric declared Australia and other allies of the United States would be "destroyed in the name of Allah".
Ba'asyir told Australian television's Seven network that there was no doubt the recent train bombings in Madrid, which have been blamed on the al Qaeda network, were brought on by Spain's backing of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
"Now the people of Spain have put pressure on their government, because in their opinion, the bombs were caused by the government's support of America, and they're right," he said.
Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer issued a media statement Thursday condemning Ba'asyir, calling him a "loathsome creature".
Ba'sayir is widely viewed as the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, an active terrorist group based in South East Asia with links to al Qaeda. His comments were made in a secret interview from his Jakarta jail cell.
The cleric, who recently had his sentence for treason and for immigration-related offences halved, could be a free man as soon as May this year -- a situation which also drew fire from Downer.
"Ba'asyir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, is implicitly calling for the destruction of our country. He and his supporters peddle an uncompromising ideology of hate that is contrary to the basic teachings of Islam," Downer said.
"Those who are intimidated by this and think that by changing our foreign policy we can somehow protect ourselves from attack are wrong."
Downer also said Australia would add weight to Indonesian government pressure to keep Ba'asyir incarcerated.
"The Indonesian government will see whether it can't bring new charges against Abu Bakar Ba'asyir to get him put behind bars," he said.
 |  Alexander Downer: A lot of damage could be done. |
"Our view of that is that we join with the Indonesians in hoping that it will be possible, if this is the decision of the judge, to appeal successfully to the full Supreme Court," he said on national radio.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, published Thursday, Downer said there were up to 5000 followers of Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and radical Islamic schools there were producing even more recruits to the cause of violent extremism.
"Three to five thousand people can do a lot of damage if they get their hands on TNT. Let us not be complacent about it," Downer said.
Jemaah Islamiyah is believed responsible for the October 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people, including 88 Australians.
The conservative collation government of John Howard has been battling all week to counter fears that Australia's staunch support for the war in Iraq had made the nation a higher profile terror target.
Australia strongly backed the U.S. position on the war and contributed 2,000 troops, jet fighters and naval vessels to the initial invasion forces.
The government's stance has been that a link cannot be drawn between Australia and last week's terror bombings in Spain because of the involvement in Iraq and support for the U.S.
Position undermined
That position was undermined however by the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, Mick Keelty, who told media he believed Australia had become a more likely target because of Iraq.
Keelty, after pressure from the prime minister's office, later issued a statement saying his comments had been taken out of context.
But the issue refuses to go away for the government, which is tipped to call a general election in October or November this year.
On Wednesday, a group claiming to have links with al Qaeda said it was calling a truce in its Spanish operations to see if the new Madrid government would withdraw its troops from Iraq, a pan-Arab newspaper said.
In a statement sent to the Arabic language daily al-Hayat, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades urged its European units to stop all operations.
But the group also said its cells were ready for another attack and time was running out for allies of the United States.
"Whose turn is it next? Will it be Japan or America, or Italy, Britain or Oslo or Australia?" the statement said, adding Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were also targets, Reuters reports.
The brigade, however, has dubious credibility -- having claimed responsibility in the past for attacks that it clearly did not undertake -- and its links to al Qaeda are uncertain.
