Australia threatened, human rights activists whine

Australian intelligence authorities have received specific information about a terrorist threat in Australia, according to Prime Minister John Howard.

Speaking in Canberra, Mr Howard said, “The Government has received specific intelligence and police information this week which gives cause for serious concern about a potential terrorist threat.

It’s inevitable. Equally inevitable will be the recriminations afterwards about “inadequate preparations” and accusations that the government is “asleep and the wheel”, from precisely the same people who are opposing the new anti-terror laws out of “scepticism over the imminence of a threat” and “concern over human rights implications”.

Personally I think human rights are violated a wee bit more by having your morning rail commute interrupted by being blown to bits than by ASIO raiding the homes of known exremists, but that’s just me.