Osama aides 'targeted' n-reactor

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, AUG. 26. A possible terrorist plot to ``target a nuclear reactor in Sydney'', venue for next month's Olympic Games, has been foiled by the New Zealand police.

The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported today that the results of the police investigation could lead Australian authorities to shut down the Lucas Heights reactor ahead of the Olympic Games. It claimed that the plot might have been hatched by Afghan ``sympathisers'' of the Saudi rebel, Osama bin Laden, a possibility that has caused alarm bells to ring. ``Detectives in Auckland stumbled on the apparent reactor conspiracy during an investigation into people-smuggling by organised crime syndicates,'' the newspaper said.

Following a series of raids, the police believe they have found ``evidence'' of a conspiracy to attack the reactor. The evidence included a virtual command centre, complete with conference table and maps in a local home, a Sydney street map with the site of the 1950s era reactor and access routes highlighted and entries in a notebook outlining police security tactics used for the Auckland Commonwealth Games in 1990.

``The marked street map showing Lucas Heights was in the possession of a man from the Iran-Afghanistan region, who claimed he found it inside a National Geographic magazine he bought in a garage sale,'' the newspaper report said. However, no arrests have been made in the case, but ``investigations are continuing''.

The report also refers to the usual Western concerns of illegal immigrants or those seeking refugee status, and the problem of potential terrorists making use of resident status in New Zealand. ``Police say the cell they uncovered consisted of about 20 mainly Afghani refugees in Auckland who, they believe, have been familiarising themselves with the Western way of doing things, possibly as a forerunner to foreign forays,'' the report said.

``Officers believe that some refugees granted residency have fought previously in hotspots such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Chechnya, Somalia and Sri Lanka. The Auckland police investigation has revealed another worrying aspect - the frequency of trips near-penniless refugees have made to South- East Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia,'' it added.

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Section  : International
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