Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Australia Will Strike First Against Terrorists Abroad, PM Says

Australia would order a pre-emptive strike in another country to stop a terrorist attack at home, Prime Minister John Howard said.

Australia wants to join the pre-emptive club with the United States, Russia, Israel, Iran, India, Pakistan, North Korea, South Korea and China.

China now believes pre-emptive strikes are its best advantage against a technologically superior force. Capt. Shen Zhongchang from the Chinese Navy Research Institute is quoted as saying that “lighting attacks and powerful first strikes will be widely used in the future.”
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?prod=24083&session=dae.5034529.1095656....

All of these countries can launch pre-emptive strikes against that ambiguous and subjective group we call terrorists or anyone.

The United States will use nuclear weapons in their pre-emptive strikes, the others might. #msg-4026064

The list of pre-emptive strikers is growing as is the list of nuclear powers.

In the post-Sept. 11 New World Order, the roster of nations with active or emerging nuclear weapons programs includes much more than the traditional nuclear powers of the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France. Some newly independent former Soviet republics (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia) retain some of the weapons systems from the old Soviet Union.

Four other countries are widely believed to have tactical nuclear weapons: Israel, India, Pakistan and South Africa. Seven countries - Argentina, Brazil, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Taiwan - have active nuclear development programs and may possess nuclear weapons manufacturing capabilities.
#msg-4048680

-Am

Australia Will Strike First Against Terrorists Abroad, PM Says

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Australia would order a pre-emptive strike in another country to stop a terrorist attack at home, Prime Minister John Howard said.

``If there were no alternative other than to do something ourselves to prevent an attack on Australia from a terrorist group, I would do it,' Howard, who is campaigning to be re-elected for a fourth term on Oct. 9, said in an interview on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The main opposition Labor Party, which was trailing the ruling Liberal-National coalition in an ACNielsen poll published on Saturday, has rejected pre-emptive strikes and pledged to focus on cooperating with neighboring Asian nations to fight terrorism.

A bombing outside the Australian embassy in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, earlier this month killed at least nine people. No Australians were killed.

Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian group linked to the al- Qaeda terrorist network, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on a Web site. The group is also blamed for the 2002 attack on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed at least 202 people, 88 of them Australians.

``The first responsibility of a prime minister is to ensure the defense, protection and security of his country,' Howard said.

Howard said he did not expect Australia's Asian neighbors to be concerned about the pre-emptive strike policy.

``What I've said is in no way directed at our friends in the region,' he said. ``Jemaah Islamiyah is an enemy of Indonesia as much as Jemaah Islamiyah is an enemy of Australia.'

The government will today announce a plan to form specialist counter-terrorism squads to help regional neighbors guard against terror attacks, Howard said.

The policy will cost A$98.7 million ($69 million) over five years, the Courier-Mail reported today.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Fergus Maguire in Canberra at [e-mail].

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000081&sid=aNrbphtFTrQ4&refer=australia