Posted on 12/15/2004 2:52:35 AM PST by naturalman1975
A TANKER carrying 90,000 tonnes of crude oil was ordered to anchor off the Sydney coast on New Year's Eve because police and ASIO officials feared it could be attacked by terrorists in Sydney Harbour, where hundreds of thousands of spectators had gathered to welcome in 2004.
In late December 2003, police had been monitoring the movements of a group of Islamic men, including known militant Saleh Jamal, believed to be targeting two sites, Pier One Wharf near the Harbour Bridge and the Shell oil terminal at Gore Cove.
On New Year's Eve, as the Panamanian-registered crude oil tanker Pedoulas was sailing south along the NSW coast heading for Gore Cove, police were secretly keeping track of a small boat with Jamal and a number of other men on board who were acting suspiciously in Sydney Harbour.
As concerns grew about a possible attack, police instructed the harbour authorities to tell the ship's Sydney agent, Barwil Agencies, that the vessel should anchor off Sydney Heads. Jacques Bille, a spokesman for tanker owner V-Ships, confirmed it anchored offshore about midnight. It was 17 hours before authorities were confident enough to allow it to proceed to Gore Cove, where it docked shortly after 5pm on New Year's Day and unloaded its cargo of oil from Jebel Dhanna in the United Arab Emirates. Police sources have confirmed that the tanker's captain was not told of the reasons for the delay. A spokeswoman for Shell said last night that the company would not comment on the security scare.
In the days before the New Year's festivities, telephone taps and listening devices were authorised by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock to snoop on the suspects' conversations. Surveillance officers monitored their movements. The group was linked to the Haldon Street prayer room at Lakemba in Sydney's Islamic heartland.
On New Year's Eve, Sydney man Saleh Jamal, now jailed in Lebanon on terrorism charges, took to the harbour with several friends in a small boat. They repeatedly cruised past Pier One and the refinery. Operations centres at ASIO, Australian Federal Police headquarters and the Sydney Police Centre were fully staffed by the nation's most senior counter-terrorism officials. State and federal government ministers were briefed.
Some senior police officers were convinced the men in the boat were preparing to detonate a bomb, but surveillance had failed to detect talk of explosives.
Subsequent checks of the boat found no link to explosives.
Four months later, Jamal was arrested in Lebanon and charged with preparing terrorist acts along with three other men.
Islamikazi ping
Irony on several levels.
Well done! It fits perfectly.
Pedoulas is a well known town in Cyprus. Greek owned tanker and registered in Panama.
Ping
Isn't this story kind of old - from last New Year's eve?
The events are old - many details about what happened have only just been made public. This is hardly uncommon in security situations.
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