Posted on 06/04/2007 3:06:29 AM PDT by Dundee
FIVE Australian cities rate in the top 10 English-speaking cities for Google searches on bomb-making, a a terrorism expert says.
Counter-terrorism associate professor Nick O'Brien said Australia also ranked second behind New Zealand in search volumes.
Perth ranked third on the search engine for searching "bomb making" while Brisbane ranked fourth, Adelaide sixth, Melbourne seventh and Sydney eighth.
New Zealand cities Auckland and New Plymouth ranked highest in English speaking cities.
Prof O'Brien, a former Scotland Yard staffer, said criminal elements including bikie gangs, could be responsible for the search numbers recorded, but the results were significant and a terrorist attack could happen in Australia.
"There's a realisation that Australian mainland is yet to be bloodied by al-Qaeda but it could happen," Prof O'Brien said.
"You've had a number of plots in Australia, you've had a number of terrorists who have been convicted.
"But they only have to get lucky once."
South Africa, Ireland and Canada ranked behind New Zealand and Australia for the bomb-making search string followed by Britain, the United States, Norway, the Philippines and Portugal.
Prof O'Brien said the result was surprising.
"You would have thought that the US and the UK would have ranked higher, even the Philippines," he said.
Australians were somewhat complacent about terrorist attacks compared to the UK but security agencies were not, Prof O'Brien said...
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Out of curiosity, is making explosives still taught in high school science? We were taught some so we would know what not to do. The same with common chemicals that would form poison gases when mixed.
i guess the people who did this study were never teenagers... (type in spud gun and see what ya get - same results no doubt)
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