Police Foil Olympic Plot

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Police Foil Olympic Plot

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Authorities minimized an Olympic terrorist 
threat after reports Saturday that New Zealand police may have foiled 
a plot targeting a nuclear reactor in Sydney. 

Documents suggesting plans for an attack turned up during raids in 
March on a suspected people-smuggling operation, the New Zealand 
Herald newspaper reported. 

But Australian officials said there was no serious risk to the small 
research reactor in suburban southern Sydney, and said they had no 
plans to shut it down. 

They also said there was no direct evidence of a terrorist threat and 
expressed confidence in the massive security operation for the games -
 headed by the New South Wales state police and including Australian 
military forces and international intelligence services. 

``We have been at pains to assure the Australian public, and visitors 
to Australia for the games, that we have put in place the most well 
rehearsed and practiced cooperative arrangements between all relevant 
authorities - law enforcement, intelligence security and otherwise,'' 
Attorney General Daryl Williams said. 

Security around the plant - located in the western Sydney suburb of 
Lucas Heights - would be upgraded during the games but it would not 
be closed, he said. 

International Olympic Committee chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch said 
he was not worried about security at the Sydney Olympics. 

``Security is the responsibility of the governments of Australia and 
New South Wales and we have no fears. I feel calm, although I will 
feel even more so the day of the closing ceremony,'' he told Spanish 
television. 

Raids in March on a home in Auckland that had been converted into a 
virtual command center turned up street maps of Sydney, plans 
detailing entry and exit routes to the Sydney nuclear reactor and 
notes on police security tactics, the Herald reported. 

Three men, Auckland residents with ties to Afghanistan, were arrested 
on suspicion of people-smuggling and of passport fraud in March and a 
fourth suspect was taken into custody last week, New Zealand police 
Detective Superintendent Bill Bishop said. 

All four were expected to appear in court next week, he said. 

``Nobody has been arrested for terrorist activities or for being part 
of a terrorist group or anything like that,'' he told The Associated 
Press. 

There was no evidence specifically pointing to an attack during the 
Olympics, but the map and other material aroused investigators' 
suspicions, Bishop said. 

Police alerted Australian authorities after the raid, and several 
security agencies have been monitoring the investigation, he said. 

The New Zealand Herald said the group was reportedly linked with 
Afghanistan-based terrorist Osama bin Laden, but there was no 
independent confirmation of the claim. 

Bin Laden is accused of masterminding the deadly August 1998 bombings 
of United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. 

Milton Cockburn, a spokesman for the Sydney 2000 organizing 
committee, said security during the Sept. 15-Oct. 1 Olympics was the 
responsibility of the New South Wales police. He declined to comment 
further. 

New South Wales police confirmed they were monitoring the 
investigations and said all Olympics threats were taken seriously. 

Fears of terrorist attacks on Sydney surfaced in May when police 
arrested a man whose home near the Olympic Village was packed with 
explosives. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said only last week that 
there was no direct threat of terrorist attack on Australia during 
the Olympics, but also said bin Laden was ``an example of the sort of 
people we clearly monitor as best we can.'' 

The reports led to renewed calls from local residents and Greenpeace 
to shut down the reactor, at least for the duration of the Olympics. 

The reactor is in the suburb of Lucas Heights, about 16 miles from 
the Olympic stadium and less than six miles from where some members 
of the U.S. Olympic team administration would be staying before the 
games. 

A similar reactor in Atlanta located near the Olympic site was closed 
down during the 1996 Olympics because of concerns that terrorists 
could commandeer the fuel. 

Australia's Science Minister Nick Minchin said security would be 
tightened but the reactor would not be closed during the games 
because there was no credible threat to the facility or to the 
Olympics. 

Nuclear experts at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology 
Organization determined last year that the threat of a serious attack 
``was very low and any threat to technology or material was also very 
low,'' he said. An update last week upheld that report, Minchin said.

The 1950s-vintage nuclear reactor is not a power plant. It is used 
for scientific and medical research. It is also much smaller than an 
electricity-generating nuclear reactor. It produces about 10 
megawatts of thermal energy compared with 3,000 megawatts by a 
typical electricity-generating reactor.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
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