Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Brisbane pops its cherry
Police received a series of phone calls warning that 8 bombs (4 on trains and 4 on buses) were set to go off at midday. A later phone call warned of a bomb set to go off at 5pm.
In response the State government decided to shut down trains and buses for 15 mins either side of noon and 5pm and evacuate the buses and trains for this period. Surrounding buildings were supposed to be cleared, but communication failed to get the message through adequately.
Police have not yet declared it was a hoax, but I guess the fact that there were no bombs indicates, perhaps, that it was.
The phone calls were made from two phone boxes in Enoggera and Carina, now subject of intense police forensic scrutiny.
Over the period of the operation yesterday, police also received a number of phone calls warning of suspicious packages.
Did the Queensland government overreact? It was only last week that a number of terrorist suspects were arrested in Sydney and Melbourne as a result of a change in federal law, which made their apprehension lawful. It is alleged that an attack was planned and imminent. Of course, for legal and operational reasons, the whereabouts of such an attack and the nature of its ‘imminence’ cannot be verified for its veracity; we will just have to trust the Howard government on this one.
In this heightened climate of suspicion – when Howard reminds Australians to be ‘alert’ but not ‘alarmed’ – it is not surprising that Queensland authorities erred on the side of caution. In this respect, I would agree with them.
I would much prefer to go through the inconvenience of facing a periodic public transport shut down than being subject to a Howard government’s arbitrary law making, where it seems it will make a law to arrest a defined set of people.
Brisbane pops its cherry
Posted by Living with Matilda at 12:59 PM
Police received a series of phone calls warning that 8 bombs (4 on trains and 4 on buses) were set to go off at midday. A later phone call warned of a bomb set to go off at 5pm.
In response the State government decided to shut down trains and buses for 15 mins either side of noon and 5pm and evacuate the buses and trains for this period. Surrounding buildings were supposed to be cleared, but communication failed to get the message through adequately.
Police have not yet declared it was a hoax, but I guess the fact that there were no bombs indicates, perhaps, that it was.
The phone calls were made from two phone boxes in Enoggera and Carina, now subject of intense police forensic scrutiny.
Over the period of the operation yesterday, police also received a number of phone calls warning of suspicious packages.
Did the Queensland government overreact? It was only last week that a number of terrorist suspects were arrested in Sydney and Melbourne as a result of a change in federal law, which made their apprehension lawful. It is alleged that an attack was planned and imminent. Of course, for legal and operational reasons, the whereabouts of such an attack and the nature of its ‘imminence’ cannot be verified for its veracity; we will just have to trust the Howard government on this one.
In this heightened climate of suspicion – when Howard reminds Australians to be ‘alert’ but not ‘alarmed’ – it is not surprising that Queensland authorities erred on the side of caution. In this respect, I would agree with them.
I would much prefer to go through the inconvenience of facing a periodic public transport shut down than being subject to a Howard government’s arbitrary law making, where it seems it will make a law to arrest a defined set of people.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 12:59 PM
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| I am employed by Brisbane City Council. All views expressed in this blog are my own and in no way reflect the views of my employer. |
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