Following on from my previous weird terrorism news analysis post, a phenomenally coincidental study has just been released by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute stating that JI is planning an "imminent" attack on Australian interests in Indonesia.
This report runs counter to Gareth Evans' recent claims that JI is less of a threat now than it used to be, but happily backs up Australia's new lock-up-the-dissenters laws.
What startling intelligence breakthrough led to ASPI concluding an attack is imminent? Well... there was Bali in 2002, Marriot in 2003, the Embassy in 2004... and... oh my god, it's now 2005! Do the maths, kids!
I'm not making this up. This is what is in today's Age. Some kid counted on his fingers and wrote a report about his conclusions.
He may be right. Who knows? Not him. That's all I'm saying. But it makes a nice headline: JI Attack Imminent.
The Age website even links to the report. The full version costs $20. Screw that. I read the executive summary for free. It's not that bad, really. Full of lots of helpful suggestions that require spending heaps of money and effort chasing down the leaders of JI and other terrorists. Guess what issues it doesn't address. Poverty, lack of education, a large pool of desperate citizens with no food, no knowledge of the world and no prospects who are prepared to do anything at all to get out of their crappy situation. And these people live in what should be one of the wealthiest countries on Earth.
I don't know anyone at ASPI. If anyone does, can you do me a favour? Slap them. Slap them and say, "naughty". If they don't understand, slap them again. Repeat this process as often as necessary.