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Australia: Inaction over terror threat
worries Kurdish editor Hussein Khoshnow
1.2.2007
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February 1, 2007
More than two weeks after receiving a terrorist bomb
threat at his Sydney office, the editor of an Iraqi
community newspaper has expressed frustration at
inaction by ASIO officers and the NSW police
counter-terrorism squad.
Hussein Khoshnow 'Khoshnaw', a Kurd, editor-in-chief
of al-Furat, a secular Arabic, Kurdish and English
newspaper, cannot even get the police or security
agency to advise whether he should take the threat
seriously.
His case has so concerned the international press
freedom body, Reporters Without Borders, that its
secretary-general Robert Ménard has written to
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock urging a speedy
investigation of the case.
"Although Mr Khoshnow is concerned about the safety
of his family and employees, he does not want to
yield to the threats,"Mr Ménard wrote.
"Whatever the motives, we believe it is important
that the Australian authorities should find out who
is responsible for these threats and that your
security services should provide Mr Khoshnow and his
newspaper with protection."
Mr Khoshnow has lived in fear since a man claiming
to represent al-Qa'ida left a phone message in
Arabic at his Fairfield office on January 14
threatening to kill him and destroy his bureaus in
Sydney and Melbourne.
He tells a story of missed appointments, unreturned
calls and lack of co-operation.
Mr Khoshnow phoned ASIO on the day of the threat and
officers arranged to meet him in the city the
following day.
They said they would try to trace the call but later
advised him they had no success with one
communications company and would try another.
Meanwhile, he should notify the NSW Police.
He called the police and was told someone would come
to interview him but after almost three hours nobody
arrived so he went to the Fairfield police station
where an officer took down some basic details and
kept his answering machine containing the message.
He was told someone would get back to him.
He heard nothing more until The Australian reported
the threat on January 24. An officer from the
counter-terrorism co-ordination command phoned him
to make an appointment for the following day at 10am
at Liverpool police station.
"I waited one and a half hours and nobody came," Mr
Khoshnow said.
"Nobody rang me to say they couldn't make it. The
police at the station said they didn't know about
the appointment and couldn't do anything about it.
"They rang me back at about 4pm to say they could
see me later that afternoon at Fairfield."
The counter-terrorism detectives finally interviewed
him for two hours that night.
He asked ASIO for a letter to the Housing Commission
stating he had received a serious threat so he could
move his family to a new address but they refused.
ASIO would not comment on the allegations, but a
spokesman for the NSW police said all threats were
taken seriously and the matter would be investigated
thoroughly.
He said inquiries were continuing and detectives had
been keeping the editor appraised.
A car belonging to one of the newspaper's Melbourne
staff was vandalised this week but Mr Khoshnow does
not know whether that incident was related to the
threats.
"Put yourself in my situation," Mr Khoshnow said. "I
cannot hire bodyguards for all my staff, and we
don't even know how serious this threat is."
Mr Khoshnow continues to bring out his newspaper,
which he says upsets those with different views.
"They have problems with the way we publish the
news," he said.
He believes stories about fundamental Muslims in
Australia and his pictorial coverage of Saddam
Hussein's hanging might have prompted the threat.
The phone message stated: "We will destroy the
newspaper's headquarters in Sydney very soon, God
willing.
"We will destroy the newspaper's headquarters in
Melbourne. You will be butchered. Every Iraqi Kurd
and Shi'ite in Australia will be butchered.
"Do not think the death of Saddam (Hussein) will
save you. We will deter you with terrorism inside
Australia."
Mr Khoshnow said he was also threatened in 2005 with
e-mail messages stating he must "support the Islamic
movement that is waging jihad in Iraq to make it
safe from the terrorist occupiers."
Mr Khoshnow is a Kurd who came to Australia in 1995
and says he was tortured in Iraq when he was only
16.
He said he hoped for more support from a democratic
country whose federal government had passed 35
anti-terrorism Acts since September 2001.
"Australia has all these anti-terror laws but what
sort of support does the government give to
victims?" he asked. "It is a terrorist threat not
only for me, but for all people in Australia."
theaustralian news.com.au
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