Biggles of 266
1st Level Red Feather
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2001
- Messages
- 1,126
- Points
- 36
Britain's security services made a misjudgment in failing to issue a high threat warning for travel to Bali, according to a British parliamentary report. But Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer said today the report was not relevant to Australia.
The report by Britain's Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee concluded the nation's intelligence services should have reassessed the security threat in Indonesia as high.
The committee said intelligence chiefs had known the al-Qaeda network was in Indonesia and discussing attacks against British or US targets.
But at the time of the October 12 bombing, which killed nearly 200 people, they judged the threat to British interests only as significant.
This is third in a sliding scale of danger after high and imminent risk.
The watchdog said that a failed grenade attack on an American diplomatic residence just days before the Bali bombings should have set alarm bells ringing.
But Mr Downer rejected Labor's claims the British report undermined the credibility of Australia's own investigation into warnings of the Bali bombing.
The government this week released the interim report of Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Bill Blick's inquiry, which found Australia had received no advance warning of a terrorist attack in Bali.
"The British make judgments about British interests, not Australian interests," Mr Downer told parliament.
"We don't make judgments about British interests, we make judgments about Australian interests.
"Britain had their threat assessment at the third level, we had our threat assessment at the highest level.
"So it is clear that our judgments, in particular our intelligence community's judgments, of the threatened level against Australians was substantially higher than the judgments the British made."
He said unlike Britain, Australia had reviewed and updated its travel warnings to Indonesia seven times before the October 12 Bali bombing.
"On the basis of the information our officials had available to them, I think that the travel advisories that were issued ... were adequate," Mr Downer said.
The report by Britain's Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee concluded the nation's intelligence services should have reassessed the security threat in Indonesia as high.
The committee said intelligence chiefs had known the al-Qaeda network was in Indonesia and discussing attacks against British or US targets.
But at the time of the October 12 bombing, which killed nearly 200 people, they judged the threat to British interests only as significant.
This is third in a sliding scale of danger after high and imminent risk.
The watchdog said that a failed grenade attack on an American diplomatic residence just days before the Bali bombings should have set alarm bells ringing.
But Mr Downer rejected Labor's claims the British report undermined the credibility of Australia's own investigation into warnings of the Bali bombing.
The government this week released the interim report of Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Bill Blick's inquiry, which found Australia had received no advance warning of a terrorist attack in Bali.
"The British make judgments about British interests, not Australian interests," Mr Downer told parliament.
"We don't make judgments about British interests, we make judgments about Australian interests.
"Britain had their threat assessment at the third level, we had our threat assessment at the highest level.
"So it is clear that our judgments, in particular our intelligence community's judgments, of the threatened level against Australians was substantially higher than the judgments the British made."
He said unlike Britain, Australia had reviewed and updated its travel warnings to Indonesia seven times before the October 12 Bali bombing.
"On the basis of the information our officials had available to them, I think that the travel advisories that were issued ... were adequate," Mr Downer said.
