Australia demands U.S. retracts airline attack threat

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters07-30-213924.asp?reg=PACRIM

Australia demands U.S. retracts airline attack threat
By Belinda Goldsmith


CANBERRA, July 31 — Australia acknowledged on Thursday that it risked being used as a base for a September 11-style attack but demanded the United States corrects a public warning that it was also a possible target.

The government saw red last week when the U.S. Homeland Security Department named Australia, Britain and Italy as a possible target for suicide airliner assaults by the al Qaeda network. The U.S. was also named as a target.
Australian Attorney-General Daryl Williams said intelligence indicated the country could be used as a base for an attack on the United States or elsewhere, but said the new U.S. warning that it could be a target was ''not an accurate reflection of the intelligence.''
He was speaking on the sidelines of a 2003 Homeland Security Conference. Williams said U.S. authorities had promised Australia a correction to the advisory that warned the airline industry that al Qaeda was planning new suicide hijackings and bombings.
But the retraction comes at a potentially embarrassing time, with Washington already under fire for the accuracy of its intelligence.

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