Australia asks Washington to retract airline attack threat

Australia acknowledged on Thursday that it risked being used as a base for a September 11-style attack but demanded the US corrects a public...

Australia acknowledged on Thursday that it risked being used as a base for a September 11-style attack but demanded the US corrects a public warning that it was also a possible target.

The government saw red last week when the US Homeland Security Department named Australia, Britain and Italy as a possible target for suicide airliner assaults by the Al Qaeda network. The US 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 US or elsewhere, but said the new US 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.

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Williams said US authorities had promised Australia a correction to the advisory that warned the airline industry that Al Qaeda was planning new suicide hijackings. But the retraction comes at a potentially embarrassing time, with Washington already under fire for the accuracy of its intelligence.

Williams played down suggestions the new warning would undermine the public’s confidence in intelligence gathered by either the Australian or US governments.

Australia sent about 2,000 military personnel to Iraq but is holding a probe into pre-war intelligence later this year.

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