Australian embassy in Jakarta bombed.

Hmm... First time EVER that terrorists have specifically targeted Australian interests... EVER!

How many times is it that Howard and Downer have denied we are at greater risk from terrorism since joining the 'coalition of the willing'?

What do you mean by "recapture", Galilite?

Their spiritual leader believes in the formation of a greater Islamic state of Indonesia - within which he includes Northern Australia.

Presumably we must also be punished for the insult of militarily assisting the largely christian folk of East Timor to break away from Islamic Indonesia - and for supporting the US in attacking Afghanistan and Iraq.

I think the intervention in East Timor alone would have made us a target, though - though Iraq has doubtless made us more of one.

Hmm... First time EVER that terrorists have specifically targeted Australian interests... EVER!

How many times is it that Howard and Downer have denied we are at greater risk from terrorism since joining the 'coalition of the willing'?

We were warned: US told officials of likely terrorist attack
By Cynthia Banham and Deborah Snow
September 10, 2004

The bombing of the Australian embassy was not without warning. The US put out a rare warning last Friday saying it had intelligence that terrorists might attack "identifiably American or other Western facilities or businesses in Indonesia".

It advised Americans officials in Indonesia to avoid "identifiably Western hotels".

The warning also prompted Australia to change its travel advisories the same day, with the Department of Foreign Affairs warning Australian officials in Jakarta to avoid Western hotels and to "take note of this advice".

The ABC reported yesterday that a function that was due to be held in a Jakarta hotel at the weekend had been moved to the Australian embassy.

The warning also brought a reaction from those with links to the intelligence community. The former head of intelligence for the Sydney Olympics, Neil Fergus, who is now head of the security advisory company Intelligent Risks, said he warned his clients in a memo on September 6 to "maintain stringent security to protect personnel and assets in Indonesia from JI attack".

The US warning followed reports from Indonesian authorities that JI was replenishing its recruits from secret training camps in the jungles of Mindanao, in the Philippines. More than 300 JI activists have been arrested in the region since the Bali bombings.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, and the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said yesterday they had been given no intelligence an attack was planned against the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

"I have not received any advice and we did not have any specific warning or specific advice that would suggest that this attack was going to occur in the vicinity of our embassy," Mr Howard said.

Mr Downer added: "We didn't have any information of a specific attack on the Australian embassy at this time, though there have been, over a long period of time, concerns that this could happen."

Senior Indonesian and Australian police had been bracing themselves for a JI attack in Indonesia before the end of the year, though no precise warnings were expected.

Indonesian authorities seized more than 800 kilograms of explosives from a JI base last year but police were convinced that JI had an unknown amount of explosives still at its disposal.

Mr Howard said $1.25 million had been spent upgrading security at the Australian embassy in Jakarta in the last year, and that it was one of the most secure embassies Australia had anywhere in the world.

The upgrade included a stronger perimeter to make it impossible for vehicles to gain access without permission, as well stronger glazing.

A number of Australian embassies have been moved because of the terrorist threat, including the Manila embassy, though not the one in Jakarta.

However, the threat to the Australian mainland remains unchanged.

A spokesman for the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, said the National Threat Assessments Centre in Canberra reviewed domestic security threat levels immediately after the embassy blast, and that there would be no change "because there was no specific threat to the Australian mainland".