Then without a chase and without any expert counter-terrorist input, a "security person" who just happened to be driving past this remote abandoned facility at 6.45 a.m. on a Saturday morning, alerted local police to the "bomber" whom he had personally seen running away from the crime scene! Damn, how lucky can you get? Then, apparently without a concern in the world for any other members of the terrorist team who might have been dismembered by the blast, or escaped from the scene to bomb someone else another day, the solitary "suspect" was taken into custody.
So how did the incredibly alert "security person" know for sure that this man was operating solo? For now, we will have to reasonably assume that the security whiz kid was working for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation [ASIO], or the Australian Federal Police, and in all probably was the suspect's personal handler.
After being politely ushered into a police paddy wagon without handcuffs, suspect Mark John Avery graciously appeared in the Magistrate's Court looking like a proper villain, as is traditional for a man accused of building and then detonating the largest bomb in the history of Sydney. At that stage, the uninitiated police prosecutor was clearly expecting Avery to be sent down for a very long time, as would befit any terrorist of his obvious stature and demonstrated ability. Alas, the police prosecutor was in for a big surprise.
Unlike Australian David Hicks, who has been incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay for more than two years without trial for merely training with the Muslim Taliban, terrorist bomber Mark Avery was about to demonstrate just how many good Christian friends he has in the Australian political and judicial establishment.
Within 24 hours and despite the fact that he had just triggered "easily the biggest bomb ever detonated in Sydney", Avery was released on a lousy $2,000.00 bail, with Magistrate Brian Lulham saying he had heard no evidence that the defendant had set off the explosives for any sinister or criminal purposes. Lulham continued that Avery had very strong community ties and, "was confident he would turn up for his next court appearance."
If this gross incident proves anything at all, it is simply that a hard core of maniacs in Canberra have finally crossed the invisible line which normally separates public servants from criminals. Those who funded, organised and executed this covert operation must be weeded-out and punished very quickly, before they take the inevitable next step in this crazed process, i.e. that of blowing up a few dozen or a few hundred Australians in order to make everyone else "believe" in the fictional al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah.
This event may be closer than any of us think, because the Commonwealth of Australia is due to hold its biggest-ever counter terrorism exercise in early March 2004. No doubt a few dozen bloodied and mangled [real] corpses on the streets of Sydney or Melbourne, would go down very well with those in Canberra who have already slipped over the edge into complete insanity.