HI MATES, I been keeping up with this and my old heart goes out to your countrymen !!! NONE of this is close to you is it ????
As the death toll rose Monday to at least 173 in Australia's worst wildfire disaster, suspicions that some of the 400 blazes were caused by arson led police to declare crime scenes in some of the incinerated towns.
The fires near Melbourne in southeastern Australia destroyed more than 750 homes, left 5,000 people homeless, and burned 850 square miles (2,200 square kilometers) of land
Josh Gordon September 7, 2008 AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.
US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to "start forest fires", claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands".
The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the "eye for an eye" doctrine.
The posting — which instructs jihadis to remember "forest jihad" in summer months — says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that "this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time".
"Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organisation were to claim responsibility for the forest fires," the website says. "You can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia and in Australia."
With the nation heading into another hot, dry summer, Australian intelligence agencies are treating the possibility that bushfires could be used as a weapon of terrorism as a serious concern.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the Federal Government remained "vigilant against such threats", warning that anyone caught lighting a fire as a weapon of terror would feel the wrath of anti-terror laws.
"Any information that suggests a threat to Australia's interests is investigated by relevant agencies as appropriate," Mr McClelland said.
Adam Dolnik, director of research at the University of Wollongong's Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention, said that bushfires (unlike suicide bombing) were generally not considered a glorious type of attack by jihadis, in keeping with a recent decline in the sophistication of terrorist operations.
"With attacks like bushfires, yes, it would be easy. It would be very damaging and we do see a decreasing sophistication as a part of terrorist attacks," Dr Dolnik said.
"In recent years, there have been quite a few attacks averted and it has become more and more difficult for groups to do something effective."
Dr Dolnik said he had observed an increase in traffic on jihadi websites calling for a simplification of terrorist attacks because the more complex operations had been failing. But starting bushfires was still often regarded as less effective than other operations because governments could easily deny terrorism as the cause.
The internet posting by the little-known group claimed the idea of forest fires had been attributed to imprisoned Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Al-Suri. It said Al-Suri had urged terrorists to use sulphuric acid and petrol to start forest fires.
Yes its not lookin to good over here , floods up north and fires down south . Mate if i court the prick how gets of on lightin fires . Id burns his fingers off , so they couldnt use a lighter again. Cheers mate ........
Yer mate theres some ****ed up people over here at the moment ,no fires up casino way .Mate they need to steer the prick off and brand them a assunest , sicko , firebug ......Makes ya sick ............ Cheers mate
DamnOrion that piece you came up with it something else !!! MAKES me wonder now about some of the fires started in Cal.BUT think about it, it would be a way to start a lot of **** over here and hurt a lot of women and children
WITH you Dazsteel on your thoughts about the sicko's Keep us up to date on this, our news may drop it anytime if something else catchs their eye.
Hi all, Its been horrific whats going on with our Victorian neibours,my heart goes out to them. It hasn't been in our media about these fires been lit by jihad terrorist but it is terrorism just the same when they have been deliberetly lit. The bush fires are more intence over here due to eucalyptus trees as they have high oil content in thier leaves. It been raining a lot up here in North Queensland and has flooded and there is still more rain and maybe a cyclone to come. My house has half a moat around it at the moment. It is very wet and hot after 3 weeks of rain and every thing is goin moldy. Steve..
Obviously we have the two (maybe three) extremes in Oz at the moment.
At the southern end of the country is devastating fires (sadly, some lit by an arsonist) and at the northern end is relentless flooding. In the middle (on the east coast) we are short on water supplies with dam capacities in our area (south east Queensland) down to 10%.
goes out to these people. 
