Cabinet papers reveal ‘chain-reaction’ fears following 9/11 attacks

THE Australian government feared terrorists would strike on our shores in the days after September 11 – and that the Defence Force was not equipped to fight back.

Two decades since the attack on the US that changed the world, cabinet papers released on Friday revealed how John Howard scrambled to shore up our defences, even as the government knew supporting the war in Afghanistan would make Australia a target.

The former prime minister was in Washington on 9/11 and rushed to track down his wife and son, who were sightseeing near the Pentagon on the morning it was hit by the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77, claiming 189 lives.

“I had a lot of things on my mind, they were part of the concern … but they were OK,”

Mr Howard told News Corp.

“My fears were there would be chain-reaction attacks – the next attack might be in London or Tokyo or Shanghai or Sydney.”

Three weeks later, Defence Minister Peter Reith told cabinet that “intelligence reporting indicates that terrorist attacks in Australia cannot be discounted”, and Australia’s support of the Us-led military response “raises our profile with the terrorists themselves”.

Mr Reith said the possibility of similar simultaneous attacks in Australia would be “highly problematic for our counterterrorist forces at their current level of capability”.

The cabinet backed Defence’s plan to establish a second tactical assault group, stationing elite Special Air Services Regiment soldiers on Australia’s east and west coasts to respond to terrorist attacks, including chemical, biological and radiological strikes.

But even this arrangement could only handle “two simultaneous small-scale incidents”, Mr Reith told his colleagues, and it could not be extended for more than six months because of a lack of equipment and personnel.

The dual tactical assault group set-up was later made a permanent part of Australia’s counter-terror response. By the start of October 2001, the government also decided to place armed and highly trained security officers on some domestic and international flights while tightening baggage checks and strengthening the security of aircraft cockpits.

Mr Howard invoked the ANZUS Treaty, paving the way for Australia to join the US in the war in Afghanistan.