BEIJING/ CANBERRA, 22 April 2004 — Some people in China share the same ideology as Al-Qaeda, FBI Director Robert Mueller said yesterday, as he warned the group that the United States was on high alert and watching every move by any would-be terrorist.

China, too, was at risk from terror attacks, he said.

“Just because you have not seen substantial terrorist attacks in China does not mean there could not be in the future or in other countries in Asia,” Mueller told reporters.

He did not elaborate.

Asked if Al-Qaeda was active in China, which has linked Muslim separatists in the restive Xinjiang region to Osama Bin Laden’s network, Mueller said some individuals in China shared the same ideology as Al-Qaeda.

“There certainly are individuals in China who could be described as having that same mindset as well as the desire to utilize terrorist acts to further their agenda, whether you would call it Al-Qaeda or a group loosely affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda’s leadership.”

China threw its weight behind US President George W. Bush’s war on terror and in turn won a degree of support for its crackdown on Muslim separatists in the northwest region of Xinjiang. Several such separatists have been captured fighting with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Washington agreed to add to its terrorist list one separatist group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which China says trained with, and fought alongside, Al-Qaeda militants. US intelligence-sharing with China had proved necessary to preventing terror attacks, said Mueller, who met public and state security, justice and procuratorial officials during two days in Beijing.

Mueller said the FBI was stepping up surveillance before the Athens Olympics and Democratic and Republican party conventions in the United States.

“I think we have to be concerned about the possibility of terrorist attacks between now and the fall,” he told reporters.

No specific threat had been received but those made on recent tapes by Bin Laden, and his second-in-command, Ayman Al-Zawahri, could not be discounted, he said.

“We want Al-Qaeda to know that while the threat level may not go up, the United States will be on high alert.”

“If you do come to the United States and do believe that you can undertake a terrorist attack, we will be on you. We’ll be there seeing you, we will be following you, we will be trailing you.”

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in a speech on Monday that the series of high-profile US political events this year, culminating in the presidential elections in November, are considered potential targets of a terrorist attack.

“The FBI and Homeland Security are going to be exceptionally vigilant in the next several months,” said Mueller.

The FBI opened a small legal attaché office in Beijing in 2002, an outgrowth of Sino-US cooperation on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

‘High Probability’ of Attack in Australia

There is a high probability of a terror attack in Australia with the country facing threats more serious than ever before, the government said yesterday.

But Attorney General Philip Ruddock said an attack on home soil was not inevitable.

“It’s important to recognize the threats we face are graver than ever before and while I don’t believe it is inevitable that Australia will be the subject of a terrorist attack, I note that many people believe that,” Ruddock told reporters.

A Newspoll survey, published in the Daily Telegraph newspaper yesterday, found that 68 percent of the 1,200 people polled believed a terror attack in Australia was inevitable, but only one in 10 had changed their routine in the face of the threat.

Australia has never suffered a major terror attack on its home soil but 88 Australians were among the 202 killed in bombings on the neighboring Indonesian Island of Bali in 2002.

“I think it’s a high probability (a terror attack). But in my judgment, you still have to do everything that you can to deal with it and I would hope that that inevitability that many believe won’t be realized,” Ruddock said.

Opposition Labor leader Mark Latham has said Australia’s presence in Iraq has made the country more vulnerable to an attack. But Prime Minister John Howard, a close U.S. ally, has dismissed this and insists Australian troops should stay in Iraq.