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April 21st, 2013 
Lone Wolf type individuals who radicalise via online forums can be a real worry in the wake of the Boston attack, says the AFP Commissioner. Picture: AP
Source: AP
“LONE wolf ” potential terrorists radicalising in Australian homes are of grave concern to authorities, AFP Commissioner Tony Negus said in the wake of the Boston bombings.
The warnings from Australia’s top cop came as Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus claimed a radical Sydney cleric used online by one of the marathon terrorists had changed his attitude to work against extremism after he previously said children should be raised to follow jihad and become martyrs to Islam.
Moments after the attacks last Monday morning Australian time, Mr Negus said the FBI was in contact with the AFP which has an officer based in Washington DC.
There is also an FBI representative in Canberra, Mr Negus said.
“Within minutes of the event in Boston our people on the ground on both sides of the world were working together to see if there was any Australian connections, ” he said in an interview with News Limited.
“We have been progressively doing things on behalf of the FBI as in looking at people returning from the US making sure that people are given the opportunity to return video footage if they were there for the marathon to us and we would supply that back to the US authorities. “
He said AFP officers “run down leads every day ” on individuals people in the community raise concerns about.
“We see the evolution of the lone wolf attacks, one or two people who radicalise in their own mind from behind a computer in a suburb somewhere, not necessarily Al Qaeda affiliated but Al Qaeda sympathetic, ” he said.
“They’re the people we are very concerned about.”
He said intelligence agencies were “very good ” at “getting a picture of large activities and broad communities ” but individuals “who would seek to do something in whatever name and whatever cause are a significant concern and they still exist. “
Mr Dreyfus yesterday said Sheik Feiz Mohammed, whose video denouncing Harry Potter was posted by dead terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was now engaged with the government on a program to prevent extremism.
“Sheik Feiz Mohammed in recent months, particularly in the latter period of last year when there were some quite dramatic demonstrations in Sydney condemned the use of violence and certainly as a community leader he is someone who is getting behind the countering extremism program that we have in many communities across Australia, ” Mr Dreyfus told Channel Ten’s Meet The Press.
A representative from Sheik Feiz’ organisation Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamma’ah had twice attended the government’s countering violent extremism program.
Mr Dreyfus’ spokeswoman said while he had never attended himself the organisation sent a letter in November last year saying “he would have attended if he had been in the country. ”
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