FED: Terror by post: Australias first orchestrated campaign

AAP General News (Australia)
12-02-1998
FED: Terror by post: Australias first orchestrated campaign

By Doug Conway, Senior Correspondent

SYDNEY, Dec 2 AAP - Letter bombs arrived in Australia 23 years ago with an explosion at the
Queensland premiers office.

Sporadic attacks since then have claimed one life; that of an Adelaide policeman four years
ago.

But not until now has there been such an orchestrated single campaign.

"This is a one-off event," said a source close to the investigation into 23 letter bombs
sent to tax office employees.

"Theres been nothing like this in Australian history.

"Letter bombs are usually sent in ones, twos or threes. This is by far the biggest we have
ever seen.

"It indicates that this person has a grudge against a lot of people. Hes decided hes
going to make a point."

The point of the 1975 attack on Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, like many, remains a mystery but
it was felt only by two unfortunate administrative clerks.

They were injured when the letter bomb exploded in the mail room of the premiers suites on
the 13th floor of the executive building in Brisbane. The explosion was heard four blocks
away.

One of the clerks had to undergo an eye operation.

Within days a letter bomb addressed to Governor-General Sir John Kerr was intercepted at
the Canberra post office and defused.

"Thank God none of our staff opened it," said the vice-regal.

A package was also sent to prime minister Malcolm Frasers office but it was intercepted
and in any case turned out to be a hoax. Two Brisbane schoolboys were charged.

Bomb detectors were soon being installed in every post office and parliament house in
Australia.

The only letter bomb death came in 1994 at the Adelaide office of the National Crime
Authority.

The blast killed Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen, 36, married with two young children,
and seriously injured Ballarat lawyer Peter Wallis.

A bomb squad officer estimated the force to be 100 times that of a shotgun blast.

It blew out plate glass windows and left a 200 metre trail of wreckage in the street 12
floors below.

A man was charged with murder and attempted murder but authorities later dropped the
charges, saying there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.

A coronial inquiry designed to bring forth fresh evidence is due to start early next year.

One of the most bizarre attacks came in 1981 when a Melbourne woman lost an arm in a letter
bombing, then gave birth to a healthy baby girl 90 minutes later.

"I can only thank God there is nothing wrong with my daughter," said 33-year-old Anne
Loicono, who was mystified by the bombing.

Three years later an east Sydney restaurateur, in another such attack, had the fingers
blown off one hand and received massive face and head injuries.

Legal figures have also been targets, including a District Court judge whose letterbox was
destroyed and a Sydney lawyer whose offices had to be evacuated.

There are more than 300 bombings around the nation each year, according to the
Canberra-based Australian Bomb Data Centre.

They range from small explosions set off by children to more serious incidents which injure
or kill.

The number of incidents has increased over the past three years, partly because children
are getting bomb recipes from home computers.

"The Internet is making it easier for kids to get that information," a spokesman said, "but
a lot of it is inaccurate and a lot of kids are injuring themselves."

The most notorious letter bomber of all was Americas Unabomber, whose twisted campaign
against the encroachment of technology killed three people and injured two dozen over a
17-year period.

Reclusive former maths professor Ted Kaczynski stands accused of the 16 bombings.

AAP dc/was

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