Terrorists swept up & nearly tipped off.

UPDATE: Murdoch's The Australian was in fact available for sale at 1:30 with the headline 'Army Base Terror Plot Foiled'. Proving, unsurprisingly, that the Murdoch-employed editor-in-chief was lying when he denied his paper jumped the gun and jeopardized the operation.

4 AUG (Original Post): Australian Federal Police (AFP) conducted 'counter terrorism raids' early this morning "targeting an alleged plot by Islamic extremists to engage in suicidal gun battles at military bases." At least one of the four Australian citizens arrested is from Glenroy, a suburb north of Melbourne that's not far from where Aradhna and I live.

A sidenote to this depressing story -- really, f*cking terrorists, religion-driven cowards, murdering in the name of eternal reward, and the morning after we watched a harrowing report detailing the actions and words of the Islamic lunatics who shot up Mumbai last year -- is that Rupert Murdoch's flagship Aussie paper published details of the raids just as they were taking place. The Australian was tipped off to the raids last week and claims it was told they could publish its story today. Further, they claim they held the story back until after the warrants were served.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland, however, said he was "extremely disappointed" that the story was leaked and that he'd be "vigorously pursuing the leak from my end, and I expect that fed authorities will be doing the same thing."

Chris Mitchell, The Australian's editor-in-chief, replied to Overland's complaints by saying the paper had a deal with the AFP, all early morning copies led with a different story, and that Overland was wrong. "This is his sour grapes about not getting enough credit for Victorian police and him protecting himself against complaints from Victorian editors," he said.

The vociferous Mr Mitchell is following the Murdoch playbook -- attack hard, make it personal, avoid self-reflection at all costs -- but he'll probably get sacked anyway. A Murdoch publication even remotely linked with tipping off domestic terrorists? Jack-booted Murdoch thugs will throw Mitchell under the bus faster than you can say 'Mr Murdoch will have you killed if you utter another word'.