AP, 22 Feb 10: Australia intends to impose tougher visa checks on people from countries considered at high risk for terrorism as part of a 69 million Australian dollar ($62 million) counterterrorism plan released Tuesday.

The new visa requirements, which include mandatory collection of fingerprints and facial imaging data for visa applicants from 10 countries, would help keep terrorists from evading detection, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in releasing the government’s counterterrorism “white paper” in Canberra. “Terrorism has become a persistent and permanent feature of Australia’s security environment,” Rudd said. “Prior to the rise of jihadist terrorism, Australia was not a specific target. Now Australia is such a target.”

Under the plans, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship would begin collecting the fingerprints and facial images this year, and cross-check them with immigration and law enforcement databases in Australia and overseas, the report said. It does not name which countries would be subject to the new requirements. . . .

. . . . While the report says the primary terrorist threat to Australia comes from a global jihadist movement, including al-Qaida, it also cites a rise in the number of terrorists born or raised in Australia. The government notes the 2005 London suicide bombings carried out by British nationals as an example of the growing threat of locally generated terrorism in Western democracies. Of the 38 people Australia has prosecuted or are being prosecuted as a result of counterterrorism operations, 37 are Australian citizens, Attorney General Robert McClelland said. . . . .

Counter-Terrorism White Paper: Securing Australia – Protecting our Community (.pdf)
The report actually mentions the word ‘jihad’ or ‘jihadist’ 12 times and states, “The main source of international terrorism and the primary terrorist threat to Australia and Australian interests is from a global violent jihadist movement…..”

♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 361–The Global Jihadist Threat Doctrine