Posted on 08/12/2005 7:02:18 AM PDT by dead
As a youth Mathew Stewart loved surfing and partying. Now he's suspected of being an al-Qaeda terrorist.
Known by his old school friends as a "sweet kid" with a stutter, the former soldier from the Sunshine Coast may be the masked man in the latest al-Qaeda video.
The balaclava-clad figure in combat gear and holding an automatic rifle berates western values and calls on Britain and the United States to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Stewart, who left the Australian Army psychologically scarred by his service in East Timor, hasn't been seen by his family for four years.
It's suspected he went to Afghanistan shortly before the September 11 terrorist attacks to train with the al-Qaeda terror network.
But his mother Vicki Stewart, who works in the Sunshine Coast property industry, says the man in the video released this week is not her son.
A spokesman for Mrs Stewart confirmed the family had been contacted by the Australian Federal Police.
"Mrs Stewart had been shown photos, and advised the federal police that it definitely was not Mathew.
"The family supports the work done by the federal police and is still grieving over Mathew who disappeared without a trace four years ago."
A friend of Mathew Stewart reportedly believes the man in the video released this week resembles and sounds like him.
But Stewart's brother Ryan today dismissed reports that his brother was the terror suspect as "bullshit".
Stewart, who would now be 28, had been traumatised by events in East Timor, where he served for six months from 1999.
The private with 2RAR regiment was among a group of diggers who discovered the mutilated body of Dutch journalist Sander Thoenes in a Dili street.
Stewart spent much of his tour of East Timor under psychiatric care for post traumatic stress disorder.
He was also treated on his return from East Timor at the Army's Gallipoli barracks in Brisbane and was kept on suicide watch at one time before being medically discharged.
"In Dili there were dead bodies in the gutters, limbs, people who had been scalped," one former Army colleague said.
"At the end of the day we received a grand total of zero counselling."
Stewart left the Army aged 25 on July 8, 2001, following four years service.
Less than a month later he flew out of Australia bound for Kuala Lumpur and hasn't been heard of since.
A statement issued by Defence Minister Robert Hill and then federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams in 2002 said it was believed Stewart had entered Afghanistan from Iran about August 8, 2001.
Stewart attended Immanuel Lutheran College on the Sunshine Coast and he was known as an "quite a sensitive kid" who was an enthusiastic surfer.
"He did have a bit of a stutter and he was a late developer, small for his age," one former school friend says.
Before joining the Army, Stewart worked in construction and was a regular at nightclubs at beachfront Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast.
Stewart family spokesman Ron Smith says Mathew Stewart had never shown any interest in Islamic causes.
AAP
It never ceases to amaze me that for all of their supposed bravado, these terrorist wimps always have their faces covered. They are nothing more than cowards.
Wasn't it muslimes who committed the East Timor atrocities?
If this fellow HAS gone off the deep end, he'll be worse than any of the "sane" ones.....
The dead were Christian, brutally attacked by muslims...funny how they fail to mention that.
Yup, I've noticed that as well.
LOL I like your SQL tagline.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I guess.
Why would a guy, who witnessed the savage brutality of the muslim extremist, join up with the savages?
Thanks!
Traumatized by the sight of dead bodies, he flies off to join the Jihadists. If we didn't have our psychologists to explain what is going on, we'd never understand it.
You wouldn't expect a SANE person to join that cult would you?
Islam does well with the weak minded. If rational thinking was never your strong point, It's much easier to believe the earth is flat, the sun rides in a chariot and sets in a muddy pond, and a raping, murdering bandit-pedophile was a "prophet".
Look how many moonbats we have in America that could easily be converted to Islam. Just about everyone on the left.
Does this make anyy sense whatsoever? It only makes sense, if this guys stress was that he liked what he saw and wanted to go commit atrocities himself. Am I going wrong here?
Can anyone photoshop these pics and overlay one upon the other to see how they line up?
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