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Five Muslim men were Friday found guilty of plotting a violent jihadist attack in Australia using guns and explosives after the country's longest extremist trial. The men, who are facing possible life sentences after the 10-month trial, showed little reaction to the verdict. "They were motivated to pursue what they probably saw as a religious cause, that is that of jihad,"

Islamists stockpiled explosive chemicals and weapons in plan to launch major attack to avenge wars in Iraq and Afghanistan The men, all from Sydney's south-west, were arrested in a series of raids on their homes in 2005. They were accused of conspiring between July 2004 and November 2005 to carry out a violent jihadist act, possibly targeting the then Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, to force the government into changing its policies on the Middle East. They spent months working to acquire chemicals, firearms, and bomb making equipment, the court heard. Materials found at the homes of some of...

MOST Australians believe we are locked in a losing war against Islamic terrorists and an attack on our home soil, most likely Sydney, is inevitable. For the first time, The Daily Telegraph can reveal how ordinary Australians feel about living under the shadow of terrorism – and the results are chilling. Three quarters of the Australian public believe we are losing the war against terrorists, while more than half believe it is "very likely" or "fairly likely" we will be attacked in the next 12 months. "We recently had a bomb scare at work and it has made me start...

TERRORISM suspects hoarded computer how-to guides on making explosives and articles about al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and jihad, a court heard yesterday. Aimen Joud, 21, also had graphic video footage of the execution and decapitation of a man said to have come from Chechnya in 1998, Melbourne Magistrates' Court was told. Federal police found the manuals on terrorism and militant Islam when searching the homes of Mr Joud and Shane Kent, 29, in September 2004. Sen-Constable Paul Madden told the court one handbook, known as the Vortex Cookbook, was later shown to the group's alleged spiritual leader, Abdul Nacer Benbrika....

AFGHANI security forces arrested nine people suspected of plotting attacks including two Pakistanis preparing to become suicide bombers, a provincial governor said overnight. "They were captured in three separate raids over the past 48 hours in Kandahar," the restive southern province's governor, Assadullah Khalid, said. Seven of the suspects, who were believed to be working for the Taliban and al-Qaeda, were Afghani and two were Pakistanis preparing to become suicide bombers, he said. The two had identified themselves as Pakistanis, he said. A vehicle rigged up as a car bomb was seized in one of the raids. Dozens of people,...

ONE of two Melbourne men seeking bail on terrorism charges trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden in the months before the 2001 September 11 attacks, a court has been told. Shane Kent, 28, of Meadow Heights, along with Amer Haddara, 26, of Yarraville, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court today. Both have been charged with being members of a terrorist organisation. They were two of 10 Victorian men charged following a series of raids in Melbourne and Sydney last month. The prosecution opposed bail for both men. Kent had attended Al Farooq terrorist training camp in Afghanistan...

TERRORIST suspects under house arrest will be sent to anger management school, given psychological counselling and offered training and education in a bid to turn them from violence. The Federal Government is developing a program to rehabilitate potential terrorists who authorities have deemed a threat to public safety and placed under control orders. The measures were approved last week by Parliament as part of the new anti-terrorism laws and will apply to those detained without charge on suspicion that their movements should be restricted to prevent an attack. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock believes the measures will address alienation and help impressionable...

THEY are the new global warriors of militant jihad. Their battleground now stretches in a vast crescent from the old world to the new, from the once thriving industrial towns of Leeds and Bradford in northern England to Gallipoli St, Bankstown, in the western suburbs of Sydney. This virtual community of radical Islamists, united by the internet and divided by a ravine of hate from unbelievers, is the sinister face of globalisation, altering our perceptions of a borderless world. In the past week they have helped inspire an orgy of arson in the Muslim ghettos of northern Paris, mounted murderous...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Australian police arrested an 18th suspect Thursday in an alleged terror plot that a lawmaker said involved a large quantity of explosives. A lawyer for eight of the suspects - Muslims from Sydney - accused authorities of holding them in "shameful" conditions and said prosecutors have produced no evidence of an imminent terror attack in the country. Police threw a security cordon around the Sydney courtroom where the men's cases were being heard. The eight were expected to appear in court via video links. The latest suspect to be arrested was a 25-year-old man who was...

Abdul Nacer Benbrika / Abu BakrAge: 45Lives: Dallas, MelbourneBorn: Algeria; arrived in Australia in 1990; Australian citizenship in 1998.Family: Married Rakia Abdullah in 1992. Accused of being spiritual and organisational ringleader of terror cells in Melbourne and Sydney. Praises Osama bin Laden, advocates "violent jihad". Targeted by ASIO and the AFP since last year. Home raided in June. Charge: Directing and being a member of a terrorist organisation.Maximum penalty: 25 years' jail. Shane Kent / YasinAge: 28Lives: Meadow Heights, Melbourne Born: AustraliaFamily: Married to a Turkish-born wife with three children. Travelled to Pakistan in mid-2001, attending al-Qaeda training camps with...

AUSTRALIA faces new terrorist threats from a radical group that has only this week been identified by ASIO, according to intelligence sources. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is investigating the new terrorist cell. It is said to be planning attacks - designed to cause mass casualties - in Melbourne and Sydney. Sources say security services were surprised by revelations of the group's existence. The group is believed to be made up of Australian-born children of Muslim immigrants. An intelligence source said: "This is a disturbing development. "This new group appears to have been planning or considering carrying out extremely violent...

IT was an observant lawyer going about his business in Collins Street, Melbourne, who noticed something that struck him as odd - a man filming the Australian Stock Exchange building with a small home video camera. Not long afterwards, another Melburnian spotted someone filming a city train station and also reported it. Police found the same car had been used and when they traced its owner, alarm bells starting clanging. The vehicle used on both occasions belonged to the father-in-law of a man high on the watch-list of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. The suspect was a member of...

FEARS terrorists are moving closer to an attack on Sydney and Melbourne have forced the Howard Government to rush through an emergency law to make it easier for police to arrest suspects. John Howard said the Government had received "specific intelligence and police information this week which gives cause for serious concern about a potential terrorist threat". The Australian has learned the intelligence relates to home-grown terror suspects in the country's two biggest cities who are believed to be building the capability to mount an attack. The Prime Minister refused to divulge any details, stressing he could not talk about...

INTELLIGENCE agencies have received specific information about a terrorist threat to Australia which today prompted the Government to rush through its anti-terror laws to help avert a possible attack. Prime Minister John Howard said today intelligence authorities had received specific information about a terrorist threat and was urging Parliament to enact the laws without delay. "We have seen material," Mr Howard said. "It is a cause of concern." The Prime Minister would not give details on the nature of the threat, citing security reasons. ASIO has warned this week for the first time that there may be a serious threat...

Laws will expose 80 Muslim suspects UP to 80 Australian Muslims could immediately be placed under effective house arrest under the Government's proposed anti-terror laws. The laws mean they could each be required to wear tracking devices, or prevented from working, or using the telephone or internet, or communicating with certain people. For the first time, the laws will cover the estimated 80 Australians who have received or provided training with a listed terrorist organisation before 2002. Previously, the Government has had no effective powers over these people, almost all of whom are Muslims, because laws prohibiting training with terrorist...

Hicks first to face US commission AUSTRALIAN terror suspect David Hicks will be the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be tried at a US military commission, with the Pentagon announcing today he will face a hearing on November 18. Hicks' first scheduled motions hearing would take place at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – where the Adelaide-born man has been detained since January 2002. The 30-year-old pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy at a commission hearing in August last year. His father, Terry Hicks, said today his son would not...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2005 – Proceedings will resume within the month at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the military commission trial of David Hicks, the so-called "Australian Taliban," Defense Department officials announced Sept. 20. An Australian citizen, Hicks allegedly trained in Kosovo and then traveled to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban government. He was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan and has been held at Guantanamo Bay since early 2002. His was one of four war-crimes cases to begin the military commission process in August 2004. Proceedings in the four cases were halted in December, after a November ruling in...

AUSTRALIA has been listed by al-Qaeda as a prime target for attacks this year as have the United States and Britain, South Korea's spy agency has reported. South Korea, Japan and the Philippines are secondary targets, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) told parliament this week, quoting a "senior" al-Qaeda member arrested last month. "According to NIS, this terrorist testified that South Korea, Japan and the Philippines are secondary targets, while the United States, Britain and Australia are the prime targets for this year," a parliamentarian said today. NIS did not reveal the name of the al-Qaeda member, where he...

A masked Islamic militant seen threatening Western governments in a terror video released this week has been named as a former soldier from Australia who has been missing for four years. The Australian Government has refused to confirm whether the figure seen in the al-Qaeda film is former Army Private Mathew Stewart, but agreed that the missing man may have trained with al-Qaeda. The Sydney Daily Telegraph and other newspapers reported that police interviewed Mr Stewart's family after the video was aired on the Dubai-based, Arabic-language Al-Arabiya network this week. It features a masked man holding an assault rifle and...

TRUTH in the David Hicks affair remains as elusive as ever after fresh allegations this week from inside the US military that the Guantanamo Bay commissions are so seriously flawed that a fair trial is impossible. The most damaging blows yet to the commissions -- still supported by the Howard Government -- came from three US Air Force prosecutors involved in the trials who have quit the investigation in protest. One, John Carr, said the process appeared to have been rigged and that the first four cases -- including Hicks -- had been been "handpicked" and would not be acquitted....

A radical Islamic group linked to the London bombings, and outlawed in British universities and across the Middle East, has launched an underground recruitment campaign aimed at Muslim youth in Sydney. The group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, which describes suicide bombers as martyrs and openly advocates the destruction of Western ideals, held its second meeting behind closed doors in western Sydney on Friday night. The British Home Office and Pakistan's intelligence agencies are investigating the group's links to Shehzad Tanweer, 22, one of the four suicide bombers who killed 56 people in London two weeks ago. Sydney's mainstream Islamic community is believed...

BOOKS of hate promoting jihad, hostility to Australia and "wiring up one's body" for suicide attacks are for sale in bookshops in Sydney's Muslim community. A special investigation by The Daily Telegraph in the wake of the London bombings found extremist literature on shelves near innocuous children's reading such as It's fun to wear a hijab. One incendiary tome bought for $11, Defence of the Muslim Lands carries an endorsement from Osama bin Laden on its cover. The book by Sheik Abdullah Azzam, found at The Islamic Bookstore at Lakemba, discusses the effectiveness of suicide bombings. "The form this usually...

MELBOURNE terrorist suspect "Jihad" Jack Thomas was in a precarious mental state ahead of his second bid for bail tomorrow, his lawyer said today. Joseph Terrence Thomas, 31, also known as Jack, was arrested during a raid by counter-terrorism police at his Werribee home in Melbourne's western suburbs last November. The former taxi driver and Muslim convert faces charges of receiving financial support from al-Qaeda, providing al-Qaeda with resources or support to help them carry out a terrorist act and having a false passport. He was refused bail in the Victorian Supreme Court in December. Today, his lawyer Rob Stary...

The al-Qaeda terror group remains active and has Australia on its radar, a parliamentary inquiry has heard. The parliamentary joint committee on ASIO, ASIS and DSD met on Tuesday to review the listing of six terror groups outlawed in Australia. A written submission from Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, which formed the basis of the review, said credible intelligence sources had assessed that al-Qaeda was continuing to plan terror acts. "In furthering its international objectives, Australia is seen as a legitimate target by al-Qaeda and associated groups," the submission said. "Since 11 September 2001, Australia has been named as a target in...

A MAGISTRATE has refused a bail application by Melbourne terror suspect "Jihad" Jack Thomas. Melbourne Magistrates' Court was told the former taxi driver and Muslim convert trained with the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda in Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks. The court also has been told that its leader, Osama bin Laden, wanted someone to conduct surveillance operations in Australia. Joseph Terrence Thomas, 31, was arrested last Thursday by officers from the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police joint counter terrorism team at his Werribee home, in Melbourne's western suburbs. Thomas is charged with receiving financial support from al-Qaeda, providing al-Qaeda...

A man appeared in the Melbourne Magistrate's Court this afternoon charged with assisting the al-Qaeda terrorist group.   Jack Thomas, 31, also known as "Jihad Jack", is charged with two new counter terrorism offences - receiving funds from a terrorist organisation and providing support for a terrorist organisation. It is the first time the offences have been applied in Australia since new counter terrorism laws were introduced in 2002, the AFP said in a statement today.Thomas also faces charges for possessing a false passport.Thomas kept his head bowed throughout the short appearance. Defence counsel Lex Lasry QC said he would...

THE Howard Government has struck a secret deal with Saudi Arabia to crack down on the funding of extremist Islamic groups in Australia. Under the deal, Saudi Arabia - which has contributed an estimated $100 million to help establish Islamic schools and mosques in Australia since the 1970s - has promised to alert the Government of all donations to Australia's Islamic community made by Saudi citizens or organisations. The move will allow ASIO and other government agencies to keep closer track of Islamic funding reaching Australia to ensure it is not exploited by extremist groups with links to terrorism. Government...

You'll drown in blood: terrorists By Sue Dunleavy July 26, 2004 ISLAMIC terrorists have told the Government to pull troops out of Iraq or they will swamp Australia in "pools of blood". An internet site run by the Tawhid Islamic Group, which claims to be al-Qaeda's European wing, said: "We will shake the earth under your feet as we did in Indonesia, and lines of car bombs will not cease." Hostage... gunmen holding diplomat Mohammed Mamdouh Hilmi Kotb ASIO was last night investigating the credibility of the group, which was unknown until last Wednesday when it made similar threats against...

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will ignore threats of attack by a group saying it is the European wing of al Qaeda and blamed Spain and the Philippines for fueling the threats by giving in to terrorists and withdrawing troops from Iraq (news - web sites). The Islamic Tawhid Group said in a statement posted on a Web site it would attack Italy and Australia with "columns of rigged cars" if they did not withdraw their troops from Iraq. "We are still investigating the authenticity and relevance of that body, but we will not take any notice of threats of...

A group calling itself the European branch of al Qaeda threatened to turn Australia and Italy into hellish "pools of blood" if the two nations did not withdraw their troops from Iraq, while a growing wave of kidnappings swept the country yesterday.

A group claiming to be the European wing of al-Qaeda threatened Australia with attacks if they did not pull troops out of Iraq. The statement signed by "Islamic Tawhid Group, the al Qaeda organisation, Europe" and posted on a website said it would attack both countries with "columns of rigged cars" if their demands were not met. "Australian people, if your government refuses to withdraw and respond to us we will shake the ground beneath your feet as we did in Indonesia and columns of rigged cars will not stop," it said. The statement also warned Italy to comply with...

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CANBERRA: The first arrest made under Australia's new anti-terrorism laws, in fact the first Australian since 1978 to be charged with terrorism is a Pakistan-born medical student who allegedly attended a three-week training camp organised by the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Pakistan in January last year. Sydney resident Izhar Ul-Haque was arrested by the Australian Federal Police on April 15 and although he was released on bail on May 27, he is said to be under close observation. His lawyer has denied he was a terrorist but admitted that Ul-Haque was sympathetic to the “Kashmir cause''. Ul-Haque is said to have claimed...

PERTH, Australia (AP) - In testimony to investigators and scribblings in a pocket notebook, a British convert to Islam has shown how tightly knit the terror network of al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah really is. Ties to men in both led Jack Roche to a meeting with Osama bin Laden himself. The 50-year-old Englishman pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Australia in 2000 - a plot that was never carried out. He is to be sentenced Tuesday, and could face up to 25 years in jail. Roche told the court the idea for the embassy attack...

Al-Qaeda targeted Olympics, Jews: court By Martin Daly in Perth May 20, 2004 Al-Qaeda planned an attack during the Sydney Olympics and to target the Jewish community, according to notes revealed during the trial of an Australian man accused of plotting to bomb the Israeli embassy in Canberra. A notebook seized from Jack Roche's Perth home in 2002 describes in Indonesian how al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Malaysia planned the attacks. The Melbourne Jewish leader, businessman and football identity Joseph Gutnick was identified as an important target. The notebook says the goal is to have a "heavy" impact on...

Australian judicial authorities suspect a member of an Al-Qaeda terror cell of planning to blow up the Israeli embassy in Australia with a booby trapped truck. The man was born in Great Britain and converted to Islam.

GLOBAL JIHAD Australia's top mufti calls for holy warAccuses U.S., Israel of war aimed at 'annihilating the Islamic nation' Posted: February 18, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com The top Islamic leader of Australia and New Zealand has called for a holy war against Israel and accuses the United States and the Jewish state of seeking to wipe out Muslims. Taj Al-Din Hamed Abdallah Al-Hilali, mufti of Australia and New Zealand, made the comments last Friday at the Al-Quds mosque during a visit to Sidon, Lebanon, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute. "The war waged by the U.S. and Israel...

FRENCH authorities have warned of a likely terrorist attack in Australia this year. They confirmed that a terrorist cell in Sydney with plans to launch a devastating attack was broken up after the arrest of French terrorist suspect Willie Brigitte. But they say a sleeper cell still exists in Australia, which is regarded as "weak" by extremist organisations. Senior French sources fear the cell is planning a post-Iraq war attack and believe it is linked to little-known groups in the Russian region of Chechnya and the former Soviet state of Georgia. "An attack in Australia is inevitable," one senior official...

It's the story John Howard can't ignore. Sunday will reveal how French suspect Willie Brigitte was sent to Australia by a Pakistani terrorist organisation and was considering which military targets the group would attack. Sunday's Sarah Ferguson spent a month in Paris, piecing together Brigitte's five months in Australia, with the help of French intelligence. Under interrogation, Brigitte admitted to the French he was trained in weapons, explosives and high-altitude endurance by the terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Toiba. Sunday has identified Brigitte's key contact in Australia, a man also believed to be a member of the Pakistani terrorist organisation. And Sunday will...

HAMBALI, Southeast Asia's most dangerous terrorist, wanted to attack Australia but had failed to establish a local network capable of staging bombings, US interrogators have learned. The CIA, acting as interrogator for the Australian Federal Police and ASIO, asked Hambali in late November more than 200 questions about terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah's intentions in Australia. The responses have reaffirmed a belief by both agencies that the JI cell covering Australia, known as Mantiqi 4, was the least developed and operationally capable of JI's four regions. The answers reveal Hambali had almost no success in establishing a local Anglo-Saxon network and...

CANBERRA, Australia, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- A former baggage handler for Qantas Airways has been identified by the CIA as an al-Qaida member. Government officials told The Australian newspaper they are aware of claims that Bilal Khazal of Sydney and Melbourne cleric Sheikh Mohammed Omran have been linked to an al-Qaida detainee known as Abu Dahdah. The allegations, made public this week by the Australian Broadcasting Corp., reportedly stem from telephone intercepts revealed recently in a Spanish court. The newspaper said the intercepts suggest repeated contact between the two Australians and the Spaniard. The Australian said, among other things, Abu...

Sydney terror suspect linked to al-Qaeda bombers By Ellen Connolly in Paris and Darren Goodsir November 18, 2003 Connections ... Willie Brigitte. The deported French terrorist suspect Willie Brigitte has been linked to the most senior echelons of al-Qaeda. One of his associates counts Osama bin Laden and September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed as confidants, a French terrorism expert close the investigation told the Herald. Pierre Conesa, a former terrorism adviser to the French Government, said yesterday that Brigitte, 35, had been targeted after his name featured on a list of people contacted by two men accused of plotting...