Posted on 03/21/2004 4:39:01 PM PST by Piefloater
Suspected terrorist Willie Brigitte was reportedly sent to Australia to help a local terror group prepare a terrorist act "of great size".
Brigitte, 35, who was deported last October and is in French custody, was a link figure in the world terrorist network who had connections with the organisers of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the March 11 Madrid train blasts, Sydney's The Daily Telegraph reported.
It said his potential targets included the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor and the Australian army's administrative compound at Victoria Barracks, both in Sydney, and the Perth headquarters of Australia's SAS regiment.
French authorities reportedly said Brigitte was also targeting US military bases, the Pine Gap intelligence base near Alice Springs and nuclear sites.
The newspaper said it had obtained the classified dossier compiled by France's top anti-terror judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, "which details for the first time Brigitte's activities in Australia and his links to the world's most dangerous terror networks".
"He has claimed a terror network, at least in an informal sense, is operating in western Sydney and is charged with recruiting people for jihad operations against non-Muslims," the newspaper said.
"He has named several people and the man he claims is at the centre of the operation and who is believed by French investigators to be connected with some of the most evil terrorists in the world."
The newspaper says Sheik Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud, the imam of a Lakemba mosque in suburban Sydney who presided over Brigitte's wedding to Australian Melanie Brown last year, was named as the chief recruiter of this country's jihad network.
Mr Zoud, who has lived in Australia for 17 years, has strongly denied any involvement with al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
"I'm not worried because I'm sure I'm not linked with anyone or anything to do with terrorism; I have no part in it," Mr Zoud is quoted as saying.
The only time he met Willie Brigitte, Mr Zoud said, was the day he performed the Frenchman's marriage ceremony in September.
Brigitte's commander in the Sydney network is named as Faheem Khalid Lodhi, also known as Hamza.
According to the report, Brigitte's job in Sydney was to harbour a Chechnyan explosives expert who was to be smuggled into Australia disguised as a supporter of the Georgian team in the Rugby World Cup held last October.
Seems to me they would be much better off keeping him themselves and reporting any intel they got to the French.
Keeping one terrorist can't cost that much compared to the GDP of Australia. If the French decide to let him go after the next islamic threat or bombing, he will be back to Oz with better plans in hand.
He was sent back to France because ASIO (Australia's little CIA) screwed up.
Extract of interview (Sunday Program 8 February 2004) regarding this matter with Australia's Attorney General, Philip Ruddock, below.
SARAH FERGUSON: After Brigitte's arrest, Hamsa was put under surveillance and observed while he dumped the print-outs of the military bases in a rubbish bin near his home. He also called Sajid to tell him Brigitte had been arrested. Brigitte was handed over to the Department of Immigration and moved here to the Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney. To the surprise of French authorities, he was deported to France and not interrogated under ASIO's new powers. It would have been the first use of those powers and the Attorney-General was uncertain whether they applied to Brigitte.
PHILIP RUDDOCK: You have to make a judgment in relation to these matters and the security agency made a judgment. One, that it wasn't the best and most appropriate case to test for the first time the powers that were implemented in the revised ASIO arrangements, because it was questionable.
SARAH FERGUSON: But he did meet that test of someone who is going to be able to offer reasonable assistance in regards to a possible terrorist attack?
PHILIP RUDDOCK: Yes. Yes.
SARAH FERGUSON: So why not take the opportunity to use those powers to learn more about his contacts here?
PHILIP RUDDOCK: I said the advice I have is that it was questionable.
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