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November 14, 2005
Australia: The Islamist Terror Suspects And The Nuclear Threat
The Australian describes the scenario which was announced in court on Friday, but which has only now been released for publication. The terror cell from Sydney had been planning to attack the research nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in suburban Sydney, according to a 20-page police fact sheet.
The leader of the terror cell, Abu Nacer Benbrika (pictured) had urged his followers to create "maximum damage." He met members of the terror cell from Sydney in February and again in July to offer advice on waging jihad.
"If we want to die for jihad we have to have maximum damage. Maximum damage. Damage their buildings, everything. Damage their lives to show them. In this we will have to be careful," he said in February in recordings made secretly by surveillance teams.
Casings for a potential explosive device were purchased only 11 days ago. According to News.inq7, three of the accused had been stopped by police acting suspiciously near Lucas Heights. They claimed to be there to ride a trail bike in their car, but separate questioning led to three conflicting accounts. Later police had found a lock to a gate at a reservoir had been cut.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has noted in a statement that the area where the men were found is used for trail-bike riding and bushwalking and that the security agencies did not see the three as a threat. The reservoir area was far from the site of the reactor.
The Australian states that members of the group had undergone training in Curranyalpa, New South Wales, where they underwent "training".
The suspects had been found at the time of their arrests to have had extremist jihad literature, chemicals, digital timers, and semiautomatic weapons. At the home of Mazen Touma, a pump-action shotgun, a Glock pistol and 165 railway detonators had been found. At the home of Moustafa Cheikho, two loaded semi-automatic hand guns, bottles of hydrogen peroxide, samurai swords and machetes were recovered.
It is alleged the men ordered 200 litres of sulphuric acid, acetone, 50 litres of hydrochloric acid, and 200 litres of methylated spirits but failed to collect them.Police said the group from Sydney were from a splinter association of the Lakemba branch of the Ahlus Sunnah wal-Jamaah Association following an extreme Sunni fundamentalist ideology.As well as seizing hydrogen peroxide, acetone and sulphuric acid, police seized compressed hexamine - an ingredient of the explosive hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD).
Mr Baladjam - a 27-year-old former bit-part actor - allegedly ordered a courier to pick up 15 10kg drums from a factory in Blacktown, Sydney, and deliver them to Ingleburn. He was also seen buying a backpack as recently as October 28.
A report from smh,com.au, from the time of Benbrika's arrest, says the Algerian-born cleric had arrived in Australia in May 1989 on a one-month visitor's permit, which he extended twice, allowing him to stay for six months. After this, he was a prohibited citizen.
Benbrika has told the Immigration Tribunal that his life would be in danger if returned to Algeria. His attempts to stay had been bolstered by support from the Preston Mosque. He married a Lebanese-Australian woman in 1992, and earlier this year they had a seventh child. During one his many (and still unresolved) disputes with immigration authorities, he said in 1995 that the reason he wanted to stay was because of his "love of the Australian lifestyle."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 14, 2005 5:20 PM
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