Willie's a Frenchman
Posted on 02/07/2004 2:28:26 PM PST by aculeus
FRENCH counter-terrorist police believe that a Sydney associate of accused terrorist Willie Brigitte used computer programs to plot the layout of Australian military bases and tried to obtain chemicals to make a bomb.
The claim is one of several to be made tomorrow on the Nine Network's Sunday program, based on information provided by investigators.
Others include a suggestion that the Sydney associate and Brigitte were in contact with a "handler" in Pakistan - an alleged member of the terrorist group Lashkar e Toiba (LET).
Authorities in Australia and France have believed since the time of Brigitte's arrest in Sydney on October 7 that he was connected to LET - and by proxy the leadership core of its sponsor, al-Qa'ida. According to Sunday, Brigitte has admitted in official interrogations to training with LET in explosives and other weapons, as well as high-altitude endurance.
The Australian revealed earlier this week that Brigitte's Australian wife, Melanie Brown, had recalled a man she did not know visiting the couple's Sydney flat for three weeks before Brigitte's arrest and studying the internet with her husband.
Authorities believe this man was the associate described by French investigators.
The Australian first revealed on November 10 that authorities believed Brigitte and at least one of his associates were assessing the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, the Holsworthy army base and the Garden Island naval base as potential terror targets.
The French also assert that Brigitte admitted to being asked to rendezvous with a Chechen bomb expert in Sydney.
But Australian law enforcement officials have maintained no such man existed and that Brigitte's admission was part of a cover story.
French counter-terrorist officials have stung domestic security agency ASIO with a claim that it was tardy in processing an official alert from France's counter-intelligence agency DST about Brigitte's presence in Australia and that he represented a danger.
The alert arrived late in the evening of Friday, October 3, but was not acted on until Tuesday, October 7, the morning after a long weekend. ASIO maintains the alert was not specific, carried no priority warning and was not a responsibility of its 24-hour-watch office.
Brigitte was tracked down to a cafe in the Sydney CBD and deported to France. He has since been held in a jail south of Paris, where last week he met Ms Brown for the first time since his deportation.
After a tumultuous week in which she first disowned her husband and then expressed her commitment to him, Ms Brown is on her way home.
© The Australian
Great! Why not post it here. Lots of others will be (or should be) interested.
Willie's a Frenchman
THE Australian wife of jailed terror suspect Willie Brigitte emerged from a long-awaited prison meeting with her husband to declare her support for jihad.
"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter," said Melanie Brown, quoting a slogan adopted by many supporters of extreme militant groups -- including al-Qaida.
"I may get into trouble saying that . . . but I have heard it a lot, and I agree with it.
"For Muslims, the jihad is compulsory. It is the struggle . . . the struggle for God."
The former Australian soldier also told how her marriage to Brigitte in Sydney was arranged by mutual friends in the fundamentalist Muslim community, because both were keen to wed as the faith decreed.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)
I've joined in the frog-bashing myself but also noted (on some long-forgotten thread) that the French intelligence, military and police people are quite efficient and very much anti-terrorist.
What a loser.
Californians: click on image for more info
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