Posted on 04/23/2004 7:22:41 PM PDT by aculeus
The alleged mastermind of a planned terrorist attack in Australia used a NSW Government website to get maps, data and satellite images of potential targets, including Sydney's Centrepoint, the Parramatta CBD and transport systems.
"He was using it during office hours to look at things like the numbers of floors in a building," a former colleague of Faheem Lodhi told the Herald. "He was interested in areas dead smack in the middle of the city."
Lodhi, 34, also bought a map of the country's energy supply system, which gave details of the routes of gas pipelines and the location of power stations and high-voltage substations. The ready availability of information, including on city infrastructure, revealed by the case is expected to fuel the continuing debate about the terrorist threat and the application of new laws to investigations.
It has also emerged that when the deported Frenchman Willie Brigitte arrived at Sydney Airport on May 16 last year, Lodhi was waiting for him. Brigitte is said to have told French interrogators that he had regular meetings with Lodhi "to prepare a terrorist act of great size in Australia".
While working at the architecture firm Thomson Adsett last year, Lodhi, who remains in Goulburn Jail on seven terrorist charges, frequently accessed the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources website, called iplan.
The site enables anyone to zoom in on satellite images of the state's railways, motorways, other major roads, as well as rivers and residential and business zones. Information on buildings and vital structural information is also available.
The website says: "The NSW Government is committed to enhancing the public availability, dissemination and exchange of information . . . to enable you to quickly and easily access information."
Lodhi's former colleague said that he saw him using the website often to get information on buildings and public sites in Sydney, including Centrepoint and the Parramatta CBD.
"On numerous occasions he was remarking how the satellite images took snapshots of buildings. I said, 'Why would you need to know that information?' He said he was just looking at it for property purchase purposes. It's a real worry you can gain information that easily."
A month before Lodhi's arrest, the colleague found a tracking device had been installed on the software of the computer system at his workplace, presumably by the police.
A week later, police took Lodhi away for questioning. When he returned and colleagues asked what happened, Lodhi had told them: "They were asking why I was using that website. They are watching me."
When asked if Lodhi could have been using the site for work, his former colleague said: "Never. It doesn't even come into our job description or anyone in the office."
He said Lodhi, who was employed as a graduate architect from July to November last year and was unregistered, had "talked excessively" about where to acquire chemicals that he said were for his family in Pakistan who were getting involved in jewellery manufacturing.
The court has heard that Lodhi used a false name to ask about buying large amounts of urea nitrate, used for bomb making, and a map of Australia's energy supply system. If the electricity grid was bombed it could paralyse the nation.
A crucial figure, who remains free in Pakistan, is Sheikh Sajid, who was a member of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba and paid for Brigitte's flight to Australia.
Sajid stayed in contact with Brigitte and Lodhi, talking to them on public telephones and through internet chat rooms. He was also trying to get a visa to come to Australia, but was twice denied. Also at large is Abu Salah, whom Brigitte said was the bomb maker. But it could have been an alias for Brigitte.
The Premier, Bob Carr, said security had already been increased at electricity grids as part of improvements at all critical infrastructure.
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