Posted on 05/26/2004 3:50:17 AM PDT by Piefloater
Terror suspect Jack Roche failed in his only attempt to recruit for an Australian al-Qaeda cell before being ordered to abandon the plan by Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, a court was told.
Roche, 50, is on trial in Perth District Court for plotting to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Canberra.
In earlier excerpts of a taped interview Roche gave to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), which were played to the trial jury, Roche named Bashir as the leader of South-East Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), which was blamed for the Bali bombing in 2002.
Bashir, who is facing tough anti-terror laws in Indonesia, has denied being the head of JI and also denied any links to terrorism.
During the AFP interview in November 2002, Roche said Malaysian JI operative Hambali asked him to go to Afghanistan via Pakistan, to meet an unnamed sheikh who later turned out to be al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden.
Roche said that in Afghanistan, senior al-Qaeda men directed him to do surveillance on possible terror targets in Australia, and recruit up to three Muslims for a terrorist cell.
"I put out some feelers ... I couldn't make it too obvious to the people I was asking what the purpose of my asking was, so it was a very difficult task ..." Roche said on the tapes.
"The general conclusion was that nobody in Australia was interested at all ... I basically gave up after the first attempt with somebody."
Roche, who became a JI member in 1996, said he was already losing interest in his mission and had attempted to contact ASIO about his trip to Afghanistan when he was summoned to Indonesia by Bashir.
"And he said 'Well, look, whatever Hambali's asked you to do, just carry on doing that ... whatever it happens to be'," Roche said.
"Whether he knew about it or not I don't know - Abu Bakar Bashir that is."
But later, after JI's Australian leaders complained about Hambali's interference in their territory, Roche said Bashir contacted him again.
"I got a telephone call from Abu Bakar Bashir telling me to just stop whatever I was doing, to stop it," he said.
Roche said the last time he contacted ASIO "nobody seemed particularly interested in what was going on".
"So, I thought just leave it and ... I've been in Thornlie ... and South Perth waiting for somebody to come knocking on my door, and eventually it happened," he said.
That's encouraging.
Roche said the last time he contacted ASIO "nobody seemed particularly interested in what was going on".
That's not encouraging.
Was Bashir speaking for Allah when he told Roche to recruit or when he told him to stop? So much for the myth of obedience to God. God wouldn't have changed his mind.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.