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Zardari took 'massive secret commissions' for securing French submarine deal: Report 2011-01-15 16:00:00 Official Pakistani documents, detailing how President Asif Ali Zardari benefited from massive, secret payments connected to the sale of French submarines to Pakistan, have been seized as evidence by a Paris magistrate investigating a suspected widespread scam surrounding the deal. The documents, published by Mediapart, show that the payments to Zardari and others took place on the fringes of the sale of three Agosta-class submarines by the French defence contractor, the DCN, to Pakistan in the 1990s. The French sale, which succeeded against rival offers by Swedish...

SNIPPET: "AUSTRALIA'S most notorious terrorist Willie Brigitte will be free from jail next year having served less than half his sentence for conspiring to blow up the nation's only nuclear reactor and the power grid. The Caribbean-born Muslim convert made headlines in 2007 when he was sentenced in France to a maximum nine years, following his arrest in Sydney, for joining an al-Qaida-backed Pakistani terror cell out to bomb Lucas Heights nuclear plant, the national electricity grid or a military base. The French Justice Ministry is considering releasing the 41-year-old, on an early-release good-behaviour plan."

AN ARCHITECT has been jailed for at least 15 years after becoming the first person convicted of planning a terrorist attack on Australian soil. Faheem Khalid Lodhi was today jailed for a maximum term of 20 years for acting in preparation for a terrorist attack. He sat quietly in the dock as Justice Anthony Whealy told the NSW Supreme Court Lodhi had intended to "advance violent giant jihad" in Australia. Lodhi, who was born in Pakistan but has Australian citizenship, had pleaded not guilty to all charges. Justice Whealy said the attack, if carried out, "would instil terror into members...

Australian sentenced for scheme targeting nation's electricity supply 08/22/06 11:45 PM, EDT An Australian man was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for a nascent plot to attack the country's power grid that the judge said was aimed at making Australians live in constant fear of bomb attacks.

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...

CANBERRA: The first arrest made under Australia's new anti-terrorism laws, in fact the first Australian since 1978 to be charged with terrorism is a Pakistan-born medical student who allegedly attended a three-week training camp organised by the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Pakistan in January last year. Sydney resident Izhar Ul-Haque was arrested by the Australian Federal Police on April 15 and although he was released on bail on May 27, he is said to be under close observation. His lawyer has denied he was a terrorist but admitted that Ul-Haque was sympathetic to the “Kashmir cause''. Ul-Haque is said to have claimed...

A JURY has today found Sydney architect Faheem Khalid Lodhi guilty of three terrorism-related charges. A seven-week trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court was told that in October 2003 the 36-year-old was planning a bombing attack, motivated by violent jihad. The national electricity supply system or three Sydney defence sites – Victoria Barracks, HMAS Penguin or Holsworthy Barracks – were his possible targets, the jury was told. Lodhi inquired about chemicals capable of making explosives, and had instructions for making explosives, detonators and poisons, in preparation for a terrorist attack. He was also charged with acquiring two maps...

‘Pakistani terror suspect had bomb plans’ SYDNEY: A Pakistani-born man accused of planning terrorist attacks had maps of Australia’s power grid, aerial photographs of defence installations and bomb-making instructions in his possession when he was arrested, a court was told here on Tuesday. Architect Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 34, was also alleged in October 2001 to have acted “in an apparent official capacity” at a training camp in Lahore, operated by the banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba. “The camp specialised in urban warfare,” prosecutor Richard Maidment told Sydney’s Central Local Court at the opening of a committal hearing to decide if there...

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...