Posted on 05/19/2004 10:17:14 AM PDT by Destro
Al-Qaeda targeted Olympics, Jews: court
By Martin Daly in Perth
May 20, 2004
Al-Qaeda planned an attack during the Sydney Olympics and to target the Jewish community, according to notes revealed during the trial of an Australian man accused of plotting to bomb the Israeli embassy in Canberra.
A notebook seized from Jack Roche's Perth home in 2002 describes in Indonesian how al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Malaysia planned the attacks. The Melbourne Jewish leader, businessman and football identity Joseph Gutnick was identified as an important target.
The notebook says the goal is to have a "heavy" impact on the Jewish community in hit-and-run attacks.
Roche, 52, has pleaded not guilty in Perth District Court to conspiring with senior al-Qaeda figures Mukhtar, Abu Hafs and Saif to plant a truck bomb outside the Canberra embassy in 2000, shortly after returning from explosives training at an al-Qaeda camp near Kandahar.
Indrawati Zifirdaus, an interpreter from Curtin University, yesterday read out an English translation she made from the 20-page notebook.
In it, Roche describes meetings with al-Qaeda officials and Jemaah Islamiah figurehead Hambali, and how they wanted the problems in Palestine to "be submitted again in the minds of the people of the world".
"I met Hambali and we discussed about the possibility to do something in Sydney, during the Olympic Games there, this year," the notes read.
"The main objective here is that this operation will not only be done once but . . . we will do something again and disappear. Their decision is two important targets in Australia - Israel embassy and/or Jews named Joe Gutnick."
"I also need to find other Jewish targets . . . for example when there is a meeting of a lot of Jewish, etc".
The trial had earlier been told how Hambali provided Roche with access to al-Qaeda officials including Osama bin Laden, and how he travelled to Afghanistan via Pakistan to meet them.
The notes of these meetings described how al-Qaeda had agreed to have three white Australian Muslims undertake firearms and explosives training in Afghanistan, while Roche co-ordinated operations in Australia.
The conspiracy between Roche and al-Qaeda is alleged to have occurred between February 15 and September 30, 2000.
Earlier, Jacqueline Anne Wood, the former partner of Roche's son, told the court that while staying in Roche's Sydney flat, she found two books, one titled Terrorist Handbook and the other How to make a bomb.
The trial continues.
With AAP
Which brings to mind...remember the release of info, and then denial, that AQ infiltrated some terrs to blow up a nuclear power plant during the 2000 Olympics?
Man. Al Qaeda must have REALLY been mad at President Bush to target the 2000 Olympics.
Good point...
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