Posted on 10/16/2008 3:45:17 PM PDT by presidio9
Accused terror suspect Jack Thomas heard Osama bin Laden tell an al-Qaeda training camp before the September 11 attacks that "something big was going to happen," a Melbourne court heard on Wednesday.
Former Melbourne taxi driver Joseph Terrence Thomas told ABC current affairs program Four Corners in 2005 that he did not know the al Farouk camp in Afghanistan he attended was an al-Qaeda training camp.
In the unedited version of the Four Corners interview played to a Victorian Supreme Court jury on Wednesday, Thomas, 35, says he travelled to Afghanistan to help the country get back on its feet amid a civil war.
The Melbourne man said bin Laden had visited the camp three times in 2001 while he was there and on the third occasion had announced something big was going to happen.
But Thomas said that at that time the camp trainees were going into the mountains every night and there was a fear Afghanistan would be attacked.
Asked by Four Corners journalist Sally Neighbour whether he thought bin Laden's reference to "something big" was to September 11, Thomas responded: "In hindsight".
The Muslim convert left Australia for Afghanistan in March 2001.
Thomas told Ms Neighbour in the 2005 interview he didn't know the training camp was run by al-Qaeda until its leader bin Laden visited.
He described bin Laden as well-loved, polite and shy.
"He was definitely well loved," Thomas says in the interview.
"(He) was very polite and humble and shy.
"He didn't like too many kisses. He didn't mind being hugged, but kisses he didn't like."
Thomas said bin Laden "seemed to float across the floor".
Thomas' glowing opinion of bin Laden changed after September 11 when it became apparent the al-Qaeda leader was behind the attacks.
"He killed innocent people," Thomas said
(Excerpt) Read more at au.news.yahoo.com ...
Ping for later
I think Osama is attempting his attack November 4, when he has an al-Queda mole up for election of the United States. THis time, it’s up to the American people to stop this attack.
Osama was telling the troops about 9/11 in this story, but you are right that the word is out: NO ATTACKS UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION. Say what you want about al Quaeda, they’re not stupid.
bttt
Is that code for light in the loafers?
The transition period is when we are most exposed...
The fact that terrorists have done nothing on American soil since 9/11 shows that we have rendered them impotent.
If they’re such bad-asses why have they let us live for the past 7 years?
Temporarily.
They're even pretty much leaving Iraq alone. We were cautioned that it might get nasty around the election, but so far, it's still realtively quiet around here.
Shhh. Among my comforts at the moment is the fact that alot of the younger voters who got so hot and bothered for Obama did so because they didn't understand and therefore hated the Iraq War. Now that war hasn't been in the news in months, and at least some of them who were misguidedly worried about being drafted or whatever are going to find it that much more difficult to get their fannies off the couch and vote. Most of them don't understand the economy well enough to assign blame in any one direction, so its not going to be that. And the Obama campaign has gone out of its way to avoid social issues like abortion. At least some of his lead is going to be evaporated by the fact that collaborators like the NY Times have already awarded him an insurmountable lead. And if some people just won't vote for a black man, I can live with that too. Especially when there are so many millions voting for a guy specifically because he's black. So if they chose to leave Iraq alone, so be it.
Shhhh, my a$$. I'll shout it from the rooftops. There are a lot of people...a LOT, who deserve credit for that and I won't have a single one of them silenced.
It might be an inconsequential matter to you, but to a lot of people, it's a big deal not to be hearing those noises, slogging around in full body armor and ducking for shelter anymore.
If it's not an issue in the election, we're fine with that.
But we won't be shushed just because it has disappeared from the corrput media.
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