Posted on 12/11/2001 3:55:44 PM PST by GeneD
Filed at 7:14 p.m. ET
CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian man who trained with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan has been captured by the Northern Alliance, Australian Attorney General Daryl Williams said on Wednesday.
Williams said the 26-year-old caucasian male, who also trained with Islamic groups in Kosovo and Pakistan, was arrested by the Northern Alliance on or around December 9.
He refused to give any details of the capture, the man's personal details or current whereabouts for security reasons.
Williams declined to say if the man was Muslim or whether he had military experience before leaving Australia, but said he was in good health.
``It was the U.S. authorities which advised Australia of the capture of this man,'' Williams told reporters.
``We are not proposing to reveal his name or the names of the members of his family as we don't want to put the family under unnecessary pressure.''
Williams said members of the man's family in Australia were interviewed by security authorities and federal police on Tuesday December 11.
The Australian is the second westerner to be caught by the Northern Alliance after the Taliban who came under attack for shielding Saudi-born militant bin Laden, the chief suspect of the September 11 suicide airline attacks in the United States.
Last week 20-year-old American John Walker, who converted to Islam at the age of 16, was found among 80 foreign al Qaeda fighters who survived a bloody uprising at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress in northern Afghanistan and handed over to U.S. forces.
ISLAMIC TRAINING
Williams said the Australian, who has no criminal record and was unknown to Australian security organizations, was believed to have trained with several Islamic groups since he left Australia in 1999.
He said the man traveled to Europe in mid-1999 to join the Kosovo Liberation Army then moved to Pakistan in November 1999 where he trained with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of dozens of Islamic groups fighting to wrest control of Muslim-majority Kashmir from India.
``During the year 2000 he went to Afghanistan where he undertook training with the Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network,'' Williams said.
Williams said Australian authorities would be in discussions with authorities of other countries, including the United States, over the captured Australian. He declined to say if the Australian would be handed over to U.S. authorities.
``At this stage there is a range of issues to be explored including the possibility of the commission of criminal offences under Australian law,'' he said.
Williams played down any security risk to Australia after the arrest of the Australian.
``At this stage there is no information to suggest that the man captured was, or is, linked with any specific threat to security within Australia,'' he said.
If that situation did arise, we`d be just as keen to drop a daisycutter on him as you.
We just object to the occasional poster who says that all Kiwis are stupid liberals because we have a Labour government. If we said that all Americans are dishonest (and worse) because Bill Clinton is an American, you`d be mighty pissed off, and you`d have every right.
You can`t tar nearly 4 million people with the same brush.
He still deserves to be treated like all the others though.
Ooh... They look scary!
The incident was supposedly unrelated to the events of 9/11.
However, the guy in question was from a Bosnian border town.
There are thousands of Albanian and Bosnian Muslims in the US, many of whom were welcomed as refugees.
Would these be the feminist or the civil liberty, get religion out of schools/govt types?
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