Free Republic

FIVE Sydney men have been found guilty of conspiring to plan a terrorist attack using high-powered guns and homemade bombs designed to cause mass death and destruction on Australian soil. A Supreme Court jury took four weeks and three days to find Mohamed Ali Elomar, 44, Abdul Rakib Hasan, 40, Mohammed Omar Jamal, 25, Moustafa Cheikho, 32, and his uncle Khaled Cheikho, 36, guilty of conspiring to do acts in preparation for a terrorist act or acts. The Daily Telegraph reports the men, all from Sydney's south-west, were accused of stockpiling weapons and chemicals for use in the pursuit of...

FIVE Sydney men accused of plotting violent jihad in Australia were Islamic extremists who believed their faith was under attack, a jury has been told. Opening his case against the men, crown prosecutor Richard Maidment SC said circumstantial evidence would show they planned to detonate an explosive device or use firearms in pursuit of their religious, political and ideological cause. Khaled Cheikho, Moustafa Cheikho, Mohamed Ali Elomar, Abdul Rakib Hasan and Mohammed Omar Jamal have all pleaded not guilty in the New South Wales Supreme Court to conspiring to commit an act, or acts, in preparation for a terrorist act....

SYDNEY, Australia - Three recently arrested terror suspects had been stopped and questioned by police last December near Australia's only nuclear reactor, according to a police document released Monday. The document also outlined what it said were plans by the men to stockpile chemicals for making explosives and that they "obtained extremist advice and guidance" from a firebrand cleric arrested along with them. The three men arrested near the nuclear reactor were among 18 terror suspects arrested in Sydney and Melbourne last week and accused of plotting to carry out a "catastrophic" attack in Australia. The police document identifies the...