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...

Islamists stockpiled explosive chemicals and weapons in plan to launch major attack to avenge wars in Iraq and Afghanistan The men, all from Sydney's south-west, were arrested in a series of raids on their homes in 2005. They were accused of conspiring between July 2004 and November 2005 to carry out a violent jihadist act, possibly targeting the then Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, to force the government into changing its policies on the Middle East. They spent months working to acquire chemicals, firearms, and bomb making equipment, the court heard. Materials found at the homes of some of...

This was a case like no other. Not only was it the longest criminal trial in Australian legal history, it was conducted under the tightest security and was almost derailed by one young woman. Each morning, the prison van would arrive at the court in a convoy under police escort. A busy Parramatta street was closed for a few minutes while the prison van sped down a steep driveway flanked by Extreme High Security Corrective Services Officers wearing flak jackets and armed with semi-automatic weapons. Inside, there was the usual baggage screening in the foyer, but up on Level Three...