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JI trained in Australia during 2000 Games
EFL:
EVIDENCE has emerged that terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah tried to mobilise its Australian cell about the time of the Sydney Olympics by sending a militant from Malaysia to train devotees in the city. National security sources have confirmed the man, known to them as Azman Hashim, spent close to 12 months in Sydney during 2000, conducting self-defence training and survival lessons in the Blue Mountains west of the city. They say he returned to Malaysia some time in early 2001, where he was detained by the Malaysian Special Branch under the countryâs rigorous Internal Security Act. He remains in prison.
| Keep an eye out for who's bringing him cigarettes... |
The Royal Malaysian Police confirmed last night that they were detaining Mr Hashim, a martial arts expert, whom they accuse of providing paramilitary training to JI operatives throughout the region.
Good place for him.
Australian police say there is nothing to suggest Mr Hashimâs time in Australia posed any threat to the Olympics, and claim it did not succeed in instilling a militant fervour among local JI followers. However, they have confirmed that his presence here stemmed from a concerted effort to transform the Australian JI cell, known as Mantiqi 4, into a group with the training and capabilities of its three sister cells in Southeast Asia.
Malaysia, Indonesia and the Phillipines, right?
Mr Hashim fought in the southern Philippines in the mid-1990s and trained in a military camp alongside a group of Muslim jihadis (holy warriors) who have since committed acts of terrorism. He was friendly with the man widely believed to be JIâs fugitive Australian leader, Abdul Rahman Ayub. He is also an associate of the Islamic cleric accused of being JIâs spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir.
One big happy family.
| Funny how that works, isn't it? Want to bet he's also married to somebody's niece, and that his own warms the bed of somebody else in the heirarchy? |
Mantiqi 4 is regarded as the least operationally capable of the four JI cells. Many of its members remain under suspicion, but only one, Perth man Jack Roche, has been charged in connection with any terrorist plot. Police are sceptical about the will or ability of JIâs Australian-based sympathisers to mobilise into a group capable of a terrorist strike.
| Be as skeptical as you want, but keep close tails on the bastards. Some of us hate surprises... |
Those suspected of loyalties to the militant faction of JI are rigorously monitored by the federal police, ASIO and state forces.
Among them are a core group of six individuals, who are believed to have at one stage posed a potential threat, but who are no longer thought to be keen to turn to terrorism to achieve their ends.
Or they are just keeping a low profile for a while.
| It could happen. We're talking about Australia. Send a religious fanatic from Java or Sumatra to Australia and you run the risk of him discovering beer, the beach, people who have their own uniquely pleasant qualities, and, if he's lucky, Shiela. When you come right down to it, it's a lot more fun being an Australian than it is being a terrorist... |
Abdur Rahim, known in Australia as Abdul Rahim Ayub, is still on the run in Indonesia, and is the subject of an intensifying intelligence-led hunt. He is being tracked primarily by the Indonesian intelligence agencies, BIN and INTEL, but they are acting largely at the behest of a combined group of ASIS and ASIO operatives. The Australian Federal Police confirmed they are strongly interested in finding Rahim and returning him to Australia to be interrogated. They have also sought details of Mr Hashimâs debriefing by the Malaysian special branch. Senior Malaysian officers will visit Canberra next week for high-level meetings with Australian police.
Posted by: Steve 2003-09-26 |
