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| Down Under |
| Australian Qaeda suspect deported to France |
| 2003-10-27 |
| A French national deported from Australia earlier this month may have links to al-Qaeda, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said today. Australian authorities are continuing their investigations into Willie Virgile Brigitte, 35, who arrived in Australia in May this year on a tourist visa. They believe he may have been in Sydney planning terror-related activities. Mr Ruddock told ABC radio that reports from France had prompted police raids on cars and property in Sydney associated with Brigitte. "The information was in the report that he had been with groups that were training with al-Qaeda and had spent some months in training camps and that he had been in Australia. He was asked, the report says, to give shelter to an expert in explosives." He said police were not seeking any associates of Brigitte’s in Australia at the moment. Australian authorities were first alerted to Brigitte on September 22, when French authorities warned that he was thought to have trained with terror groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan. On October 7, while Australian authorities were still looking for him, the French warned that he may have been in Australia to plan terror-related activities. He was arrested for breaching his visa on October 9, and sent back to France eight days later, where he is facing terror-related charges. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #1 More details on our friend Willie: Brigitte, who French officials say spent months in al-Qaida training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, was captured Oct. 9 in Sydney after France warned Australia of his suspected al-Qaida ties. He was returned to France under guard on Oct. 17 and placed under investigation afterward. Under questioning, Brigitte acknowledged he had traveled to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban against U.S. forces after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, French officials said. Carr said contacts Brigitte had made and training he had received in Pakistan and Afghanistan "confirmed that he learned about explosives." Brigitte organized survival training lessons in Fontainebleau forest outside Paris before the Sept. 11 attacks, a French judicial official said. It was unclear who was participating in the training. He is also also suspected of running false passports to the assassins of former anti-Taliban rebel leader in Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Massood, who was slain just days before the al-Qaida attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the French official said on condition of anonymity. Brigitte is originally from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and had taken the Muslim name Abdelrahman, Australian media reported Monday. If the French don't want him, I bet the Afghan government would like to talk to him about Massood's killing. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-27 3:12:45 PM |