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| Down Under |
| Chechen explosives expert linked to Brigitte |
| 2004-03-27 |
| AN international manhunt has been launched for a Chechen explosives expert who was recruited to join Willie Brigitte in plans to launch a terror attack in Australia. Abou Salah is said to have met Brigitte, a terror suspect deported from Australia last October, at a training camp for militants in Pakistan. Salah has emerged as a key figure in the multinational probe into Sydney's terrorist network. Australian security chiefs have been told Salah is one of Osama bin Laden's most senior bomb experts, testing new weapons of terror in a Pakistan laboratory. Australian counter-intelligence agents are working with authorities in Pakistan, France and the US to find Salah, whom they believe may provide further clues about the planned Australian bomb attack. Brigitte told interrogators he had been ordered by Pakistan-based al-Qaeda operatives to meet Salah in Sydney to help him prepare an Australian atrocity. According to the French dossier on the Australian terror threat, Salah and Brigitte were to work with Pakistan-born Sydney architect Faheem Khalid Lodhi to prepare "an attack of great size" in Sydney. The dossier said Salah was also the commander of a series of vast terror-training camps in Pakistan. The Chechen planned to evade the Australian security surveillance net by entering Australia disguised as a Georgian team supporter during the Rugby World Cup, but he was thwarted when Australian Customs officials refused his visa application. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Wow -- Spot-on, Mike! I empathize with the officials who have to read between the lines with every applicant - it has to be nearly impossible to get it right even 70% - 80% of the time. Such catches as this usually go unreported, of course. As for the remaining percentage - it certainly would be beneficial if the populace was "actionably" aware and backing up the efforts of the authorities to keep out the Bad Guys -- "Hmmm, the guy in the 10-sizes too tight turban over there doesn't look like yer average Sydneysider..." When / if the "press" ever catches on to the threat and begins to accurately inform Joe Avg, we might have something reliable and less dependent upon the overwhelmed officials at the border being omniscient. My hat is off to these guys. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-03-27 12:06:51 PM |
| #1 Simply controlling your country's points of entry is an excellent investment in your country's defense. The official who refused this phony visa application perhaps saved Australia millions of dollars. |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-03-27 11:40:53 AM |