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| Down Under |
| Al-Qaeda wanted to boom Melbourne Jewish community center |
| 2004-06-13 |
| An overseas terrorist cell in Australia is believed to have planned a potentially devastating attack on the Jewish community’s main building in Melbourne. The plot, partly revealed in telephone intercepts, was interpreted as preparations for an attack on the Beth Weizmann Community Centre in Caulfield. The centre houses several Jewish organisations and is the nerve centre for Jewish political, charitable and administration activities. The plot was uncovered in 2002 and was separate from the attacks planned by the Perth man, Jack Roche, who has been jailed for conspiring with al-Qaeda to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra. Roche revealed during his trial last month that the kidnapping for ransom or the assassination of Melbourne mining magnate Joseph Gutnick had also been part of the plan by al-Qaeda to attack Jewish and Israeli interests and individuals in Australia. According to the Attorney-General’s office, the Australian Jewish community has been the subject of many threats over the years, some of them at a "heightened level" and some "routine." Members of the Jewish community said they were terrified by the 2002 plot and, fearing heavy loss of life, immediately upgraded security. "The whole Jewish community was alerted," said one community leader. Stephen Rothman, QC, president of the NSW Jewish Community Council, told The Age last year that the community had information that al-Qaeda planned attacks on Sydney and Melbourne buildings, but he refused to name them. He said at the time: "Those of us responsible for security are extremely nervous . . . the loss of life would have been significant." Several prominent members of the Jewish community, who asked not to be named, have now confirmed to The Age that the Weizmann Centre was a target. A community security source said the information from police had been interpreted to mean attacks were planned against Jewish targets across the country and that the headquarters of Sydney’s Jewish community, the Jewish War Memorial Building in Darlinghurst, was also a target. Mr Rothman last week again declined to name the targeted buildings but said that terrorist cells in Australia had targeted Jewish institutions at least twice, in 2003 and 2002. "The information we have received is from law enforcement agencies and it is very serious," Mr Rothman said. "We have been told regardless of the Roche case, that there have been and are existing terrorist threats, one of the targets for which we suspect is the Jewish community and its institutions." Mr Rothman understood members of the cell had not been arrested. Their plans were fairly well advanced and authorities had intercepts of their telephone calls. Another Melbourne Jewish leader said the information had come from al-Qaeda detainees, possibly from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib are held. The information had been corroborated elsewhere, he said. Others in the community dismissed the Guantanamo Bay link, saying the community itself had came up with the names of the buildings as the targets when the information was analysed. "It was obvious," said one security expert who works for the Jewish community. The Roche trial revealed the extent to which al-Qaeda’s top commanders in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Jemaah Islamiah’s Hambali - who masterminded the Bali bombing - had been involved in sending Roche for explosives training and in giving him orders to attack American and Israeli interests. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |