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| Down Under |
| Aussie hard boyz discussed killing Howard, targeting crowds |
| 2005-12-16 |
| Two men arrested in Australia's biggest terror swoop discussed assassinating the prime minister, killing policemen and even attacking crowds at sports events, a court was told on Friday. The men, one a Islamic cleric, were part of a group of 18 Muslims arrested in police raids in Melbourne and Sydney in November and charged with being members of a terrorist organisaton and/or plotting a terrorist attack. During a bail application in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday, a prosecutor said the group's spiritual leader and a 20-year-old man discussed revenge attacks in Australia, Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported from the court. Prosecutor Nick Robinson said police intercepted discussions between Muslim preacher Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 45, and Abdullah Merhi, where they discussed jihad, reported AAP. Robinson said that in the conversation Merhi asked: "For example if John Howard kills innocent Muslim families do we...do we have to kill him and his family...his people like at the football?" Benbrika allegedly replied: "If they kill our kids we kill little kids". Merhi then said "innocent ones" and Benbrika replied "innocent ones", according to transcripts of the discussions read out in court, reported AAP. Australian radio reported from the court that the prosecutor said the men also discussed killing police, and families at a football match, in revenge for the deaths of Muslim families. The Melbourne bail hearing is continuing. In a Sydney court hearing in November, police said eight men arrested in the city may have been planning a bomb attack against the city's nuclear reactor. A police document in court outlined how the men bought chemicals used in the London July 7 bombs, had bomb-making instructions in Arabic and videos entitled "Sheikh Osama's Training Course" and "Are you ready to die?" The document also said six of the men went on "hunting and camping trips", which police described as jihad training camps, in the Australian outback in March and April 2005. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 I would like to know if this is getting play on Aussie TV news? Are testimony and phone tap transcripts being aired? |
| Posted by: ed 2005-12-16 15:35 |
| #2 Accounts of this need to be posted outside of all Australian mosques so attendees will have at least some understanding of why their @sses are getting kicked around like so many hackysacks. Any bets on a showing of outrage by Australian "moderate Mulsims" over radical Islamist plots to kill their host nation's elected leader? [crickets] |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-12-16 15:02 |
| #1 The men, one a Islamic cleric, were part of a group of 18 Muslims arrested in police raids in Melbourne and Sydney in November and charged with being members of a terrorist organisaton and/or plotting a terrorist attack. Well, well. Lookie what we have here..... |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-12-16 10:10 |