Author: Kerry-Anne Walsh
Publication: The Sun-Herald
Date: February 8, 2004
URL: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/07/1075854109497.html
A Pakistani terrorist group which
may have recruited suspected French terrorist Willy Brigitte to attack
Australian targets is operating a cell in Australia, Attorney-General Philip
Ruddock said yesterday.
Mr Ruddock said Guantanamo Bay inmates
and suspected Australian terrorists David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib had also
allegedly been trained by the group, Lashkar-e-Toiba.
ASIO alerted the Government to the
group late last year and it immediately rushed legislation through Parliament
to outlaw the group.
Mr Ruddock said the Government had
received intelligence that the terrorist outfit was not just conducting
training activities and other terrorism-related activities in Kashmir and
Pakistan.
"We came to a view on advice that
it did have connections with Australia," he said.
The emergence of the group and the
possibility its Australian cell was planning to attack key Sydney installations
could be confirmed by two current affairs programs within the next 48 hours.
Channel Nine's Sunday program is
expected to name a 35-year-old Sydney man of Pakistani background as a
key contact of Brigitte. The ABC's Four Corners program has also conducted
a long investigation into Brigitte and the terrorist network he allegedly
worked with while visiting Sydney last year.
The Lakemba man at the centre of
the investigations is innocent, the man's lawyer has said.
Sydney lawyer Steven Hopper, who
also represents Mamdouh Habib, said there was no evidence to link his client
to terrorism.
"This client has been the subject
of an ASIO and Australian Federal Police investigation since the end of
October," Mr Hopper said.
"Their investigations are very thorough
and one would expect that would be especially true in light of the allegations
made against Mr Brigitte.
"To this date, there's been no charges
and that would suggest they have no evidence."
ASIO, the Federal Police and NSW
Police raided six houses in south-west Sydney in October.
It remains unclear if the Pakistani
man allegedly named by Brigitte as a terrorist was one of those questioned
at the time by ASIO.
ABC News reported Brigitte made
the claims about the man in an interview with French authorities from his
prison in Paris.
It was also reported the man had
allegedly pinpointed a number of locations as possible terrorism targets,
including Holsworthy army barracks and Garden Island.
Mr Hopper said new ASIO laws restricted
what he could say, but denied his client was linked to any terrorist organisation.
"He is not a terrorist," he said.
"All I can say is there was no wrongdoing on my client's behalf."
ASIO and other intelligence bodies
have been investigating Brigitte and his Australian-based associates as
a matter of "great importance and sensitivity" since late last year.
If ASIO unearths active members
of Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Government's new laws mean they can be charged
with terrorist offences which can carry penalties that include long prison
terms.
As well, the laws means that anyone
dealing with, or having information about, members of the group can be
charged.
Defending ASIO against accusations
it had been sloppy in its investigations into Brigitte in the five months
he was in Sydney - including marrying Australian citizen Melanie Brown
- Mr Ruddock said the investigation was still very much alive.
