Alleged Jemaah Islamiyah chief Abu Bakar Bashir personally called off a planned bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Canberra, a British-born Islamic convert charged with plotting the attack told police.
The testimony from terror suspect Jack Roche was further evidence of Bashir's control of the Southeast Asian, al-Qaeda-linked terror group. In Indonesian custody suspected of terror links, Bashir has denied involvement in Jemaah Islamiyah.
Roche also claimed he went to the US consulate in Sydney and told authorities there, "I've met Osama bin Laden and they [al-Qaeda] have targets in mind,'' he said in taped interviews with police. He said the embassy directed him to Australia's spy agency, where he was not even able to get anybody to listen to his claims.
In videotaped interviews with police that led to his arrest in November 2002 and played yesterday in court, Roche said infighting between Australian members of Jemaah Islamiyah and the group's operations chief Hambali led to the collapse of the bombing plot.
Abdulrahman Ayub and his twin brother Abdulrahim Ayub, widely believed to have headed the terror group's Australian arm, were so incensed at Hambali's interference that they rang Bashir to complain, prompting Bashir to cancel the plot, Roche told detectives.
Roche has pleaded innocent to a charge of plotting to bomb the Israeli Embassy. He faces a maximum 25-year prison sentence if convicted.
In taped excerpts played in Perth District Court this week, Roche has repeatedly named Bashir as the head of al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian terror affiliate. He has also described how the Ayub brothers told him to travel to Malaysia to meet Hambali in early 2000.
Hambali then sent Roche -- 52, an Australian citizen who was born in Hull, England -- to Pakistan and Afghanistan where he briefly met Osama bin Laden and underwent explosives training, the court heard.
While there Roche was told to set up an al-Qaeda cell in Australia and launch attacks against Israeli targets. Hambali gave him US$8,000 to fund the attacks, he said.
On his return, Roche said he informed the Ayub twins about his plans. He said they were "miffed" at Hambali for interfering in Australian operations.
The twins were so angry they complained directly to Bashir, Roche said. Bashir was re-arrested in April on the day he finished serving an 18-month prison term for minor immigration offenses. Police in Indonesia say they have new evidence placing him at the head of Jemaah Islamiyah.
Bashir asked Roche to visit Indonesia to discuss the plot in July 2000, Roche said.
He told Roche "whatever Hambali's asked you to do, just carry on doing that ... whatever it happens to be."
But he said the Ayub brothers "must have whinged to Abu Bakar Bashir, because a few days later I got a call from him telling me to stop whatever I was doing."
By that time, Roche said he'd started "to sober up from this whole experience" and tried to tell Australian spies about the plot, but was ignored.
"I couldn't seem to get past the front desk," Roche said.
Both the Ayub brothers are believed to have fled to Indonesia following raids in November 2002 by Australian police and intelligence agencies in several cities. Roche was arrested during those raids, which came in the aftermath of bombings that killed 202 people on the Indonesian island of Bali.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS