news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051114/ts_nm/security_australia_plot_dc
Reuters Sydney nuclear reactor terror plot target By Michael Perry Mon Nov 14, 9:56 AM ET SYDNEY (Reuters) - Eight Sydney men arrested on terrorism charges may hav e been planning a bomb attack against the city's nuclear reactor, police said on Monday.
Their Islamic spiritual leader, also charged with terrorism offences, tol d the men if they wanted to die for jihad they should inflict "maximum d amage," according to a 21-page police court document. The document outlines how the men, arrested last week in the nation's big gest security swoop, bought chemicals used in the London July 7 bombs, h ad bomb-making instructions in Arabic and videos entitled "Sheikh Osama' s Training Course" and "Are you ready to die?" Under the heading "Targets," police said three of the men were stopped ne ar Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in December 2004.
The document said six of the men went on "hunting and camping trips," whi ch police described as jihad training camps, in the Australian outback i n March and April 2005. "This training is consistent with the modus operandi of terrorists prior to attacks," the police document said, adding one man attended a trainin g camp in Pakistan in 2001. "EXTREMIST ADVICE" Police said a Melbourne-based Muslim cleric, arrested in the security swo op and charged with terror offences along with eight other men in Melbou rne, was the spiritual leader of the Sydney and Melbourne groups. Muslim teacher Abdul Nacer Benbrika, also known as Abu Bakr, gave "extrem ist advice and guidance" and "has publicly declared his support of a vio lent jihad," the document said. At a February meeting Benbrika talked to the Sydney men about fighting th ose who opposed Sharia law. "If we want to die for jihad, we have to have maximum damage. Damage their lives," said Benbr ika, according to the document. But Benbrika said the men needed their mothers' permission to go on jihad . Police said the men were an extremist sub-group of the religious Ahel al Sunna wal Jamaah Association, a Sunni Islamic group that follows a funda mentalist jihad ideology. They said the group had little or no respect f or Australian law or society. In Australia's biggest counter-terrorism swoop last week, 18 men were arr ested and charged with offences including acts in preparation of a terro rist attack, being a member of a terrorist group and conspiracy to commi t a terrorist act. Nine men were arrested in Melbourne and nine in Sydney, one of whom was t ransferred to Melbourne on Monday. All have been remanded in custody and no pleas have been entered. Police said the Sydney men had bought chemicals to produce "peroxide-base d explosives" and had a computer memory stick containing instructions in Arabic to make explosives. Between August and November 2005 the Sydney men had bought or ordered hun dreds of litres of chemicals, steel drums, batteries, plastic piping, ci rcuit kits, stopwatches and ammunition. Police said during raids on the men's homes they seized chemicals, boxes of ammunition and firearms, machetes, samurai swords and books, cassette s and videos on terrorism and jihad. During Benbrika's Melbourne court appearance last week, police said the c leric called bin Laden a "great man" that defends Muslims fighting US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Police told the court that one man had expressed a desire to become a "ma rtyr" in Australia. The Australia Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) earlier this mont h said for the first time that Australia had home-grown extremists, some of whom had trained overseas. Muslims make up 15 percent of Australia' s 20 million population.
A nuclear reactor, located in the southwestern suburb of Lucas Height s, about 25 kilometers from the center of Sydney, August 26, 2000. Eight Sydney men arrested on terrorism charges may have been planning a bomb attack against the city's nuclear reactor, police said on Monday.
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