Re: Why Desi youth in the West getting involved in terrorism?
Thats probably true.
Re: Why Desi youth in the West getting involved in terrorism?
Architect convicted on terror plan
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) – A Pakistani-born architect who bought maps of Australia’s electricity grid, tried to buy ingredients that could be turned into explosives and had bomb-making instructions was convicted on Monday of planning a terrorist attack**.**
Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, became the third Australian convicted under federal anti-terrorism laws passed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
Prosecutors accused Lodhi, 36, of using a false name in October 2003 to buy two maps of Australia’s electricity supply grid and of using a false business name, Eagle Flyers, to inquire about buying chemicals capable of making explosives.
He was also accused of keeping a handwritten notebook containing instructions for making bombs, detonators and poisons.
A New South Wales Supreme Court jury of six men and six women spent five days deliberating before convicting Lodhi on three charges relating to the maps, the chemical inquiries and bomb-making instructions.
He was found not guilty of a fourth charge – that he planned to use aerial photographs of three Sydney military bases he downloaded from the Internet for a purpose connected with terrorism.
Lodhi, who was ordered held in custody until he is sentenced on June 29, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
He denied all of the charges, saying he did not plan to kill people or destroy property.
Lodhi told the court he migrated to Australia in 1998 “to do something better for my life … make some more money.”
Struggling to find work as an architect, Lodhi said he and his family had discussed exporting electrical generators and chemicals from Australia to Pakistan. Lodhi said he wanted the chemicals to manufacture detergent as a business.
He was first arrested in April 2004 after a six-month investigation by Australia’s domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, and the Australian Federal Police.
He first came to the attention of police on Oct. 11, 2003, when his boss reported receiving a “suspicious fax” from a company quoting prices for 10 chemicals – some of which could have been used to make a bomb – court documents said.
Federal police and intelligence agents raided Lodhi’s office the next day and discovered 15 pages of handwritten notes in Urdu, Pakistan’s official language, containing instructions on making petrol bombs, poison, cyanide gas, sulfuric acid, hand grenades and other explosive devices, the documents said.
Prosecutors said a search of Lodhi’s home the same day turned up a computer disk containing more than 600 files relating to Islamic extremism, and four U.S. military training manuals.
Police also linked Lodhi to French terror suspect Willie Brigitte, accused by authorities of planning an attack in Sydney before he was deported in October 2003 to France, where he is in custody on suspicion of having al Qaeda links.
A British-born Muslim convert, Jack Roche, became the first person convicted under Australia’s anti-terror laws in May 2004, when he pleaded guilty to conspiring with al Qaeda to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
In February this year, 32-year-old Joseph Thomas, dubbed “Jihad Jack” by local media, received a five year prison sentence for intentionally receiving money from al Qaeda and having a false passport.
Last November, police arrested 18 Muslims in pre-dawn raids in Melbourne and Sydney, an operation officials said headed off a catastrophic terror attack possibly targeting Australia’s only nuclear reactor.
The 18 are currently awaiting trial on charges ranging from being members of a terrorist organization to conspiring to carry out a terrorist attack. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.