Listening in as minds turn to murderINSIDE STORY

Cameron Stewart

IT was a single phone call thatsparked the second-largest terrorinvestigation in Australian his-tory, known as Operation Neath.

In January, at the height ofMelbourne’s parched summer, anAustralian-Lebanese man in his30s telephoned a Somalian in thecity’s western suburbs and madea disturbing request.

He wanted assistance for him-self and some of his friends totravel to the war-torn Africanstate of Somalia.

The men wanted to becomeIslamic warriors with al-Shabaab,an extremist group in that coun-try with close links to al-Qa’ida,and which is listed as a terroristorganisation by the US. Thefledgling Somalian terror group,barely three years old, had be-come the new face of Islamic

resistance in Africa and wasactively recruiting foreign fight-ers to help it overthrow the US-backed government in Somalia.

Investigators were monitoringthe Lebanese man’s calls after hecame to their attention late lastyear for espousing extremistviews at his local mosque inMelbourne’s northern suburbs.

What unfolded over the nextfew months would confirm theworst fears of the nation’scounter-terrorism chiefs and pro-vide a grim reminder that Aus-tralians remain vulnerable to thethreat posed by a handful ofIslamic extremists, living in oursuburbs, who are seduced by thedark side.

Australia’s security agencies

had suspected for several yearsthere were illegal links betweensmall pockets of the nation’s16,000-strong Somali communityand the extremists in their war-torn homeland.

But the AFP and ASIO hadnever been able to prove thelinks, and an AFP investigationcalled Operation Rochester in2007 petered out after no illegalconnections were identified.

Now the authorities had foundwhat they were looking for. Andthey would find much more thanthey bargained for. Authoritieslearned that the Somalian manwho had been contacted by theirLebanese suspect was the ‘‘facil-itator’’, or point man, for Austral-ian jihadists seeking to travel tothe failed state and join the al-Shabaab resistance there.

Working from Melbourne’swestern suburbs, this travel agent

for would-be jihadists had closeconnections with al-Shabaabmembers in Somalia and was ableto arrange funding and logisticsfor Melbourne recruits.

Authorities believe he had inrecent months arranged for twoSomali Australians to be smug-gled into Somalia, via Kenya, totrain with al-Shabaab.

One of those Australian menremains in Somalia, where he ispresumed to be training or fight-ing with al-Shabaab. The otherSomalian man has recently re-turned to Melbourne.

But the Lebanese man provedmore problematic for the Somal-ian facilitator in Melbourne. Visaand passport difficulties pre-vented him from making the tripto Somalia.

Frustrated by his inability totravel abroad to join al-Shabaab,the Lebanese man and the core

hardline group discussed theiroptions. Investigators listened inhorror as the men were thenoverheard planning a terroristattack in Australia.

From that moment, aboutthree months ago, the top-secretinvestigation known as Opera-tion Neath became the dominantfocus of Australia’s nationalsecurity agencies.

Jointly run by the AFP, Vic-toria Police and ASIO, the inves-tigation comprises about 150police, intelligence agents andofficials.

The group of suspects, involv-ing Lebanese and Somali Austral-ians, is believed to total about 18men, with a core of hardliners.While they are deeply religious,there are no imams, or self-styledreligious leaders, among them.

They are working-class men,consisting mostly of constructionContinued — Page 4

TUESDAY AUGUST 4 2009 T H E H E A R T O F T H E N A T I O N www.theaustralian.com.au $1.50INCLUDES GST FREIGHT EXTRA ($1.90 TAS)

Out of Africa, anew threat dawns

CAMERONSTEWARTASSOCIATEEDITOR

THE global reach of Islamicterrorism has been grimlyunderlined by news that anextremist movement from afailed African nation has servedas the inspiration for a group ofmen in the suburbs ofMelbourne to hatch a plan tokill innocent Australians.

The extraordinary plot,revealed exclusively by TheAustralian today, shows howeasily the toxic philosophies ofmilitant Islam can infect theminds of those who aresusceptible to its call, whereverin the world they may be.

In this case, it was anondescript group ofMelbourne labourers and taxidrivers, of Somali and Lebanesedescent, who were seduced bythe lure of the violent Somaliextremist group al-Shabaab.

They were attracted to thegroup despite apparently havinglittle understanding of Somalipolitics or theology.

Al-Shabaab (meaning TheYouth, in Arabic) is a shadowymilitant organisation that hasrisen to prominence only sinceContinued — Page 4

EXCLUSIVE: Somali Islamists planned suicide raid on Australian soil

Army base terror plot foiledCameron Stewart

Target: Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney

Violent extremists: Al-Shabaab fighters train at a camp outside Mogadishu. At least two Australians have trained at the group’s camps

Links: Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, an architectof the 1998 Nairobi embassy bombing, below

A PLOT by Islamic extremists inMelbourne to launch a suicideattack on an Australian Armybase has been uncovered bynational security agencies.

Federal and state police, armedwith search warrants, are poisedto swoop on members of thesuspected terror cell as early asthis morning, as they seek toarrest Australian nationals ofSomali and Lebanese back-ground in what will be thesecond-largest counter-terrorismoperation in the nation’s history.

The men are expected to becharged with a range ofterrorism-related offences.

Authorities believe the group isat an advanced stage of preparingto storm an Australian Armybase, using automatic weapons,as punishment for Australia’smilitary involvement in Muslimcountries. It is understood themen plan to kill as many soldiersas possible before they are them-selves killed.

Members of the group havebeen observed carrying out sur-veillance of Holsworthy Barracksin western Sydney and othersuspicious activity around de-fence bases in Victoria.

Electronic surveillance on thesuspects is believed to havepicked up discussions about waysto obtain weapons to carry outwhat would be the worst terrorattack on Australian soil.

The cell has been inspired bythe Somalia-based terroristmovement al-Shabaab, with twoMelbourne men, both Somalis,having travelled to Somalia inrecent months to obtain trainingwith the extremist organisation,which is aligned with al-Qa’ida.

One of those men has alreadyreturned to Melbourne. Theother is still in Somalia.

Al-Shabaab, which is usingsuicide bombers and jihadistfighters to try to overthrow theSomali government, seeks toimpose a pure, hardline form ofIslam, and sees the West as itsenemy. It has been declared aterrorist organisation by the USand it has close links with al-Qa’ida leaders, including FazulAbdullah Mohammed, an archi-tect of the 1998 attacks on the USembassies in Kenya and Tanza-nia in which 223 people died.

The investigation of the group,dubbed Operation Neath, in-volves about 150 members of theAustralian Federal Police, Vic-toria Police and ASIO. It waslaunched in late January.

Search warrants for at least 19properties across Melbournehave been prepared to allowauthorities to obtain more evi-dence against the group, which isbelieved to number about 18, witha smaller, hardcore element.

The suspects include Austral-ians of Somali and Lebanesedecent, most of whom are labour-ers employed in Melbourne’sconstruction industry, or taxidrivers.

It is understood that severalmembers of the group alsowanted to travel to Somalia tofight with al-Shabaab, but whentravel became difficult, theyturned their attention to carryingout a terrorist attack in Australia.

Al-Shabaab is currentlysearching for jihadist recruitsaround the world, including inAustralia. Authorities fear thatAustralian Muslims who travel toSomalia to fight for al-Shabaabcould return to Australia assleeper agents for future attacksin this country.

In the US, more than 20Somali American men have dis-

appeared from their Midwesthomes in recent months to fightalongside al-Shabaab troops inSomalia.

The FBI’s investigation intothe radicalisation of Somali refu-gees in the US, via al-Shabaab,was described by The New YorkTimes last month as ‘‘the mostsignificant domestic terror inves-tigation since September 11’’.

The AFP is understood to haverecently presented its evidenceagainst the Melbourne cell to theOffice of the CommonwealthDirector of Public Prosecutions,which advised that the evidencewas sufficient to support chargesbeing laid under national terror-ism laws.

A previous AFP investigation— Operation Rochester, in 2007— into extremist activities withinsmall pockets of the nation’s16,000-strong Muslim Somalicommunity petered out after itwas established there was noevidence of wrongdoing.

Only a small number of Aus-tralia’s Somali community adoptthe hardline Wahabist view ofIslam, but authorities fear radi-calism among this minority isbeing fanned by recent events inSomalia.

Intelligence analysts warn thatSomalia has become the newbreeding for international Is-lamic terrorists, as extremistsseek revenge for the events ofDecember 2006, when US-backed forces from ChristianEthiopia toppled the hardlinegovernment known as the Is-lamic Courts Union.

The US and Australia de-fended the Ethiopian invasion asa front in the global war onterror, but it awakened thenationalism of many Somalis inAustralia, as well as Muslims ofother ethnic backgrounds, whoviewed it as a Christian crusadeinto a Muslim land.

Lobbyist Bolkus headhunted for connectionsMichael Owen

ONE of Australia’s top politicallobbyists, former Labor senatorNick Bolkus, was headhuntedbecause of his connections withthe Rann government to be a

director of an aquaculturecompany that has gone intoadministration. The collapse ofAustralian Bight Abalone has left1200 people who invested$43.8 million in limbo. Mr Bolkus,who is a business partner with

Howard government foreignminister Alexander Downer inAdelaide-based lobbyist firm Be-spoke Approach, also chairs thestate Labor fundraising body SAProgressive Business.

Inquiries by The Australian

reveal ABA chief executive And-rew Ferguson is a regular at SAProgressive Business events,where those in attendance pay upto $1500 each for intimate din-ners and special briefings withSouth Australian Premier Mike

Rann. SA Progressive Businessdocuments show that betweenSeptember and November, MrRann is scheduled to host eightLabor fundraising eventsContinued — Page 2More reports — Page 2

Grech:Why IfakedemailEXCLUSIVEPaul Maley

Grech

GODWIN Grech has admittedhe created the ‘‘fake email’’ atthe heart of the OzCar affair andclaimed that he passed thecontents of that email to Mal-colm Turnbull under ‘‘enor-mous pressure’’.

The senior Treasury official,speaking from a psychiatricward in Canberra last night,where he is being treated fordepression, admitted to an errorof judgment in creating theemail. He said he still believedthere had beenan originalemail from Ke-vin Rudd’s of-fice, urging helpfor Ipswich cardealer and La-bor donor JohnGrant, but con-ceded it couldnot be found.

Speaking exclusively to TheAustralian, Mr Grech said he co-operated with the opposition tosave the jobs of 2000 people byseeking their support to pass theOzCar finance bill in the Senate.

‘‘My concern was that theissue of Grant could be used tofrustrate the passage of the bill,’’he said.

Mr Turnbull declined to com-ment on the meeting but lastnight a spokesman for the Op-position Leader said Coalitionsupport for the bill was never indoubt, citing comments from theCoalition supporting the bill asearly as May. And senior Coali-tion sources said it was MrGrech who initiated the meetingat which the email was handedover. They said that, far frombeing a passive victim, he en-couraged the opposition to goafter the Prime Minister on theemail and to pursue the claims offavours in the Senate.

Mr Grech said he handed aprintout of the email’s contentsto Mr Turnbull and Senatedeputy leader Eric Abetz —which he later took back — at ameeting at his wife Lucy Turn-bull’s office in Sydney’s PottsPoint on June 12, one weekbefore Mr Grech’s explosiveevidence before a Senateinquiry.

In a claim that will increasepressure on Mr Turnbull’s lead-ership, the ailing official said hewrote down a series of questionsfor the Opposition Leader to askin parliament that concerned MrRudd’s statements that he hadnot sought special favours forMr Grant.

Mr Grech said he made anerror of judgment in faking thenow notorious email, in whichthe Prime Minister’s economicsadviser, Andrew Charlton, pur-portedly sought Mr Grech’s helpin seeking special treatment forMr Grant.

Mr Grech’s claims, revealedexclusively in The Australian,will place enormous pressure onMr Turnbull as the Auditor-General’s report into OzCar, tobe released today, is expected toclear Mr Rudd and Wayne Swanof any wrongdoing.

The government has de-manded Mr Turnbull apologiseand resign if his allegations arenot substantiated. Mr Ruddmoved to increase pressure onMr Turnbull ahead of the releaseof the Auditor-General’s report.

‘‘I think it’s important for MrTurnbull to come out and de-scribe in detail all of his dealingswith Mr Grech. All meetings andall conversations,’’ Mr Ruddsaid.Continued — Page 6More reports — Page 6

Abortion drug racket exposedA VETERAN Brisbane obstetri-cian has blown the whistle on anew form of backyard abortion,involving contraband supplies ofthe controversial drug RU486being smuggled into the countryfor women to terminate theirown pregnancies.

Adrienne Freeman, who islicensed to perform medical (asopposed to surgical) abortions,said three patients had told herthey obtained RU486 on blackmarkets in China or India withthe intention of taking it here.

Separately, Cairns-based ob-

stetrician Caroline de Costa, whoestablished the country’s firstabortion service using RU486,said two other doctors hadsought her advice on how to treatwomen using illegally importedabortion pills.Full report — Page 3

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