Black Saturday 'Allah's revenge', said terror accused

THE global financial crisis, crippling drought and the Black Saturday fires that killed 173 people were all part of Allah's will to punish the "filthy people" of Australia, one of the men accused of plotting to attack Sydney's Holsworthy army base has claimed.

In a telephone conversation intercepted by federal police shortly after last summer's devastating bushfires, accused terrorist Saney Aweys urged a friend fighting in Somalia to "be strong" and declared that Australians were already "copping (it) hard, man" from Allah.

"Thanks to Allah, we say Allah bring the fitna (trouble), Allah bring them calamity," Mr Aweys said, according to a transcript of a conversation with Walid Mohamed Osman tendered yesterday in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

"When the whole nation is coming down, first the economy comes down, first. By Allah, factories shutting down ... I've never seen Melbourne like this then fire coming to them, no water, the water storage is empty. They are copping (it) hard, man. Thanks to Allah."

The transcript was tendered as part of the prosecution brief against four of five men charged over the alleged planned attack on the NSW army base, after they waived their right to a committal hearing and were sent straight to trial.

Melbourne men Mr Aweys, 26, Abdirahman Ahmed, 25, Wissam Fattal, 33, and 22-year-old Yacqub Khayre all pleaded not guilty to the charges. The fifth member of the alleged conspiracy, 25-year-old Nayef El Sayed, did not enter a plea and is still deciding whether to have a committal hearing next May.

The Australian Federal Police transcripts also detail conversations between Mr Aweys and two sheiks in Somalia talking about getting a fatwa, or religious sanction, for the proposed attack on Australian soil.

"They are about six guys who are among our colleagues. They want to know if it could be carried out here, like operations or if, for example, something can be robbed/taken from the government," Mr Aweys asks Sheik Abdirahman on July 10. "Is it permissible for us to, like, to rob the system? Do you understand?"

Sheik Abdirahman allegedly replies: "So they want operational martyrdom?" to which Mr Aweys says: "Yes. Mostly it's that they can access acquiring weapons such as guns/rifles. They know where they can get them. Thus, they want to enter into the military/forces are stationed, the barracks. Their desire to fan out and get as much as they could until they would be hit."

The secret intercept goes on to record Mr Aweys saying that they have the change of "guns/rifles that can take/carry up to 60 bullets and, which takes/accommodates 60 seeds".

"And 20 minutes would be enough for us to take out five, six, 10 and eight -- whatever Allah know," he allegedly said. "Six of them once they enter inside the location/place for about 20 minutes to 30 minutes, until they will use up their weapons."

Mr Aweys asked the sheik whether such action was permissible, to which he replied: "That means you want to answer a problematic legal scenario ... if they want to enter into either martyrdom or risky enterprise, we would be looking, you know, into the legality of what they men can cause, firstly."

The sheik said the repercussion of the event and the damage it caused would have to be analysed before a fatwa was given. Mr Aweys goes on to describe Australians as having "infidels in their midst" that cause great damage to Islam. "They are casted from Afghanistan up to Iraq. They are massacring and do no favour to anyone. They are augmented infidels and these ones aren't any better than the English," he says.

Mr Khayre, Mr Fattal, Mr Sayed, Mr Aweys and Mr Ahmed have been charged with conspiring to prepare for a terrorist act.

Mr Aweys and Mr Ahmed have also been charged with helping Mr Mohamed to go to Somalia and fight with al-Shabaab. Mr Aweys faces a third charge of preparing to go to Somalia to engage in conflict.

Prosecutors allege in their summary, part of the brief of evidence, that Mr Fattal received a text message from a pay phone in Preston on March 27 that, when translated, stated: "Holsworthy train station, the base is right in front of Macarthur Drive. Peace be upon you brother."

Video surveillance footage allegedly captures Mr Fattal walking from the Holsworthy train station on March 28 to the base and its boundary.

In another recorded conversation two days later, Mr El Sayed allegedly told Mr Fattal he was going to talk in riddles. Mr Fattal asked, "Will the business work out ... Allah willing, the bricklaying and so on?" Mr El Sayed replied: "Yes. Yes. Thanks to Allah. There is a lot of work thanks to Allah, but we only need a mixer and few things, as you know."

Mr Fattal tells him he "saw the condition there ... it's something that's very easy ... to enter the work it's easy. I went there, I strolled."

Prosecutors also allege that Mr Aweys had young men ready to train in Somalia for the insurgency. They stated he had "boys lined up and itching to go, always asking him when they can go".

The brief of evidence also revealed Mr Fattal told police he did not support the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, felt anger towards the Australian government and wanted to leave the country.

The four were remanded to reappear on November 9.

Source: The Australian, Oct 26, 20