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Saleh Jamal	Saleh Jamal	Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah	Down Under				20040606	Link
	Saleh Jamal	al-Qaeda	Down Under				20050730

Down Under

Former Lebanon terrorism suspect jailed for Sydney shooting

2007-08-17

A 32-year-old man who was cleared of suspected terrorist activity in Lebanon has been jailed for nine years over a shooting in Sydney's south-west. Saleh Jamal fired a handgun at a man at Greenacre almost nine years ago.The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, did not suffer life threatening injuries. While on bail for another matter in 2004 Jamal fled the country. He was arrested in Lebanon on terrorism related offences, convicted, but acquitted on appeal. He said he had been tortured in jail with the approval of Australian authorities, but a District Court judge today said there was no evidence that Australian officials had any responsibility for his treatment. Standard al-Q claim. Jamal was extradited to Australia over the Greenacre shooting and found guilty by a District Court jury. In sentencing him to nine years in jail, the judge described Jamal as a man of violence. He thanked the judge and said he would ask God to give him a peaceful life. The court heard Jamal plans to study counter-terrorism and chemistry. He will be eligible for parole in two years, given the time he spent in custody in Lebanon. A bit more about this maggot.

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Down Under

Rage as son jailed (Oz)

2007-02-16

Check link to see Momma Jihad in action CONVICTED terrorist Saleh Jamal accepted the jury's verdict that he shot and injured a man almost 10 years ago very calmly. Unlike his mother. After weeping in the back of the District Court yesterday, Amina Jamal left court only to vent her frustrations at The Daily Telegraph. Her notorious son was only extradited back to Australia last year. He had been thrown in a Beirut jail after being convicted of terrorism offences. He had fled to Lebanon on a false passport while on bail during a trial on another matter, only to be arrested there. Last year, Australian authorities brought him back to face the music, which ended in a guilty verdict yesterday. He and long-time co-accused and friend, triple-killer Michael Kanaan, had denied shooting a man with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm in a Greenacre park in 1998. The victim was shot in the foot, thigh, buttocks and shoulder. A jury yesterday found both men guilty. The pair appeared unphased by the verdict and Jamal smiled sympathetically at his mother before being led away. Dressed in Islamic attire, tears ran down Mrs Jamal's face as the jury foreman read out the guilty verdict. Thanking her son's lawyers outside court, Mrs Jamal left the building where The Daily Telegraph attempted to capture her emotion. With her family under intense scrutiny from authorities, it was all too much for Mrs Jamal. Clearly distressed at the attention, she retaliated by throwing her handbag at photographer John Grainger, which struck him on the head and face causing him to bleed. Jamal and Kanaan will be sentenced next month.

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Down Under

Extradited terror suspect back in Sydney

2006-09-27

A MAN is expected be charged with a drive-by shooting of a Sydney police station and the wounding of another man when he appears in court later today following his extradition from Lebanon. Saleh Jamal, 31, has been taken to Sydney Police Centre in inner-city Surry Hills after arriving at Sydney Airport accompanied by detectives about 6.30am (AEST) today. He is due to face a Sydney court later today. Jamal was arrested in May by Lebanese authorities after completing a two-year jail sentence for weapons offences in Beirut. NSW police officers had been preparing to collect him from Beirut when Israeli military aircraft bombed Beirut's international airport in July. With the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict over and the airport open, NSW police decided to proceed with the extradition. Jamal, of Belfield in Sydney, was arrested in May 2004 while trying to flee Lebanon, again using a false passport. He was sentenced by a Lebanese Military Court to five years in jail for possessing weapons and explosives, forging an Australian passport, forming a group and planning acts that endangered state security. Lebanese prosecutors wanted to charge Jamal for planning to become a suicide bomber, but did not proceed because of insufficient evidence. The Lebanese Court of Appeal in April slashed his sentence to two years after ruling the terrorism charge could not be upheld.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon to extradite terror suspect to Australia

2006-07-11

Lebanon has agreed to deport an Arab Australian who is wanted for an attack on a Sydney police station and hopes that in return Australia will extradite a Lebanese terror suspect, Lebanese officials said Monday. There is no extradition treaty between Lebanon and Australia, but the two sides are studying the legal procedures to hand over Saleh Jamal, a Jordanian-born Australian, to Australia, a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Australian media have forecast the deportation could take place later this month.

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Down Under

I'd chop up PM, claims 'terrorist'

2006-04-28

AUSTRALIA'S most wanted terror suspect, Saleh Jamal, has pledged loyalty to Osama bin Laden and threatened to "chop up" John Howard as Lebanese authorities prepare to deport him as early as May 8. Jamal's firebrand comments come before his imminent rearrest by Australian police, who will use one of six arrest warrants prepared during his two years in a Beirut prison for firearms trafficking and entering Lebanon on a false passport. The part-time butcher fled Sydney in March 2004 while on trial for five counts of attempted murder during the 1998 shoot-up of the Lakemba police station in the city's southwest. He has since been the subject of intense interest by counter-terrorism police. Jamal was captured in Lebanon after ASIO intercepted a phone call he made to his wife. The spy agency believed the call suggested he planned to become a suicide bomber. Lebanese authorities have told The Australian they will deport Jamal as soon as his two-year sentence expires on May 8, eliminating the need for Australia and Lebanon to sign an extradition treaty. From his Beirut prison, Jamal told The Australian he would fight every step to deport him, insisting he never again wanted to set foot in Australia and describing the Prime Minister as an "evil man". "I feel sorry for the Australian people," Jamal said. "I love Osama bin Laden, I love (al-Qa'ida's leader in Iraq) Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, I love al-Qa'ida. I will never go against their word. "If the Australian people want me, Saleh Jamal, then they're going to cop the consequences. I don't want to go back to Australia. I don't want to see Australia." Jamal threatened to kill Mr Howard. "If I was given the opportunity I'd chop him up too, without any doubt, or remorse, because he's a very evil man," Jamal said. "If he was just to listen to people, he'd be a better person. He was the one who wrecked Australia. "His people don't want war against terrorism, against Muslims. He's the Prime Minister of Australia, not the puppet of George Bush. "There are 50 people in Australia who want to die (for an Islamic cause). The Australian Government should think really, really hard. "Death means nothing to these people. I wouldn't want to be in a country where sheik Osama bin Laden, may God protect him, wages war against them. "Do you know how easy it is to get 100 blokes, to talk to them for 10 minutes to do that, to get them to meet their lord? They'll destroy anything. Look at each person killing 10 people, that's 1000 people." NSW police are attempting to mount a terrorism case against Jamal, who is closely linked to six of the men charged last November in Sydney with terrorism offences as a result of the nation's largest ever counter-terror probe, Operation Pendennis. Jamal is accused of being central to the fledgling days of the investigation, when NSW police and Australian Federal Police monitored him using a small boat on Sydney Harbour to allegedly examine the Shell oil refinery, Harbour Bridge and Walsh Bay before New Year's Eve celebrations in 2003. He is also facing arrest warrants for his alleged role in the Lakemba shooting, using a bogus passport to leave Australia and two other attempted murder cases. But Jamal insists he has no case to answer in Australia, after his two co-accused in the Lakemba shooting were found not guilty during a Supreme Court trial last year.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon drops Jamal terror charges

2006-04-12

A LEBANESE appeal court has dropped terrorism charges against Sydney man Saleh Jamal. Jamal, 31, could walk free from a Beirut jail within weeks after the Lebanese Court of Appeal ruled that terrorism charges could not be upheld against him due to a lack of evidence. He allegedly told his wife, in an intercepted telephone call, that she would never see him again because he was going to a place "that is higher than the mountains". Prosecutors wanted to mount a charge that Jamal was planing to become a suicide bomber. His two-year sentence - slashed from five years on appeal - is due to expire next month, and he will be released to the custody of Lebanese General Security. It is then up to NSW police to extradite him to Australia to face charges in Australia over the 1998 shooting of the Lakemba police station, The Australian newspaper reports. He has previously threatened to crash a plane into the Harbour Bridge if he were forcibly returned to Australia.

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Down Under

Terrorist suspect says he will attack Australia if returned

2005-12-05

SYDNEY - Jailed terrorist suspect Saleh Jamal, one of a group of men alleged to have planned a militant strike on Sydney Harbour, has said he will attack Australia if forced to return here, a report said on Monday. Jordanian-born Jamal, currently being held in a Lebanese prison, told The Australian newspaper that he had been only “30 percent likely” to have carried out an attack in Australia before he fled to Lebanon in early 2004. But he said he was now more determined to strike. “The Australian government has been chasing me for three years,” he said. “If they try to take me to Australia, I will crash a plane into the Harbour Bridge myself.” "Right after I slip the handcuffs. And the leg irons. And wiggle out of the straight jacket...." “I never want to go back to Australia. All I want is for my wife and child to come here to me, but the government will not let her out of the country. Australia is like a paradise in many ways, but it is a sick place.” "All that beer drinking and girls exposing their flesh." "And people smiling and happy all the time. And the standard of living is much too high. And no shariah..." Jamal is serving five years at the maximum security Romieh Prison north of Beirut for possessing weapons and explosives but Lebanese officials are attempting to upgrade his charges to terrorist offences. Have you thought about him having a terrible accident? I mean, if it was good enough for Hariri...? Australian police allege Jamal recruited six men to launch an extremist strike in Sydney on New Years Eve 2003. Jamal had purchased a small boat and was accused of conducting surveillance on sites including the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. No attack occurred and no arrests were made. Before he left the country, Jamal was the key target in counter-terrorist Operation Pendennis, which concluded last month with 18 people being arrested on terrorist charges in Sydney and Melbourne. Jamal was on bail awaiting trial over a 1998 shooting at a Sydney police station when he fled to Lebanon on a false passport.

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Down Under

Australian hard boyz linked to LeT

2005-11-08

EXTRA counter-terrorism police have arrived in Sydney to take part in the 24-hour surveillance of two suspects believed to be planning an attack on Australian soil. The Australian understands a command post has been established in Sydney to monitor the men, one of whom has been linked to the outlawed terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. A parallel operation is under way in Melbourne and it is believed raids are imminent on the properties of the six suspects, even though it would not necessarily lead to arrests. Anti-terror police have asked for advice from the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in the light of a one-word amendment to federal anti-terrorism legislation passed by parliament last week. Police declined to comment last night on the operations, which involve dozens of police in NSW and Victoria. The group have been electronically monitored for the past 12 months. Several of them are closely linked to fugitive Sydney man Saleh Jamal, who was arrested on weapons charges in Lebanon after the Australian Federal Police warned their Lebanese counterparts that Jamal intended to become a suicide bomber. Police sources indicated some of the group first came to the attention of authorities before the Sydney Olympic Games. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock yesterday defended the rushed amendment to the legislation while admitting arrests were not imminent. "Authorities needed to be able to act if there was information about a potential terrorist act but where you didn't know the detail as to where and when it might occur," Mr Ruddock told the Ten Network's Meet the Press. "The information we had suggested it would be desirable to have it in place now. That doesn't mean in any way that I or the Prime Minister influence operational issues. They are matters dealt with independently by the police and other authorities. Whatever will happen will happen at an appropriate time, if at all." Mr Ruddock said the important thing was for police to have the capacity to deal with the threat -- which they now had. He refused to comment on reports that spy agency ASIO was aware of a new radical cell comprising the Australian-born offspring of Muslim immigrants. "Typecasting is never helpful," he said. "To suggest it is a particular group and to characterise it in a particular way isn't helpful either." It was revealed in The Weekend Australian that John Howard's decision to publicly reveal the terror threat last week had caused a rift between the spy agency ASIO and state and federal police over the security of the counter-terrorist operations. Senior police claimed the Prime Minister's announcement had jeopardised their monitoring and surveillance work. But NSW and federal police were not officially commenting yesterday. One of the Sydney men, who is a target of the current operation, had allegedly been identified by a US terrorist informant who claimed to have met him at a military training camp run by the outlawed militia group Lashkar-e-Taiba. It is believed the man is the key link to another group of men in Melbourne who had been seen filming Melbourne landmarks including the stock exchange and tram stations. The group were all the subject of ASIO raids in June this year. One of the Sydney men who was raided was highly distressed after the agents spent more than 24 hours searching his home in the western suburbs. A relative of the young man said the agents even searched the roof of his home, leaving him and his family very upset. The relative, who did not want to be identified, denied the man had done anything wrong, and claimed the raid was an example of the authorities unfairly targeting Muslims.

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Down Under

Joint Ops underway in Sydney & Melbourne

2005-11-06

EXTRA counter-terrorism police have been rushed to Sydney to take part in the 24-hour surveillance of two suspects believed to be planning an attack on Australian soil. The Australian understands a command post has been established in Sydney to monitor the men, one of whom has been linked to the outlawed terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. A parallel operation is under way in Melbourne and it is believed raids are imminent on the properties of the six suspects, even though it would not necessarily lead to arrests. Anti-terror police are waiting for approval from the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions before swooping on the group. Last night, police declined to comment on the operations, which involve dozens of police in both NSW and Victoria. The group has been electronically monitored for the past 12 months. Several of them are closely linked to fugitive Sydney man Saleh Jamal, who was arrested on weapons charges in Lebanon after the Australian Federal Police warned their Lebanese counterparts that Jamal intended to become a suicide bomber. Police sources indicated some of the group first came to the attention of authorities before the Sydney Olympic Games. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock yesterday defended the rushed amendment to anti-terrorism legislation while admitting arrests were not imminent. "Authorities needed to be able to act if there was information about a potential terrorist act but where you didn't know the detail as to where and when it might occur," said Mr Ruddock told the Ten Network's Meet the Press. "The information we had suggested it would be desirable to have it in place now. That doesn't mean in any way that I or the Prime Minister influence operational issues. They are matters dealt with independently by the police and other authorities. "Whatever will happen will happen at an appropriate time, if at all." Mr Ruddock said the important thing was for police to have the capacity to deal with the threat - which they now had. He refused to comment on reports that spy agency ASIO was aware of a new radical cell comprising the Australian-born offspring of Muslim immigrants. "Typecasting is never helpful," he said. "To suggest it is a particular group and to characterise it in a particular way isn't helpful either." It was revealed in The Weekend Australian that John Howard's decision to publicly reveal the terror threat last week had caused a rift between the spy agency ASIO and state and federal police over the security of the counter-terrorist operations. Senior police claimed the Prime Minister's announcement had jeopardised their monitoring and surveillance work. But NSW and federal police were not officially commenting yesterday. One of the Sydney men, who is a target of the current operation, had allegedly been identified by a US terrorist informant who claimed to have met him at a military training camp run by the outlawed militia group Lashkar-e-Taiba. It is believed the man is the key link to another group of men in Melbourne who had been seen filming Melbourne landmarks including the stock exchange and trains stations. The group were all the subject of ASIO raids in June this year. One of the Sydney men who was raided was highly distressed after the agents spent more than 24 hours searching his home in the western suburbs. A relative of the young man said the agents even searched the roof of his home leaving him and his family very upset. The relative, who did not want to be identified, denied the man had done anything wrong, and claimed the raid was an example of the authorities unfairly targeting Muslims.

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Down Under

Sydney fugitive linked to Zarqawi

2005-10-31

SYDNEY fugitive Saleh Jamal, awaiting a terrorism trial in Lebanon next month, has been linked to Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. Court documents allege he was sent abroad by an Australian Islamist to stage jihad attacks against US and Israeli interests. So that'd be Zark in his capacity as a Qaeda leading light, rather than simply as chief of Qaeda in Iraq... In the prosecution documents, security officials say Jamal tried to join the Iraqi insurgency in April last year. However, he was refused entry by Jordan, along with his brother Ahmed and another man, Mohammed Sultan. Jamal is alleged to have been introduced to Zarqawi's network through a Bosnian militant he met in Lebanon, Abdullah Taratshebak. The Bosnian and another accused terrorist, Abdul Latif, also tried unsuccessfully to enter Iraq from Jordan. These don't sound like the world's best terrorists. The seem to lack a certain amount of ruthless cunning... Jamal is accused of being linked to a number of men involved with al-Qa'ida, among them three Sydney Islamists who have been the subject of ASIO surveillance for two years. Lebanon's military court claims Jamal's flight from Australia, using a false passport, was financed by the prominent Sydney Islamist, who cannot be named for legal reasons. Meaning he's gonna go down, but not yet... Prosecutors say the Sydney Islamist was helped by an Australian resident, Ashref Shaha, who provided $4500 to Jamal. He then skipped bail on charges of shooting at the Lakemba police station in Sydney's southwest in 1998. Who shot up the cop shoppe? Ashref or Saleh? Jamal was arrested in May last year at Beirut airport, where he was about to board a flight to Paris. Gay Paree is not in Iraq. Or did they move it? He was sentenced to five years' jail for weapons offences and for entering Lebanon on a false document. "M'sieur? Your passport. It is drawn in crayon." Prosecutors want to upgrade the charges to serious terrorism offences, alleging Jamal delivered material to terrorists who launched a bomb attack in the Syrian capital Damascus two weeks before his arrest. Two people were killed in the attack near an embassy compound. I guess what they lack in ruthless cunning they make up in viciousness... The Australian revealed last week that federal police learned Jamal was in Lebanon through an intercepted phone call he made to his wife in Sydney, during which he said she would never see him again because he was "going to a place that is higher than the mountains". "Good bye, honey! I shall never see you again! I am going to a place that is higher than the mountains..." "[Giggle!] Stop it, Sven!" "Sven? Who's Sven?" "Never mind! What were you saying?" Court documents allege Jamal became radicalised while in jail in NSW awaiting trial. "During his jail time, he met some people who changed his personality completely and he became more religious and started going to the mosque," the documents claim. He was in jug when he met them. Sounds like he was pretty devout already... "Then he started creating links to people belonging to that organisation ... They started discussing ideas about jihad and that they should not stay quiet about what is happening to the Islamic nations. "Yeah! It's terrible, what they're doing! We should kill them all!" (The prominent Sydney Islamist) told him he was going to help him leave the country to Lebanon for a jihadi aim. He said he would help him meet people in Lebanon who would help him achieve his goal. "He had relationships with people who are believed to have links with al-Qa'ida." Reeeeeeaaaaally? That's never happened before, has it? The documents do not detail how evidence against Jamal was obtained. However, much of the claims depend on confessions of people convicted of conspiring with him to travel to Syria. Among them are two Palestinian clerics who allegedly provided weapons training in refugee camps in southern Lebanon. Jamal is believed to have forged links in a Palestinian refugee camp with Usbat-al-Ansar, an outlawed group linked to Zarqawi's network. Which'd put him in Ein el-Hellhole...

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Down Under

Butcher charged with lying to ASIO

2005-07-30

A BUTCHER linked to accused French terrorist Willie Brigitte was this month criminally charged with lying to ASIO during a secret hearing into an alleged Australian terror plot in late 2003. Abdul Rakib Hasan, 35, appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on July 12 after being served with a summons by the Australian Federal Police. The Weekend Australian can also reveal that six men have been interrogated at secret ASIO hearings over the past month in connection with an alleged plot to attack landmarks in Melbourne and Sydney. Two of the men were questioned in Sydney. The other four faced ASIO lawyers in Melbourne. At least two of the Melbourne men are understood to have been detained by ASIO for up to 24 hours. ASIO lawyers can question witnesses for a maximum of three eight-hour blocks. The use of the secret hearing powers can be revealed because the 28-day life of the questioning warrants has now expired. However, no details about what was discussed at the hearings can be publicly disclosed for the next two years. Anyone found guilty of breaching the ban faces five years in jail. The ASIO raids in both cities followed an eight-month inquiry into a group of men whom police suspect may have been plotting attacks against two Melbourne train stations and the Australian Stock Exchange building. Police suspect some members of the group also scoped harbourside targets in Sydney in the weeks leading up to New Year's Eve 2003. They believe one former member of the group was Saleh Jamal, who has been arrested in Lebanon on terror charges after allegedly fleeing Sydney while on bail early last year using another man's passport. The alleged plot is not linked to Brigitte, who is now detained in Paris under French anti-terror laws. Brigitte has been accused of being a senior al-Qa'ida member with strong links to the terror group's outlawed Kashmiri affiliate, Lashkar-e-Taiba. Mr Hasan faces two counts of making a false or misleading statement under an ASIO questioning warrant on November 8, 2003. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He is now the second man facing charges in relation to Brigitte's alleged plot to launch a terror attack in Australia after his arrival in May 2003. The other faces a Supreme Court trial in February on a charge of committing an act in preparation for a terror attack. Brigitte has told French anti-terror judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere that he met Mr Hasan in Sydney. He has reportedly identified Mr Hasan from a photo shown to him in Paris in December 2003. Mr Hasan, who works at a Halal butchery in Sydney's Islamic heartland, was bailed to appear again on August 16. He was ordered to surrender his passport and report each Monday to Campsie police station in the city's southwest.

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Down Under

Terror cell plotted finance chaos

2005-06-23

Counter terrorism agencies believe they have foiled an attack on the Melbourne Stock Exchange by a radical Islamic network linked to a covert group which has carried out surveillance on key Sydney sites. The Daily Telegraph has been told Islamic extremists with cells in Melbourne and Sydney carried out reconnaissance missions on the Harbour Bridge and two Sydney oil refineries. While details of the planned Stock Exchange attack are being kept secret by intelligence officials, the revelation comes as ASIO officers - assisted by Victorian and Federal Police - raided at least eight properties in Victoria and NSW this week. They searched homes, seized documents and other material and questioned suspected cell members. Members of Victoria's joint counter-terrorism group established links between the Melbourne and Sydney extremists about 18 months ago. They have had at least a dozen members under physical and electronic surveillance since then. Sources said a senior member of the cell is an associate of jailed Australian terrorist Saleh Jamal. Jamal, 29, fled Australia after the 1998 drive-by shooting of Lakemba police station. He was convicted this year in a Lebanese military court of possessing weapons, forging an Australian passport, and planning acts that endangered security. An intelligence source told The Daily Telegraph: "The Australian group has talked about following Jamal's lead and doing the same thing here." Melbourne cell members were heard discussing where they might find an explosives expert. Victoria Police started watching the Melbourne cell about 18 months ago after a tip-off that an Islamic extremist was recruiting followers at a mosque in inner suburban Melbourne. Victoria's joint counter terrorism group - consisting of Victoria Police, AFP and ASIO officers - then took over the operation and worked closely with its NSW counterpart. Melbourne and Sydney cell members have been observed meeting regularly and attending training camps in Victoria and NSW, where some weapons training took place. The counter-terrorism group has been unable to charge cell members so far because there has been more talk than action. "They are like mercenaries looking for a war," the intelligence source said. "There has been plenty of talk about their motivation to commit a terrorist act, but no specific intent." That's the problem when you try and treat terrorism as a law enforcement problem. Surveillance officers are understood to have paid close attention to a group using small boats to check out sensitive sites on Sydney Harbour but have found insufficient evidence to warrant charges. ASIO and other law enforcement agencies have being using disruptive techniques in Sydney and Melbourne to try to warn off extremists. A decision was made that, after 18 months of surveillance without getting enough to lay charges, alerting the cells that authorities were on to them made sense. Sigh Prime Minister John Howard, Justice Minister Chris Ellison and AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty have been briefed about the raids. Mr Howard said ASIO and the AFP had his full support for the professional way the raids were carried out. "I think Australians must understand that the Government - through its agencies, ASIO and the AFP - is very vigilant about potential threats," he said. "We should understand they are there, but we should also not be unduly concerned. We have highly professional men and women who are looking after our interests and they deserve our continued 24-hour support." Mr Keelty said it was too early to say what evidence would arise out of the searches. "Any charges will be determined after we look at the evidence as a result of the search warrants and also as a result of interviews that have been taking place," he said. "It's vitally important that we disrupt activity before it gets a chance to take hold."

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