News from around the globe that the newspapers seldom print

Disclaimer and fair comment

While I agree with most of the material passed on I may not be in agreement with all. However there is much we can learn from some that we disagree with. Remember it was once thought that the earth was flat.

It is left to your judgment to determine what you agree with and what to act upon.

Racial aliens who have been allowed into Australia against the wishes of Australians as expressed in all public opinion polls are now referred to as Australians when committing crimes overseas. This is wrong and gives Australia a bad name.

There should be a Royal Commission to investigate the motives of those who destroyed our traditional immigration policy, and this includes all Prime Ministers from Whitlam to Keating along with their Immigration Ministers, particularly those in the Fraser cabinet.

Islamic cleric 'vouched for terrorist'

By David King

May 05, 2005
From:

AN unidentified Australian Islamic leader wrote a reference for an Australian man to attend a terrorist training camp in a mountain hideaway in Pakistan , a Sydney court has heard.

US terrorist-turned-informer Yong Ki Kwon told the Central Local Court yesterday he met the Australian, who used the alias Abu Asad, while training with outlawed terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) in late 2001.

He said French terror suspect Willie Brigitte was undergoing weapons instruction in the camp at the same time.

Kwon was giving evidence via video link from the US at the committal hearing of Faheed Kahlid Lodhi, a 34-year-old architect from Punchbowl, in southwest Sydney , who faces nine charges connected with an alleged plot to bomb the national electricity grid and several military targets in Sydney .

The prosecution alleges Mr. Lodhi trained with LET in Pakistan and was a key associate of Brigitte's when the Frenchman visited Australia .

But Kwon told the court he had never met Mr. Lodhi.

He said Abu Asad was doing combat training at the LET camp and planned to return to Australia . "He said he was from Australia , he said his uncle had been to LET camp and had gone back," Kwon said.

"He said to get to LET camp he had to get a reference letter from some sheik in Australia . He said his intention was to go back to Australia .

"I would see him at prayers and when we would eat. I remember watching his group doing combat manoeuvres, crawling and rolling and things like that."

Kwon said Brigitte, whom he knew as Salahudin, completed the 45-day combat training course, which included instructions on how to use rocket-propelled grenade launchers, machineguns and AK-47 assault rifles.

Trainees also learned reconnaissance, camouflage, escape tactics and cryptic talk, and carried out target practice.

"They'd make us hike up the mountains and spy on the other camps, sometimes infiltrate them without being seen and report back," Kwon said.

"I remember him (Brigitte) telling me he used to live in France , he used to teach, but all his Muslim brothers had left.

"I remember him saying there is only one sheik and that's Osama bin Laden."

Kwon said he had left the mountain camp with Salahudin and shared accommodation with him in a Pakistani town called Muridke.

"Salahudin was becoming impatient to go back to training or to fight," Kwon said.

During cross-examination by Mr. Lodhi's defence counsel, Philip Boulten SC, Kwon said he had come to a plea agreement with the FBI under which he agreed to co-operate with the authorities to reduce his jail sentence.

Kwon admitted he had lied and withheld information during FBI questioning and in an appearance before a grand jury in the US in 2003. A Korean-American who lived in Virginia, Kwon was arrested in the US in April 2003. He confessed to training with LET in September and October 2001, and that he planned to fight against the US in Afghanistan . He was jailed for 11 years.

Australian Federal Police officers first interviewed Kwon about his terrorism connections in December 2003.

The Sydney hearing, before magistrate Michael Price, continues today