crisis
02-02-2005, 04:40 PM
With the return od Mundo Habib (Australian terrorist suspect previously held in Guatanamo bay) we have the media almost treating him like a hero. I saw a docco on him on the ABC (Oz) which painted him in a particularly suspicious light. Either no one else saw it or those who did have forgotten.
Some extracts
"Habib campaigned for the men convicted of the first World Trade centre bombing and came to ASIO's notice. He began attending lectures by a firebrand Islamic preacher in Sydney. But he was under growing personal pressure. A government contract fell through. His business collapsed. He felt cheated because "he was muslim and Egyptian", according to an old friend.
Habib's associates portray a man who was becoming increasingly angry, argumentative and paranoid. Witnesses tell Four Corners that he began trawling the prayer rooms of western Sydney trying to sign up recruits for jihad.
"I really want to live with bin Laden," he said, according to one associate.
Mamdouh Habib took off to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he is said to have trained with the now-banned terrorist group Lashkar e-Toiba. On his return, however, he was seen more as a troublemaker than as a hero in Lakemba's muslim community.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib was certainly not the only one in the prayer room to support Bin Laden and advocate jihad or holy struggle. Abu Ayman and his congregation have been under close watch for years because of the extreme views expressed by some of his followers. The man who runs the prayer room, Abdul Salam Zoud, was named in a French court dossier as a recruiter for jihad - a claim he denies. Several men who have attended the prayer room are currently facing terrorism-related charges.
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: Most of it is ill talk based on no evidence whatsoever. And that's the fact. They have to blame someone. There is always...in any agenda, there is a scapegoat. It has to be all the time someone to put the blame on. And this is why you find us sometimes, yes, saying something the public doesn't like, for example, or the Government doesn't like.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The reason the Government doesn't like what's preached in the prayer room is apparent from the sermons available on video in the bookshop up the road.
(FOOTAGE FROM 'THE ENEMY'S PLOT' PLAYS)
SHEIK FEIZ: What is really meant by the term, by the wording, by the so-called war on terrorism? Does it leave any doubt in anyone's mind that it is nothing but a war on Islam and the Muslims to ensure the Zionist - those pigs - the Zionist-American domination in every corner of this earth?
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: This is one offering from Abu Ayman's star protege, a young firebrand from Liverpool known as Sheik Feiz, whose weekly lectures in the prayer room Mamdouh Habib used to attend.
(VIDEO FOOTAGE CONTINUES)
SHEIK FEIZ: Go to Iraq today and see your brothers and sisters! See them! See what is happening there! It's gonna happen to you one day! Their heads are being blown off, their legs are being amputated, their arms, their bodies. Their meat is being just thrown off their bodies. Look! And we are too comfortable with cultivation! We're too scared to go to jihad! What are you living for?
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The call to jihad was like a magnet for Habib. He was so enthused he began signing people up, according to Abu Ayman. "
He was vocal in the defence of Omar Abdul Rahman and Habib's friends El-Gabrowny and Abouhalima were arrested for the first bombing of the WTC and later convicted over the attack and plans to bomb other New York landmarks.
Full transcript for anyone interested.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2004/s1157599.htm
Its no wonder the Australian government wants to keep an eye on him. I would rather err on the side of caution in caes like this.
Some extracts
"Habib campaigned for the men convicted of the first World Trade centre bombing and came to ASIO's notice. He began attending lectures by a firebrand Islamic preacher in Sydney. But he was under growing personal pressure. A government contract fell through. His business collapsed. He felt cheated because "he was muslim and Egyptian", according to an old friend.
Habib's associates portray a man who was becoming increasingly angry, argumentative and paranoid. Witnesses tell Four Corners that he began trawling the prayer rooms of western Sydney trying to sign up recruits for jihad.
"I really want to live with bin Laden," he said, according to one associate.
Mamdouh Habib took off to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he is said to have trained with the now-banned terrorist group Lashkar e-Toiba. On his return, however, he was seen more as a troublemaker than as a hero in Lakemba's muslim community.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Habib was certainly not the only one in the prayer room to support Bin Laden and advocate jihad or holy struggle. Abu Ayman and his congregation have been under close watch for years because of the extreme views expressed by some of his followers. The man who runs the prayer room, Abdul Salam Zoud, was named in a French court dossier as a recruiter for jihad - a claim he denies. Several men who have attended the prayer room are currently facing terrorism-related charges.
SHEIK ABU AYMAN: Most of it is ill talk based on no evidence whatsoever. And that's the fact. They have to blame someone. There is always...in any agenda, there is a scapegoat. It has to be all the time someone to put the blame on. And this is why you find us sometimes, yes, saying something the public doesn't like, for example, or the Government doesn't like.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The reason the Government doesn't like what's preached in the prayer room is apparent from the sermons available on video in the bookshop up the road.
(FOOTAGE FROM 'THE ENEMY'S PLOT' PLAYS)
SHEIK FEIZ: What is really meant by the term, by the wording, by the so-called war on terrorism? Does it leave any doubt in anyone's mind that it is nothing but a war on Islam and the Muslims to ensure the Zionist - those pigs - the Zionist-American domination in every corner of this earth?
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: This is one offering from Abu Ayman's star protege, a young firebrand from Liverpool known as Sheik Feiz, whose weekly lectures in the prayer room Mamdouh Habib used to attend.
(VIDEO FOOTAGE CONTINUES)
SHEIK FEIZ: Go to Iraq today and see your brothers and sisters! See them! See what is happening there! It's gonna happen to you one day! Their heads are being blown off, their legs are being amputated, their arms, their bodies. Their meat is being just thrown off their bodies. Look! And we are too comfortable with cultivation! We're too scared to go to jihad! What are you living for?
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The call to jihad was like a magnet for Habib. He was so enthused he began signing people up, according to Abu Ayman. "
He was vocal in the defence of Omar Abdul Rahman and Habib's friends El-Gabrowny and Abouhalima were arrested for the first bombing of the WTC and later convicted over the attack and plans to bomb other New York landmarks.
Full transcript for anyone interested.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2004/s1157599.htm
Its no wonder the Australian government wants to keep an eye on him. I would rather err on the side of caution in caes like this.