Saturday, October 31, 2015

Dawood Ibrahim for the Australia Council for the Arts :Appointment of the benevolent Muslim industrialist will be an inspired choice

by Ganesh Sahathevan

 Dawood Ibrahim  , once  described  by no less than the High Court of Australia  as a  benevolent Muslim  industrialist, has recently  taken up residence in Sydney. We ought to do to what we can to capitalize on Dawood's many talents and our  agile and innovative Malcolm Turnbull ought to  move quickly  to do so.

For starters,  appointing Mr Ibrahim to the  Australia Council for the Arts  would be an inspired choice , given his vast experience financing Bollywood movies,and given his connections in India, the UAE ,Pakistan ,Thailand and now Australia. He can do much to bring into the Australian creative industry more of Asia, changing the  cultural environment  that remains very much European in outlook and product. Ibrahim's  appointment will be a clear signal to the world that Australia regards itself truly multicultural even  to its creative core,

In making such an appointment the fact that Ibrahim is Muslim ought to be celebrated and it will  serve as a strong signal to the local Muslim community that its contributions to the cultural fabric of this country will be treasured.

Sections of the community have rightly felt excluded from the Australian community and nowhere is this more evident than in the arts,where Anglo-Saxon actors and themes prevail. While it is true that the Muslim community is itself diverse, Ibrahim's cosmopolitan background should help bridge the differences.

Finally, in this climate of fear which Turnbull is doing the best he can to change, Ibrahim could prove a useful ally in convincing young Muslims ,and indeed all other migrant youth, that there are better , more fruitful options that they can pursue towards a rewarding fruitful future that can, like Ibrahim, profitably incorporate their  Australia, Asian , Middle Eastern and Muslim heritage,
END

Monday, October 26, 2015

NSW Police, AFP let loose jihadi financier: Dawood Ibrahim interests protected to win the Muslim vote?

by Ganesh Sahathevan

 NSW Police had these matters brought   to their attention in 2008, after the Indian gangster and ISI
operative Dawood Ibrahim was implicated in the 2008 Mumbai attack:

According to well placed sources, Dawood has vast business interests in the hospitality industry in the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia and India. Several shopping malls in the West and Australia are also reportedly owned by the family. An airline from a Central Asian republic is also being allegedly funded by the D-company.

NSW Police and the AFP (assuming intelligence is shared) were also made aware that there was 
within at least the legal  system a startling lack of understanding as to who Dawood Ibrahim is, as evidenced by no less than the High Court Of Australia who described him as the " benevolent Muslim industrialist, Dawood Ibrahim".


Despite all this ,Dawood Ibrahim's interests in Australia seem to have been ignored, even if the AFP kept a close watch on his rival , Chota Rajan aka Ranjendra Sadashiv Nikalje(see story below).
This looks like another case of the NSW Police and AFP appeasing the Muslim community, and both sides of politics doing whatever necessary to win the Muslim vote.
END 


Indian alleged mobster who lived in Australia, was arrested in Bali after being on the run for 20 years

  • October 26, 20156:56pm
Ranjendra Sadashiv Nikalje, who was wanted by Intertpol for year,s was arrested on Sunday as he arrived in Bali on a Garuda flight from Sydney, Australia.
  • Cindy Wockner and Komang Erviani
  • News Corp Australia Network







AN INDIAN alleged mobster’s 20 years on the run, most recently living in Australia, ended on the weekend when his plane touched down in Bali.
He was planning a 15-day stay on the holiday island. But now he is in a jail cell at Denpasar police station, nabbed as he left the plane which had flown him from Sydney to Bali.
The alleged boss of one of India’s major crime syndicates has been living quietly in Australia now for quite some time.
His charmed life, evading authorities across South East Asia for years, including a daring escape from a Bangkok hospital after he almost died, came to an end when last month he was identified living in our midst.
Australian Federal Police notified their Indian counterparts that the man using the name Kumar Mohan was in fact one of their most wanted — Ranjendra Sadashiv Nikalje also known as Chotta Rajan or Little Rajan or Nana — who is accused of involvement in more than 20 murders and a string of crimes.
Nikalje was arrested about 1.50pm Bali time on Sunday after arriving on a Garuda flight from Sydney.
Denpasar police general crime chief, Reinhard Habonaran Nainggolan, said authorities in Indonesia had been told he was alleged to have masterminded 15-25 murders in India.
He said local police were now co-ordinating with police headquarters in Jakarta about the process for extradition back to India.
Living it up ... Ranjendra Sadashiv Nikalje was on the way to Bali, Indonesia.
Living it up ... Ranjendra Sadashiv Nikalje was on the way to Bali, Indonesia.Source:Supplied
Nikalje has been on the run from authorities since about 1995 and was wanted on an Interpol Red Notice. However, as a Red Notice, is not an arrest warrant under Australian law he could not be arrested in Australia. Indonesian Interpol says the Red notice was issued in July 1995.
Nikalje’s Wikipedia entry claims that he began his criminal career scalping cinema tickets and went on to become a lieutenant of another gangster, the leader of the notorious D-Company crime gang.
The pair went separate ways in 1996 and in 1988 Nikalje is said to have fled to Dubai, where he allegedly continued to operate and pull the strings of his crime syndicate.
He then turned up in Thailand where his adversaries tracked him down and attempted to kill him, succeeding in gunning down his aides. In a Bangkok hospital after the attempt on his life and as Indian police put in place moves for his extradition, he is said to have escaped after bribing hospital staff.
He reportedly now suffers diabetes and requires kidney dialysis.
An Australian Federal Police spokesman said that in September this year the AFP had confirmed that Nikalje was living in Australia under another name and advised the Indian authorities and Interpol.
On Sunday Nikalje left Australia bound for Bali.
Interpol in Canberra alerted the Indonesian authorities who arrested him, at the request of India, when the plane landed.


 
 
 
Dawood Ibrahim's many lives

From Deepak K Upreti
DH News Service New Delhi:

The CBI's success with Abu Salem, a one-time key operative of the infamous D-company, has brought the focus back on Dawood Ibrahim, the criminal extraordinaire and prime accused in the Mumbai serial bomb blasts case.

Dawood is learnt to have literally put on a new face, thanks to plastic surgery to escape the prying eyes of the International Criminal Police Organization after Washington declared him a "global terrorist".

The US prompted the United Nations also into listing Dawood as a "global terrorist". While US order froze all assets belonging to him within the US and prohibited US nationals from transacting with him, the UN listing required that all UN member-states take similar actions. Dawood who lived in "style" in a posh locale of Karachi under the protection of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is now desperately looking for a "safer hideout" outside Pakistan.


It is believed that Dawood is now sharing his smuggling routes with Osama-bin-Laden's terrorist outfit al-Qaeda and funding attacks by Islamic extremists aimed at destabilising India.

He is known to have financed the activities of Lashkar-e-Toiba, a group outlawed by the US in October 2001 and apparently banned by the Pakistani government in January 2002. The Lashkar is also suspected to be involved in the recent Delhi blasts.

Apart from the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, Dawood is wanted in several cases including for drug trafficking, contract killings, aiding and abetting terrorism and so on.

Dawood's influence in Mumbai filmdom with many top cine actors and actresses, directors and producers courting him and his henchmen is all too well known. Congress MP from Mumbai and Bollywood actor Govinda was recently in news for a video footage that caught him with the underworld criminal in Dubai.

It is estimated that Dawood and his family own assets worth Rs 1720 crore including several buildings at prime locations of Mumbai such as Colaba, Crawford Market, Bhendi Bazar, Bandra, Oshiwara and Versova. Many of these are "benami" making it difficult to confiscate them. The family also has several builders, stockbrokers and jewellers operating as fronts for it.

According to well placed sources, Dawood has vast business interests in the hospitality industry in the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia and India. Several shopping malls in the West and Australia are also reportedly owned by the family. An airline from a Central Asian republic is also being allegedly funded by the D-company.

Apart from Salem, another erstwhile hit man to desert the D-company is Chota Rajan. It is alleged that Rajan is now targeting Dawood in tandem with the Indian intelligence agencies.

Dawood's underworld saga appears to be "timeless" stretching many generations and is unlikely to see an end as long as his crime (business) syndicate keeps receiving political and police patronage within the country and as also from across the border in Pakistan.

Salem's "homecoming" will have no significant impact on the deadly acts of the D-empire.


Jihadist wins immigration appeal

December 8, 2004 - 1:10PM

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A man claiming to be member of an Islamic group who was arrested in India for planning a bomb attack today won a High Court case against Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone.
The High Court ruled a member of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) did not allow the man, known as Naff, procedural fairness.
It quashed the RRT's decision to refuse Naff refugee status and ordered it to redetermine his application for a review of the case.
Naff is a Muslim Tamil who said he was an active member of the Indian Union Muslim League and of a committee of the Jihad Movement.
He was president of an organisation in his village associated with a movement led by a benevolent Muslim industrialist, Dawood Ibrahim, whom he said he met in Bombay.
Naff was arrested with 30 other Muslims in India in December 1998 and accused of planning to plant bombs.
He said he was severely beaten before being released a few days later and later decided to flee India to save his life.
In March 2000, an Australian Immigration Department officer refused Naff's application for a protection visa, rejecting his claim he met Ibrahim in India and that he was involved with the Jihad Movement.
Naff applied to the RRT for review of that decision.
The RRT held a hearing into Naff's case in February 2002, with questioning revealing inconsistencies in his evidence, including the dates he was detained and the number of detentions.
At the end of the hearing, the RRT member told Naff that given the inconsistencies she would write to him asking for more information.
However, she failed to write and instead the RRT rejected his application, saying Ibrahim was regarded by Indian authorities as a gangster so he was unlikely to have travelled to India and met Naff.
The RRT also said belonging to the Jihad Movement contradicted Naff's claim of opposing violence.
The Federal Court of Australia dismissed Naff's application for orders quashing the RRT decision.
However, the High Court granted Naff special leave to appeal over the failure of the RRT member to write to him.
The court today held that with her closing remarks, the RRT member was acknowledging that the review's purposes had not been completely fulfilled.
"She was indicating that she had not yet finished receiving the presentation of arguments by the appellant which he had been invited to make," the High Court said in its judgment.
"She was saying that procedural fairness required some further steps to be taken.
"It is clear that the tribunal member was in the best position to judge whether the review process was incomplete.
"Her conduct is only consistent with the formation of a firm impression that it was."
The High Court held that depriving Naff of the opportunity to answer questions was a breach of procedural fairness and unanimously allowed his appeal.
It quashed the RRT's review decision and ordered it to redetermine the application for review.
- AAP

NSW Police, AFP let loose jihadi financier: Dawood Ibrahim's Australian interests protected to win the Muslim vote?

by Ganesh Sahathevan

 NSW Police had these matters brought   to their attention in 2008, after the Indian gangster and ISI
operative Dawood Ibrahim was implicated in the 2008 Mumbai attack:

According to well placed sources, Dawood has vast business interests in the hospitality industry in the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia and India. Several shopping malls in the West and Australia are also reportedly owned by the family. An airline from a Central Asian republic is also being allegedly funded by the D-company.

NSW Police and the AFP (assuming intelligence is shared) were also made aware that there was 
within at least the legal  system a startling lack of understanding as to who Dawood Ibrahim is, as evidenced by no less than the High Court Of Australia who described him as the " benevolent Muslim industrialist, Dawood Ibrahim".


Despite all this ,Dawood Ibrahim's interests in Australia seem to have been ignored, even if the AFP kept a close watch on his rival , Chota Rajan aka Ranjendra Sadashiv Nikalje(see story below).
This looks like another case of the NSW Police and AFP appeasing the Muslim community, and both sides of politics doing whatever necessary to win the Muslim vote.
END 


Indian alleged mobster who lived in Australia, was arrested in Bali after being on the run for 20 years

  • October 26, 20156:56pm
Ranjendra Sadashiv Nikalje, who was wanted by Intertpol for year,s was arrested on Sunday as he arrived in Bali on a Garuda flight from Sydney, Australia.
  • Cindy Wockner and Komang Erviani
  • News Corp Australia Network
AN INDIAN alleged mobster’s 20 years on the run, most recently living in Australia, ended on the weekend when his plane touched down in Bali.
He was planning a 15-day stay on the holiday island. But now he is in a jail cell at Denpasar police station, nabbed as he left the plane which had flown him from Sydney to Bali.
The alleged boss of one of India’s major crime syndicates has been living quietly in Australia now for quite some time.
His charmed life, evading authorities across South East Asia for years, including a daring escape from a Bangkok hospital after he almost died, came to an end when last month he was identified living in our midst.
Australian Federal Police notified their Indian counterparts that the man using the name Kumar Mohan was in fact one of their most wanted — Ranjendra Sadashiv Nikalje also known as Chotta Rajan or Little Rajan or Nana — who is accused of involvement in more than 20 murders and a string of crimes.
Nikalje was arrested about 1.50pm Bali time on Sunday after arriving on a Garuda flight from Sydney.
Denpasar police general crime chief, Reinhard Habonaran Nainggolan, said authorities in Indonesia had been told he was alleged to have masterminded 15-25 murders in India.
He said local police were now co-ordinating with police headquarters in Jakarta about the process for extradition back to India.
Living it up ... Ranjendra Sadashiv Nikalje was on the way to Bali, Indonesia.
Living it up ... Ranjendra Sadashiv Nikalje was on the way to Bali, Indonesia.Source:Supplied
Nikalje has been on the run from authorities since about 1995 and was wanted on an Interpol Red Notice. However, as a Red Notice, is not an arrest warrant under Australian law he could not be arrested in Australia. Indonesian Interpol says the Red notice was issued in July 1995.
Nikalje’s Wikipedia entry claims that he began his criminal career scalping cinema tickets and went on to become a lieutenant of another gangster, the leader of the notorious D-Company crime gang.
The pair went separate ways in 1996 and in 1988 Nikalje is said to have fled to Dubai, where he allegedly continued to operate and pull the strings of his crime syndicate.
He then turned up in Thailand where his adversaries tracked him down and attempted to kill him, succeeding in gunning down his aides. In a Bangkok hospital after the attempt on his life and as Indian police put in place moves for his extradition, he is said to have escaped after bribing hospital staff.
He reportedly now suffers diabetes and requires kidney dialysis.
An Australian Federal Police spokesman said that in September this year the AFP had confirmed that Nikalje was living in Australia under another name and advised the Indian authorities and Interpol.
On Sunday Nikalje left Australia bound for Bali.
Interpol in Canberra alerted the Indonesian authorities who arrested him, at the request of India, when the plane landed.


 
 
 
Dawood Ibrahim's many lives

From Deepak K Upreti 
DH News Service New Delhi: 

The CBI's success with Abu Salem, a one-time key operative of the infamous D-company, has brought the focus back on Dawood Ibrahim, the criminal extraordinaire and prime accused in the Mumbai serial bomb blasts case. 

Dawood is learnt to have literally put on a new face, thanks to plastic surgery to escape the prying eyes of the International Criminal Police Organization after Washington declared him a "global terrorist". 

The US prompted the United Nations also into listing Dawood as a "global terrorist". While US order froze all assets belonging to him within the US and prohibited US nationals from transacting with him, the UN listing required that all UN member-states take similar actions. Dawood who lived in "style" in a posh locale of Karachi under the protection of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is now desperately looking for a "safer hideout" outside Pakistan. 


It is believed that Dawood is now sharing his smuggling routes with Osama-bin-Laden's terrorist outfit al-Qaeda and funding attacks by Islamic extremists aimed at destabilising India. 

He is known to have financed the activities of Lashkar-e-Toiba, a group outlawed by the US in October 2001 and apparently banned by the Pakistani government in January 2002. The Lashkar is also suspected to be involved in the recent Delhi blasts. 

Apart from the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, Dawood is wanted in several cases including for drug trafficking, contract killings, aiding and abetting terrorism and so on. 

Dawood's influence in Mumbai filmdom with many top cine actors and actresses, directors and producers courting him and his henchmen is all too well known. Congress MP from Mumbai and Bollywood actor Govinda was recently in news for a video footage that caught him with the underworld criminal in Dubai. 

It is estimated that Dawood and his family own assets worth Rs 1720 crore including several buildings at prime locations of Mumbai such as Colaba, Crawford Market, Bhendi Bazar, Bandra, Oshiwara and Versova. Many of these are "benami" making it difficult to confiscate them. The family also has several builders, stockbrokers and jewellers operating as fronts for it. 

According to well placed sources, Dawood has vast business interests in the hospitality industry in the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia and India. Several shopping malls in the West and Australia are also reportedly owned by the family. An airline from a Central Asian republic is also being allegedly funded by the D-company. 

Apart from Salem, another erstwhile hit man to desert the D-company is Chota Rajan. It is alleged that Rajan is now targeting Dawood in tandem with the Indian intelligence agencies. 

Dawood's underworld saga appears to be "timeless" stretching many generations and is unlikely to see an end as long as his crime (business) syndicate keeps receiving political and police patronage within the country and as also from across the border in Pakistan. 

Salem's "homecoming" will have no significant impact on the deadly acts of the D-empire.


Jihadist wins immigration appeal

December 8, 2004 - 1:10PM

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Web links

A man claiming to be member of an Islamic group who was arrested in India for planning a bomb attack today won a High Court case against Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone.
The High Court ruled a member of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) did not allow the man, known as Naff, procedural fairness.
It quashed the RRT's decision to refuse Naff refugee status and ordered it to redetermine his application for a review of the case.
Naff is a Muslim Tamil who said he was an active member of the Indian Union Muslim League and of a committee of the Jihad Movement.
He was president of an organisation in his village associated with a movement led by a benevolent Muslim industrialist, Dawood Ibrahim, whom he said he met in Bombay.
Naff was arrested with 30 other Muslims in India in December 1998 and accused of planning to plant bombs.
He said he was severely beaten before being released a few days later and later decided to flee India to save his life.
In March 2000, an Australian Immigration Department officer refused Naff's application for a protection visa, rejecting his claim he met Ibrahim in India and that he was involved with the Jihad Movement.
Naff applied to the RRT for review of that decision.
The RRT held a hearing into Naff's case in February 2002, with questioning revealing inconsistencies in his evidence, including the dates he was detained and the number of detentions.
At the end of the hearing, the RRT member told Naff that given the inconsistencies she would write to him asking for more information.
However, she failed to write and instead the RRT rejected his application, saying Ibrahim was regarded by Indian authorities as a gangster so he was unlikely to have travelled to India and met Naff.
The RRT also said belonging to the Jihad Movement contradicted Naff's claim of opposing violence.
The Federal Court of Australia dismissed Naff's application for orders quashing the RRT decision.
However, the High Court granted Naff special leave to appeal over the failure of the RRT member to write to him.
The court today held that with her closing remarks, the RRT member was acknowledging that the review's purposes had not been completely fulfilled.
"She was indicating that she had not yet finished receiving the presentation of arguments by the appellant which he had been invited to make," the High Court said in its judgment.
"She was saying that procedural fairness required some further steps to be taken.
"It is clear that the tribunal member was in the best position to judge whether the review process was incomplete.
"Her conduct is only consistent with the formation of a firm impression that it was."
The High Court held that depriving Naff of the opportunity to answer questions was a breach of procedural fairness and unanimously allowed his appeal.
It quashed the RRT's review decision and ordered it to redetermine the application for review.
- AAP

Monday, October 19, 2015

Is Craig Laundy's seat of Auburn worth another Curtis Cheng?

by Ganesh Sahathevan
It is obvious from the ABC 7.30  interview copied below  that NSW Police knew in advance of the general threat that ultimately led to the murder of Curtis Cheng. Despite knowing of the threat police and ASIO did nothing ; intelligence gathering cannot be an excuse when there is a danger such as this.

Granted there were teenagers involved, but then why did police not speak with their parents,and have these boys disciplined if not put into "intervention" programmes that Nick Kaldas says are already  in place? It does appear as if police already know that intervention and "deradicalization" does not work, and they are otherwise afraid to enforce normal law enforcement methods.

Vote buying  in Western Sydney seems to be the main culprit. Malcolm Turnbull's fear of losing his prime ministership can only add to the insecurity. That the member for Auburn , Craig Laundy, had been one of the main criitcs of Abbott's so-called anti-Muslim policies and voted for Tunrbull has not escaped attention. The question for the rest of us is whether he retaining his seat is worth any more  murders  like that of Curtis Cheng. Clearly, a way must be found to wean politicians off their dependence on the Muslim vote.
END 






Teen member of Islamic State group suspected of Parramatta Shooting tells its inside story

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 19/10/2015
Reporter: Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop and Dylan Welch
This self-confessed jihadi's moved among a small group of Sydney radicals who police say were behind the Parramatta shooting and now he gives us his insight into the group and the young men who support it.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The issue of young Muslim men embracing the message of violent jihad is rattling the entire Western world.

Tonight, one of those youths, himself at the heart of Australia's security crisis, speaks exclusively to 7.30.

For years this self-confessed jihadi has been a member of a small group of young Islamic State supporters from Sydney. It's this group that police allege is associated with both the recent street murder of New South Wales police accountant Curtis Cheng and also the alleged disrupted plot to abduct and kill a random member of the public last year.

The 19-year-old who appears in this story is best friends with both of the young men accused of planning those attacks.

This story from Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop and Dylan Welch, and a warning: some of the material is confronting.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Every day, they've been watching. Wherever I go, whatever I do. Take photos. 'Cause you see cars in front of your house or the same cars following you every day. They all take photos. And they all say, "Oh, this guy's planning an attack."

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP, REPORTER: This is one of the most closely-watched teenagers in Australia, under surveillance by police and ASIO since at least early last year. He's in a group of young Islamic State supporters suspected of plotting a terrorist attack. 

How did you become close?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: As a brotherhood. Like gangsters, they have the brotherhood. We have our brotherhood.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: It's a brotherhood that's now under investigation over the execution of a civilian police employee in broad daylight in Parramatta earlier this month. 

We've agreed to hide this 19-year-old's identity because he says he fears for the safety of some members of his family who don't share his belief in violent jihad.

According to counter-terrorism authorities who've been keeping a close watch on you and your friends since early last year, you and your friends are one of the biggest terrorism threats in Australia.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: That's a lie. 'Cause anyone sees me, I'm a normal dude.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: There aren't many regular dudes who support Islamic State.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: There's a lot. 

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: In September last year, Australia woke to the news that young Islamic State supporters were planning a terror attack in Sydney. The teenager and his friends were raided that morning.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: They smashed a whole door. They said, "Police! Open up!" They had their SKS, their gun pointed at me, "Get on the floor." They just said anything to link with ISIL, Islamic State, ISIS, you be - they'll take you away.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: This Western Sydney teenager came to Australia as a 10-year-old Afghan refugee and soon after, his brothers became involved in crime gangs. One brother is serving 24 years in Australia's highest-security jail, the SuperMax, for a brutal gang murder.

PETER MORONEY, FMR COUNTER-TERRORISM DETECTIVE: They come from a broken family history. They generally have - and again, I'm generalising, but they generally have a connection of some description of a family member, direct or otherwise, connected to crime. And when you throw all that in the mix, that's when you're creating a nice base then to - for that person to be going one way or another.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: For them to radicalise?

PETER MORONEY: Absolutely.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Several of the teenager's close friends are now charged, including Omarjan Azari, who's accused of conspiring to murder a random non-believer. Their ties go back a long way.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Well, we used to go to school together. Footy, soccer. We met up like that.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: It was at Parramatta High where he met Omarjan Azari, who introduced him to hardline Islam and became his spiritual guide.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Omar in school, he used to teach me how to pray and we used to go to mosques together, we used to do a lot of things together. And from that, like, he used to be - he finished school and I was by myself, and after that, I used to listen to sheiks, I used to listen to the lectures, go Thursday nights, so get myself educated.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: He then tried to convert fellow students.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: I used to preach. I used to give - speak to people about Islam, and, like, the non-believers, I used to advise them to come to Islam. It's our life, you know, like, we live for long with life for Allah.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Would you get yourself killed for Allah?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: (Pause) No comment. 

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Why don't you want to answer that question?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Because it's gonna lead us to trouble.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: What kind of trouble?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Like ASIO and AFP, (inaudible). And they'll probably think he's gonna plan a terrorist attack or something like that.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: If you say what you really believe...

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Yeah.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: the police will come after you?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Of course. They're already after me. They're just looking for a little reason to put me behind bars.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: So what you're really saying is that you would?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Everyone wants to die for Allah. We all want to live the best life in the hereafter and we want to make to the top of the seven levels of Jannah - heaven. We want to make it to the top.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: 7.30 asked NSW Police for their view of the teenager, but they declined to comment.

We showed the interview to Peter Moroney, who was a senior detective on one of Australia's biggest terrorism cases, and he was alarmed.

PETER MORONEY: We're talking about violent jihad, so we're talking about murder. The simple response is via the evasiveness of his answer and in the end, when pushed, he says, "Yes, I would." That's alarming, because we know - we know from past investigations that have occurred is that if they can't leave Australia to fight, there are some self-appointed members of the Islamic community that would suggest that it is OK, you can then wage your jihad here.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Since last year's raids, the 19-year-old has been supporting his friends in court, and at times, he's been violent.

JOURNALIST: How would you describe these allegations that he is plotting to kill somebody and drape an ISIS flag around his head?

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: This is his best friend, Raban Alou. The 18-year-old was charged days ago with helping commission the Parramatta shooting from inside the local mosque. Both of them knew Farhad Jabar, the 15-year-old Parramatta shooter.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: He was just a quiet dude. Keeps to himself.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: In recent months, they were studying the Koran together at Parramatta Mosque, where he says he last saw Jabar a fortnight before the shooting.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Maybe once a week we used to read the Koran together. That's it. I used to revise with him.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: So who was teaching who about the Koran?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Farhad was teaching me.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Did you play any role in the murder of Curtis Cheng?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: No, I didn't. I had nothing - I was working that day. I was working at Fairfield. Had nothing to do with it.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Do you think it was a tragedy for Curtis Cheng?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Of course it is a tragedy. He's still working with the police government, so he's part for him.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Why are you finding it so hard to say that the murder of Curtis Cheng was a tragedy for him and his family?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Because they don't say anything about the Muslims, so why should I say - why should I please them, you know? Why should I please the kafir - the disbelievers? Why should I show that, oh, yeah, I care about them? Which I don't.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: This teenager's commitment to a brutal holy war against what he sees as the sins of the West is unrelenting.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: There's no other law except Allah's law. People that smoke drugs, there's no cigarettes, there's no alcohol, there's no brothels, there's no clubbing - all shut down. That's what we want. Stop the bombing overseas, stop killing our Muslims and then war will be over. 

ALPHA CHENG, SON: I am here today in the most tragic and difficult of circumstances to represent my family, heartbroken from the sudden loss of a beloved husband and loving father. 

ANDREW SCIPIONE, NSW POLICE COMMISSIONER: The gentlest of friends lost to an act of terror.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: On the weekend, a family farewelled a man who came to Australia for a quiet and peaceful life. Their message couldn't be more different to the violent dogma that claimed that life.

ALPHA CHENG: If we all do that little bit more, as Dad did for everyone in his life, I believe that we can live in a more harmonious and gentle world. May he rest in peace.

LEIGH SALES: Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop and Dylan Welch with that report.

Is Craig Laundy's seat of Auburn worth another Curtis Cheng?

by Ganesh Sahathevan
It is obvious from the ABC 7.30  interview copied below  that NSW Police knew in advance of the general threat that ultimately led to the murder of Curtis Cheng. Despite knowing of the threat police and ASIO did nothing ; intelligence gathering cannot be an excuse when there is a danger such as this.

Granted there were teenagers involved, but then why did police not speak with their parents,and have these boys disciplined if not put into "intervention" programmes that Nick Kaldas says are already  in place? It does appear as if police already know that intervention and "deradicalization" does not work, and they are otherwise afraid to enforce normal law enforcement methods.

Vote buying  in Western Sydney seems to be the main culprit. Malcolm Turnbull's fear of losing his prime ministership can only add to the insecurity. That the member for Auburn , Craig Laundy, had been one of the main criitcs of Abbott's so-called anti-Muslim policies and voted for Tunrbull has not escaped attention. The question for the rest of us is whether he retaining his seat is worth any more  murders  like that of Curtis Cheng. Clearly, a way must be found to wean politicians off their dependence on the Muslim vote.
END 






Teen member of Islamic State group suspected of Parramatta Shooting tells its inside story

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 19/10/2015
Reporter: Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop and Dylan Welch
This self-confessed jihadi's moved among a small group of Sydney radicals who police say were behind the Parramatta shooting and now he gives us his insight into the group and the young men who support it.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The issue of young Muslim men embracing the message of violent jihad is rattling the entire Western world.

Tonight, one of those youths, himself at the heart of Australia's security crisis, speaks exclusively to 7.30.

For years this self-confessed jihadi has been a member of a small group of young Islamic State supporters from Sydney. It's this group that police allege is associated with both the recent street murder of New South Wales police accountant Curtis Cheng and also the alleged disrupted plot to abduct and kill a random member of the public last year.

The 19-year-old who appears in this story is best friends with both of the young men accused of planning those attacks.

This story from Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop and Dylan Welch, and a warning: some of the material is confronting.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Every day, they've been watching. Wherever I go, whatever I do. Take photos. 'Cause you see cars in front of your house or the same cars following you every day. They all take photos. And they all say, "Oh, this guy's planning an attack."

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP, REPORTER: This is one of the most closely-watched teenagers in Australia, under surveillance by police and ASIO since at least early last year. He's in a group of young Islamic State supporters suspected of plotting a terrorist attack. 

How did you become close?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: As a brotherhood. Like gangsters, they have the brotherhood. We have our brotherhood.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: It's a brotherhood that's now under investigation over the execution of a civilian police employee in broad daylight in Parramatta earlier this month. 

We've agreed to hide this 19-year-old's identity because he says he fears for the safety of some members of his family who don't share his belief in violent jihad.

According to counter-terrorism authorities who've been keeping a close watch on you and your friends since early last year, you and your friends are one of the biggest terrorism threats in Australia.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: That's a lie. 'Cause anyone sees me, I'm a normal dude.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: There aren't many regular dudes who support Islamic State.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: There's a lot. 

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: In September last year, Australia woke to the news that young Islamic State supporters were planning a terror attack in Sydney. The teenager and his friends were raided that morning.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: They smashed a whole door. They said, "Police! Open up!" They had their SKS, their gun pointed at me, "Get on the floor." They just said anything to link with ISIL, Islamic State, ISIS, you be - they'll take you away.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: This Western Sydney teenager came to Australia as a 10-year-old Afghan refugee and soon after, his brothers became involved in crime gangs. One brother is serving 24 years in Australia's highest-security jail, the SuperMax, for a brutal gang murder.

PETER MORONEY, FMR COUNTER-TERRORISM DETECTIVE: They come from a broken family history. They generally have - and again, I'm generalising, but they generally have a connection of some description of a family member, direct or otherwise, connected to crime. And when you throw all that in the mix, that's when you're creating a nice base then to - for that person to be going one way or another.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: For them to radicalise?

PETER MORONEY: Absolutely.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Several of the teenager's close friends are now charged, including Omarjan Azari, who's accused of conspiring to murder a random non-believer. Their ties go back a long way.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Well, we used to go to school together. Footy, soccer. We met up like that.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: It was at Parramatta High where he met Omarjan Azari, who introduced him to hardline Islam and became his spiritual guide.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Omar in school, he used to teach me how to pray and we used to go to mosques together, we used to do a lot of things together. And from that, like, he used to be - he finished school and I was by myself, and after that, I used to listen to sheiks, I used to listen to the lectures, go Thursday nights, so get myself educated.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: He then tried to convert fellow students.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: I used to preach. I used to give - speak to people about Islam, and, like, the non-believers, I used to advise them to come to Islam. It's our life, you know, like, we live for long with life for Allah.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Would you get yourself killed for Allah?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: (Pause) No comment. 

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Why don't you want to answer that question?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Because it's gonna lead us to trouble.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: What kind of trouble?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Like ASIO and AFP, (inaudible). And they'll probably think he's gonna plan a terrorist attack or something like that.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: If you say what you really believe...

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Yeah.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: the police will come after you?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Of course. They're already after me. They're just looking for a little reason to put me behind bars.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: So what you're really saying is that you would?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Everyone wants to die for Allah. We all want to live the best life in the hereafter and we want to make to the top of the seven levels of Jannah - heaven. We want to make it to the top.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: 7.30 asked NSW Police for their view of the teenager, but they declined to comment.

We showed the interview to Peter Moroney, who was a senior detective on one of Australia's biggest terrorism cases, and he was alarmed.

PETER MORONEY: We're talking about violent jihad, so we're talking about murder. The simple response is via the evasiveness of his answer and in the end, when pushed, he says, "Yes, I would." That's alarming, because we know - we know from past investigations that have occurred is that if they can't leave Australia to fight, there are some self-appointed members of the Islamic community that would suggest that it is OK, you can then wage your jihad here.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Since last year's raids, the 19-year-old has been supporting his friends in court, and at times, he's been violent.

JOURNALIST: How would you describe these allegations that he is plotting to kill somebody and drape an ISIS flag around his head?

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: This is his best friend, Raban Alou. The 18-year-old was charged days ago with helping commission the Parramatta shooting from inside the local mosque. Both of them knew Farhad Jabar, the 15-year-old Parramatta shooter.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: He was just a quiet dude. Keeps to himself.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: In recent months, they were studying the Koran together at Parramatta Mosque, where he says he last saw Jabar a fortnight before the shooting.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Maybe once a week we used to read the Koran together. That's it. I used to revise with him.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: So who was teaching who about the Koran?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Farhad was teaching me.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Did you play any role in the murder of Curtis Cheng?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: No, I didn't. I had nothing - I was working that day. I was working at Fairfield. Had nothing to do with it.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Do you think it was a tragedy for Curtis Cheng?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Of course it is a tragedy. He's still working with the police government, so he's part for him.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Why are you finding it so hard to say that the murder of Curtis Cheng was a tragedy for him and his family?

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: Because they don't say anything about the Muslims, so why should I say - why should I please them, you know? Why should I please the kafir - the disbelievers? Why should I show that, oh, yeah, I care about them? Which I don't.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: This teenager's commitment to a brutal holy war against what he sees as the sins of the West is unrelenting.

ANONYMOUS ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTER: There's no other law except Allah's law. People that smoke drugs, there's no cigarettes, there's no alcohol, there's no brothels, there's no clubbing - all shut down. That's what we want. Stop the bombing overseas, stop killing our Muslims and then war will be over. 

ALPHA CHENG, SON: I am here today in the most tragic and difficult of circumstances to represent my family, heartbroken from the sudden loss of a beloved husband and loving father. 

ANDREW SCIPIONE, NSW POLICE COMMISSIONER: The gentlest of friends lost to an act of terror.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: On the weekend, a family farewelled a man who came to Australia for a quiet and peaceful life. Their message couldn't be more different to the violent dogma that claimed that life.

ALPHA CHENG: If we all do that little bit more, as Dad did for everyone in his life, I believe that we can live in a more harmonious and gentle world. May he rest in peace.

LEIGH SALES: Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop and Dylan Welch with that report.