Alleged al-Qaeda conspirator Jack Roche, on trial for plotting to blow up a truck outside the Israeli embassy, told a journalist he had shared a meal with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2000 and found him a "very nice man". The comment was made during a taped interview with journalist Colleen Egan, recorded in 2002 and played to a jury in the Perth District Court yesterday. On the recording, Roche told Egan, then working for The Australian newspaper, that he had recognised bin Laden from the television. "I nodded, he nodded," he said on the tape. He described bin Laden as a "very nice man", whom he had met for only a very short time. He said he would much prefer to meet the al-Qaeda leader than US President George Bush.
Roche also spoke about meeting Hambali, the alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings and senior al-Qaeda commanders, including Muhammad Atef, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri. On the tape, seized from Egan by the Australian Federal Police, Roche revealed the meeting with bin Laden took place in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in March 2000. The tape reveals that Roche went to Karachi with a note from Hambali. When he arrived, he was told to take another note to "the sheikh" in Afghanistan, and was shocked to discover that the sheikh was bin Laden. He gave bin Laden the note, which was in Arabic and they then sat down for a meal. He also talked with Abu Hafs. Roche told Egan that Abu Hafs believed it was now better to recruit Westerners rather than send operatives of Middle Eastern appearance to the West. In other evidence yesterday, the court heard that ignitors found at Roche's Perth home were designed for use in high-powered rocket engines that could only be used under licence from Western Australia's department of mines. |