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| Down Under |
| The day David Hicks met Osama bin Laden |
| 2004-06-11 |
| THE case against Adelaide terror suspect David Hicks paints the former stockman as a renegade warrior. It says he bounced from terrorist groups in Albania and Pakistan, fighting in Kashmir, and then into the hands of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. According to case files, the convert to Islam was sounded out by a bin Laden associate on his willingness to carry out a suicide "martyr mission". A Pakistani doctor in Adelaide, who is still practising there, I believe. He also allegedly met bin Laden and then translated al-Qaida training materials from Arabic to English after discussing the language issue with the terror chief. He is said to have answered al-Qaida questions about the travel habits of Australians. The full details of the US Government’s case against Hicks were revealed yesterday, when he was formally charged on three counts – conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy. The files reveal that, despite being thousands of kilometres from home, Hicks’ nationality followed him. One of his alleged aliases was Abu Muslim al Austraili. According to the US Defence Department’s case against him, this is the route taken by the Australian: On or about May, 1999, Hicks travelled to Tirana, Albania, where he joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a paramilitary organisation fighting on behalf of Albanian Muslims. "Hicks completed basic military training at a KLA camp and engaged in hostile action before returning to Australia," the US case states. Bit more to it than that. He claimed that he was an ex Australian soldier. So they put him into a training position. It didn’t take them long to realise that he was bullshit*ing. So the paid his fare back to Australia, to get rid of him. While back in Australia, Hicks converted from Christianity to Islam and on or about November, 1999, he travelled to Pakistan where, ( send to a madrass by the above doctor) in early 2000, he joined the "terrorist organisation" known as Lashkar e Tayyiba (LET), also known as Army of the Righteous. He was recruited from the madrassa LET is accused of setting up camps, guest houses and schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan for "training and supporting violent attacks against property" and Indian military personnel and civilians and other countries. Hicks allegedly trained for two months at LET’s Mosqua Aqsa camp in Pakistan. His training allegedly included "weapons familiarisation and firing, map reading, land navigation and troop movements". Then he and LET associates went to a region between Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Indian-controlled Kashmir where he "engaged in hostile action against Indian forces". His performance led to a trip to Afghanistan and al-Qaida training camps, the US alleges. Showed himself to be dead keen on homicide, so he was marked out for bigger things by the Religion of Peace On or about January, 2001, Hicks, "with funding and a letter of introduction provided by LET, travelled to Afghanistan to al-Qaida terrorist training camps". "Upon arriving in Afghanistan, Hicks went to an al-Qaida guest house where he met Ibn Sheikh al Libi, a top-ranking al-Qaida member, and others," the US alleges. "Hicks turned in his passport and indicated that he would use the kunya, or alias, Muhammed Dawood." He was already using that name before he left Australia. He adopted it as soon as he became a muslim. Hicks is then said to have travelled to and trained at al-Qaida’s al Farouq camp, located outside Kandahar, Afghanistan. "In al-Qaida’s eight-week basic training course, Hicks trained in weapons familiarisation and firing, land mines, tactics, topography, field movements and basic explosives," the US alleges. He also trained in al-Qaida’s guerilla warfare and mountain tactics training course. "This seven-week course included marksmanship, small teams tactics, ambush, camouflage, rendezvous techniques and techniques to pass intelligence to al-Qaida operatives," the US says. It was while training at al Farouq Hicks allegedly spoke to bin Laden. During one visit, Hicks is said to have questioned bin Laden regarding the lack of English in al-Qaida training materials. "Accepting bin Laden’s advice, Hicks began to translate the training camp materials from Arabic to English," the US alleges. On another occasion, then al-Qaida military commander Muhammad Atef">Muhammad Atef, also known as Abu Hafs al Masri, allegedly "summoned and interviewed Hicks about the travel habits of Australians". After the meeting, Atef recommended Hicks attend al-Qaida’s urban tactics training course at Tarnak Farm, which included a mock city, where trainees were taught to fight in an urban setting. He trained in "marksmanship, use of assault and sniper rifles, rappelling, kidnapping techniques and assassination methods". On or about August, 2001, Hicks took part in an information collection and surveillance course in an apartment in Kabul, Afghanistan. "The course included `practical application’ with Hicks and others conducting surveillance of targets in Kabul, including the US and British embassies," the US says. They are supposed to have been closed down, many years earlier. He may not have known this After the course Atef interviewed Hicks again and "asked if he would be willing to undertake a `martyr mission’, meaning an attack wherein Hicks would kill himself as well as the targets of the attack". He arrived in Kandahar and chose to join an al-Qaida group near the Kandahar Airport. After some time, he travelled with a LET fighter to Kunduz, Afghanistan, arriving around November 9, 2001. "There he joined others, including (American) John Walker Lindh, who were engaged in combat against coalition forces," the US alleges. Hicks was captured in December 2001 near Baghlan in Afghanistan. Claimed he was a mute Malaysian, but his blue eyes gave him away, according to the Northern Alliance soldiers who captured him |
| Posted by:tipper |