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| Down Under |
| Khalid got an Australian visa the month after 9/11 |
| 2004-09-22 |
| The Federal Government has confirmed reports one of Al Qaeda's most senior leaders obtained a tourist visa to come to Australia just one month before the September 11 attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, often described as both the architect of September 11 and Al Qaeda's chief executive, could have come to Australia after August 2001. Prime Minister John Howard says he is concerned that the mastermind of the September 11 attacks in the United States was granted a visa. Mr Howard says the system is more effective now as a result of changes made since September 11, and a similar application made now would be detected. He says Khalid did not visit Australia. "I'm told that this person has 24 aliases, at least three visas, and that once the alias was entered into the visa system, the appropriate alert was there and the visa was cancelled and never used," he said. The Government will not say how long after the attacks authorities were made aware of his alias and his travel permit was cancelled. Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says Khalid gained a tourist visa in August 2001, when the alias he used was not known to Australian authorities. "After the alias become known the visa was cancelled. It had not been used and we have no record of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed having travelled to Australia under his own name or any his known aliases," he said. Al Qaeda experts say Khalid could have been targeting Australia or using this country as a "weak" entry point into the region to plan another attack against the United States. Federal Labor leader Mark Latham says it is a worry that a senior Al Qaeda figure held an Australian tourist visa for about a year before it was cancelled. "I'm not getting into the detail of what he did when he presented at an embassy or whatever but we know from the detail that it's obviously a worry," he said. "These things need to be tightened up so it won't happen again in the future. Learn the lesson and set up a department of homeland security to get it right." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |