Lucas Heights Possible Terrorist Target

Nuclear link alleged in Australia arrests

Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor

SYDNEY, Australia - Police have reason to believe a nuclear reactor located at Lucas Heights in southern Sydney may have been a possible target for an Islamic terror cell there, according to details made available on Monday from an Australian investigation report.

Police had previously stopped and questioned three recently arrested Sydney terror suspects near Australia’s only nuclear reactor in December last year, according to an outline of police allegations made public on Monday.

The document also outlined what it said were plans by the men to stockpile chemicals for making explosives and that they "obtained extremist advice and guidance" from a firebrand cleric arrested along with them.

The three men stopped near the nuclear reactor were among 18 terror suspects arrested in Sydney and Melbourne last week and accused of plotting to carry out a "catastrophic" attack in Australia. The police document recounted the December incident under the heading, "Possible targets for terrorist attack."

The document, provided during a court hearing last week and released publicly on Monday, alleges that three of the eight Sydney suspects were stopped in their car near the nuclear facility in southern Sydney in December 2004.

The men also had an off-road motorbike and claimed they were there to ride, the document said, noting that all three gave different versions of the day’s events to police.

Police inquiries revealed the lock of a gate to a reservoir of the reactor had recently been cut, the document said.

The three - Mazen Touma, Mohammed Elomar and Abdul Rakib Hasan - along with five other Sydney men, have been charged with conspiring to manufacture explosives in preparation for a terrorist act.

Their lawyer has said prosecutors have produced no evidence of an imminent terror attack in the country.

The police fact sheet, which outlines the prosecution’s case against the eight Sydney suspects, said members of the group sought materials to produce explosives, ordering dozens of gallons of chemicals.

During a search of Elomar’s home on June 27, police said they found a computer memory stick which contained instructions in Arabic for making TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, a highly unstable explosive made from commercially available chemicals.

Australian police have said TATP is similar to the bombs used by suicide bombers the July 7 attacks on London’s public transport system, but British authorities have refused to confirm those reports.

The statement also said some of the men attended a terrorist training camp at a rural property in a remote area of New South Wales state, and "obtained extremist advice and guidance" from the firebrand cleric, Abu Bakr, who made headlines last year by calling Osama bin Laden a "great man."

Abu Bakr, whose real name is Abdul Nacer Benbrika, was among the men arrested during last week’s raids.

Another of the men arrested, Abdulla Merhi, wanted to carry out attacks to avenge the war in Iraq, police said in a Melbourne court. Australian Prime Minister John Howard was a strong supporter of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has sent hundreds of troops to the country.

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  • Video - Terrorist plot foiled - Sydney Morning Herald - UK police arrest over 20 people allegedly involved in a plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights, amid warnings of an imminent attack., Flash Video, Sydney Morning Herald, media.smh ...
  • Arrests expose internet fundraising for terrorism - World - smh.com.au - Speaking through an interpreter in Sydney yesterday, General Sutanto said: ... Colonel Petrus Golose, of Indonesia's anti-terrorist taskforce, said the arrests of the two so-called ...
  • Moral Dilemma - After The Arrests Time For Community Cohesion. - After The Arrests Time For Community Cohesion. Posted By Mirko Bagaric on December 3rd, 2005. The terrorist arrests in Sydney and Melbourne recently have alarmed many Australians.
  • Australia foils 'catastrophic' terrorist chemical attack | World ... - ... believe they have foiled a major terrorist attack after arresting 17 people in overnight raids on homes in the country's two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne. The arrests come ...
  • Pakistan vows not to give up those held over Mumbai attacks - World ... - ... arrested by Pakistani security forces following the terrorist ... in Pakistan, the country's Foreign Minister says. - Sydney ... The arrests are being made for our own investigations.
  • Arrests made in Australia after 'anti-terror' raids - Wikinews, the ... - Speaking of the Melbourne arrests, Prosecutor Richard Maidment QC alleged that the group constituted a "terrorist organisation". Making reference to the Sydney arrests he said that ...
  • New arrest in Sydney terror plot - SpecialsWarOnTerror - www.theage ... - After a six-month investigation, police have arrested a Sydney architect for allegedly planning a major terrorist attack in Australia. - The Age Online
  • Abdul Nacer Benbrika - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - ... group, and affiliated group in Sydney, was actively planning a terrorist attack. ... allegedly opening fire on police in Sydney. It has also been said that the timing of the arrests ...
  • BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | 'Nuclear link' to terror suspects - ... arrested had been stopped near the reactor outside Sydney ... Melbourne suspects were charged with belonging to a terrorist ... AUSTRALIA ARRESTS
  • Anti-terrorist operation leads to 17 arrests in New Zealand ... - Barbara McMahon in Sydney The Guardian, Tuesday 16 October 2007 ... Anti-terrorist operation leads to 17 arrests in New Zealand This article was first published on ...

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