Spies foil terror
SHARRI MARKSON, ASHLEIGH GLEESON, DANIELLE GUSMAROLI AND MATTHEW BENNS
FOREIGN spies from intelligence agencies in the United States and Britain helped Australia destroy a terrorist plot to bring down an Etihad flight out of Sydney.
Canterbury Bulldogs fan and butcher Khaled Khayat and three others were last night being held for questioning over the alleged plot to put gas substances in a common kitchen meat mincer, which could have exploded on board or gassed hundreds of innocent passengers.
No charges had been laid as of last night.
Police officers spent yesterday painstakingly sifting through garbage bins at a unit block in Sproule St, Lakemba, linked to the Khayat, with materials seized including a flight slip with the number of a route from Jakarta to Sydney and a frequent flyer number.
The Gold Coast Bulletin can reveal an Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi, with as many as 500 passengers and crew on board, was the target of the alleged terror plot. It involved using a gas substance rather than explosives, which is harder for airport security to detect than a kilo of explosives.
Authorities feared the plot to cause mass casualties on the plane was imminent, possibly to be carried out within days.
Intelligence from Australia’s Five Eyes partners, the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Canada, helped crack the alleged terror cell operating in Sydney’s suburbs. However, national security agencies are confident they have destroyed the alleged terror plot and eliminated the threat posed by them.
Intelligence sources said there was no suggestion the four detainees had trained overseas, although they were in contact with Islamic extremist groups operating in Syria and Iraq.
The four men are being held under anti-terror laws that were approved by the chief magistrate on Sunday. They can be held for seven days without charge while security services search for evidence about the alleged terror plot.
Yesterday counter-terrorism police were sifting through evidence at the five properties raided on Saturday – one each in Lakemba, Surry Hills and Wiley Park, and two at Punchbowl.
One of those arrested was Khayat, a keen Bulldogs supporter who has posted pictures of himself on social media wearing his football jersey. He had no criminal history.
He was a regular customer at the Darwiche Halal Butchery. “He would just come in by himself, he was very nice so I am surprised by all this,” part-owner Mohammed Darwiche said yesterday.
Along with the flight slip, police inspected a burnt out pump outside the Khayat apartment in Lakemba. They also discovered a business letter inside one bin addressed to the Surry Hills property that was also raided.
Among other materials taken in the past few days were pipes, gas bottles, SIM cards and components believed to be from a meat grinder that was allegedly being turned into an improvised device of destruction.
However, AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin was keeping his cards close to his chest yesterday. “The plot that we are investigating we believe was an attempt to put a device onto an aircraft, but beyond that the speculation is just that – speculation,” Mr Colvin said.
“Until we finish our investigation, until we know which of our many working theories we have, and until we can put that information before the courts it’s not helpful to keep speculating.”
In Surry Hills yesterday friends of one of those questioned were stunned to hear the hardworking paint sprayer had been implicated in a terror plot.
The man, in his early 40s, was one of 15 children who worked seven days a week at a factory in Botany and spent his Friday nights sipping water and betting on the horses at the Surrey Club Hotel in Cleveland St.
“He loved betting on horses, he’s a gambler as is his dad,” a friend said. “He would bet on horses while drinking water, he’s a quiet guy who never troubled anyone, all he did was work at the factory for the last seven years.
“His father is sick in hospital with a lung condition and his mother suffers from heart problems so he lived at home to look after them.
“I’d be very shocked to learn he was radicalised as he never once went to the mosque. I saw his sister in Lakemba two weeks ago and none of the family were religious but her face was covered in headgear.
“Maybe things have changed in the family, but they were not the least bit religious growing up as children in Surry Hills.”