Abdul Nacer Benbrika has become the first Australian man to be found guilty of running a home grown terrorist organisation, and five others have been found guilty of being members in the nation's longest terrorism trial.
Four of the 12 Melbourne men on trial have walked free today after being acquitted of all charges, while the fate of two of the men hang in the balance.
In a sensational twist to the seven-month trial in the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bernard Bongiorno ordered the jury to return what verdicts it had unanimously agreed on after 21 days of deliberation - the longest in living memory.
Three charges are yet to be decided in a 15-page indictment with a total of 27 counts.The verdict means the jury has been satisfied that a terrorist organisation existed, and that six of the men were all knowingly members.
The guilty men are Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 48, of Dallas; Abdullah Merhi, 23; Fawkner, Aimen Joud, 23; Hoppers Crossing, Ahmed Raad, 25, Fawkner; Fadl Sayadi, 28, Coburg and Ezzit Raad, 26, Preston.The acquitted men are Hany Taha, 33, Hadfield; Shoue Hammoud, 28, Hadfield; Bassam Raad, 27, Brunswick and Majed Raad, 24, Coburg.
Charges against Shane Kent, 31, Meadow Heights and Amer Haddara, 28, Yarraville are still to be decided.

Police in the Midlands have spent four days searching for a computer memory stick said to contain top-secret information on terror suspects. The black 4GB stick was lost after being taken out of Castle Vale police station by an officer on patrol last Thursday. … Senior officers spent the weekend co-ordinating efforts to find it and it is understood that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has already been informed

Turkmenistan's government said Sunday it had neutralized a gang of drug traffickers after a prolonged shootout in the capital of the Central Asian nation.
Independent media reported gunbattles Friday and Saturday in the streets of Ashgabat, between a radical Islamic group and security forces. Independent Web site Hronika Turkmenistana said nine security officers were killed. Earlier reports had said at least 20 officers were killed. The claims could not be confirmed because information is strictly controlled in the authoritarian former Soviet state. The government said in a statement that it “neutralized” the gang, but did not say whether there were any casualties or arrests.
Police besieged the militants in a four-story building of an abandoned factory, witnesses told The Associated Press on Sunday. Security forces used grenade throwers and armored personnel carriers and suffered casualties, the witnesses said.
The streets around the factory remained cordoned Sunday. A police officer told the AP that two militants, aged 35 and 28, were detained after the clash. The officer could not provide his name because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Turkmenistan borders Afghanistan and Iran and is a route for the global heroin trade. The clash was likely caused by a conflict between organized criminal groups and the police that protect them, said Arkady Dubnov, a Central Asia analyst in Russia. He said an armed incursion by Islamists was “very unlikely” in Turkmenistan, where authorities have a tight hold on power. Islamic groups have been active elsewhere in Central Asia since the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Do'aa Hamid Ibrahim, was apprehended in route from Kirkuk to Erbil. At the time of her arrest, she was allegedly in possession of an explosive belt packed with 6 kilograms of volatile C4 material. Chief of Security Masrour Barzani commented on the arrest, "Today we took another important step in preserving the peace and prosperity of the Kurdistan Region. We will continue to actively thwart the efforts of those who try to undermine our democracy and threaten the lives of our loved ones." Thanks to the resounding success of the Kurdistan Security Agency, headed by Mr. Barzani, the Kurdistan Region has enjoyed an unprecedented level of development since Saddam's overthrow and remains largely immune to the violence that has racked the rest of the country. Not one United States soldier has lost their life in the three governorates that make up the Kurdistan Region.
The alleged mastermind of the plot, who is colloquially known as Abu Aya, was killed in an armed stand-off. He was from the Ameria District of Baghdad and was an alleged operative of the "Islamic State of Iraq," a group that allegedly condones the use of terrorism in its pursuit of an Islamic state. The Kurdistan Region Security Agency has successfully uncovered several such terrorist plots in the past few years.

Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terror group, whose terrorist infrastructure is based in the province of Waziristan in northwest Pakistan, is known to be trying to acquire nuclear technology to use in terror attacks against the West. Other militant Islamist groups in Pakistan, such as the newly formed Pakistani Taliban, have also shown an interest in developing weapons with a nuclear capability, according to Western security officials. Security chiefs fear the mounting political instability in Pakistan will make it easier for militant Islamist groups to develop a primitive nuclear device. Pakistan is the world's only Muslim country with a nuclear weapons arsenal, which was developed during the 1990s by the rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadir (AQ) Khan. Dr Khan was placed under house arrest after he was accused of selling the blueprint for Pakistan's atom bomb to rogue states such as Libya, North Korea and Iran. But the restrictions on Dr Khan's detention have been eased since President Pervez Musharraf was forced from power.
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is subject to stringent security safeguards put in place with the help of the American military when Mr Musharraf was in office. But there is mounting concern within Western security circles that Islamic terror groups will gain access to Pakistan's expertise in developing terrorist weapons containing nuclear material. "Islamist militant groups want to carry out terror attacks on a massive scale, and there is no better way for them to achieve that objective than to develop some form of primitive nuclear device," said a senior U.S. security official. The most likely terror device using nuclear material is a "dirty bomb", where conventional explosives are fitted with radioactive material.
Security experts believe the detonation of such a device in a city like London would provoke widespread panic and chaos, even though the area of contamination would be relatively small. Western security officials say they have uncovered evidence that a Pakistani based group was planning to attack a European target with such a device, although details of the planned attack have not been made public.
The sweeping victory of Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of murdered Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, in the presidential election at the weekend, has done little to reassure Western diplomats that the security situation in Pakistan is about to improve. Mr Zardari was jailed for nine years on corruption charges, and Western diplomats have little confidence in his ability to provide strong leadership. "Pakistan is in danger of becoming a failed state, and Mr Zardari's election victory is unlikely to improve the situation," said a Western diplomat.
Tensions grew last week when American special forces staged a cross-border incursion from Afghanistan into Pakistan's lawless tribal regions. They were targeting suspected al-Qaeda operatives, signalling a possible intensification of US efforts to disrupt militant safe havens in Pakistan.
Despite fury in Pakistan, US defence officials have said that the number of cross-border missions might grow in coming months in response to the growing militancy.

Several explosions reportedly caused by missile strikes from unmanned US drone aircraft hit a house and seminary linked to a key Taliban commander in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, officials said. An intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of his job, said at least six people were killed, including three foreigners and two children, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of attacks by US forces on Islamic militant havens in Pakistan's tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. The targets apparently belonged to Jalauddin Haqqani, a veteran of the jihad against Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s who American commanders describe as one of their most dangerous foes. Haqqani and his son, Siraj, have been linked to attacks this year including an attempt to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a bold attack on a luxury hotel in Kabul. Haqqani network operatives plague US forces in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province with ambushes and roadside bombs.

Bali bombers have enlisted the help of former East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres in a Constitutional Court bid to save them from the firing squad.Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) and Imam Samudra are to be executed by the firing squad for their role in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.The three men would prefer an Islamic method of execution by beheading.Indonesian Justice Minister Andi Matilatta appeared before the country's Constitutional Court today to challenge the argument of the Bali bombers' lawyers that death by firing squad is torture.He argued that being shot is painful and that is why the punishment is a deterrent, but that does not mean it is torture.A lawyer for the Bali bombers, Wirowan Adnan, disagreed and announced that next week he will be calling the former East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres as a witness.
Calling Guterres "a soldier in the fight for integration", he said the militia leader witnessed someone being shot in the heart in 1999."He can testify about the pain and the suffering before he [the victim] finally bled to death," Mr Adnan said.
The executions of the bombers have been delayed until at least next month

16 LTTE terrorists were killed, 14 others reported wounded in yesterday’s (Sep 5) confrontations between troops and LTTE in the Kilinochchi, Mullaittivu battlefront according to finalized military reports received. “Troops are making steady and measured moves into the deep dug terrorist strongholds and this is quite the opposite to LTTE anticipations of collateral damage, defence observes state. The armed forces have given clear indications of their noble approach respecting the ‘humanitarian context’ of the warfare and what we need is a multifaceted urgency by the IC to release the thousands held captive by the LTTE”, the observers asserted.
“Had the LTTE been brave enough to let go of the civilians shield its doom days might have been well over considering the pace of the military offensives”, defence observers further stated.At the Vavuniya- Mullaittivu battlefront in general areas at Palamoddai, Navvi and Vedamakilam, 7 terrorists were reported killed and two others wounded during confrontation with security forces. No damages were caused to own troops in the confrontations, military said.Meanwhile, at the Kilinochchi front in general area Paraikandamadu, an LTTE terrorist was killed sniped at around 12p.m., according to reports. 2 other terrorists were also reported killed and similar numbers injured during a separate confrontation with troops in general area Vannerikulama, at 11.35p.m., military said.On the Welioya battlefront at Andankulama, pitched fighting continued between troops and LTTE: 5 terrorists were killed and similar numbers injured military confirmed. 10 AP mines were also recovered by troops during subsequent search operations. Meanwhile, in general area North of Kiriibbanwewa, a terrorist was reported killed and 5 wounded, according to finalized military reports. Troops have also uncovered 201 anti-personnel mines and 7 IEDs during search operations conducted in general area North of Kiriibbanwewa.

Terror cells have recently been seen observing El Al crew members in Toronto, apparently in preparation for a terror attack targeting airline personnel. This appears to be the first time Israeli airline crews have been specifically targeted by terrorists, although Israeli businessmen abroad have already been warned that Hezbollah may attempt to abduct them. The suspected terrorists were seen at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, one of the hotels where the pilots and crew of the Boeing 767s that fly El Al's direct Tel Aviv-Toronto route stay between flights.
The sighting has triggered a higher alert level, and the Shin Bet security service has ordered El Al procedures altered. U.S. television stations, basing their information on American intelligence sources, reported in mid-June that a Hezbollah cell had been caught collecting information on Israeli targets in Canada, including the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa. Israeli intelligence experts increasingly think Hezbollah is determined to attack Israeli targets abroad to avenge the February assassination of Imad Muhgniyeh, one of Hezbollah's top leaders, which the Lebanese Shi'ite group attributes to the Mossad. El Al would not comment on the terror threat, saying the company "does not deal with security matters." However, sources at the company said flight crew members abroad are constantly aware of being potential victims of attacks targeting the planes, passengers or themselves. Company employees are briefed when there is specific intelligence warning of a terror threat. El Al has been targeted for attack in the past. Two people were killed in July 2002 when a gunman opened fire on El Al passengers at Los Angeles International Airport. An Israeli security official halted the attack by shooting down the gunman.
There have also been what appear to be close calls. In May 2003, on Shin Bet orders, the company canceled a flight to Kenya due to a specific warning of a planned attack. In September that year, an El Al plane with 193 passengers heading from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles was supposed to stop over at Toronto, but diverted to Montreal because of a warning of a terror attack planned for Toronto. The arrest of seven Dutch youths planning to attack an El Al plane became public in November 2005, and in June 2006 the general prosecutor's office in Bonn confirmed that Swiss authorities had revealed an attempt by a Muslim terror cell to attack an El Al plane. In addition, in November 2006, the German government arrested six Muslims on suspicion of planning to blow up an El Al plane after takeoff from Frankfurt.

Nepalese police have secretly deported two key suspects in 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai after arresting them in the capital.Salim Ghazi and Riyaj Khatri who were suspected to be involved in Mumbai blast that killed over 250 people were arrested in a residential area here on Thursday on the basis of a tip off, according to The Kathmandu Post.Both of them were in Interpols Red Corner list of wanted and were also wanted in murder and terrorist activities in India. However, they have no records of committing any crime in Nepal, the daily quoted a senior police official as saying.Salim Ghazi is known for his underworld link to Chhota Shakeel and Indian police suspected him of hiding in Pakistan. The two had been staying in Kathmandu for a long time in the guise of businessmen dealing in handicraft and operating a manpower agency, the daily quoted chief of Kathmandu police Upendra Kant Aryal as saying.According to the police they were extradited to India yesterday. However the two were not wanted for in any crime in Nepal.The serial blasts in Mumbai on March 12, 1993 left 257 people dead and injured more than 700 others. The deportation will help the Mumbai Police in creating a fear psychosis in the mind of terrorist.

US military has transferred the senior members of terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from Ashraf camp north of the Iraqi capital as it handed over the camp to Iraqi forces, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry source said.
The Iraqi army replaced American troops in taking control of Ashraf camp a few days ago.Nearly 4,000 members of the MKO terrorist network fled to Iraq in the 1980s and settled at Ashraf camp, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, which the group now uses as its headquarters.The source at the Iraqi foreign ministry said the US military officials have moved the key members of the terrorist group from Ashraf Camp to prevent Iraqi government to have access to them. "Current members of MKO inhabiting the camp are remorseful and not effective for the US military", the source added.Iran's Ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi referred to the six month deadline to expel terrorist members of MKO from Iraq."During the past two years, many members of the terrorist organization have abandoned the goup. They have also expressed regret for their past actions." "Iran has pardoned a number of these people, allowing them to return to the country and their families," he said.The future of the MKO in Iraq is uncertain and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has said he is looking for ways to end their presence.The group is on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the US government as a foreign terrorist organization.However in June, Britain decided to lift a ban on members of the MKO, infuriating Tehran which labeled the action "a disgrace."Earlier, the Iraqi government and parliament announced that they are seeking a rapid final solution to remove the remaining members of the MKO from Iraq and to shut down Camp Ashraf. Iraqi officials say the group is playing a significant role in violence and insecurity in the country. Along with at least six other sites in Iraq, Camp Ashraf was given to the MKO as their headquarters and training site by the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein.
It was from this base the MKO launched operations against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war and later assisted Saddam in violently suppressing the Iraqi Kurds during the 1991 uprising.

Lawyers for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service argued Wednesday that they've already disclosed all the evidence they can to alleged terrorist Adil Charkaoui and any further information provided would constitute a breach of national security standards.A Federal Court judge asked Wednesday for a written explanation of the government's position on the disclosure of evidence in the case by next week.
Charkaoui returned to court Wednesday calling for immediate disclosure of the evidence in his file.In June, the Supreme Court of Canada slammed Canada's spy service for destroying the original evidence behind its allegation that the Montreal schoolteacher and father of three is a terrorist.
Charkaoui, accused of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent, has denied any terrorist ties and has been trying to halt the case through various legal motions.He faces deportation under a federal security certificate and his supporters say he risks torture if he is returned to Morocco.

Coalition forces killed an al-Qaeda in Iraq weapons facilitator and detained eight suspected terrorists during operations targeting the terrorist network in the Tigris River Valley Wednesday.Coalition forces killed a weapons facilitator in Tikrit during an operation to disrupt the AQI bombing network in the Tigris River Valley. Intelligence reports indicate the man was trafficking rockets and bombing components for a Tikrit-based cell, and may have had ties to the AQI propaganda network.When Coalition forces called out for occupants of the target building to surrender, several people came out but told the force one man was still inside. During a security sweep of the building, Coalition forces found the terrorist, dressed in women’s clothing and hiding under a bed with a rifle and military-style assault vest. Perceiving hostile intent, Coalition forces engaged and killed the armed terrorist, who was later determined to be the weapons facilitator. Coalition forces detained five suspected terrorists during the operation and found several weapons, body armor and bomb components.

According to officials, U.S. soldiers, acting on a report of a planned bomb attack against Mosul Provincial Hall by way of a tunnel system, found the tunnel and arrested two in what the U.S. commander in northern Iraq called an “evil deed.”

prominent Muslim leader in New Jersey accused by federal immigration authorities of having ties to terrorists has won his fight to remain in the United States.
A judge ruled Thursday that Mohammad Qatanani and his family can legally remain here.
The 44-year-old Palestinian has been the leader of the Paterson-based Islamic Center of Passaic County since 1996.U.S. immigration authorities had sought to deport Qatanani on grounds that he failed to disclose on his green card application a prior arrest and conviction in Israel for being a member of Hamas -- a group classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.Qatanani, who came to New Jersey on a religious visa in 1996, unsuccessfully applied for permanent U.S. residency in 1999. U.S. immigration officials denied his application, contending that the imam once had terrorist ties to Hamas, a terrorist group, and didn't disclose an arrest and conviction by Israeli security officials during his visit to the West Bank in 1993.
Qatanani says he was detained, not arrested, by the Israelis and has never been a member of a terrorist organization.

female inmate being held in a federal prison in Brooklyn was carrying handwritten notes referring to a “mass casualty attack” and listing the Brooklyn Bridge and other New York landmarks when she was detained in Afghanistan, prosecutors said Tuesday.In an attempted-murder indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors for the first time publicly named some of the landmarks. The others: the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, the Empire State Building and Plum Island, a disease research complex in Long Island Sound.Aafia Siddiqui, who has remained in a federal detention center in Brooklyn suffering from bullet wounds, had notes “that referred to a ‘mass casualty attack’” and to “the construction of dirty bombs, chemical and biological weapons and other explosives,” the indictment said. “These notes also discussed the mortality rates associated with certain of these weapons and explosives.”Other documents “referred to specific ‘cells’ and ‘attacks’ by certain ‘cells’ ... and discussed recruitment and training,” the papers said.Siddiqui, who has a biology degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was to be arraigned yesterday on charges that she tried to assault and kill Army officers and FBI agents during an interrogation following her detention in July. The indictment alleges she picked up a soldier’s rifle, announced her “desire to kill Americans” and fired the rifle but missed. She was wounded by return fire.Defense attorney Elizabeth Fink declined Tuesday to comment on the indictment. Her client previously denied the charges.Authorities had earlier identified Siddiqui as an al-Qaida associate who may have helped potential terrorists enter the United States before vanishing in Pakistan in 2003. Her supporters, who have held rallies in Pakistan, maintain she was kidnapped and held in U.S. custody before mysteriously surfacing this summer in Afghanistan.The indictment contains no charges of terrorism. A government official briefed on the case has told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the landmarks were a “wish list” of potential targets but that there was no evidence of a credible plot.If convicted, Siddiqui, 36, faces up to 20 years in prison.

suspected member of a criminal ring in the Bayji Oil Refinery was detained by Coalition forces in Bayji Sept. 4.The individual is the suspected leader of a terrorist cell working out of a village near the oil refinery. The cell is suspected of manufacturing improvised explosive devices, bribery, weapons trafficking and oil extortion. This individual is the third suspected member of this ring taken in by authorities in Bayji over the past week. The first member turned himself in to the Iraqi Police Aug. 31. The second was detained by Coalition force soldiers Sept. 3.
“These criminals have turned the BOR into a key financial node for the enemies of Iraq,” said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a spokeswoman for CF north of Baghdad. “With the dismantling of this cell, the true owners of the BOR can finally reap the benefits of its production.”

Three alleged Islamist terrorists, two of them Germans who had converted to Islam, planned bomb attacks on a string of German cities and the main US air base in Germany, federal prosecutors said Friday. The prosecutors in Karlsruhe named the alleged target cities as Frankfurt, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Munich and Cologne. The US air base at Ramstein near Frankfurt was another potential target, they said.Police, who had bugged the plotters' communications and surreptitiously confiscated the main ingredient in the explosive, arrested the men a year ago.
If the bombing had succeeded, it would have been Germany's bloodiest experience by far of Islamist terrorism. Fritz Gelowicz, 29, Daniel Schneider, 22, both Germans, and Adem Yilmaz, 29, a Turkish national, are to be tried by a state court in Dusseldorf.
Many Germans remain shocked that the men had ordinary German upbringings, unlike the radicals who were born in Arab lands and moved to Germany to plot the September 11, 2001, suicide attacks on New York and Washington using hijacked airliners.
Police around Europe say "home-grown" terrorism has become as big a threat as that from radical immigrants.

Canadian man set to stand trial next month for the 1975 slaying of another American Indian Movement member can be held in the same jail as a co-defendant, a federal magistrate ruled Wednesday.

John Graham's first-degree murder trial is scheduled to start Oct. 6 in Rapid City federal court for the slaying of Annie Mae Aquash on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Both were AIM members, as was Arlo Looking Cloud, who was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to a mandatory life prison term for his role.

Witnesses at his trial said he, Graham and another AIM member, Theda Clark, drove Aquash from Denver and that Graham shot Aquash in the Badlands as she begged for her life.

A third AIM member, Dick Marshall, was indicted last month on charges he aided and abetted the killing.

Marshall is being held in the Pennington County jail in Rapid City, where Graham had been incarcerated until Thursday when he was transferred about 70 kilometres to the Lawrence County jail in Deadwood.

Graham's lawyer, John Murphy, filed a motion to reverse that, stating it added a two-hour round trip for his meetings with Graham and makes it more difficult to confer as the trial approaches.

Federal prosecutors indicated the decision lies with the U.S. Marshals Service, which would allow having both men in the same jail, federal Magistrate Veronica Duffy wrote in her order.

"Upon consulting with that agency, the court has been assured that no safety issues or other issues exist which would cause the Marshals Service to object to Mr. Graham's request," she wrote.

The Marshals Service is to transfer Graham back as soon as possible but has the discretion to move the defendants in the future for safety or other reasons, Duffy wrote.

Murphy could not be reached for comment and federal prosecutors are not allowed to comment about pending cases.