Al Qaeda terrorist plotter freed from Australian jail
POSTED: 0511 GMT (1311 HKT), May 17, 2007 http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/16/australia.terrorist.ap/index .html?eref=edition_asia PERTH, Australia (AP) -- A British-born Muslim convert who pleaded guilty to plotting with al Qaeda to blow up the Israeli embassy in Australia with a truck bomb was released on parole Thursday after serving half of his nine-year sentence. Jack Roche, an Australian citizen, was convicted in May 2004 after he confessed to being involved in a plan hatched by Osama bin Laden and senior al Qaeda operatives to attack the embassy building in Canberra, the nation's capital. The plot was never carried out. The 53-year-old had faced up to 25 years in jail, but was sentenced to nine years in a maximum security prison after he agreed to tell officials about his involvement with al Qaeda and its Southeast Asian offshoot, Jemaah Islamiyah. Sporting a heavy beard, Roche left the Casuarina Prison in Western Australia state by taxi on Thursday after serving 4 1/2 years of his sentence, which included the 18 months he was held in custody before his trial. After arriving at his home in southern Perth, Roche told reporters he was happy to be out of prison. Asked if he was still in contact with al Qaeda operatives, he replied, "No." Under the conditions of his parole, Roche will have to report regularly to the Australian federal police, who will also monitor his phone and Internet use. Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio, defense lawyer Hylton Quail urged the public to leave Roche in peace, saying he "just wants to live a quiet life." Originally from Hull in northern England, Roche at first denied being involved in the embassy bomb plot, but changed his plea just 10 days into his 2004 trial. Testifying in his defense, Roche told the court he traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in early 2000, where he met with bin Laden and several senior al Qaeda operatives, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, one of the alleged architects of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Roche said bin Laden ordered him to set up a terror cell in Australia to target Israeli interests. When he returned to Australia, Roche said he had doubts about the plan, but was afraid members of al Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiyah would find him and kill him if he didn't carry out the attack. He claimed to have entered the world of international terrorism through Australian contacts after he converted to Islam to overcome alcohol addiction, and said he quickly fell out of his depth. "I was in a situation and I couldn't stop it," Roche testified at the time. "You just don't walk away from these kinds of people." Copyright 2007 The <http://edition.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#AP> Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
