|
|
|
Second airport terror link
|
THE
AUSTRALIAN
June
11, 2003
|
Second airport terror link
By Louise Perry
A MEMBER of a violent Indonesian group with suspected links to Jemaah Islamiah
and al-Qa'ida has been actively fundraising in Sydney for "jihad", while working as a
shuttle bus driver at Sydney airport.
The Australian understands the man, who is known as Dance Darmince but often
uses the alias Mohammad Darimi, heads a small group of Laskar Jihad members in
Sydney and has been co-ordinating their fundraising efforts for the past five years.
Mr Darmince is an Australian citizen and has lived in Sydney's Lakemba for about 20
years.
From about 1999, he drove airport shuttle buses transporting passengers to, from and
around Sydney airport for private shuttle bus company Kingsford Smith Transport.
The company confirmed yesterday that Mr Darmince had been employed under his
alias, Mohammad Darimi. It said that after on-and-off employment for more than four
years, he had quit in November.
The revelation follows the news that Bilal Khazal, a man whom the CIA says is
affiliated with Osama bin Laden, worked as a Qantas baggage handler at the airport in
the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics.
Transport unions said yesterday his employment highlighted lax security at airports.
Mr Khazal told the Nine Network last night that he was innocent and the CIA had
wrongly named him as an al-Qa'ida operative.
But "like any Muslim", he said, he believed bin Laden was a good man. He argued
that the US and Israel were behind the September 11 attacks and the Bali bombing.
Mr Darmince's former boss, KST manager John Koolman, said Mr Darmince had had
access to public areas only, and before being hired had been asked for his driver's
licence and an authority from the NSW Department of Transport, which included a
police check.
A source within the Sydney Indonesian community told The Australian Mr Darmince,
and occasionally other men, visited Indonesian people at home and asked them for
money to "help with their jihad and the fighting in the Malukus".
"He asked nicely always, but I think people knew it was better to give money," said
the source.
He said Mr Darmince travelled regularly from Sydney to Indonesia. He was in
Australia last month, but had since returned to Indonesia.
"Laskar Jihad have the same purpose as JI," one source said. "They both want an
Islamic state (in Indonesia) but Laskar Jihad is much more radical than JI – (they are)
much scarier people who don't worry at all about doing killings."
It is understood Australian security agencies have been closely monitoring Laskar
Jihad in Australia for several years.
The group is thought to be responsible for the death of thousands of Christians in
Ambon, the capital of the Maluku Islands, and is believed to have loose links with
al-Qa'ida and Jemaah Islamiah.
The Australian has also been told Ramzi Ali, the secretary of the Dee Why Mosque at
the centre of a power struggle with JI in the late 1990s, was also raising money for
Laskar Jihad operations in 2000.
Mr Ali denies he ever helped raise money for Laskar Jihad and says he only helped to
collect funds for hospitals and orphans – Christian or Muslim.
While there is a widespread belief among some terror experts that Laskar Jihad
disbanded around the time of the Bali bombings, the Australian National University's
Clive Williams said he believed the organisation was still active.
|
